Development of Professional Competencies within the Further Education of Dance Teachers

Key Concepts

  • Competency Definition: Competency in pedagogy is defined as a set of abilities acquired through life-action and continuous perfection. It is based on the action theory, emphasizing the unity of cognition.
  • Subjective vs. Objective Components: I. Tiļļa argues that competency consists of subjective (abilities, experience) and objective (opportunities for experience acquisition) components.
    • The subjective component involves abilities substantiated by individual experience.
    • The objective component involves opportunities gained through self-experience, the experience of others, and world experience.
  • Competent Person Characteristics: Andreas Bruck describes a competent person as someone who can realize intentions, possesses the knowledge and skills to implement them, and can organize actions in new situations.
  • Competence as Action and Result: Tiļļa defines competence as an individual combination of abilities and experience based on gaining experience opportunities, perfected through lifelong development. The quality level of action in a specific situation reveals competence as a result.
  • European Commission Memorandum: The European Commission's Memorandum of 30 October, 2000, on life-long learning has encouraged states to assess life-long education opportunities.
  • Dance Teacher Competencies: The study aims to substantiate dance teachers’ competencies and construct a further education model based on theoretical and empirical research.
  • Research Methods: The research employs theoretical methods (analysis and modeling) and empirical methods (survey analyses and processing).
  • Professional Suitability: S. Vītola identifies professional suitability as a crucial feature of dance teachers’ pedagogical action competency. It is divided into absolute (requiring special abilities) and relative suitability (attainable by any individual).
  • Dance Teacher's Tasks:
    • Develop individual abilities (intellectual, physical, and emotional).
    • Discover, encourage, and stimulate individual potential.
    • Know dance genres and style specifics.
    • Teach understanding of dance culture.
    • Develop the history and traditions of their dance group.
    • Carry out educational work.
  • Full-Value Dance Teacher's Abilities:
    • To learn.
    • To search.
    • To think.
    • To collaborate.
    • To be active.
    • To adapt oneself.
  • Dance Teacher Competency Characteristics:
    • Willingness to work with people.
    • Interpersonal abilities.
    • Skill to develop relationships on equality.
    • Interest in teaching others.
    • Flexibility.
  • Further Education in Latvia: Traditionally provided by courses organized by the Tautas mākslas centrs and the Valsts Jaunatnes iniciatīvu centrs. These courses often revise higher education knowledge.
  • EU-Co-financed Project: A project aimed to develop a further education program suitable for dance teachers’ interests and labor market demands involving lecturers, graduates of Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy and dance teachers from different regions of Latvia.
  • Survey Results: The survey revealed that dance teachers mainly work in folk dances, but some teach multiple genres. Most respondents teach primary and elementary school children. Dance educationalists wish to improve their knowledge and continue life-long learning, especially in teaching methodology, dance analyses, theory, dance therapy, and remedial gymnastics.
  • New Model Construction: A new model was constructed and piloted for level B further education, including study subjects based on self-experience, the experience of others, and implemented the world experience.
  • Basic Principles for Further Education:
    • The existence of self-experience.
    • The analyses of other experiences.
    • The implementation of the world experience.
  • Conclusion: The subject-content structure of the dance teacher professional competencies is constructed by correlation of two components - the subjective and the objective, which is based on the basic principles of the further education (self-experience, other experience, the world experience) and is implemented by the continuous life-long education.