Showing what we can do: assessment of primary school dance

In Australia, dance is one subject in the National Arts Curriculum for early childhood and primary education. In many schools, dance is taught for the minimum time necessary to satisfy the system requirements of a summative grade that can be included in mid-year or yearly reports. A qualitative study of the nature of dance education in two primary schools; collected data from video, observation, and interviews with teachers; and focus group discussions with children showed evidence of holistic learning achieved through dance. In this article, data were researched to look for evidence of the meanings that teachers and children attach to assessment in the context of dance education. Following an examination of various definitions of assessment, this article examines the relationship between pedagogy and assessment in general and in relation to dance education. Pedagogy and assessment in dance education will be unpacked using a socio-kinaesthetic perspective and, drawing on literature and findings from this qualitative study, "re-packaged" to present an approach to assessing dance intended to be useful to generalist classroom teachers