Workshop Outline

J M Nelson, 612-810-0157, e-mail <jmnelson@cloudnet.com>
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Applying Principles of Learning

Activity 1. Form a team of three to five, agree on a dance style, and agree on how to introduce the basic step for that dance style to a beginner class. Write a brief description of your lesson plan. You will work with this team and this dance style for all subsequent activities.

The intuitive ideas that we all seem to know.

Activity 2. Considering your chosen style, list some of the "little" connections that students must make in order to master the basic step and one or two variations.

The elusive principle of readiness.

Activity 3. List, in priority order, the items that the student must recall to replicate your basic step. Be sure to consider all needed components that they might not know or might not be able to chain together. (Assume ordinary literacy, but be sure to identify items of "common knowledge" required to succeed in this beginning lesson.)

Moving from the ephemeral to the enduring.

Activity 4. How do you decide when to move on?

Knowing when to do it again.

Activity 5. How might you take advantage of the background and experience of the student to enhance the learning experience and increase retention?

Increasing involvement.

Activity 6. Action Plan. List some things that you intend to do to reduce frustration and increase retention.

Workshop Evaluation

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*Because of space limitations, pre-registration is required.
Why Partner Dance? Research shows that there is considerable commonality among North American social partner dances. Whether teaching ballroom, country, Latin, or swing, principles of learning apply similarly.

References

http://tip.psychology.org/ TIP is a tool intended to make learning and instructional theory more accessible to educators. The database contains brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction. These theories can also be accessed by learning domains and concepts.

http://tip.psychology.org/mager.html Overview of criterion Referenced Instruction (R. Mager)

http://www.musanim.com/miller1956/ Miller's classic article, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information."

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/ Classics in the History of Psychology. Provides access to primary documents, most otherwise unavailable to most researchers.

http://www.jmnelson.com/collaborate.htm my personal offer for collaboration.

http://jmnelson.com/studio/dance/articles.htm Articles by J M Nelson.

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