Exploring the Impact of Dance Arts Integration on General Education Teaching Practices: Insights into Classroom Environment, Planning, Instruction, and Assessment

The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of dance arts integration facilitation on teaching practices by emphasizing classroom environment, planning, instruction, and assessment. The researcher created the following four essential questions to guide the study: Q1 How does incorporating movement-based arts integration alter classroom environment, student behavior, student engagement, and inclusivity of students with various abilities and diverse backgrounds? Q2 How does incorporating movement-based arts integration impact the general educators' planning time, process, style, and understanding? Does the general educator feel as though they can effectively incorporate movement-based arts integration without collaborating with a dance educator? Q3 How does incorporating movement-based arts integration impact the general educators' instructional style? Do they find themselves incorporating arts integration outside of the set arts integration time? Q4 How does incorporating movement-based arts integration impact the general educators' assessment facilitation? Does incorporating movement-based arts integration impact the general educators' assessment of students with individual learning needs? There were three general educator participants in this study. Through this study, participants and their students participated in Dance Arts Integration (DAI) lessons and completed a survey at the end of their study. The study included multiple choice, open-ended questions and 1-5 sliding scale questions. By the end of the study, the three participants had gained a much broader understanding of the impact of DAI on some of their teaching practices. Limitations of this study included time constraints, scheduling conflicts, and meeting the needs of the students. student behavior and distractions. A potential bias included acquaintances with colleagues before the study was conducted. It would be important to conduct this research utilizing DAI with assessment and for students with an Individualized Education Program, 504, and bilingual needs. It would also be important for future research to be able to be implemented without time constraints. The outcome of the study showed that all participants had a positive reflection of the impact of DAI on their students and limited negative feelings toward DAI on their teaching practices.