learning theories

I have recently been doing a lot of reading on learning theories in childhood after taking my topic of safe guarding and considering the mental aspect as well as the physical. The more i read the more i find that communication with your students and the environment that you provide are so important to teaching and how a child learns. The definition of safeguarding talks of a nurturing and safe environment; looking at theories such as 'contructivism' (an approach to teaching and learning based on the premise that cognition is the result of mental construction (1)) and Vygotsky's social development thoery (argues that social interaction precedes development; consciousness and cognition are the end product of socialization and social behavior (2)) i considered that perhaps the mental aspect of safeguarding could actually be improving how we teach dancing. By providing a safe environment for children to express themselves and be themselves in whilst developing social skills with other children, interacting through dance and communicating better children can learn effectively - despite dance being a visual and physical subject, demonstration and physical correction is just a small part.



(1) Learning theories in childhood, Collette Gray and Sean McBlain, 2012 SAGE publications LTD
(2) http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html