Background/Purpose Although there are many studies to describe instructional procedures and ideas for creative dance teaching, little is known if implementation of dance program affects students' self-expression. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of creative dance program on students' self-expression changes in physical education classes.
Method Fifty five students (M=11, F=44) in Arts High school participated in creative dance program designed for learning creative dance activities. The program runs for 100 minutes session per each week and for ten weeks. Based upon Jun's (2008) model of secondary school dance curriculum, the program consisted of Laban's effort elements, improvisation, exploring, and presenting. The data was collected using (1) students' journals and (2) students' drawings. Students' drawings were the main data sources since they were prospective artists being trained in Art school. They were asked to freely express what/how they felt before and after the session with lines, colors, gestures, shapes and people. Three expert art therapists analyzed students' drawing three times and described students' self-expression.
Analysis/Results Results of the analyzed data showed seven themes on students' self-expression changes after dance session. They were: (1) positive on creative dance, (2) being proactive, (3) open-minded, (4) resolving conflict, (5) goal-oriented, (6) emotional, and (7) dynamic. Students' journals also support the data (e.g., “I did not like the dance activity but I am having fun with my friends now”).
Conclusions This study suggests that students' self-expression can be changed after implementing creative dance activities.