The use of scaffolding in the teaching of creative dance by kindergarten teachers

In 2006, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education launched a kindergarten supervision project with the aim of advancing curriculum and instruction quality, and reinforcing teachers’ professional development. As a supervisor, I visited 12 kindergartens between 2007 and 2011, spending 60 hours per year at each, spread across 10 visits. My particular roles were to facilitate the arts curriculum and promote teachers’ knowledge of, and skills in, teaching creative dance. This paper explores how kindergarten teachers are using the concept of scaffolding, as described in Vygotsky’s social construction theory, in their creative dance teaching strategies, referencing data collected through classroom observation, photographs, supervision reports, interviews with teachers, young children’s dance and drawing, and my own and other researchers’ reflective diaries. Findings show that teachers’ use of language, appropriately structured activities, teaching materials, reference to peers, demonstration, and review all help scaffold young children’s learning. By always being interactive with children, and encouraging interaction among them, teachers facilitate their discovery of creativity through their bodies.