First Advisor

Schwartz, Ray

First Committee Member

Toewe, Anne

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Document Type

Thesis

Date Created

12-2025

Department

College of Performing and Visual Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance, Theatre Arts and Dance Student Work

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the most effective learning indicators of ballroom dancing for high school dance educators in Utah’s DSD so that a later date, updated rubrics and assessments could be created and presented as artifacts to DSD’s Fine Arts Supervisor for future teachers. The researcher sought to answer the following questions:

Q1 How are teachers currently assessing students’ ballroom dancing?

Q2 What are the most important learning indicators to teachers?

Q3 Are the learning indicators in alignment with the required standards?

This research took place over two sessions held during students’ regularly held ballroom dance class at three high schools in Davis County, Utah. The educators randomly assigned numbers 1, 2, 3 for anonymity. The identifying list of teacher names and corresponding numbers was stored on the researcher’s code-protected laptop. Quantitative data consisted of two online Qualtrics surveys. The pre-survey was a Likert scale of 25 questions, asking teachers to rate their preferred learning indicators categorized by the dance elements of Body, Effort, Space, Time as well as social skills, applying corrections, attitude, and performance quality. The post-survey of 10 questions asked teachers to rank their preferred learning indicators of similar categories from most preferred to least preferred. These three teachers were observed during and interviewed after each lesson. An email exchange allowed the researcher to access currently used rubrics. The researcher analyzed quantitative and qualitative data to create rubrics and assessments based on the findings. This study benefits the Davis School District in northern Utah by providing improved rubrics and assessments of verified learning indicators that also aligned with state and national standards as a resource collective for future teachers for the growing ballroom programs of the area.

Abstract Format

html

Disciplines

Dance | Fine Arts

Keywords

ballroom dance; high school; learning indicators; evaluation; effective; assessment; Utah; Davis County

Language

English

Extent

99 pages

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author

Digital Origin

Born digital

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