Teaching Squares and Rounds

The following information is published with ROUNDALAB's permission from the ROUNDALAB Reference Manual compiled by Richard & Jo Ann Lawson, 1987.

Teaching is one of the greatest responsibilities a square dance caller or round dance leader has. It is a responsibility often taken too lightly. Sometimes there is a tendency for one to feel that if he or she can call or cue or dance, he or she can also teach. Of course, that is not necessarily true. There are many practitioners of various skills who are excellent in their work but who are not good teachers. Conversely, there are many good teachers who are not the performing stars. For example, many golf pros who play the PGA tournament go to a good club pro for help when they are having difficulty. Good teaching does not just happen or come automatically because one may be a capable performer. It is the result of dedicated preparation and much hard work. Certainly, some aspects of effective teaching are difficult to capture or paper, since individual personalities and intangibles of student-teacher rapport come into play. However, there are many facets of the teaching task that can be studied and improved upon to make our classes more interesting and productive.

Prepare: It has been said that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Those are true words. Teaching a class may be "old hat" to you. But remember that it is an exciting, perhaps threatening, new experience to the potential new dancers who come to your class. Each class is different and must be taught differently. The best teacher is one who cares about the people in his class and cares about what they learn. Prepare yourself. Know the subject you are going to teach in depth. That is first essential prerequisite. The second is to know how to communicate. If you can't communicate what you know to your students, it doesn't make any difference how smart you are. If you are teaching dancing, by all means know how to dance. Your students will be watching you during and after class, and you will be teaching by example whether you like it or not. Don't ask your dancers to do things you have not experienced yourself. Do some homework on what makes people learn, e.g., the basic principles of motivation and learning, reinforcement learning theory, and apply what you learn to your classes. Prepare the setting. Establish an atmosphere, both physical and psychological, that is conducive to learning. Do not take for granted such things as lighting, ventilation, sound, seating, and other physical aspects. Be sure that students are received and treated as people, important in themselves, and not just as potential dues-paying members. Thoroughly indoctrinate your "angels" if you use them so that they become a part of the positive atmosphere. Prepare the students. Give them a bit of the history and tradition and a perspective of the total square dance movement. Let them know what to expect and what a great, world-wide movement they have the opportunity to share. But be honest — more on that later.
Motivate: Motivation is the basis of learning. Use it to your advantage in preparing and teaching your classes. Motivate yourself. After a few years, classes may tend to become sort of routine and hum-drum. Don't fall into the trap of sighing deeply and thinking, "Well, here we go again". Each class presents new challenges and opportunities. Be enthusiastic. Your attitude, good or bad, will affect the way your club recruiters and class members feel. Try something new in the way you teach. Develop new techniques. The class should be interesting for you as well as the students. Motivate your students and use their own motivations. Find out why they are in class. Are they motivated by curiosity, competition, a desire for recognition, a need for exercise, peer pressure? If you know, it will help you to do a better job of teaching. Don't frighten or burden them with details about the number of basics to be learned, how long it is going to take, etc. Make them comfortable with the idea that the class is to make them capable dancers with a great deal of enjoyment in the process. Then prove by doing.
Truth in Advertising: Be honest with class members. Most of our advertising emphasizes that square dancing is fun (and it can be), that the ladies get to wear beautiful costumes, that square dancing is friendly, and that square dancing is inexpensive (please — not cheap). There is nothing wrong with these statements, and all of the various parts of the pretty picture can become fact. However, such advertising is often followed by class sessions in which the new dancers get their brains scrambled and in which they are made to feel totally inept, unwanted, and abused. Class members need to know that square dancing is like many other activities. Some relatively hard work is necessary as on learns the fundamentals before he can really become proficient and thoroughly enjoy what he is doing. That is not to say that early classes should be pure drudgery. Egad! No! However, it is false advertising to lead people to believe that there will be no work required of them.
Set Goals: It is difficult to be effective in teaching any class if we do not know what it is we wish to accomplish. If we have clear objectives in mind, then we can tailor our activities to the accomplishment of those objectives. What are your own objectives? What do you hope to accomplish as a teacher? Can you do it within the constraints within which you must work? If not, can you make suitable modifications? Do you really have an end goal in mind, or are you just going to take things as they come and hope for the best? If you are working with a club, what is the objective of the club? Does that objective fit in with what you feel you can accomplish? Are you both on the same track and heading for the same destination? If not,serious problems may arise. What are the objectives of the dancers? You may have difficulty in making something out of a dancer that he does not want to become. If square dance class just happens to be the "in thing" winter activity for a couple this year instead of bridge or karate, you should not be surprised if they become part of the dropout statistics.
Teaching Effectiveness: This depends upon many things including your own personality and the make-up of the class. Prepare a detailed outline of instruction, but remain flexible. Use class differences to your advantage instead of letting them frustrate you because you cannot follow a rigid plan. Remember that learning is a dynamic process. It goes on all the time. Students will learn because of you or in spite of you. It is your job to see that they learn the correct thing. Gear your teaching to the learning process, not to some arbitrary, preconceived schedule which forces you to teach a certain amount of material each time you meet. Appeal to all the senses, if you can. Students learn faster and remember longer when more than one sense is involved. Tell them. Show them. Have them do it. Test them for understanding. Some say that learning involves an interrelated, four-step process: The students must (1) pay attention, (2) participate, (3) understand, and (4) remember. If one is participating, he is more likely to pay attention. If he understands, he will not get bored and discouraged, is more likely to pay attention, and will remember better. And so it goes. Teach according to established standards on definitions, timing, styling, and all aspects of the accepted dance programs. Thoroughly teach and practice the ground rules for the execution of the various basics. If a student understands the ground rules, then execution from various positions becomes much easier. Take time to teach all those things the dancer really should know — not just the choreography. Contras and rounds can be valuable teaching tools in a square dance class. Take time for mini talks on courtesy, dress, sewing, history and heritage, and other important subjects. Be sure that class members have ample time to ask questions and express concerns. Communication does include listening.
Evaluate: Periodically assess the progress of the class and your own performance. Most teachers of square and rounds subscribe to the building block approach, i.e., progress from the known to the unknown, using the knowledge of one basic to teach another. We need to be sure the foundation we are building upon is, in fact, a solid one. Otherwise, our house of cards will collapse, and we will have produced more drop-outs. Retention of material will be affected by factors in the material itself such as complexity and meaningfulness; by the efficacy of the learning methods used; by circumstances surrounding the learner; and by how recent the learning experience was. We cannot assume that we can teach three new things every time we meet and that every class member will remember each of those things well enough so that we can build our next lesson on them. After class is over, weekly and annually, evaluate what has happened. Did you accomplish the objectives you established? How can things be improved?

Perhaps many readers of this material will say, "I knew that". Or, "I already do that". I hope that is true. The material has been gleaned from many sources and many years of experience. It is not necessarily new. However, even the experienced teacher goes back to school occasionally to refresh his outlook and sharpen his skills. Perhaps this will help some to take a fresh look at that most important responsibility — Teaching!