Abstract
Key Points
Physical literacy is a multidimensional concept that has been linked to various physical, social, and cognitive health benefits through regular engagement in physical activity.
As dance is a form of physical activity, this study evaluated the effectiveness of the Sharing Dance Public School Program on overall physical literacy and various sub-domains of physical literacy.
Movement competence was found to increase over time; however, no other improvements were observed among the other sub-domains of physical literacy or with regards to overall physical literacy.
Introduction
Despite the well-evidenced benefits of regular participation in physical activity (PA) to various cognitive, emotional, psychosocial, mental, and physical health outcomes among children,1,2 the high prevalence of physical inactivity represents a public health crisis in need of remediation. 3 In Canada for example, only 28% of children and youth from 5 to 17 years of age are meeting the minimum recommended levels of PA participation per day. 4 There are many ways in which children can increase their PA levels, including engaging in free play and structured physical activities such as sport and physical education.5 -7 Sport and physical education can also be effective for the acquisition of fundamental motor skills, which in turn are essential for participation across a range of physical activities. 8 When opportunities for motor skill acquisition are intentionally designed with attention to not only supporting the physical, but also social, affective, and motivational learning domains, there is a greater likelihood of supporting physical literacy (PL) development. Importantly, PL itself has been conceptualized as a fundamental determinant of PA. 9 PL is a multidimensional concept that includes the domains of movement competence, positive affect, social participation, confidence and motivation, and the knowledge and understanding necessary for regular engagement in PA.9,10
Not all physical education or sport experiences are grounded in principles of PL, and there are children who simply lack interest in physical education or sport, and other traditional forms of PA. 11 Alternative forms of PA, such as circus arts or dance, offer an opportunity for increasing PL and PA development in children12,13 Dance is a form of PA, often excluded from traditional sport and exercise categories, yet offers many of the same social and health benefits.14 -18 Broadly defined as the rhythmic movement to music, dance often encompasses creative or artistic expression of one’s body. 16 As an activity, it can be performed individually or as part of a group, and often involves an intentional or patterned movement. It strives to develop skills such as balance, rhythm, memory, spatial awareness, as well as expression of ones’ body and body language.16,17 Dance can be categorized into multiple forms, some requiring a high level of skill or technique. Different styles of dance such as folk, traditional, ballet, and hip hop, all encompass their own set of techniques and sequencing of movements. Dance appeals to a wide variety of individuals across diverse age ranges, disabilities, differing cultural backgrounds, and social class.16,17,19,20 If designed intentionally, dance can also provide a welcoming and safe environment for children across a range of abilities to participate in May et al 20 and Koff. 21 Dance can, and often is, offered within and outside of sport and school, which also makes it appealing for increasing structured opportunities in the broader community for increasing PA.
Research has shown that dance can be effective at improving a variety of different outcomes in children, adolescents, young and older adults including several positive physical, social, psychological, and health-related outcomes.14,16 -18,22,23 Dance-based intervention studies have helped young and older children improve aspects of physical fitness and motor competence, including gross and fine motor skills, balance, and agility.24 -28 Dance has been shown to be associated with positive changes in brain structure and function in areas relating to cognition and learning as well as balance and psychosocial outcomes.29,30 Importantly, dance has also been shown to have positive effects on affective outcomes among young children, school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults including increased reporting of fun, exhilaration, happiness, and aspects of well-being17,18,31,32 as well as enhanced social competencies such as the ability to make and maintain friendships, engage in interpersonal interaction, and peer acceptance.17,18,33 -35 Taken together, dance represents an important activity that can help children express their ideas, connect with others (including managing certain social situations), and to gain the necessary health benefits of engagement in PA participation.
In the review of evidence on dance, it is also apparent that many of the outcomes examined have been consistent with the core domains of PL.9,10,36,37 Dance can be seen as broadly appealing and can be delivered in ways that enhance inclusion and feelings of safety, factors that are also consistent with good tenants of PL programming. 38 Yet to date, no published studies have explicitly linked dance to the potential development of PL, nor have studies tested the effects of dance-based interventions on PL outcomes. In other words, while previous research has shown that dance is positively associated with individual domains of PL, no studies have investigated the impact of dance on overall PL (and its sub-domains) within a single study and while using a PL lens to direct the research questions.
The Sharing Dance Public School Program is a program recently created and implemented by the Canada’s National Ballet School. This program centers around using creative movement experiences delivered in a group-based setting with trained dance instructors that aims to target the core domains of PL including movement competence, positive affect, confidence, social participation, and the knowledge and understanding of engaging in PA. The program emphasizes creative use of the body to express feelings (emotions), ideas, and stories set to music, through the use of different dance forms or styles (e.g., ballet, hip hop). The Sharing Dance Public School Program is currently offered free of charge to communities across Canada. However, to date, there has not been a formal evaluation of the program. In this study, we evaluated whether Sharing Dance Public School Program improves PL in children by assessing whether there is change across the core domains of PL identified by Cairney et al. 9
Methods
Research Design and Participants
A quasi-experimental, non-randomized design was used to test the effectiveness of the Sharing Dance Public School Program. Specifically, the study measured pre- to post-intervention changes within participants for total PL and its multiple domains 9 : movement competence, motivation (confidence), social participation, positive affect (fun and enjoyment), and knowledge and understanding. Participants were initially recruited from two schools (i.e., an intervention school and a control school) within the Toronto District School Board and were to complete three assessments across three time points (i.e., pre-intervention [November 2019], mid-point [February 2020], and post-intervention [May 2020]). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection was terminated prematurely during the mid-point assessment; only the intervention group completed the mid-point assessment. Therefore, this paper only includes baseline (pre-intervention) and mid-point data from the intervention group (single arm, within-subject design).
Participants in the intervention group included 57 grade 4 to 6 children including 28 females and 29 males (Mage = 10.34 ± 0.85) who were drawn from a school located in a low-income neighborhood. There were no exclusion criteria other than the participating children being in grades 4 to 6 and were English speaking. The study was approved by an Institutional Research Ethics Board and a district school board Research Ethics Board. Parents and guardians of the children provided informed written consent and children provided informed written assent before participation in the study.
Sharing Dance Public School Program
Participants engaged in the Sharing Dance Public School Program that was delivered once per week during the study within a large dance studio at Salle Currie Hall of Canada’s National Ballet School. The Salle Currie Hall was the original location of Canada’s National Ballet School and is located around the corner from the newer main building (4-minute walk). The Hall is the main residence building for the professional ballet-academic students. It is much like a school in that it has a cafeteria, classrooms, and some larger rooms for physical activities. The participants in the study were walked over to the Hall as their school was nearby. Since the Hall was offsite from the main building and in a “school-like” building, it was likely less intimidating for the participants to engage in their weekly dance sessions. Furthermore, the children engaged in the program with their home room class and in a space that resembled a small gym so it would be a similar experience to participating in physical education. The program was very inclusive and only required that they bring their indoor shoes from school.
The Sharing Dance Public School Program was delivered by instructors who were trained by Canada’s National Ballet School. The structure of a typical 40- to 50-minute Sharing Dance Public School Program lesson is divided into five sections: a welcome, a warm-up, a dance, a share, and a reflect (see Table 1). Each section includes four overarching elements: (1) Artistic and Creative—allow opportunities for dancers to express themselves artistically and to apply their creativity; (2) Fundamental Movement—allow opportunities to explore and expand movement vocabulary, specifically the development of fundamental movement skills; (3) Social and Emotional—provides participants a space to develop meaningful relationships, both with the instructor and their peers; and (4) Fun—taken together, the class will provide the opportunity for participants to enjoy themselves and have fun. An example of a typical lesson and how it maps onto each domain of PL is shown in Table 1.
Mapping the Components of a Typical Sharing Dance Lesson onto the Domains of Physical Literacy Derived from Cairney et al. 9
Measures
As PL is a multi-dimensional concept, children completed a direct measure of movement competence (i.e., PLAYfun) and a self-report measure (i.e., a questionnaire) to assess the other four domains of PL at each time-point. Consistent with previous research (Kwan et al 49 ), we used, or adapted previously validated measures that best represented each domain of PL.
Movement competence
Movement competence was measured using the PLAYfun tool, which was administered by trained research assistants. The PLAYfun tool is intended for use in individuals aged 7 and up9,39 and is comprised of 18 different movement tasks within five domains that assess different aspects of movement skills. The five domains include: (1) running, (2) locomotor, (3) object control—upper body, (4) object control—lower body, and (5) balance, stability, and body control. Each child was asked to perform the 18 tasks, using specific dialogue from the PLAYfun manual, 39 and was scored by a trained assessor using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS). The VAS is divided into four categories: initial (0-25 mm), emerging (25-50 mm), competent (50-75 mm), and proficient (75-100 mm). A total movement competence score was calculated by averaging the 18 tasks, while domain scores were calculated by averaging the specific tasks included within each domain. The PLAYfun tool has previously been shown to have acceptable construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis 40 and a convergent validation study41,42 in children. The PLAYfun tool has also been shown to demonstrate good-to-excellent interrater reliability.40,42,43 All assessors were trained using procedures described in Cairney et al. 40
Affective domain: Fun and enjoyment
Fun and enjoyment for engaging in PA in general was assessed through the intrinsic regulation subscale from the Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3 (BREQ). 44 The subscale includes 4 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (not true for me) to 4 (very true for me). An example item is: “I engage in physical activity because it’s fun.” Internal consistency for this scale was good at both the baseline (Cronbach’s α = .86) and mid-point (α = .90) assessments.
Motivational domain: Confidence
Confidence, or self-efficacy, for engaging in PA, sports, and dance in general was assessed using 17 items. Adhering to recommendations by Bandura, 45 each item was prefaced with the stem “How confident are you in your ability” and was rated on an 11-point scale from 0 (not confident) to 10 (totally confident). An example item is: “To engage in physical activity (e.g., running, biking).” The total confidence score was computed by averaging the ratings for each item to produce a scale value out of 10. Internal consistency for this scale was excellent at both baseline (α = .91) and mid-point (α = .93) assessments.
Social participation
Social participation was measured using the short form version of the Sense of Belonging Scale. 46 The scale consists of five items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) that were each directly related to their sense of belonging with regards to the Sharing Dance program. An example item is: “I feel comfortable at my Sharing Dance program.” This scale has been previous shown to have good reliability and validity among a similar-aged sample of children (mean age of 11.3 years). 46 Internal consistency for this scale was good at both baseline (α = .90) and mid-point (α = .84) assessments.
Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge and understanding for engaging in PA in general were assessed using seven items based on constructs from Social Cognitive Theory 47 and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. 48 The scale is scored on a seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree). The stem for each item was “Participating in physical activity. . .” and an example item is “. . .is good for your physical health (e.g., heart, body, muscles).” Internal consistency for this scale was good at both baseline (α = .91) and mid-point (α = .88) assessments.
PL composite score
A total PL composite score was computed based on the same procedures outlined by Kwan et al. 49 Specifically, a single measure of PL was calculated using standardized scores from each domain of PL: movement competence, affect (fun and enjoyment), motivation (confidence), social participation, and knowledge and understanding. Standardized z-scores were calculated separately based on the total scores for each domain of PL. Then, the standardized scores were summed with higher values reflecting greater overall levels of PL. Internal consistency for the PL composite score was good at baseline (α = .75) and mid-point (α = .79) assessments.
Procedure
Data was collected at the Salle Currie Hall of Canada’s National Ballet School within a large dance studio (PLAYfun assessment) and a classroom (questionnaire assessment). Baseline and mid-point assessments took approximately 50 to 60 minutes to complete. To ensure participants were assessed within the allotted time, all assessments were completed in group settings of approximately 5 to 6 participants for PLAYfun and 10 to 12 participants for questionnaire completion. Specifically, trained researchers assessed the participants individually during completion of the PLAYfun while two to three researchers monitored small groups of participants during questionnaire completion and were available to answer any questions.
Data Analysis
All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were computed for all study variables. Separate paired-samples t-tests (two-tailed) were computed to assess differences in means between the baseline and mid-point assessments for each domain of PL and the PL composite score. Effect sizes are reported as Cohen’s d 50 and the values for small, medium, and large are 0.20, 0.50, and 0.80, respectively.
Results
Descriptive statistics and t-test summaries for the PL composite score and each domain of PL are presented in Table 2. Overall, results found significant changes in movement competence (P = .009, d = 0.31), with scores increasing over time. In the decomposition of the specific sub-domains of movement competence, significant increases were observed for locomotor (P = .001, d = 0.49), object control—upper (P = .01, d = 0.38), and balance, stability, and body control (P < .001, d = 0.62). Significant decreases were found for fun and enjoyment (P = .012, d = 0.27), confidence (P = .001, d = 0.37), and social participation (P = .042, d = 0.22). Results indicated no significant changes from the baseline to mid-point assessments for knowledge and understanding (P = .76, d = 0.04) or for PL composite scores (P = .54, d = 0.06).
Physical Literacy Composite and Domain Scores.
Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; d, Cohen’s d.
Discussion
This study provides an initial examination of the Sharing Dance Public School Program that was offered to children across Canada. It represents the first study to evaluate the potential impact of a dance-based intervention on PL development among children. 9 Early findings from this program suggest that such a program may be important from a motor development standpoint, with significant increases in motor competence. It is important to note though, without a control group these increases may be due to maturation. With regards to the other domains of PL assessed in this study, we found significant decreases in confidence, motivation, and social participation while no changes were observed for knowledge and understanding among the children. It is also important reiterate that the program was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and these other domains of PL may require a longer intervention to elicit change. As a result, the present findings do not entirely represent the Sharing Dance Public School Program’s ability to impact these outcomes and more research is needed to evaluate the program over a longer period as initially intended.
Overall, there has been an emerging interest in the creation and evaluation of PL-inspired programs. However, as discussed by Carl et al., 51 many of these interventions only target some of the domains of PL and do not include a broader measure of PL. The latter, in particular, is a significant oversight as, consistent with the definition of PL,36,37 the construct is holistic where movement competence, affect (enjoyment), confidence, and social participation together comprise a single higher order domain. 9 Despite not showing improvements in overall PL, the results from the current study suggest that the Sharing Dance Public School Program did result in significant improvements in movement competence. These findings are similar to what has been found in other studies related to dance and movement competence, where increases in various domains of motor skills (i.e., motor coordination, gross motor skills) have been shown.24 -28 One reason behind this could be the open-ended nature of the Sharing Dance Public School Program, whereby children were encouraged to move in a variety of ways (e.g., imagining that they are animals in nature) or to explore new forms of movement to better understand body control, which may have led to significant increases in movement competence.
Limitations, Practical Implications, and Future Directions
The disruption of data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic was a major limitation of the study as we were unable to assess the Sharing Dance Public School Program over the course of an entire school year. Participants engaged in the program once per week for 12 weeks. It may be that there was not enough time for the positive engagement cycle between motor competence and the remaining domains to be realized. 9 The increases in movement competence observed in this study may have eventually led or translated into increases in feelings of confidence, fun and enjoyment, and social participation, therefore increasing the total PL of the participants if the program ran for the entire duration. However, it is also plausible that the decreases we observed among some of the psychological measures may have exacerbated over time. Thus, future research is warranted to assess the program over the entire school year as was initially intended.
Furthermore, we cannot rule out the possibility that there may have been a regression toward the mean, with the more subjective domains of PL that included psychosocial variables. The mean scores for these domains were near the top of end of the scale for most measures (see Table 2), which could suggest that the children went into the intervention with inflated perspectives of their abilities and knowledge. However, as they progressed through the program, they may have acquired more realistic assessments of their thoughts and feelings toward these outcomes. Although it is also plausible that the participants went into the program with high expectations that it would be fun, enjoyable, and a welcoming environment which, as they experienced over time, may not have been the case. Another limitation is that we developed our measure of PL based on combining previous validated measures that have been used across various age groups, however only some of these measures were used among school-aged children. Future research is recommended to use a more robust measure of PL that has been shown to be reliable and valid among young children such as the Physical Literacy for Children Questionnaire.52,53
Our assessment of social participation included items directly related to the Sharing Dance program, as was intended by the measure, yet it would be worthwhile to include a general measure of social participation in subsequent work. Conversely, our assessments of confidence, fun and enjoyment, and knowledge and understanding were more general in nature with regards to PA. In future research, it would be interesting to investigate whether cognitions specifically related to dance impact the magnitude of change of general cognitions as they relate to PA.
Although the overall effect of the Sharing Dance Public School Program on movement competence is promising, participants’ scores were below competent (score of 50) across most of the sub-domains of movement competence, except for object control—upper at the mid-point assessment, suggesting they are still developing their fundamental movement skills and likely would have benefited from a longer program duration. Of particular interest, the largest movement competence increases were observed among the balance, stability, and body control sub-domain (d = 0.62). This may have been expected given the nature of the program focusing on dance, however this further highlights the benefits of a dance program for individuals who may experience balance, stability, and body control difficulties in general and especially among populations known to suffer from these difficulties (e.g., developmental coordination disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder). As individuals with balance, stability, and body control difficulties tend to avoid traditional sport and exercise activities, a PL-based dance intervention may be particularly important for this population to not only increase movement competence, but also various psychosocial, physical, and mental health outcomes associated with PL.
A recent review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of PL interventions found that interventions were generally effective at improving overall PL as well as the domains of PL. 51 While we found significant increases in movement competence, we also saw significant decreases in scores across most of the other domains of PL. Carl et al 51 noted that previous interventions have also found inconsistencies across these domains of PL, whereas the effect on movement competence was stronger and more consistent. The lack of a control group in the present study prevents us to infer whether these decreases are a result of the program.
It is important to reaffirm, the Sharing Dance program in this study was offered to children from a school located in a low-income neighborhood. While we saw improvements in movement competence and decreases among other measures, the program itself is advantageous to this group of participants for several reasons. For instance, children from low-income neighborhoods often experience many barriers to engaging in physical activity such as limited access to playgrounds and unsafe streets. 54 The Sharing Dance program provided a safe and welcoming environment for these children to engage in physical activity on a weekly basis. Previous intervention research has shown that school-based physical activity programs, similar in length to the present study, among low-income children can increase aspects of health-related fitness. 55 Other research has shown that an arts-based intervention (i.e., drumming) can lead to improvements in social-emotional behavior among low-income children 56 further reinforcing the need for these programs among this group of children.
Finally, we would like to share some important insights for dance specialists, staff, educators, and other practitioners who work in the field of movement arts. While this is one of the first dance programs to intentionally target PL, significant changes in PL were not evident across all the sub-domains. Yet, interpretation of the results needs to be tempered considering the disruption of the intervention due to COVID-19. The program represents a unique approach to integrate movement arts to PL and, as such, we encourage future programs and research to pursue this link. For instance, as is consistent with many arts-based physical activities, sport, and exercise programs, there is often a primary focus on acquiring the necessary movement skills to perform the behavior(s) being pursued. However, from a PL perspective, it is equally important to target participants’ fun, enjoyment, and confidence toward performing the desired behavior(s) as well as their knowledge and understanding for why it is important to engage in the behavior(s). By using a PL-lens, practitioners are provided with a holistic approach to targeting many constructs related to physical activity engagement and maintenance that translate across many different physical activities. 9
Conclusion
This study provides evidence that the Sharing Dance Public School Program has the potential to impact one domain of PL (i.e., movement competence) in children between the ages of 9 to 12. However, levels of fun and enjoyment, confidence, and social participation all declined. Though there were challenges in this study, primarily as we were unable to compare our findings with children not enrolled into the program, it provides preliminary insight for movement competence levels in children. It is important for future research to assess children of similar age and ensure the program is evaluated the way it was intended to be delivered.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant and a Mitacs Acclerate research grant.
Ethics Statement
Ethics approval was obtained from the University of Toronto (approval #36818) Research Ethics Board and the Toronto District School Board Research Ethics Board.
