The diploma thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical section. The theoretical section presents art as a part of the Kindergarten Curriculum, which also includes the art of dance. It continues with a presentation of the art of dance and defines dance and danceability, focusing, among other things, on the adult's role. The second chapter of the theoretical section discusses the importance of creative movement for a child's holistic development; presents the elements of dance and incentives to dance; briefly describes specific methods used in the art of dance; lists and defines the types of movement/dance activities. The last chapter of the theoretical section describes movement stories, their goals, the preschool teacher's role, and the child's creativity.
The empirical section of the diploma thesis consists of an analysis and interpretations of a semi-structured interview, and of an analysis of collected movement stories. The survey involved four female teachers from the Železniki Kindergarten.
The purpose of the diploma thesis was to examine to what extent the teachers leave the creative process up to the children when performing movement stories; how they plan and perform movement stories; how the offered movement stories are received by the children. I wondered whether the teachers view movement stories as incentive for the creative movement/dance of preschool children. I also wished to determine whether the teachers encounter any difficulties when planning and performing movement stories,
Through writing the diploma thesis, I have determined that the interviewed teachers leave the creative process up to the children when performing movement stories, and that they view movement stories as incentive for the creative movement/dance of preschool children. Planning and performing movement stories do not pose a problem for the interviewed teachers, while the offered movement stories are well received by the children. Preschool teachers mostly decide to use movement stories because they know the stories well and can use them to encourage the child's creativity; moreover, the child also learns about his/her body, explores it, and uses it to create new movement/dance motifs.
|
