Miriam G Giguere

The Kolb Learning Cycle is a popular model of experiential learning in which agents move through four phases: experimentation, concretization, observation, and conceptualization. This model is a dynamic learning model that aligns well with embodied approaches to cognition, as it centers on student agency, inquiry, and exploration. However, there is currently no 4E (embodied, enactive, embedded, and extended) account of the learning cycle. Furthermore, Kolb’s theory focuses solely on behavior and learning in the individual. We here create a 4E account of the Kolb learning cycle by combining it with group role theory, ecological psychology, and participatory sense-making (PSM). We argue that, as individual members cycle through various group roles and their associated Kolb phases, they aid the group as a joint cognitive system in transitioning to new modes of engagement at the group level. Moving through group roles (leader, follower, naysayer, observer) often moves the agent into a new Kolb phase, which, in turn, changes the emergent dynamics of the entire group. Thus, social interaction can drive the learning cycle. Because the behavior of the individual is emergent, we cannot rely on reductivist accounts to explain group learning behaviors as the outcome of individual contributions. Rather, we consider the group as a cognitive system that drives learning.

This paper examines the complexity of relationships between choreographer and dancers by examining interview data collected from 25 professional dancers participating in the re-mounting of a professional post-modern dance work. The research focuses on the tensions between choreographic leadership and the group dynamic of the dancers performing in the work. The dancers often saw their relationships with each other as equal in importance to the choreographer in structuring the process, and many reflected that it was the collective atmosphere in the room and the choreographer's sensitivity to seeing the group dynamics and their ability to navigate them, which made for a successful process. The collective atmosphere often depended on the dancer's expectations of leadership, and its intersection with the choreographer's working style. The implications of these findings are that dancer expectations and understanding of the choreographer role is equally important to the choreographer's skills in navigating the group dynamics of the experience, and that both are more relevant to leadership than specific intrinsic qualities of the dance's leader.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students everywhere are exhibiting gaps in their social-emotional development. Dance advocates propose the prioritization of dance classes as a way to facilitate social-emotional learning. This essay examines the logic behind these advocacy efforts, but also cautions readers that social-emotional learning, even in the arts, can be misused to promote racial injustice and inequity if not properly structured. In the social arena, the idea is examined that social learning may be co-opted to reinforce obedience in children, and that "appropriate" social behaviors in a dance class may actually be the normalization of white middle class actions. In the emotional realm, the presumption that dance teaches emotional expression, must be linked to the awareness that the expression of emotion is a culturally contextual concept. Finally, from a perspective of cognition, dance can improve critical problem-solving skills, but only if the engagement is truly student centered.