ScholarOne - Dance Learning in Elementary Education: Interactive Media
and Mirror Neurons
Abstract
This study aimed to identify the learning pathways of elementary school
students by using interactive multimedia materials (prepared using
Kinect v2) to learn dance. This study investigated the influence of
multimedia, signaling, and self-explanation principles and learning
outcomes in 101 Taiwanese elementary school students who completed
self-designed questionnaires. The collected data were used to construct
a structural equation model for analysis. The findings revealed that
among the various learning pathways observed when using interactive
multimedia materials, only one specific pathway led to significant
learning outcomes for students. In this pathway, students 1) understand
how to use the instructional materials; 2) identify cues within the
materials; 3) transform those cues into inner ideas; and 4) translate
these inner ideas to generate concrete and creative dance movements on
their own. The study also explained the mechanism behind the learning
pathway identified in this research based on mirror neurons’ function at
the mimesis and reflexive learning stages of student learning, providing
important insights for dance educators.