The International Baccalaureate Dance Programme: Learning Skills for Life in the 21st Century

This study explores how an outside observer, the researcher, and a group of International Baccalaureate (IB) Dance students constructed meaning from their dance experiences. A qualitative methodology was used to interpret the data set consisting of the researcher's observations during class and at a dance concert, and student responses to a questionnaire and during interviews. Four themes emerged from this study: self-growth and understanding; interpersonal growth and understanding; growth and understanding related to dance; and understanding connections among dance, other academic areas, and work. Each theme was examined in terms of the data set noted previously. As a result, similarities and connections were found between the themes identified from the IB Dance experiences, and the 21st-century skills of being accountable, flexible, socially responsible, communicative, creative, collaborative, self-directed, and a critical thinker who can reason, make choices, and solve problems.