Changing Student Attitudes Toward Math: Using Dance to Teach Math

Abstract

This paper describes results of a study that sought to answer the question, “How does integrating dance and math in an intense co-teaching model of integration affect student attitudes toward learning math?”. The goal of the dance/math project was to engage students in math in ways that reached students’ multiple intelligences and encouraged students to make complex connections and try new problem solving techniques. The classroom teachers, who designed and implemented the project, hypothesized that students who worked with a dancer once a week to learn math concepts would become more engaged in mathematics and have more successful and positive experiences with mathematics than students who did not work with a dancer.