DDTAL update information from Trinity College London

UPDATE ON THE

DIPLOMA IN DANCE TEACHING AND LEARNING

(DDTAL) (Children and Young People)

October 2011

Introduction

The Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning (Children and Young people) (DDTAL (CYP))– is the first qualification of its kind, designed for practitioners working with children and young people outside formal education. It has been developed by Trinity College London at the request of the major national dance organisations and led by Youth Dance England on behalf of Dance Training and Accreditation Partnership (DTAP)– a consortium of leading dance industry agencies, committed to building capacity and removing barriers to participation in dance outside of formal education, by people of all ages and abilities.

DDTAL (CYP) provides evidence to employers and parents/carers that a dance practitioner has the expertise to teach children and young people. It is relevant and accessible, covers continuing professional development and has 90 credits at Level 6 of the National Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF)

The diploma requires candidates to:

  • Demonstrate professional competence in dance teaching and learning for children and young people (CYP)
  • Evidence the ability to refine and use understanding, methods and skills in teaching and learning practice,
  • Demonstrate the ability to work autonomously and create high quality, safe and informed teaching and learning practice in a range of formal and informal settings (e.g. community dance, youth dance, after school clubs, dance projects within curriculum time, youth clubs, youth justice work, sports centres)

The Diploma can be gained through independent study, professional guidance or through taught courses

Candidates

Candidates choosing to study for the Diploma have been drawn from a very wide range of dance genres including classical ballet, ballroom, contemporary, folk, jazz, Spanish, tap, Argentine Tango and urban.

Participants are teaching in a wide range of contexts including community centres, museums, primary and secondary schools, youth groups, prisons, secure training centres, vocational dance training institutions, Centres for Advanced Training (CATs) and private dance schools.

Centres

During the last year courses supporting students to take the Diploma have been delivered by five dance centres (Leeds, London, Nottingham, Swindon and Salford) Independent candidates who have not taken part in a course have also entered for the qualification. Of the five centres offering courses relating to the qualification one centre (De Montford University with Dance 4 in Nottingham) has ceased to offer the course.

Candidate statistics

The Diploma is divided into four units. 2010 saw the first cohort of students registering to take the Diploma. Most candidates registered for one unit at a time.

Total number of candidates registered to date:

Unit 167Unit 253

Unit 3 14Unit 4 0

Following Trinity’s advice, the majority of candidates are taking the units of the Diploma sequentially, hence the lack of Unit 4 candidates (who are currently in the process of registering for the last unit).

Unit 1: 67 candidates assessed

Unit 1 / Number of candidates / % of total
Referrals[*] / 3 / 4.4%
Fail / 13 / 19.4%
Pass / 18 / 26.8%
Merit / 21 / 31.3%
Distinction / 12 / 17.9%

67 candidates in total

Most candidates secured a range of pass, merits and distinctions across the range of work.

  • 3 candidates failed all four tasks
  • 7 received a pass for all tasks
  • 3 received a merit for all tasks
  • 6 received a distinction for all tasks

Unit 2: 53 candidates assessed

Unit 2 / Number of candidates / % of total
Referrals / 8 / 15%
Fail / 2 / 3.7%
Pass / 11 / 20.7
Merit / 17 / 32%
Distinction / 15 / 28.3%

Unit 3: 14 candidates assessed (not yet confirmed)

Unit 3 assessment results have yet to be second assessed – the table for these will be sent out as soon as the assessment marks have been confirmed.

As candidates progress through the units a breakdown of pass and fail rates for individual tasks within each unit show that fewer candidates fail more than one task as they progress, thereby reducing the overall fail rate for each unit.

Moderation

All assessments are moderated, and some second assessed. Since this is a new qualification with no model to compare to, Trinity employed an external expert to read all the submissions thus ensuring that the assessment was fair, had parity and was reaching the standards and requirements that we were aiming for. All marking was agreed, and further comments were that the qualification was doing what it set out to do, the overall evidence was that candidates who related their knowledge to their practice generally succeeded better as would be expected in a vocational qualification. – and that the qualification did manage to address the needs and assess the knowledge and understanding of practitioners from a wide range of dance disciplines who worked in a wide range of contexts.

Road Shows

Trinity College London with DTAP Is planning road shows throughout the UK with DTAP partners CDET and the Foundation for Community Dance. The main purpose of these road shows is to inform and update the dance sector and employers about the DTAP initiatives including the Diploma.

Research on Course Provision

In order to test out models for the delivery of training and mentoring programmes to support candidates to take the qualification, YDE raised funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to support a two-year research project 2010-12 to work with four dance organisations to become training providers. The funding has built capacity to ‘kick start’ training programmes and make faster progress through sharing practice. This research project is being evaluated and the findings will be made available to potential candidates, training providers and employers through a symposium being run by YDE at TrinityLaban on 31.1.12. See: for further information and to book a free place.

TrinityCollegeLondon

October 2011

1

[*] Referrals are given if a candidate fails one of the assessment tasks with a unit. Referrals were only introduced during the course of the submission of material for Unit 1,hence the higher fail rate in Unit 1 and a higher referral rate in subsequent units.