Teacher Development Becomes a Long-Term Priority for Dance Schools
A dance program can expand its class schedule relatively quickly on paper. Expanding the teaching staff is often a different matter. Across many dance schools, instructor recruitment and development are becoming important topics as schools look beyond immediate staffing needs.
Recruitment and development do not involve only recruiting highly skilled dancers. In addition to being able to demonstrate technical proficiency in dance, a candidate has to be able to communicate and work with a group of students. A skilled dancer is not necessarily a good instructor.
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This problem will inevitably arise with any attempt to expand a dance program. The number of additional classes increases the need for teachers, whereas highly skilled educators cannot always be found quickly enough. Some dance schools realize that proper workforce planning requires at least as much attention as curricular planning.
More attention is being paid to the problem of instructor development. Recruiting instructors proves to be quite difficult; therefore, some schools find it more effective to invest more time in training their assistant teachers and grooming young teachers from their current communities. Years spent learning at a particular dance program can help a student qualify to teach others.
Additional training for new instructors is sometimes required. They will need help in planning lessons, managing classes and communicating with parents. All of these tasks play an important role in families' perception of a particular school, potentially influencing the rate of student retention.
Staff continuity is another point worth considering. The loss of experienced and highly regarded instructors entails not only losing a valued individual; schools also risk losing valuable knowledge. Students tend to form trusting relationships with instructors; therefore, changes of personnel can be very disruptive for both teachers and students.
The matter has to be taken into account by those schools that plan to increase the number of their classes. A limited number of teachers will limit their ability to expand further; they will face difficulties even in the case of high enrollment.
Professional development starts playing a crucial role for schools today. Apart from recruiting instructors capable of conducting current classes, they want instructors capable of working with the school in the future.
The process is not always visible to the audience; still, parents will notice the difference. Their children will have quite different experiences in the classrooms taught by newly recruited teachers and trained assistants.
Future developments will likely lead to placing more emphasis on this matter. Student enrollment provides great opportunities. However, instructor development becomes key to the successful utilization of them.
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