* sjan@kncpc.re.kr

Copyrightⓒ2017 KAHPERD

International Journal of Human Movement Science, 2017, Vol. 11, No. 2, 49-58

https://doi.org/10.23949/ijhms.2017.12.11.2.4 ISSN 1976-4391(Print) / ISSN 2586-078X(Online)

The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on Dance Learning

Hyun-Ju Jeon ․ Jung-hee Baek Hanyang University, South Korea

Sangjoon An* Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, South Korea

Abstract

This study compared the effects of positive and negative feedback provided to students learning dance. 28 female students

learned to perform the traditional Korean drum dance called Jangguchum, in 60 sessions over two weeks. Half of students

received a positive feedback on their performance during the learning phase, while the other half were given a negative

feedback. Using the criterion for evaluation standard of Korean dance, experts rated the students’ performances 3 times;

before the first session, immediately after the last session, and a week later. The results showed that the effects of positive

feedback for performance are greater than that of negative feedback in learning dance.

Key words: Motor learning, Positive feedback, Negative feedback, Dance learning effect

INTRODUCTION

Learning to dance requires knowledge of the

appropriate movements as well as repetitive practice.

Errors corrected at the initial stages lead to

successful learning. In dance lessons, the instructor

provides information about the movement patterns as

well as about the meaning of the movements

(Krasnow & Wilmerding, 2015). The essence of

dance learning is to ensure that students master the

overall techniques and synthesize the visual,

kinesiological, cognitive, and emotional information.

In order to achieve this purpose, dance instructors

utilize special behaviors or language to emphasize

specific movements and emotions (Ashford, Bennett,

& Davids, 2006; Overby & Bradley, 2007).

Dance is physical in nature, so guided

manipulation to achieve and feel the correct

movement is an important type of feedback in the

dance classroom. The dance teacher uses guided

manipulation as a means of communicating posture

or movement changes to students. The teacher’s

choice of feedback stes the atmosphere of the class

(Kissing & Jay, 2003).

Providing students with feedback on their

performance is a very effective method to enhance

learning, minimize the differences between the goals

and actual performance, in a rather short time

(Eaves, Breslin, & Schaik, 2011). Offering feedback

to the classrooms is much like providing solutions

for various questions that learners may have

regarding their dance performance (Schmidt & Lee,

2014).

It is important to examine what type of verbal

feedback improves the quality of practice and the

effects of learning in providing information about

characteristics of motion and continuity upon

movement completions during dance performance.

The perceptions of praise and teachers' invested time

were positively linked with the dependent variables,

whereas encouragement and technical information

50 Hyun-Ju Jeon ․ Jung-hee Baek ․ SangjoonAn

Characteristics

Group

Age, yr.Dance

Experience, yr.Height, cm Weight, kg BMI, kg/m2 Performance, No.

M ± SD M ± SD M ± SD M ± SD M ± SD M ± SD

Positive (n = 14) 21.86 ± 0.36 6.71 ± 2.16 162.21 ± 3.42 49.36 ± 3.93 18.75 ± 1.31 4.71 ± 3.10

Negative (n = 14) 21.93 ± 0.47 6.93 ± 3.17 162.32 ± 2.46 53.07 ± 3.73 20.13 ± 1.13 4.79 ± 2.08

Note: — M = mean; SD = standard deviation; BMI = body mass index.

Table 1. The general characteristics of participants

and criticism were negatively linked (Nicaise, Bois,

Fairclough, & Amorose, 2007). But, students’

perceptions of physical education feedback, that is

effects on performance and psychological responses

are mainly focus on mental variables, such as

intrinsic motivation, learning environment (Burnett,

2002; Koka & Hein, 2003; Standage, Duda, &

Ntoumanis, 2006). For over a decade, in motor

learning as a sports science, few researchers have

verified the motivational factors that affect motor

skill learning (Chen, 2001; Chiviacowsky & Wulf,

2005, 2007; Wulf, Chiviacowsky, & Lewthwaite,

2010). However, most of this research was done in

the context of sports science and there is a paucity of

studies on the effects of different types of feedback

in dance learning. Unlike sport learning which

concentrates mainly on the motor aspects of the

movements, dance learning contains many emotional

elements that are vital to the learning of dance

movements. Therefore, positive and negative

feedback may have different effects in dance

learning than in sport learning.

In order to provide a basic foundation for

effective dance learning programs, this study

intended to compare the effects of positive and

negative feedback on the performance of the

expressive and functional elements of dance.

Methods

Subjects

Twenty eight female students (mean age = 21.9

years, SD = 0.42) majoring in Korean dance at a

university in Korea participated in the experiment.

Their mean dance experience was 6.8 years.

Fourteen students were assigned to a positive

feedback program and the other 14 for a negative

feedback program. The classification of the two

groups was followed after pre-evaluation for even

student’s level through the class alternation

sequentially to two different groups. And all

participants have similar previous experience of

dance, age, performance, and so on (Table 1). The

participants have no experience of similar

experimentation before, and they engaged without

preliminary knowledge of the experimental purpose.

Also, this experiment had an IRB (Institutional

Review Board; IRB) approval from Hanyang

University Seoul Hospital.

Task

Korean traditional dance shares some similarity

with form of dance known as contemporary and

lyrical. Moves follow a curvilinear path with little

short term repetition. The dancer's legs and feet are

The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on Dance Learning 51

Dongsalpuli 3

Beatⓘ ⓘ ⓘ ⦶ Ο

iΟ

Gideong Gung Gideong Gung Gideong GungGideong

Gung

Gideong

Deong

Kung

Gitta

Kung

(forward)

Right footRight foot From right

foot side step

Feet

together

Left foot Left foot

Dance

notation

Dance

movement

ⓛ Twist steps from the right foot ② Do side step ③ Step left foot to right, twist back the body, look

forward, and have your body facing forward. The hand movement is as follows: During ①, the right

hand does armpit movement and does a strong movement in a mood pushing sideway.

Table 2. Movement of the Jangguchum (one movement example, in 10 movements practiced)

often entirely concealed by a billowing hanbok.

Emotional attributes of the dances include both

somberness and joy. The dancer must embody the

fluid motion that surges through the traditional

music that the dancers perform to. Korean traditional

dance is often performed to Korean traditional

music, which includes traditional drums, flutes, and

more. The music is what upholds the dance and the

dancer is the tool that shows the music in physical

form.

The task to be learned in this study comprised ten

movements (Dongsalpuli) of the Korean traditional

drum dance, Jangguchum, which takes roughly 1

min. 30 sec. Ten motions of Dongsalpuli have

various movements from small to big with feet and

hands, and also have a wide range of movement

space (Park, 2006). Table 2 shows one dance

movement in the 10 movements. And it is consist of

rhythm, melody of Janggu, moving line, and

movements with feet and arms. The Janggu drum,

52 Hyun-Ju Jeon ․ Jung-hee Baek ․ SangjoonAn

i.e., used in the traditional music of Korea is shown

in Fig. 1. Dongsalpuli consists of one tempo with ♩ = 105 ~ 115, 4 beat-rhythm with 2 smaller

beat-rhythm (2-sobak 4-bak rhythm; ♩ × 4). This

tempo is repeated with rhythm♩ /♪♪/♩ /♪♪. The

period of breath in Jangguchum is highly related to

the rhythm. To use highly skilled techniques, one

must be able to use inhalation, exhalation and

breathe hold to be in synchronization with basic

rhythm, and must be able to use variation and

transformation. Also, deep breath is used in slow

rhythms and is represented through abdominal

breathing. Shallow breath is used in faster rhythms

and is done by thoracic breathing.

Figure 2. The Janggu & Jangguchum

Feedback

The specific phrases conveying positive and

negative feedback that were provided for each part

of the dance are presented in Table 3. To the positive

feedback group the feedback with praise and

approval through linguistic feedback was provided

only when the exact performance is carried out on

the evaluation list for movement order, rhythm, feet,

breath, harmony, and so on. In cases of negative

feedback group, the feedback with criticism,

correction of mistake was provided whenever the

error occurred. There were no perfect cases for the

test without negative feedback in this study.

Measures

To evaluate dance performance we used the

standard evaluation criterion for general Korean

dance (Baek & Jeon, 2011). We further discussed

participants’ performance with professors at the

Department of Dance and with professional dance

instructors, in order to improve and correct our

evaluations. The overall harmony was the main

criteria for evaluating items. Included the sequence

of movements, the strike points and sound of the

Janggu, the degree of coordination between the head,

torso, arms, and legs, the rhythmical sense, the

moving line (i.e., presence or absence of errors in

direction and the distance of the movements), and

accuracy of the body movements (the appropriate

use of stepping, breathing, and joints). A 3-point

scale per item as shown in Table 4 was used. An

internal consistency reliability test of the evaluation

questions showed high reliability; Cronbach's α were

0.865 at pre-test, 0.869 at post-test, and 0.904 at

retention test. The evaluation was done by a judging

panel consisting of five experts with a University

degree (major in Korean dance) with 15 yr. of

dancing career and five or more years of teaching

experience. Also all the judges are teachers in

universities and have experiences in all the

The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on Dance Learning 53

Items Feedback Types of Language

Sequence

Positive Good remembering the order, Well done, Excellent

NegativeThat’s not the order, why can’t you remember, the order is all messed up,

bad, not good

Movement 1

(beat, noise)

Positive I can hear it well, Great beat timing, Joyous, That’s beautiful noise

NegativeThat sounds strange, That’s the wrong beat, I can’t listen to it, Terrible,

disappointing, no, upset

Movement 2

(head, trunk)

Positive Good head and body positioning, right , pretty

NegativeThat’s not the right direction for your head and body, Wrong, I can’t look

at it, that’s strange, poor, disturbed

Movement 3

(arm, leg)

Positive Good arm and leg positioning, Great form, Looks good, beautiful, Correct

NegativeYour arm and legs look strange, Terrible, Looks awful, What’s that, It’s

weak, not good, a great distress

RhythmPositive Excellent rhythm, Sounds great, Excellent, Joyous, Good

Negative No rhythm, Sounds awful, Don’t do that, No, Gloomy

PathwayPositive Locomotion That’s great, Excellent, Well done, Beautiful, Looks good

Negative What’s that?, Strange, Terrible, Looks awful, No, very poor

Foot placementPositive Excellent foot placement, Good basics, Beautiful, Good

Negative Bad foot placement, No basics, Not pretty, Don’t do it like that

Breathing

Positive Good breathing, Excellent, deep and accurate

NegativeBad breathing, You can’t do it, Strange, What’s wrong with your breathing,

dislike, very weak, infuriating

Usage of jointsPositive Good use of the joints, Accurate, Beautiful, Excellent, Looks good

Negative Bad use of joints, Strange, Looks terrible, No, Unhappy

Harmony

Positive Overall it looks harmonized, Nice flow, Beautiful, Joyous, Well done

NegativeOverall it looks not in harmony, The movements are not flowing, Looks

terrible, I don’t want to look or hear it, I’m so moody

Table 3. Feedback types

evaluation elements, and thus they can observe all

the performance properly when evaluating the

participants.

Procedure

The Jangguchum was demonstrated to all

participants ten times. Then, a pre-test of the

Jangguchum was conducted for each participant.

One test assistant has various experiences on this

study’s movement skills and is an expert who can

carry out every item in this research. The criteria of

the evaluation were not provided to anyone except

for the assistants and the judges. The same assistant

showed the demonstration of the test case and

provided positive and negative feedbacks, and the

practice and the evaluation are done in the same

dance rehearsal room. The evaluation has done

individually and the rest of the students waited in a

different place. Following the pre-test, participants

were split into the positive and negative feedback

groups. A total of 60 trials (10 trials per day, 3 times

a week, for 2 weeks.) of the Jangguchum were then

practiced by each participant with the instructor

providing either a positive or a negative feedback.

Two to three types of positive and negative feedback

were given on performance results by individual

right after the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th trials each

54 Hyun-Ju Jeon ․ Jung-hee Baek ․ SangjoonAn

analysis items evaluation standard score

1 Sequence Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate if the movements were done

in sequence.

2 Movement 1

(beat, noise)

Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate the strength of using muscle

and coordination degree of body parts

for movement.Movement 2

(head, trunk)

Movement 3

(arm, leg)

3 Rhythm Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate the exactness of rhythm and

accordance of movements with it.

4 Pathway

(motion direction)

Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate if the exact pathway was

followed.

5 Accuracy of

body

Foot Placement Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate if foot placement, breathing,

and usage of joints as characters of

Korean Dance were done exactly.Breathing

Usage of Joints

6 Harmony Exact – 3 points

1 ~ 2 errors

– 2 points

3 or more errors

– 1 point

Evaluate if the entire movements were

done in harmony.

Table 4. Standard evaluation criterion

day. Practice was given to each team organizing

three to four students and one group consists of four

teams. Each team had its own practice time about 15

min. The practice time of the two groups in total was

about 2 hr. a day. On the last day of practice, a

post-test was conducted individually using the same

method as the pre-test. Seven days later, without

practicing in the interim, a retention test was

conducted in which participants were instructed to

perform the same dance in the same situation. There

were ten criteria (sequence, sound, head/trunk

movements, arm/leg movements, rhythm, pathway,

foot placement, breathing, usage of joints, and

harmony) for the evaluation. Each element is given

three points in total of 30 points. For objective

evaluations, the reliability of the evaluation and also

the reliability between the judges were analyzed.

Statistical Analysis

The design of this study experiment was based

upon the independent variables of positive and

The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on Dance Learning 55

Variable

Positive

(n=14)

Negative

(n=14)Source of

VariationF P η2

M±SD M±SD

PE at

Pre-test 11.89±2.54 12.75±2.82 Group 5.50 .037* .314

Post-test 23.89±2.94 20.46±2.07 Time 235.18 .000*** .951

Retention 27.18±2.60 22.18±2.60 Group×Time 13.65 .001** .532

Note. — M = mean; SD = standard deviation; PE = Performance effect; *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 5. Performance effect of the positive and negative feedback group

negative feedback (group) for performance results

and the dependent variables of times(pre, post,

retention). All analyses of this study were conducted

with SPSS (Version 18.0; SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL)

and the means and standard deviations were

calculated in all data. Correlation analysis was

conducted to verify the reliability between the

judges. Repeated Measures ANOVA (RMANOVA)

to check out the performance effects on every test

stage for each group was performed. Also a post-hoc

test, Dunnett test, was conducted to find a point of

time that the difference between two groups is

occurred. The level of significance is set at p < .05

for all differences.

Results

The learning effect was significantly difference

between three different test times (p < .001), and also

had a meaningful difference between two groups (p <

.05). There was correlation between group and time,

according to the time change of patterns for learning

effect (p < .01). It was inferred that two groups

started to differ at the time of the post-test as shown

in Fig. 2. In the pre-test, the negative feedback had a

higher point, but at the post-test and retention, the

positive feedback showed much higher points than

negative feedback. To look into how the learning

effects change in the next of this test period, the

future effect trend and found a linear trend according

to time was significant at p < .001, and the learning

effects due to correlation between time and group

(time × group) had also significance probability of p

< .001. The change of patterns in learning effect

according to time is different for positive feedback

groups and negative feedback groups. Therefore, the

positive feedback groups can be predicted more

consistent learning effects compared to the negative

groups as shown in Table 5.

Discussion

This study had been started on the assumption that

positive feedback is more effective than negative

feedback in dance movement learning. As a result,

the learning effect had a significant difference

between three different test times (p < .001), and

also had a meaningful difference between two

groups (p < .05). There was the correlation between

group and time, due to a change of patterns of

learning effect according to the time (p < .01).

Therefore, the positive feedback group for

performance results represents the greater effects in

dance learning than the negative one.

Korean dance focuses on expressing inner

feelings through outer motions rather than

56 Hyun-Ju Jeon ․ Jung-hee Baek ․ SangjoonAn

performing technical motions. The objectives of

dance movements are artistic rather than just

functional like in sports. Verbal explanation is

essential for artistic expression. To enhance learning

effects of movements to further develop into mature

dance, the interpretation of emotion bestowed with

learners' quality should be clearly conveyed and

instructed through provision of verbal information.

We tend to be sensitive to social feedback or

information resulting from certain tasks after

completion. Recognizing one's performance, whether

it is correct or incorrect and whether it brings good

or bad results, is important in deriving the most

desirable outcome by adjusting further performance.

Showing sensitive responses about performance

results and feedback signals given after performance

is common not only in humans, but also animals.

Effective action, not only a direct reinforcer to

formative action of animals, but also the secondary

reinforcer as the predicted signal of the primary

reinforcer are typical examples (Rescorla, 1979). An

instructor’s feedback is giving the information

regarding a student’s reaction during learning

process given to students in an appropriate manner

for successful learning (Hein & Koka, 2007). Koka

and Hein (2003) categorized feedbacks, in context of

physical education, into positive general feedback,

positive specific feedback, negative nonverbal

feedback, positive nonverbal feedback, and

knowledge of performance feedback. An instructor’s

positive feedback and interaction with students affect

the will of students who put in effort to enhance their

performance (Koka & Hein, 2005). On the other

hand, students who receive a quantity of negative

feedbacks from their instructor often establish a

negative relationship with the instructor (Burnett,

2002). James (1983) reported that students who

received negative feedback on their physical

performance result had much lower self-concept

compared to the students who didn’t. The students

also showed more interests in positive feedbacks

than negative feedbacks. There’s a saying ‘there’s

nothing more successful than successful experience.’

Positive feedbacks enforcing physical performance

give vitality to one’s action, where negative

feedbacks on failures can give suffering to learners

(Houten, 1980). Mouratidis, Vansteenkiste, Lens, &

Sideridis (2008) also found that positive feedback is

much more beneficial and reinforcing of students’

physical performance.

In case of the group with positive feedback, few

studies show different result from this study. Yeo

and Neal(2006) found that a self-conceit reduce the

outcome. And Jung(2009) insist that the negative

feedback can be stimulation for doing their jobs

between workers. But these studies are not with the

dance motion but a work without a movement. On

the other hand, this study represents the better results

after positive feedback with great performance

during the results with little improvement after

negative feedback. Therefore, the positive feedback

can be affected to the students as a motivation and

encouragement. This helps not only a dancer with

experience but also a beginner.

The results of this study imply that instructor

feedback is an important factor in determining dance

learning. Furthermore, this study presents evidence

that positive feedback can maximize the learning

effects.

1) This study has done with the particular

participants’ development level, learning

The Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback on Dance Learning 57

capabilities, previous experience, and cultural

background. Therefore, the generalization for this

study can’t be constructed. The effect of gender

also was not considered.

2) Teacher’s verbal feedback was limited on task

performance only to positive and negative

feedbacks. The effects of other feedbacks such as

corrective feedback, summary feedback, average

feedback, bandwidth feedback, self-controlled

feedback, etc., and the motivation of participants

were not considered.

3) Because the dancing movements were artistic

expressions, experts’ visual were relied on for

evaluation. To be more objective, sequence,

sound, head/trunk movements, arm/leg

movements, rhythm, pathway, foot placement,

breathing, usage of joints, and harmony aspects

were used for evaluation.

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