Dance Science and Education MSc

The University of Edinburgh

This course builds and complements the earlier research course looking in more depth at issues concerning the conceptualisation of research questions, the foundations and assumptions that these questions are based on and methods which may be appropriate to answer such questions. The course will enable students to develop their knowledge and understanding of the ontological underpinnings of research and what it is to make claims on the basis of research (epistemological challenges). Furthermore the relationships between research, theory and practice will be an underpinning theme throughout the course. Consideration will be given throughout the course to the role of philosophical inquiry and educational theory.

The course is critical to the programme and has been designed for students coming from a variety of backgrounds in the field of dance. It is designed to explore and provide a sound base of knowledge relating to current educational, philosophical, and science-based issues and approaches in the teaching and learning dance environment. These perspectives will allow the dance practitioner to develop specialist skills and an awareness of the changing trends in the dance environment including the use of technology.

The Dissertation is a major study demanding the course member a high level of individual application and commitment to research and enquiry. It provides the opportunity to identify, reflect on, and explore a topic that has implications for the student's own professional development. The Dissertation will involve a critical interrogation of the relationship between professional practice, academic theory and the design, ethics and interpretation of research.

The course will focus upon the holistic aspects of aspects of safe and healthy practice in dance. Current trends in dance practice and performance will be analysed and the dance specialist's role in assuring safe and healthy practice in the dance environment will be established.

This course reflects the need for students to understand fundamental concepts that underpin research in order to be able to critically evaluate the strength of the research discussed throughout their programme of study. This course will explore how differing paradigms of research are reflected in research articles and publications. This will involve introducing students to contrasting genres of scholarly writing and to the research paradigms which underlie and inform the approaches taken in specific studies. Students will gain experience of undertaking some small data collection and preliminary analysis tasks in order to understand, through primary experience, the practical challenges of undertaking rigorous research.