Folk Dance Activities in Physical Education Class

Abstract

Introduction: Folk dance is the national culture part of the peoples, in addition to being a specific physical activity useful for physical education classes. Using folk dance as a physical-educational method enhances the nation's cultural values, being useful to know the current scope and limitations on its use, allowing for future specialized actions for decision-making in the teaching-educational management process.Objective: preliminarily diagnose the existing state of Ecuadorian folk dances in physical education classes at the “Nueva Aurora” Educational Unit. Methods: Descriptive-explanatory research with a correlative-exploratory orientation, studying a representative sample of students from the aforementioned educational unit (176, both genders), and the teachers’ population (46 subjects). A survey with six analysis indicators is applied. Results: A low level of utilization is defined (Students: 81.25%; Teachers: 95.65%), frequency (Students: 91.48%; Teachers: 95.65%) and variability (Students: 97.16%; Teachers: 97.83%) in the use of folk dances in the educational unit, while the indicators of taste-preferences (High Level - Students: 38.07%; Teachers: 88.64%) and motivation towards their practice obtain an adequate value of high level (Students: 48.30%; Teachers: 77.27 %). On the other hand, a predominantly low level of knowledge about Ecuadorian folk dances is defined (Low Level - Students: 60.80%; Teachers: 50%). Conclusions: The results obtained justify an action plan to promote Ecuadorian folk dance in the Educational Unit, recommending specialized actions that include professional improvement processes, emphasizing its practical dimension.