The Effects of Reciprocal and Self-Check Teaching Styles in Students' Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation, Enjoyment and Autonomy in Teaching Traditional Greek Dances

IntroductionThe Greek philosopher Plato points out that "he who knows nothing of dancing is an ignorant man" thus, highlighting the important role of rhythm in the psychosomatic benefits stemming from dancing (Laws by Plato, Β? 654d). Dancing, as a non-verbal form of communication, can provoke, teach, express, inspire, dominate and even cure, since a single dexterous move is a form of thinking. According to Schmitt and Schmitt (1998), dancing can trigger powerful emotions in the individuals and can alter significantly their mood, both relieving stress and depression and reinforcing one's self-esteem regarding creativity, trust, relaxation, motivation, health, intelligence, stimulation and energy during the lesson.In traditional Greek societies, the process of learning traditional dances began from an early stage through lullabies and nursery rhymes, which were essentially the first musical-kinetic experiences for the children. As they grow up, they learnt more by observing and mimicking the adults. The subsequent clash with the traditional style of living in Greece gradually replaced this primary reproduction of dancing with a secondary one, where the triangle teacher-curriculum-student prevailed (Serbezis, 1995). In Greece, organized traditional dance teaching occurs at all levels of education, because folk dance is both a cultural form of dance and a lifetime recreational activity. It holds an important part of the course of Physical Education in primary and secondary education, the curriculum in Day Primary Schools (Greek Republic Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Day Primary School 2012-2013. Operation and organization 50/268/102487/Γ1/06-09-2012/) and the secondary schools of arts, under the general category Dancing (Official Gazette of the Greek Republic, Sheet No 786, 2004), because it helps children to understand their own culture and respect dance as part of the heritage of many cultures. Learning dances from all cultural groups, children gain skills and knowledge that help them participate in a varied society. It is also integrated into the curricula of all University Departments of Physical Education and Sport in Greece.Teaching StylesThe term teaching style refers to a complex of pedagogical strategies forming a method, a way to achieve an educational purpose (Digelidis, 2007). It was initially presented by Mosston (1966), who being based on the principle that teaching is a process of decision-making, classified teaching methods according to the criterion of "the decision-maker in teaching Physical Education". Depending on the amount of contribution that teachers and students offer to the aforementioned process respectively, he identified 11 different styles which are divided in two basic categories that is, reproducing or teacher-centered styles, whereby the teacher is in total control of all teaching stages, and productive ones, whereby a big part of decision-making is in the hands of the learner whose autonomy is being reinforced.The command teaching style is the most teacher-centered method and is widely used in teaching physical education. It targets at learning an activity with accuracy, as soon as possible under the directions of the teacher. In reciprocal methods, a part of the decisions is handed to the students who as assistant-observers give their peers feedback based on the instructions already given by the teacher. In self-check styles, students learn an exercise and are involved in self-evaluation according to criteria set by the teacher, while being responsible for assessing correct or incorrect movements on their own (Mosston & Ashworth 2002). Thus, their personal responsibility for the evaluation of their performance is critical for this method to bear fruits, but it also poses a challenge to them since it represents a different way of learning from what they are accustomed to (Byra, 2006a). Several studies in physical education examined the efficiency of different teaching styles in learning (Donnelly, 2002; Abd Al-Salam & Al-Naddaf 2004; Patmanoglou, Digelidis, Mantis, Papapetrou, & Mavvidis, 2007; Mizios, Digelidis, Goudas, & Papaioannou, 2009; Kollovelonis & Goudas 2012) and their influence on pupils' goal orientations (Salvara, Jess, Abbott, & Bognar, 2006), student self-perceptions (Chatoupis & Emmanuel 2003b), motivational climate and pupils' motivation (Morgan, Sproule, & Kingston, 2005), intrinsic- extrinsic motivation and lesson satisfaction (Mizios et al. …