Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

On reflection I feel that at the beginning of this module I did not grasp the understand of asking questions to receive beneficial answers, as the weeks went on I feel I gained a better knowledge base on this and continued to develop my questions to help me redefine them more and become more focused, I feel,Appendix B a blog post I wrote on Developing my questions shows where I begin to understand the importance of the correct wording for a question and how a simple change of word can have a significant difference. I have kept this piece of information with me as I continued to develop my questions. Another learning point with the development of my questions was making sure I did not create an under lying truth showing my own opinion in the questions, this is something I struggled with right through till the last minute I feel I gained a better understanding of this in Appendix C. though comments made between me and Alun on previous posts.

           

            When looking at the topic of ethics I found it useful to look at in many different lights or from different peoples perspectives, from the teacher, the boss, the parent ect, everyone has different things they view highly as ethically correct but everyone works around a similar ethical guideline to do the right thing, I feel I fully understood this when I summarized my views in Appendix D and from there understood that to complete my research I had to look into specific ethics involved around research with children as that is what my professional inquiry was going to be based around. 

 

            On a final reflection of my work these past weeks I feel the tests I did with research tools need to be addressed, having never done anything like this before I was unsure of what to expect but once I had carried out each of the methods I feel I had a better understanding of it, as stated in my blog entry in Appendix E  . Here I talk about what I feel worked well, right from this point I realized that interview would work well for me. I also stated that I felt observation would be off use, but as my questions have developed I realized that that may not be the case as I could make my observations biased by putting in my own opinion.

 

            In conclusion on reflection I feel I have developed a lot of useful research skills these passed few weeks and that these skills along with ethical guidelines I have now set out for myself will now help to aid me in a well planned out professional inquiry and from which I should gain some valuable information.

Literature review three

With this final review I have just began to read the book, Movement and Dance in early childhood, the second edition, by Mollie Davies.

I feel that this book will be a big insight and help into beginning my research and inquiry, so although I have not read the book fully it was a piece of literature I thought was worth me making a note of.

The book looks at all the aspects involved in dance with young children, from ‘what is movement?’ and how to move, right through to creating, performing and appreciating dance.

I intend to continue this review when I have read more.

Through dance the child can discover the body as an expressive instrument and develop the aesthetic and creative side of nature ( hinkley 1989:7)

A section of this book looks at the child as ‘the creator or the dance maker’

In this section it talks about dance is not something that can be branded as ‘you are now a chorographer’ it is something that is done and developed over time and that there is always room to learn or do more.

Hawkins states (1964:30) ‘the creative aspect of dance should start early and be developed continually’

This section also goes on to state that helping children develop creatively at this age through dance is helping them grow as an individual and unlocking aspects of there personalitys and developing them early on that may not have been tapped into if it wasn’t for dance.

In all three literature reviews I have looked at for dance with young children, every time the focus has been on the creative not the exercise. This is something I like and would like to look further into with my own research, of course it is a form of exercise so physical and health benefits do come into it but it can offer so much more for children with the emotional developments as well,

A quote I found which emphasizes this in the book is by

Harlow and Rolf (1992:16);

It is the aim of dance education in early years to foster and develop all these natural abilities by providing opportunities for children to create or compose simple dance sequences.

References;

Harlow, M and Rolfe , I (1992) Lets Dance : a handbook for teachers.London BBC education

Hawkins, A (1964) Creating through dance.Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice-hall

Hinkley C (1980)Creativity in danceAustralis – Synden Creative publishing co

literature review 2

The next literature review I will be looking at is one one the national dance education organization website;

http://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=55419

It discusses the standards of dance with young children.

A quote that stuck out to me straight away is ;

‘Dance embodies one of our most primal relationships to the universe. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain’

I found this quote to be very useful as it states the full importance of dance and that it is not just something that has to be done as a form of exercise but can be done to empower you and express yourself in ways that you may not normally feel you can.

The article then moves on to state that dance is a natural thing and children do It subconsciously as a way to express themselves and that when they begin to structure or group those movements together, that becomes dance.

The article also states ‘’ The physical benefits of dance are widely accepted, but the emotional, social and cognitive attributes have only recently begun to be appreciated.’’

I find myself agreeing with this statement and something that I would look into developing further in the future, I feel a lot in education especially in primary schools dance is put into the sports section and looked at as a way to exercise, where I feel it should be classed with the arts as it is in the professional world, as a way for children to express themselves physically and emotionally.

 Some sources within the article I also found would be useful to my inquire were by john dewey;

Dance is basic to learning. Children learn most readily from experience. John Dewey understood this when he asserted, “Action is the test of comprehension” (Dewey, 1915). To learn by “doing” and to act on knowledge is the basis of kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic learning is becoming more widely understood through the work of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Howard Gardner (1944- ), and other cognitive theorists

At the end of the article some standards for a children’s dance class are stated I would like to use these to cross reference with the guidelines I have noted in the previous literature review to see if they co inside with each other and also the research I come up with through my inquiry.

Literature review 1

The first piece of literature I shall be reviewing was an article wrote by Tinnies a childcare company, on the benefits of dance for young children, the link to the article is below;

http://www.tinies.com/download/78_dance_young_children.pdf

When I began to read this article I found it would be particularly useful to me as it was written by someone with a similar background to me who has also found my route of enquiry of interest as well. This is Mandy Fouracre has been teaching dance for 30 years.

A quote that stuck out to me was;

‘Dance is a universal language’

I found this a particularly good quote because I feel it states that dance can be accessed by anyone and everyone, and tapping into it can be beneficial for all.

 The article also mentions some guidelines that Mandy feels are correct for when a child to start dance I have noted these guidelines below;

 · An enjoyment of music and movement

·        Confidence to attend a class without a parent or prime carer in attendance

·        Familiarisation with a more formal group structure - is the child already attending nursery or playschool for instance

·        Awareness of the need to listen and cooperate in a group learning situation

       

I would like to keep a particular note of this for when I start my inquiry to see if I or people I research into agree with these guidelines.

 

The article then moves on to state what she feels are the benfits of dance to young children from the physical, creative, personal and social development. I found this interesting as I liked the way it was broke down into grouped sections, some of the points I feel I may not agree with because I feel the children would be to young to show development of some of them skills, so again I would like to keep note of this article for when I do my research and observations to see if I see these skills or disagree with the statement.

Task 6D.

here is the link to my delicious account and the links i have posted on there, the links i have put on are both articles and websites of information, i have put both on as i feel they are all valid to me and others in expanding our knowledge, Some of the links posted are specifically focused on what i intend to be my inquiry which is dance with young children, however some are more general to do with education, dance, dance education and ethics. i hope some are of use to others and would love to hear if anyone found the useful.

http://www.delicious.com/stephl

Task 6B.

Looking at the four different methods of enquiry I feel that they are all of equal importance and that they all bring different information to the table, I feel I just need to fine tune the ways that a go about these research methods to get the best results for me.

            The pilot interview worked well for me as I got detailed information on the questions that I asked and I was able to expand on these questions to go deeper into my topic and onto areas I did not first think about, which also got me thinking, so in the end it turned into more of a discussion between two people than an interview.I feel a down side of this is the fact that it is a time consuming research method with vast amounts of information that I may not be able to fully evalutate to my full advantage. For example if I was to interview a large number of people to get an average answer to some of my questions, not only would the interviews themselves take up a lot of time, but also the write up to try and group together everyones answers so that I could come up with an average belief of the group I am looking at.On reflection I still intend to use this research method for my inquiry, I feel I will use it to interview teachers as these are more singular than say a group of parents, I feel I need to interview teachers also as I shall be asking them different questions to that of parents.

            At first I had been struggling to see the positives of the pilot survey, just because it had such a low responsive rate, like any questionnaire it is difficult to get people to respond if they think it is not of importance to them, in my personal opinion I also feel it had a lower response rate as mine I just sent out via the internet through emails and links to it, I never printed any out and gave it out by hand (the old fashioned way) I feel that maybe if I gave it out in person I may have got a better response as it may have had a more personal touch than just something that comes into your inbox and is easily deleted. However having said this I do feel there are lots of benefits of a survey as it’s a great way to get a large amount of research it is a fast and efficient way of getting my research questions to a large number of people.I feel to improve my way of doing this research I firstly need to fine tune my survey as having not done one before there is definatley room for improvement, I feel I need to not just ask the questions I am researching about but also gain information on the person that is answering my questions so that I can summaries then general results of my survey. I would also like to give some out by hand I would probably do this during dance classes when parents are sitting in the waiting room, so that it is the perfect time for them to take some time to fill it out when they are not pre occupied with something else.

            With the focus group I used my linkedin SIG group

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

I found this group useful over the past few weeks as its active at every hour of the day so if you can’t access a conversation at a certain time you can put your viewpoint across whenever it works for you, its been a great place to voice ideas with like minded people. However for focused research I feel it could have a down fall of the discussions going off on a tangent without me having access to in 24 hours a day the discussion could easily go off track from my research to a completely different area. To improve this if I intend to continue to use my SIG as a focus group I would list some guidelines of discussion to help keep my research on track. Or I would try and organize exact times for us all to discuss together and have a gatekeeper to make sure the conversation stays on topic.

            Out of all the research I feel I got the most information from my pilot observation, in reflection I think I feel this because the research was in my hands and my hands only so I could put my full effort into it and know that I am getting the best results that I can, it was good to sit in the environment myself and document exactly what I saw, However a downfall of this could be the people I am actually observing as even though it is me carrying out the research the children could react in different ways because I am there and they are not used to another person watching the class. A way I intend to improve this method of research is by continuing to do practicing observations so that the children become used to my presents in the classroom.

            In conclusion a feel that carrying out these pilot surveys has been a great help in forwarding me towards my research inquiry, each method has unlocked a different area for my to research which if I group all the information I gather together I will have a fully rounded research result.

           

Task 6A.

MY PILOT INTERVIEW

For my pilot interview I intend to interview teachers with a similar teaching class to me to see what there opinions are on the age groups the style and the structure of the classes.

Before starting the interview I would give them a small document stating who I am, why the interview is taking place, and a place at the bottom for us both to sign to state it will be truthful and only used for the research stated above.

Here is an example of this;
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yc5gkHoU8qqUgBFR4Yg6wK-fNnqxbQlr8STEUszIBo4/edit

I would like my interview to take place face to face, as I feel I would get more truthful answers with them not having chance to preplan and also by looking at there body language when answering the question.

As bell stated;

‘The interview is a qualitative method where you collect what people say (from your sample) and use it as evidence. Its advantage is that you “can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings” (Bell, 2005, p.157).’

I would like to list some brief questions I would plan around during my interview, more to have as an outline than an actual structure because talking to another human with different opinions topics can change and develop and go on a path you would not have though about so I would not like to have to many structural restrains;

Listed below is a few questions I would ask;

• What are the different age ranges that you teach?
• What are the learning differences you notice between each age group?
• How do you change and adapt your teaching to suit the age group?
• What level do you find more challenging to teach?
• Do you feel qualifications are beneficial to making you a better teacher?
• Do you feel you need qualifications to be a dance teacher at all?

With this interview I hope to first and foremost learn how to take an interview as that is something I have never done before face to face so I feel I shall learn something about myself from this, and also begin to learn more about the path my inquiry is beginning to take.

MY PILOT SURVEY

I have created just a general teachers survey with the link below just so that I can understand the work that goes into a survey.

 http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V5QHFBF

 MY FOCUS GROUP

The focus group I will be using I feel is the SIG group I have set up

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

Here I have already began discussions on my chosen topic I intend to further this by adding more discussions and also a few polls, so please feel free to join and get involved.

MY OBSERVATION

I plan to carry out an observation at the school I currently teach at as there are a number of classes going on other than my own. For the past six weeks I have actually been doing teacher observations as part of my i.s.t.d teacher training, templates of these observations can be found on the i.s.t.d website;

http://www.istd.org/home/

So I feel I fully understand the structure of observing a teacher, so for me to learn a new skill I would like to observe a class but fully focus on the students and how they act during a class. For this I would need to make sure I have consent from the teacher whos class it is but also the students parents as it is the children that I will be observing.

In the link below I have made myself a table to fill out during my observation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/137_0XR8pwFQYRcx1AorK_LBIrY471SAU2X_sqR-JgNg/edit

 

I hope you will take some time to complete my survey and give me any comments for improvement to the rest of my research methods.

 Steph.

 

Task 5D

 

At the moment I feel I am still fine tuning the wording of my question of inquiry, however at the moment it stands at;

‘How beneficial is dance class to children between the ages of two and five for physical and mental well being?’

 With this question the ethics around research involving children need to be address, which is slightly different to that of researching adults and parental consent is a must!

When looking around this topic I found some guidelines on research involving children;

 

Research involving children and young people should only be conducted where:

·         the research question posed is important to the health and well-being of children.

However, a research procedure which is not intended directly to benefit the child

subject is not necessarily either unethical or illegal. Such research includes

observing and measuring normal development and the use of ‘healthy volunteers’

in controlled experiments;

·         the participation of children is indispensable because information available from

research on other individuals cannot answer the question posed in relation to

children;

·         the study method is appropriate for children;

·         the circumstances in which the research is conducted provide for the physical,

emotional and psychological safety of the child.

• All proposals involving research on children should be submitted to a research ethics

committee for approval.

 

1 Anne Greig and Jane Taylor: Doing Research with Children (Sage Publications) 1999 p.148

 

Aswell as making sure my research has a positive outcome for the children involved I have also listed some bullet points below that I also think are ethically important when I am carrying out my research.

• To inform the parents and children of the research that I am doing (I intend to do this via letter or email)
• Gain information from the parents on there opinions of the research and the limitations of the research. (I intend to do this via questionnaire)
• Make sure the research environment is a safe one. (I intend to do this by carrying out a risk assessment of the studio that is in use)
• To inform all teachers I will be observing of my research ( I intend to do this through interviews before I start the research)

 I feel that this is just the begin of the ethics that I will need to develop and work by during my inquiry and I intend to develop this more over the coming weeks through my blog and my SIG group

 http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

 Your opinions and ideas would be much appreciated.

Task 5C.

Looking at the topic of ethics I feel the key thing that I have learnt is that ethics are personal! There is a basic ethical framework that everyone should come across and understand but that can easily be adapted or changed to suit the surroundings or peoples personalities. What one person could hold as something highly ethical someone else could simple disregard, or not hold it as highly.

 A quote I found by former supreme court justice Potter Stuart;

Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
  Ethics can be changed or viewed differently because of the motivation behind it;

 Consequentialist: could be acceptable for a greater good

Deontologist: always wrong

Virtue Ethicist: moral behaviour & character as important as action.

 So again this goes back to my point that ethics goes back to the person itself and justifying the action behind it.

 
           From talking to co workers, my employers and fellow students I have learnt that when I undergo my professional inquiry I need to not only think of my own professional ethics but also try to adhere to other peoples that I am inquiring of.

            The British Educational Research Association (BERA) have a suggested research responsibilities list which I have read through and can be found on there website;

http://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/ethical-guidelines

Looking at these guidelines I have noted that it is my responsibility as the researcher to keep all my research truthful and on point to the topic that I am researching into, keeping it legitimate and honest in my findings and not going of the path of the research that I am doing as to not personally effect the people that I am researching into. Also to keep as much documentation on my research as possible, So that there is as much proof as possible that I am researching in an ethically correct way and for the best interests of the people that I am researching.

            That is for a general professional inquiry for the inquiry I am looking into I would be researching into children so I feel more ethical points need to be address, I need to make sure I have the full consent of the parents and the safety of the children I am researching is highly noted and respected at all times.

                        In conclusion I have learnt that professional ethics is no written word, it is a feeling you have personally. The difference between right and wrong and following that feeling to achieve truthful research.

Task 5B.

After discussing codes of conduct and ethics with one of my bosses who owns her own studio the main key thing she said was;

 

-To be a team player.

 

Again this refers back to what I stated in a previous task of everyone having similar values and upholding them within the community or surrounds.

 

At the moment she is not at the studio as much as she would like to be so is rellying on us teachers to uphold her codes of conduct and ethical values to keep the place running to her standard.

She left a note to all the teachers at the school just with some bullet points to keep in mind, I thought I would list some of them below as in a way they are her code of conduct and what she believes to be good ethics in running her school;

 

 

• Give every new started a registration and information form.
• All classes offer a free trial.
• Keep an eye on the general clean and tidiness of the studio and report anything that needs replacing or fixing.
• Remember first impressions last so try and speak to new starters and make them feel welcome.
• When leaving please make sure all electric is turned off and everything is locked away.

 

Some simple points but again I feel something that if they are not carried out can jeopardize the appearance and run of the business, with everyone upholding these everything should run smoothly so again this comes back down to, Everyone being a team player.

Task 5A.

Task 5A. ethics in my workplace

 

In my work setting there are a variety of categories that come together to complete the ethics of my workplace working together in harmony and without one the balance would be tipped creating an unsettled working environment, the sections I have thought about are as follows;

 

My personal ethics as a teacher;

-make sure I am fully capable to take the class I am about to teach.

-that I have the correct insurance, crb check and any other forms that may be needed.

-to make sure I know all the health and safety regulations of the building.

-to be respectful to all pupils that attend my classes.

-to notify parents of out of character behavior from the pupils.

- make sure everyone in my class is capable of the class structure.

- to maintain a basic structure of the class is kept each week.

-professional boundaries are kept between me and my pupils.

 

Ethics of the students;

-To be respectful of me as the teacher and others in the class.

-To be aware of safety hazards whilst in the class.

-To be wearing the correct uniform.

 

Ethics of the parents of the students;

-To have given consent for me to teach there children.

-To be respectful of my class environment and not disrupt the lesson.

-To be respectful of my teaching methods and decisions as a teacher.

 

Ethics of the work place (the owners of the space that we rent)

-To ensure all health and safety issues are clearly marked and know about.

-Ensure fire exits are clearly sign posted.

-Make sure the facilities are clean and well maintained.

 

Looking at these points I have noted it is not one thing or one person that makes up the ethics of a workplace it is a collective, and can be an object of change or viewed differently by varying individuals. Things that I view as ethically important from my point of view as a teacher may not be viewed the same by that of a parent. I think that it is difficult to pin point the actual ethics of another person without actually being in the roll myself. What I have as ethically correct the may not be what someone else thinks or the reasoning behind it could be different, As the view point of the eithcal issue could be viewed via consequentialism, Deontology or Virtue all have different meanings but could all be discussed around the same ethical issue.

Developing my questions.

After been given feedback from alun and reading his blog post;

The art of asking

I began to think about my questions again and redefine them so that they are more focused and not so general on a wide scope.

How essential is it to have performance qualifications to run your own dance school?

Could become

What qualities does holding a vocational collage performing arts qualification give to teachers running their own dance school based in the north west?

Here I have given the questions an agency as I would be specifically looking at the teachers viewpoint, I have also stated a location that I would be looking into so that I could narrow my research field to something that I would be able to fully look into given the time scale and my location.

 

)With so much of this year being focused on the olympics and fitness i wanted to question how fitness based and conscious a dance class should be?

How much of a ks2 after school dance class for girls is geared towards fitness?

 
With this questions I first took away the ‘Should’ so taking away an underlying truth, I then went on to state a specific age group and gender thus closing in the scope and giving me a direct focus group to look at.

 

How beneficial is dance not only to our physical but also our mental state, in the recreational and the professional sense?

This question was a very wide question that I could not possibly have the time or resources to look into properly so I needed to scale down the inquiry more.

I decided to split it into two sepertate questions;

How benificial is dance class to the over 40s for physical and mental well being?

Here I have gave a specific age group and stated that it is a dance class that they would be partaking in narrowing my scope down.

In what ways does being a professiona femalel dancer just starting her career effect the mental state?

With this question I have geared it more to a specific topic ‘mental state’ and narrowed it down by stating the gender and stated the age range I would also be looking at.

 

I feel this is just the beginning of my redefining of questions and even developing new ones but I wanted to blog my thoughts so that I can see that I am on the right path and see my progression as I go along.

 

Interesting Article.

An interesting article that I found is posted in my SIG group

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

Or find the link at the bottom of this blog, i found it a particularly interesting read as I began to think about my task 4A and more questions that I could take from this.

 

How beneficial is dance not only to our physical but also our mental state, in the recreational and the professional sense?

 

I added the recreational and professional to that question as recently with my I.S.T.D DDI training I have been looking at the health and safety module a part in that we discussed the physical and mental health of professional dancers some interesting research points are listed below;

 

• 80% of dance professionals and 80% of vocational dance students reported at least one injury in the previous year of dancing.
• 17% of professional ballet dancers, 13% of professional contemporary dancers and 10% of vocational dance students overuse drugs and alcohol.
• 9% of professional ballet dancers, 5% of professional contemporary dancers and 19% of vocational dance students have eating problems.
• 43% of professional ballet dancers, 32% of professional contemporary dancers and 42% of vocational dance students suffer from depression.

                                                                                                                             Laws,H,(2005)
I find this question particularly interesting and one I personally would want to research more as I feel there are lots and varying lines of inquiry I could take on this.

Your opinions or comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks steph.

Reference: Laws,H,(2005) Fit to dance 2, Report of the second national inquiry into dancers’ heath and injury in the uk, Dance UK, ISBN: 0951563181

 

The article

http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm

Task 4D.

When beginning to think about my award title a few things came into mind that I needed to think about so I scribbled some notes down onto paper to see what I was thinking more clearer. My main passion in life is Dance and is something that will always be part of my life and career past present and future, so of course that had to be in the title, At this current moment I am still performing as well as teaching so here I struggled slightly, the performer is who I am and the teacher is what I want to be in the future, should one override the other or both be thought about?

 

I found an interesting quote in

chapter 'Developing the Knowledge Base: A Process Perspective on Professional Education' which frrst appeared in Learning to Effict edited by Ronald Barnett, 1993 (Society for Research in Higher Education/Open University Press).

 

A simple line of

‘The knowing how is as important as the knowing that’

 

Which I thought was relevant to my line of thought at this moment, struggling between the performer and the teacher, the knowing how being the performer and the knowing that being the teacher, meaning I should not forget about my performance knowledge as it is what has got me to this teaching point today.

I then however moved on to think about why I did this degree and what I wanted it to gain for me in the future, which was to open more path ways to teaching and owning my own school in the future.

So in conclusion I came up with three award titles;

BA Hons Professional Practice in Dance.

BA Hons Professional Practice in Dance Performance and Education.
BA Hons Professional Practice in Dance Education.

Out of the three I feel I am leaning more towards the last one it is simplistic and straight forward. I have decided not to use the one with performance in as even though performance is my present it will at one point not be my future and the education side is so I would like an award that I can take with me into the future.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

 References

chapter 'Developing the Knowledge Base: A Process Perspective on Professional Education' which frrst appeared in Learning to Effict edited by Ronald Barnett, 1993 (Society for Research in Higher Education/Open University Press).

Task 4C

i have began this task so wanted to document it on here so that i could keep up to date with my progress, i work as a freelance dance teacher and performer at the moment so i have i variety of people to develope my questions with i have decided to go with my three main employers at the moment.
person A; runs there own musical theatre school in three different locations.
person B; owns there own dance school with there own studio.
person C; runs there own performing buisness but is also a teacher themselves.

i am awaiting the reply to my topics and there responses ect as obvioulsy people have busy lives and cannot work around my time plan, so witht his question i feel i do need to have a little patience as i am so used to doing the BAPPS work on my own terms it feels a little alien to have the time limit taken out of my hand however this is something i need to learn and become acustom to to develope as a professional.

So for now i have documented the types of people i have began to develope my questions with and shall report back when i have more information.

steph

Task 4B.

Task 4B

 

With the task of creating or developing my SIG group I decided to use linkdIn, I decided to use this because it is a site I have been wanting to make use of for a while but have never got round to it. So with setting up my SIG group on there I have also set up a profile hoping that in the coming weeks I will begin using the site more and hopefully gear it toward some positive networking for myself.

            There are obviously many ways I intend to share ideas with people for our SIG groups, through emails and our blogs however I wanted a separate section that I could also add people that aren’t on the BAPPS program to if I wanted to get an ‘outsiders’ perspective on certain topics if I wished.

            The link below is to my SIG group which is titled BAPPs SIG dance and arts education, I titled it this as dance is my passion and the profession I am in at the moment and the education of dance and arts is what I am beginning at the moment and the path I am hoping the BAPPS program will lead me down.

            Please feel free to join my group and share your opinions look forward to hearing from you.

 

Steph.

 

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/BAPP-dance-education-4664320/about

 

Task 4A

I first read this question before reading the first reader and my initial reactions was 'omg i have no questions!' my mind went compleatly blank and i started to panic! i calmed down and read through the reader, after that i began to think why did i start this course and what i wanted to gain from it?

i started the course to gain further education and qualifications and to hopefully in the long run gain better jobs and progress within the teaching profession.From this thought questions started to emerge in my mind;

1)how relevant is education and qualifications to propelling yourself in the world of dance teaching.

From this i also thought about the elements of owning your own dance school and thought about these questions which relate to the above;

2) how essential is it to have performance qualifications to run your own dance school?

3) To own a dance school is owning a business should business qualifications be taken into consideration as well or get over ruled by performance ones?


From these initial questions i began to look more into education in dance as this is what i have and intend to focus on during my degree so then also thought about these questions.

4) in todays society today should a dance class be geared more towards education and exams or fun based as a hobby?

5)With so much of this year being focused on the olympics and fitness i wanted to question how fitness based and conscious a dance class should be?


These are just afew ideas that have came into my mind, they may not be perfect or a great path to go down in the long run, but at the moment they are a starting point for me and i intend to research into them in more depth and see what my outcomes are.

Back to Blogging.

Well after a long and busy summer break, its time to get back to blogigng! i feel it will take me a while to get back into the flow of blogging but it is something that i am looking forward to again.

I briefly read through the handbook on monday, and again i had that slight moment of panic when i felt omg can i do this! however after that i realised that yes i can, i got through the first modual and each aspect is a learning experience that i just need to take one step at a time, and to take a step back and go through it again if i feel i am struggling and of course seek out help via blogs ect!

At the moment its looking pretty busy for me i am doing some part time teaching aswell as being part of a show company at the moment, and aswell as starting back on BAPPs i have also began doing my i.s.t.d DDI teacher training. So a lot of work to fit into a week!

Having spoke to Alan on skpye this week i feel there is no point in panicing as that will not get anything done. I feel my main priorty at the moment is to PLAN PLAN PLAN!! by making a layout or timetable for myself where i can allocate a space for everything and make sure i stick to it.

I am looking forward to getting stuck into this modual and getting back in touch with you all! im now off to read through reader 4.

Happy blogging people and speak soon :)
xx

the final count down...

so i have completed all the tasks set in module one, i feel i have completed them to a standard i am happy with though there are some sections i would like to keep on revisiting through out the course as i feel they can be constantly worked on and improved.
     Now all that is left to do is to begin the final piece of work, and i can still say it feels a daughnting task! after having so much information, help and support given for each task, i still feel i am hitting a brick wall at knowing where to start with this task! i am sure once i get my head down and get to stuck in a flow will begin and i wont be able to stop, as has been the case with many other of the tasks.I have decided to set a full day aside to begin work on this and give it my full concentration.
      i was wanting to know if anyone is feeling the same or has anyy helpful work techniques to get focused and start? Also another question i had was that it says our paper piece has to be spiral bound that is another thing i have no idea how to do or where to get it done. Any help would be much appreacated.

thanks steph.

Task 3B

i had been putting off doing this one but once i got started i realised it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be and i enjoyed reading up on networking from a marketing point of view on the blog provided in my reference.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pK9ErtKD9N4yr4erIQKaAblPYJ9hI752Ubk4hpKQWMg/edit

Task 3D. Critical Questions

with this task before i started commenting on other peoples blogs to do with the networking side of the modual i wanted to make sure i had fully answered the questions myself.

Do some very specific ideas emerge about your networking and sources.- After looking at all the types of networking there is out there and looking at my uses of it, I feel personally I am not using it to its full advantage, a lot of the networking I do is unplanned and just as something to do and to see what ore is out there. I feel I need to plan a more focused networking strategy where I actually set time aside to network in the variety of ways I have found I am neglecting.

Are your ideas shared by others within your professional area of work? – yes I think my ideas are shared as at the moment with my transition into teaching a lot of things are new for me so at the moment I feel I am more learning from my different networks than sharing, until I become comfortable enough within the field to share my own thoughts and ideas.

Does sharing ideas and communicating with others shift your thinking, planning or practice? – yes I feel it does shift the way I think as within this profession I understand that know one is right, what someone may think is a great way to do something someone else may disagree. Understanding and sharing all these different kinds of ideas I feel opens you up more to a wider scope of your profession offering you more knowledge on the subject you may not have thought about.

Does critical reflection help you decide what really matters and the actions to take? Critical reflection is a new tool to me that I feel I still have not come to grips with properly, it still does not come naturally to sit and critically reflect on something. However from the times that I have started to do it I can see the benefits and feel it is something that I need to adapt more into my lifestyle.

To what extent do concepts and theories assist you in thinking about your professional networking in different ways? – having read the course reader about the different concepts of networking it has made me look at it in a different way, because before I would just do it subconsciously knowing I was networking but not really actively doing it with a purpose. Now having read up on networking and the different ways of using it to your advantage it is now something I want to actively do and set time aside for to actually network with a purpose.

Are you left thinking differently prior to this part of the module? – yes I am left thinking differently after really looking at networking and what it can offer me, I feel it is an area within my profession that I have not really tapped into and it has many advantages I have been neglecting into improving my carrer. So from now on I intend to take a more active approach to networking to see what knowledge I can learn from it and what I can share with others.

Task 3C Sources of information.

My top five current most important sources of information I would say are as follows.

            GOOGLE- This has to be my number one as it is something that I access for anything and everything. It is a search engine I use daily to gain access to various sources of information. It is constantly updated and a great way to work your way through the world wide web.

            FRIENDS- I have my friends as my second as I feel they give me a variety of information to help with my professional life, they bring different aspects to the table as they do various jobs, hobbies ect so have different view points to me.

            FACEBOOK- I am counting facebook as one of my current sources of information, as recently I have updated and changed my account making it more of a professional one, allowing me access to various pages gaining information to do with my practice.

            YOUTUBE- is a source of information that I use but not one that I feel I use enough to my advantage yet, I look at it occasionally, to look up different styles of dance and workshops ect, but I feel I could use it more to my advantage to find out more about my profession and different styles ect.

            WIKIPEDIA- Again this source is something I have only started to use recently, as it is an online encyclopedia and has a lot of uses, however with it being accessed and updated by anyone you can not be sure how reliable to information is.

After having looked at my top five sources of information, I have realized just how much I rely on the internet to gain information for my profession! Which I can see is a good thing and that I am using it to my full advantage though afew areas I could use more. However I feel I am neglecting the more older approaches to gaining information on my topics, word of mouth, books, magazines, classes. These are the sources of information that I feel I lack the use of and something that I need to access and use more.

Task 3A. Current networks

Having began to look at the different types of networking I used I began to realize I am not using them to my advantage as a starting out teacher, I still use them more purley for my performance side of my profession, when I now feel I need to tap into them much more from my teaching side of things.

            Below is a diagram of my current networking.

As you can see it is very much one sided leading towards my performance networks I feel I need to look at this and shift the balance more, There are a number of networks I have yet to access into, such as twitter, linkden, and establishing my own website.

            As well as this I feel I need to gear my current networks more towards my teaching work.

For example – facebook I could set up another account just for my teaching work, set up youtube with some of my teaching work shown, change my dancerspro and starnow accounts to be geared more towards teaching work.
            After looking at my networks I have realized people only really access them if they want something out of it. People advertise jobs people look for jobs ect, so I feel my best way forward to get the most out of networking would be to supply up to date and detailed information as much as I can.

            My future plan is to establish myself a website and have that as my main network with everything I would need on one page, however I feel this is the beginning of that so I need to take stepping stones, firstly by doing as previously stated and gearing my current networks more towards my teaching and also accessing the ones that I have not used yet.

Task 2D Inquiry

I enjoyed answering these questions as it was a moment to actually stop and think about all the different aspects of my passion and career and where I can go with it, your thoughts and comments would be much appreciated.

 What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about?

Something that I find I am very enthusiastic about learning more about at the moment. Is the business world of teaching, as that is the path I feel im on at the moment so I want to learn as much about it as I can. It’s a different side of the arts world to me as iv never thought about it in the business sense before just the performing side. Im interested in learning the planning of what goes into running a dance school and the different aspects of it, classes, prices, shows, comps ect I feel like there’s so much to learn, but something that I am willing to spend time learning. Have you always looked at yourself as a business and your profession or does it depend of the job you are doing within your profession? Again I feel this relates to MEPLC (see previous blog) where no matter what we are doing we should be looking at ourselves as a business.

            A person who made the transition from performer to school owner who I admire is my old dance teacher, Rachel Catherall.
http://www.elsberdance.co.uk/
She performed for a number of years on cruise ships and uk tours and then came back to take over her mums dance school and turn it around, tripling its number of students and also introduction new styles of dance such as street and Irish.

 What gets you angry or makes you sad?

Something that gets me angry is the generalized statement ‘that all dancers are thick’ people in other professions don’t get grouped like that but it seems a common thing within the dance profession. I am bringing this up as it actually happened to me last week, I was out with my boyfriend and we met with some friends, one of them started to have a conversation with us about history and politics. He then stopped mid sentenced and apologized to me as he felt I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the conversation because im a dancer! I soon shut him up when it actually turned out I new more about the history of politics than most of the people there (As I did it for A level) just goes to show don’t judge a book by its cover! I just find it condescending that people can just assume because of your job description you are limited to only know about that one thing.With this one I did not find a specific person that agrees with me though I am sure there are a lot of you out there that have had similar experiences or views?

However I did find a good statement on a poll on yahoo;
Howard Gardners Multiple Intelligences Theory ("MI Theory") like me then yes. according to this, their are seven types of intelligence(1. Linguistic, 2. Logical-Mathematical, 3. Bodily-Kinesthetic, 4. Spatial, 5.Musical, 6. Interpersonal, 7. Intrapersonal).
Bodily-Kinesthetic include people who process knowledge through bodily sensations or body movements. They are often athletic, dancers or good at crafts such as sewing or woodworking
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080726103849AAH13t8

What do you love about what you do?

Within my practice I love the large amount of different jobs and styles you can have under one umbrella, ‘dance’ I love that with that one word it can mean so many different things. I find it really interesting that my focus is on one specific topic but that it can open up so many different paths to me and that I can learn so many different things within it. Within this profession I feel like a sponge and want to soak up as many different, styles, performances and teaching methods possible!

            An example of a person doing this is Natalie Constanti she teaches a number of classes at sunshine studios Manchester. She started off as a performer than branched out into the world of teaching dance and from there has gone onto zumba and Taekwondo.Just going to show how much dance can link to other things.
https://www.zumba.com/en-US/profiles/79754/natalie-constanti/
            I am interested in looking at dance in a variety of ways to see what new things I can do with it, where has the theme of ‘dance’ taken you?

What do you feel you don’t understand?

 
At the moment I feel chorography on a large scale is something that I don’t understand fully at the moment as its not something I have ever had to do. I enjoy putting together dances for classes or small school shows but looking on chorography of a full production show is not something I have ever come across doing before. I feel like it’s a lot more than just putting afew dance steps together that look nice. You need to think about positioning, lighting, diversity, entrances and exits, aswell as not just thinking about the dancers but all the other performers aswell. A person I admire who I met recently is Tracey Iliffe a chorographer I have just worked with on the u.k tour that I am doing. She completely revamped the show that we are doing and the thought process that went into it just seemed so much more than chorographing. How have you found chorographing?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tracey-Iliffe-Choreographer/116762805074571

Task 2c Reflective Theory

this is a task that i have been putting off all week as it was just something i found i couldn't focus on or grab my interest, however today i have been in a four hour car journey with my tour heading down south, so i thought i really had no excuss and needed to get stuck in! once i started it i found out that i did actually find the information i was reading up on interesting and something that i want to expand on and learn more about. So from now on i am going to try and take every task with an open mind, which i probably should have done straight away, but hey you learn from your mistakes and it is now something i can reflect upon. :)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b6pvjTeRIy7Nke6ZzYGLfYaBn1fwO7v67lUq2aotHWE/edit

ME plc continued.

After reading through the booklet I posted in my previous blog I decided to create a SWOT analysis for myself.

SWOT

 

STRENGTHS Organization Project planning Teaching Multitasking Dance performance Teaching	WEAKNESSES Verbal communication Staying on target Focusing on long reading material Standing my ground Lack of confidence
OPPORTUNITIES Teaching Work Zumba Training Steady Teaching jobs	THREATS Performing taking up to much time People more confident. People better qualified

After completing the SWOT analysis iv learnt a lot about myself and its great to have it all wrote down in front of me to see the points that I am doing well and the points that I need to work on.

             After reading up on the term ME plc I have become more and more interested in looking at myself as a ‘business’  I am going to use what I have learnt from the journal tasks and use graphs and diagrams to document my weaknesses and see how I gradually improve them over time.
            I have realized at the moment I have not been marketing myself as a ‘brand’ but trying to stretch myself over a wide variety of skills to look approachable to all employers instead of focusing on key things that will get me the job I want. Instead of one that will ‘just pay the bills’
            Teaching is the job I want to progress with now so instead of trying to focus on still gaining performing jobs and having my teaching along side I feel I need to fully engage in skills that will make me marketable for teaching jobs.
             I found a quote on a business blog that I found particularly thought provoking and stimulating,
In light of this openly conducted and actively reported changing business landscape there is no excuse for us to be surprised when there are changes in the level of demand for our skills & knowledge. We can either imitate an ostrich or we can adopt the same thinking that businesses do in their quest to thrive, or survive. We call this concept Me plc.

CHANGES I HAVE MADE

-Created a purely teaching c.v
-opened up my networks to teaching links.
-joined websites with help and advice on teaching.
-Created a ‘list journal’ on teaching information I would like to read more upon.

These simple changes I have made to my day to day life I am hoping will make myself more knowledgably on the subject. Which in time will make me more valuable to the employers.

References

http://www.hybridge.co.uk/Blog/24716178317