Take two interview recordings into the weekend? No, I just transcribe and go!

(Apologies for the blog title!)

So, last week saw a big progression from the 'planning my interview' stage to the 'get out there and do it' stage!
I'm so glad that I had taken the time and care to structure, plan and develop my questions - thank-you to everyone who has taken the time to comment, discuss, lend me their ears - as I really feel the initial two interviews went well; the students were so generous with what they shared and the passion with which they spoke that I feel quite honoured and humbled...

After the first interview I came straight home and started transcribing the audio recording. I had two main reasons for doing this (and also a reason for not using software to do it):

1. I wanted to be able to reflect on how every aspect of the interview had gone, including the recording of the data, before the second interview so that I could fine tune any issues
2. I wanted to be able to be able to add any non-verbal aspects of the interview to the data as soon as possible so that I didn't lose any aspect of the student's input - enthusiasm, nerves, posture, hand gestures, etc.
3. I felt that by listening over and over again to the words, rather than relying on a piece of software to do it, I would gain a better understanding of exactly what the student was trying to say - the sentiment behind the words, if you like - which, given the wealth of data I imagine I shall be amassing, feels like the best way to get past the shallow surface of the conversations.

With both interviews transcribed now - with participant numbers assigned to help ensure consistent, methodical storage and analysis - and with hand written notes added from what was not said (including some very passionate table banging and some moments of hilarity!), I feel that I am really on my way in this module.
I have four interviews this week, followed by five the following week and one over half term, which makes me really pleased that I planned my inquiry to start as soon as the term started as I think it is going to take me all of half term to get the data ready for analysis.

Now I just need to find time to develop my analytical skills and I'll be fine!!!!!

S

First interview - the preperation

Today sees the first scheduled interview with one of my inquiry participants. I am both excited and a little nervous as it's the end of the practice, trial, reflection and development phase and into the actual!

I have been careful to schedule students in with as little disruption to their routine as possible, fitting most students in around their breaks down at the studio. I have also made sure to create a working planner of dates, my working hours, and names to ensure that I have incorporated everybody in the run up to half term.
I have also confirmed, or will be confirming in the next couple of days, each participants interview date and time to give them the opportunity to re-schedule if no longer convenient. And also to remind them!
There is only one student, currently, that is unable to fit in anything round her classes so I have arranged to visit her over the half term and take up residence in a quiet room for the duration of the interview.

I have taken time over the last couple of days to trial, reflect and refine my interview questions (my blog Narrowing things down shows the previous draft questions I had developed, and why). I have reduced the amount of questions from seven to six (time was a factor during trial) and created two sections with a brief explanation of the reasoning behind the questions. Here is a link to my proposed interview format:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5lvFx9uzfG8SXhIZkY5MklOdDQ/edit?usp=sharing
I hope to have most of this internalised but want to keep a copy handy in case I have a moment of panic or go blank!

In Section 2 the questions 2a. and 2b. are an 'either/ or' situation. If the student is struggling to find or verbalise a response to question 1. then I hope that the fantasy nature of question 2a. might help. For those students who feel happy in their ability to answer question 1. I will give them the opportunity to attach 'teacher significance' to their responses using A4 paper and marker pens (question 2b.).

I feel particularly happy about breaking down the interview into two sections - each themed to a different aspect of motivation - as I believe this will give a structure and purpose to the interview and also provide the participants with a reason for being asked the questions.

My final preparation has been to organise my voice recorder - checking it's batteries and settings for the millionth time - and collect my notebook, pens and pencils.
I have already organised the first page of my notebook with the participant number of my first interviewee (to allow me to connect the correct diary to the interview notes) and will also add this number to the start of the recording (for the same reason). I have also added the date and will do this to the digital recording too.
Nowhere have I made any reference to name of student or anything that might link the data to the student in question.

It'll be great to see what happens after all this planning. What is the old cliche? Isn't it 'never work with children or animals'...do 13 - 16year old student participants count?!

S

Some early thoughts on the professional artefact

Yesterday, whilst looking through some literature online I came across something in the Trinity Laban Report, Passions, Pathways and Potential in Dance, which can be accessed here, that piqued my interest regarding the professional artefact.
N.B. Several examples can be seen throughout this report but the first one that I came across, and which started my mental ball rolling, is on page 27 of the report.

The reason it caught my eye is that, although I don't know what my 'findings' are going to be yet, the page clearly sets out the theory/ concept alongside the practical application or possible strategy for achieving the desired outcome.

This linked in my mind to a conversation I had, back in the summer holidays, with two teacher friends of mine, on the topic of how to present information in a useful way. One friend suggested a CD-Rom that she had, which gave practical advice but also had links to more academic literature so that there was the opportunity to delve deeper if so desired. The other teacher friend was reminded of a set of 'flashcards' that she had, which compartmentalised information on a particular topic area into smaller, more manageable chunks - something that she found useful because she could easily just pick out the most relevant card rather than wading through masses of data.

Both teachers suggest that having small amounts of information at their fingertips was helpful on a day-to-day basis but that being able to look deeper or wider into topics, when time or particular interest arose, was also important. So, perhaps this is something to bear in mind when creating my professional artefact.

Food for thought, again.

Let me know what you feel might be a useful tool for practical purposes so that I can add it to the suggestions above. Perhaps you feel a visual representation of some kind might work better for you? Or a combination of pictures and text?

S

References

Redding, E., Nordin-Bates, S. and Walker, I. 2011. Passion, pathways and potential in dance. An interdisciplinary longitudinal study into dance talent development.. [report].
Available at: http://www.dancexchange.org.uk/uploads/news/trinity_laban_cat_report.pdf [Accessed 7 Oct 2013]

Narrowing things down

So, my topic area of motivation is a broad one. Even my working inquiry title - 'There's no such word as can't: student experiences of motivation in the dance class' - leaves itself wide open to a whole host of possible areas for analysis. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem if I had all the time, and resources, in the world but, as all us Module 3'ers are aware, we only have a very, very limited time!

Today, I have been thinking hard about the next stage of my data collection - the interview. What's that got to do with the opening paragraph, I hear you cry! OK, let me explain...

1) In order to gather useful data I need to be specific in what questions I include in my interview. However, to be able to do this I need,
2) to understand the particular aspect(s) of my broad topic that I am hoping to understand better and develop a deeper knowledge of through analysis.

My reading so far has lead me to two particularly interesting areas of motivation theory:
1) The psychological needs of i) autonomy, ii) competence, and iii) relatedness, and
2) Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and the Self-Determination theory.

The psychological needs present a trio of basic human priorities, that of free-will or choice, the ability to achieve, and a feeling of belonging and value (Reeve, 2005, chapter 5). These three desires need to be satisfied in order for the individual to feel motivated to continue on with what she is doing - in my inquiry case: attending a dance lesson.

The type of motivation - amotive, intrinsic, extrinsic (Ryan & Deci, 2000) - that a person (in the case of my inquiry, the student) functions from is important as it will also affect how the external factors of the dance class are perceived and also what effect they will have on raising or lowering levels of motivation (Reeve, 2005, chapter 6).

If I take these into consideration as two areas of analysis then this gives me a framework for my interview sessions, and, of course, for the direction in which my diary analysis will go too. But back to the interview:
Start with a thank-you for helping with inquiry and check that participant is still happy to be interviewed. Clarify again that I would like to record the interview, would they be happy with this? Also that I will be possibly making a few notes as I listen to them, and explain why.

1) How long have you been dancing? (start with easy, closed question to get ball rolling)
2) How many lessons a week do you attend, or how many hours a week do you dance? (see above)
3) Why do you take dance lessons? (opens up the topic area - hopefully leading to a discovery of students motivations)
4) Do you think this has always been the reason for coming to class or has this changed or developed over the last x amount of years? (quite a sophisticated question but, with careful explanation, I hope to discover whether motivation changed from extrinsic - mum made me - to intrinsic - but now I really love it, and perhaps at what age (roughly)
5) What do you feel are the main causes of increased/ decreased motivation in your dance classes? (allow them to skim diaries if it helps to jog memory but hopefully the really important aspects will come straight to mind)
5a) Did you expect to be more, or less, motivated than you were? Why do you think this is?(only ask if participant is struggling to answer Q.5)
6) What did you find interesting, or hard, or funny,or x, about writing in your diary? (may gain insight into surprises or unexpected self-realisation by student - could lead to verbalising a really important aspect of their dance motivation experiences)
7) Then either ask fantasy question like "If I gave you a magic wand to create the most motivational dance lesson you could, what would you do?" (Robinson, 2013) or use a physical task such as scribbling on post-it notes the students answers to question 5 and then placing them in order of importance on a large piece of paper.

This is, of course, a work in progress but as, in the interest of keeping to schedule, I've already got most of my interviews timetabled in for before the half term I really need to perfect this list of questions by the middle of the week!
Any thoughts, comments, criticisms, etc, as always, would be gratefully received. I also hope to trial these questions out on one lucky victim...I mean volunteer, to get an idea of whether they might work or not. Would anyone be willing to help out?

S

References

Reeve, J. (2005). Understanding Motivation and Emotion. 4th Ed. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Robinson, S. 2013. It's all a question of questions! BAPP, [blog] 22nd April 2013, Available at: http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/its-all-question-of-questions.html [Accessed: 6 Oct 2013].
Ryan, R. & Deci, E. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78. American Psychological Association.

Meta-motivated?

So I was trying to organising my documents just now with two main aims: (1) to be able to find things more easily and (2) to group useful articles together; some of the articles are recent discoveries, some filed way back in February/ March (as I was working through possible inquiry topics).
Those articles found back in the Spring have required a little memory jog as to what category they might best fit, and, in some cases, why on earth I had wanted to save them in the first place!

The reason for this blog then? Well, you might be relieved to hear that it's not just a tale about my laptop spring cleaning efforts!

This is the reason:

I perceive that most of the students who enroll in our program have chosen dance as a major avenue of expression because of a spiritual quest. By the time I have the opportunity to work with them, however, the spiritual aspect of their dancing has often receded. I perceive that they have mostly been trained from a quantitative point of view, that they have been asked to meet externally measurable, idealized standards—rather than having been encouraged to voyage inside their bodies and minds to discover what goals might be realistic and might help them function more effectively within themselves and in the world. (Evans, 1997, p.1)

The highlighted section, in particular, is my inspiration for this blog. After all, isn't this the question that is at the heart of my inquiry?

Examinations, end of term shows, competition dances - all these things make up a high-proportion of a lot of dancing school's agendas; the achievement of a good standard in order to gain a good grade, good performance, gold medal, etc.
Don't get me wrong, these are all good methods of improving skills, developing competence and extrinsically motivating students. However, that's not all there is to dance is it?
Isn't the journey both an outward and an inward one? Or rather, shouldn't it be?

I am suddenly aware of the concept drawing task given by Paula at the campus session (02/10/2013), where, when asked to draw a reperesentation of growth I drew something like this:

 

Where, in the lower shape, there is growth outward but also inwards.

 

 Light bulb!

 

My passion, interest, or, if you'll pardon my French, raison d'etre, as dance teacher, is clearly, therefore, to find a balance between the external factors placed upon me by the dance schools I work for, for example, assessment, achievement and status, and the personal desire to provide students with as much personal development/ growth as is possible.

My inquiry? Well, that is my opportunity to develop my understanding of how this might be achieved.

 

Phew! Fingers are almost steaming from the need to get that all out!

 

S

 

Reference

 

Evans, B. 1997. Teaching What I Want to Learn. [pdf] National Dance Association. Available through: uncg.edu https://performingarts.uncg.edu/evolving-dance/_files/evans-teaching-what-i-want-to-learn.pdf [Accessed: 4 Oct 2013].

 

 



Campus session 02/10/2013

Wednesday was the first campus session of the term. It was lead by Paula and Alan - with Paula taking the Module 2/3's and Alan the Module 1's after an initial meet, greet, ice-break and discussion.

Paula is my new tutor for this module and so it was really nice to be engaging and interacting with her alongside meeting old and new BAPPers.
There were six of us there who are embarking on Module 3 -
Clare Orlandi, Hayley Dixon, Melanie Brown, Mimi Whitney and Phil Carrol -
and although we are all engaged in varied inquiry topics it was really reassuring and supporting to see that most of us shared the same questions and concerns.

The major part of the session was spent relaying our respective inquiries paying particular attention to any changes, problems, developments since our initial proposal all those months ago. It was really helpful to have to organise and then vocalise what, I personally, have been thinking about but not managing to succinctly extract from my brain!
I am know much clearer in my mind about the vital need to constantly verbalise or transcribe my internal workings and deliberations.

There was a lot of positive discussions from fellow BAPPers - offers of help, 'oh, I've read a thing that might help you,' and support for each person's chosen topic area.

Paula had also put together a presentation, which is on her 3rd October blog here: http://paulanottingham.blogspot.co.uk/
For me it is always helpful and more successful when I can have a visual to go with the information, and I found slides 18 and 19 has helped me to see how to break everything down into more manageable sections rather than PANIC!

There were also great 'inter-module' discussions and a couple of concept-drawing games that brought out ideas and strategies for identifying the personal aspect of everything that we are working through at the moment.

I am very sad that I am unable to attend the next session (due to work commitments) but I feel ready for what is to come, and I've even surprised myself as to the level of passion and excitement I have for my inquiry.

Good luck everyone!

S


Reference

Nottingham, P. 2013. Thursday, 3 October 2013. Paula Nottingham, [blog] 03/10/2013, Available at: http://paulanottingham.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed: 3 Oct 2013].

Thought on 'Thought for the day'

This blog is a reflection on my last blog - 'Thought for the day'

In my previous blog I suggested that perhaps intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were not overly relevant to my inquiry analysis as the effect of external events could be said to have the same outcome on both:

 The question of intrinsic or extrinsic motivational state in the student, therefore, could be almost irrelevant to the outcome of motivation in the learning environment (in this case, the dance class). The rate of increase or decrease could well be affected depending on which underlying factor is stronger in the student, for example, is it quicker to demotivate a student with negative feedback if achievement is the motivator versus a student who still derives pleasure from dancing even though the teacher is not very complimentary?

From the point of view of my inquiry then it is likely that, wherever each participant gets their motivation from, a majority of the causes of increasing or decreasing motivation will be something that the teacher affects. (Robinson, 2013)

On further reflection (or more accurately by letting it roll around in my brain for a while) I think that perhaps this statement might only apply to reducing motivation; it doesn't matter where your motivation originates, intrinsic or extrinsic or both, it can all be diminished by negative environmental factors.
I think my focus was on the negative aspects of external factors because I am, in my daily practice, concerned about reducing, or removing, these from my classes. However, it is the purpose of my inquiry to gain a better understanding of what student's feel increases their motivation and it is this aspect of motivation that I will now consider relative to intrinsic and extrinsic desires.

So, if I have two hypothetical students - one is intrinsically motivated by a love of dance, and the other by a desire to improve and gain proficiency in examinations - then my approach to each student cannot be the same. Can it?
Student 1 might enjoy the freedom dance lessons give to explore and move, and the opportunity to gain a greater vocabulary of movement. Student 2, in contrast, might enjoy the focus on technical improvement and correction, and the feeling of perfecting a movement before moving on to another one.
If these two students are in the same class then the teacher will need to engage both students by understanding their psychological needs and planning the lesson to include aspects that satisfy both students.
Therefore, it could be said that in order to develop an inquiry such as my own, and the use it could have to professional practice (both my own and others), I should include aspects in my methodologies and analysis that look at motivating through the lense of the differing types of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

Any thoughts?

S




Bibliography
Reeve, J. (2005). Understanding Motivation and Emotion. 4th Ed. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Robinson, S. 2013. Thought for the day. BAPP, [blog] 30th September, Available at: http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/thought-for-day.html [Accessed: 3 Oct 2013].