Reflections and acknowledgements

I really enjoy the Critical Reflection moment as it is such a great boost seeing just how much further I've progressed since starting both this module and the BAPP course.
I read my module 1 critical reflection to remind me of where I was at the end of 2012 and it really helped me to see that yes, I have gained new skills in module 2 but I've also developed existing skills from the last module and assimilated theory with skill into practice.
It's such a great feeling to know that everything I've done, read, shared or discussed has not only made the inquiry process exciting, even if it was a little challenging at times, but really made a difference to how I see myself, as teacher, and how I approach my students.
At the end of the day, whether I achieve my degree or not, it's got to be about becoming a better teacher, hasn't it?

It's been a really great term for developing friendships and connections with my fellow BAPPers and a big thanks to everyone who took the time to complete my surveys, comment on my blog, enter into SIG discussions or share in moments of panic! I really don't think any of this would have been as insightful, or fun, without you.

Hope everyone is feeling proud of their achievements.

 



Bring on the inquiry!

S

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

I appreciate, even more so than after Module 1, that everything is connected (Appendix A) yet totally dependent on personal bias, engagement with others, openness and inquisitiveness.

For this Critical Reflection, however, I have divided the text into three more easily identifiable areas of learning.

1. Work-based Learning

Greater interaction with fellow professionals in this module has proven even more the importance of building and maintaining, through active engagement, strong relationships within my community of practice, allowing me to:

·         build on ideas,

·         encounter new ways of thinking and areas of potential interest, and

·         resolve problems more successfully,

which, in turn, has lead to an even greater degree of professional development. (Appendix B)

I realise that by engaging in open and honest discourse with professional associates, about all aspects of my practice, I cannot eliminate conflict but I will gain greater skill, with which to identify potential issues, and tools, to build bridges or resolve problems before they escalate. (Appendix C)

2. Ethics

Developing a greater ethical awareness, alongside a deeper acknowledgement of my
personal morals, has highlighted the ‘power’ I have as both teacher and researcher, and that my primary objective must always be ‘to do no harm.’ (Appendix D)

By understanding, and accepting, that concepts such as truth, good, right, and wrong are subjective, and therefore open to interpretation, I am better informed to understand and, thereby, approach different ethical stances. (Appendix E - part one, Appendix E - part two)

3. Inquiry

I have been able to refine, condense and clarify my inquiry topic through a combination of:

·         blogging and commenting, (Appendix F)

·         reading and sharing, and (Appendix G)

·         piloting and reflecting. (Appendix H)

These skills will not only continue to support my learning and development in the next module - my research project - but in my professional practice too.

I have gained confidence in reading academic text, something that I had previously felt was beyond my grasp, by understanding how to approach and appraise the literature, and to pinpoint what is relevant to my specific needs at that point in time. (Appendix I)

By considering the limitations of my inquiry I am a lot more conscious of the constraints I encounter in my practice, and also my own limitations. I have started to realise that I cannot, and should not try to, control everything, and that certain responsibilities rest on other shoulders than my own.

I can also now acknowledge, and have taken steps to address, the fact that in trying to organise every aspect of my students learning I have been taking away their opportunity to develop autonomy and ownership. (Appendix J)

 

In conclusion, the process of engaging with this module has not only helped me to develop my inquiry but, perhaps more importantly, to see my professional practice as inquiry; to understand that problems encountered, questions raised, and weakness discovered should be treated with the same rigor as any formal research project. In future I will certainly reflect on not only the phenomenon itself but different approaches to it, the ethical considerations and implications of these strategies, and the inherent limitations in solving any practical problem.

 

Bibliography

Buckroyd, J. (2000). The student dancer: Emotional aspects of the teaching and learning of dance. Dance Books Ltd.

Council for Dance Education and Training. (2008/9). Code of Professional Conduct and Practice for Teachers of Dance, accessed 9^th May 2013 http://www.cdet.org.uk/teaching-and-qualifications/code-of-conduct/.

Denscombe, M. (2010). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. Open University Press.

Fallows, S. J., & Ahmet, K. (1999). Inspiring students: Case studies in motivating the learner. Routledge.

Fraleigh, S. H., & Hanstein, P. (Eds.). (1999). Researching dance: evolving modes of inquiry. Pittsburgh, Pa, University of Pittsburgh Press.

Greene, S., & Hogan, D. (2005). Researching children's experience methods and approaches. London, Sage.

Hart, C. (1999). Doing a literature review: Releasing the social science research imagination. SAGE Publications Limited.

Nordin-Bates, S. M., Quested, E., Walker, I. J., & Redding, E. (2012). Climate Change in the Dance Studio. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 1(1), 3-16, accessed 31^st March 2013, < http://www.psycontent.com/content/270273p1mmpg5137/>.  

Riley, J. (1990). Getting the Most from Your Data: A Handbook of Practical Ideas on how to Anlayse Qualitative Data. Technical and Educational Services.

Sass, E. J. (1989). Motivation in the college classroom: What students tell us. Teaching of Psychology, 16(2), 86-88, accessed 19^th March 2013,  <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15328023top1602_15>.

Stinson, S. W. (1997) A question of fun: Adolescent engagement in dance education. Dance Research Journal, 29 (2), 49-69, accessed 9^th May 2013, http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/listing.aspx?id=7373.

Lecture, but not lectured

I went to the third meeting of the Imperial Tap and Modern Group for this year (sadly I missed the last two due to work commitments). This workshop was 'Approaches to choreography' with Melody Squires (www.melodysquires.com).

Melody did a course last year on teaching turns so I was looking forward to having her again this time. She's really down-to-earth, very creative and has a passion that oozes out of every pore!

She started the 2-hours with a sit down discussion and brought in books, that she finds invaluable, to share with us all - a kindred spirit to us BAPPers! (I have put two of the books in the references).
She then started to read to us (from one of the books) about Laban' Analysis of Movement, which she likened to the choreographic 'ingredients of a cake' (she likes cake!!).
Basically it's like the pick 'n' mix of creating a dance piece:

(Image from Dance Composition, p.19)

Melody then went on to demonstrate, with a fellow teacher, how things like mirroring, canon, question & answer, could be used to create interest in even the most seemingly basic of movements.

She then went on to read to us about the process of creating:



Beginning of Composition

Stimulus

 

Decision

 

Mode of presentation

 

Improvisation

 

Evaluation of improvisation

 

Selection and refinement

 

Motif

 

Then we learnt a piece that she'd choreographed that was inspired by the Emile Sande track 'Clown' and that drew on her knowledge and experiences of the circus (audible and visual stimuli). The following link is to a performance of the routine by a group of dancers @Pineapple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLv0mWhYlm0

 

We talked about ways to change and develop the group aspect of the choreography and how all the movements had a purpose - the tears of the sad clown (00.01), the clown car (00.10) and the custard pie in the face (00.18)...

 

We then moved on to a second routine, based on an idea that she had whilst working on a piece @Stagecoach, that involved the use of a newspaper as a prop (relationship to object). We then split into two teams to develop the solo choreography into a group piece. Our group played around with pattern, direction, timing and interaction but using the original choreography, whilst the other team had experimented with the theme of 'newspaper' and developed a piece of entirely new ideas and dance movements. This I found really interesting as it really highlighted how different people can interpret things in a variety of ways.

 

For the last part of the morning we sat down again and looked at how to evaluate a piece of choreography, as a whole and in parts (idea, relationships, motifs, etc.).

 

A really great morning that felt as if it had opened up new approaches to things like festival dances, exam dances and show numbers. However, and here is the main reason for writing this blog, I got the opportunity to use my 'new knowledge' much earlier than I could have anticipated...

I had an exam coaching class this afternoon in which I really wanted to help my students 'get a handle on' contrasting/ changing styles. Watching them perform the first of two amalgamations I suddenly remembered what Melody had read out about space - both size of performance area and extension in space. I began to talk to my students about how they could be aware of the studio space but that they should also develop an awareness of how much space they took up as a person, i.e. arms, levels, posture, etc. I went on to discuss how, in one of their dances, we (the audience) should be able to see and feel the space between and around them and, by contrast, the other dance should feel more condensed, tighter, like they were in a vacuum.

I then asked them to perform both dances with this in mind. A definite difference! :)

 

It just goes to show that there really is no end to the application of knowledge, whatever it may come originally labelled as!

 



 

References

 

Contemporaryjazz's channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/contemporaryjazz?feature=watch [Accessed 5th May 2013]

 

Maisel, E. (1995). Fearless creating: a step-by-step guide to starting and completing your work of art. Putnam.

 

Smith-Autard, J. M. (2010). Dance composition: A practical guide to creative success in dance making. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.



 

 

 

 



Midnight ramble! 2 - The Return

I probably should stop blogging late at night, but then again my posts seem to be less art and more honest at this hour!

Two things occur to me tonight, after an evening spent 'Critically Reflecting' that I felt compelled to blog about:

1. In the course of reflecting, gathering and organising material for both my proposal and critical reflection I began to realise that my inquiry, in even this preparatory stage, is affecting my practice! I am spending more time in and out of class getting my students to voice opinions, share ideas and take charge, for example, of what they 'need' help or support with. I've also seen improvements in my students attitude to class (one particular lesson springs to mind), which I believe stems from giving the students opportunity to dictate the direction the class will take (to a certain degree, of course!). I am really looking forward to continuing to read and investigate my topic of 'motivation in dance' in the next module but, if nothing else comes out of my inquiry, I will have already taken some big steps forwards!
2. I want to say a big thank-you to you all! The path that has lead me to where I am now with my inquiry proposal was created brick by brick, not on my own but with the help of everyone I have engaged with over the last few weeks/ months. Through talking about the highs and lows of teaching, sharing ideas on student-teacher relationships, taking time out to fill in pilot surveys, exploring ethics on the SIG forums, linking to Delicious accounts...(the list goes on, and on), it has been possible to add, subtract, alter and shape my initial lines of inquiry. So yeah, take a bow cos you're all awesome! :)

S

It's all a question of questions!

In my last post I talked about how I had been really inspired by taking part in an interview as the participant rather than the researcher. Since then I've been reading about data collection and finding that both the experience and the new knowledge are making patterns and connections in my mind.
The result of this reflection is that I have been trialing out questions, with friends - both dance and non-dance - and students, with the aim of refining my interview strategy so that I can get the most out of my time without collecting masses of data that is irrelevant.
The initial response to my questions were good, with most participants finding them easy to understand, and I found that talk was fairly free flowing and relaxed. What was said was not always relevant, as some participants were not dance trained whilst others were adults (and therefore outside of my sample age), but I feel that just having the opportunity to explore the format my data collection will take is invaluable. It is something that I will keep doing right up until I actually begin my research for real.

One really pleasing aspect of this trial is that I have realised that I want to encourage anyone who takes part to feel that there are no limits to what they can say. For example, as a teacher I feel that I am limited in what I can achieve in terms of student motivation, for example: outside influences (such as bad day at school or argument with parent), time constraints of lessons, class sizes, principals expectation of exam results, etc. However, in my research I don't want limits put on the ideas and thoughts of my students!
It links back, in my mind, to the Module 1 section on journal writing styles, and the writing of fantastical journal entries, where we could take our thoughts to the furthest extremes of our imagination. In a 'nothing is too crazy' scenario there were grains of truth that might lead to reflection about how to achieve aspects of this 'ideal world.'
How might this help my inquiry?
Well, in being fantastical I believe that I am more likely to get my students speaking freely and without reserve. The thoughts and ideas that they share with me, I hope, will give me an insight into what really matters to them and, through analysis, from a more diluted and realistic perspective, I might understand how it could be possible to re-create them in the classroom.
I'd love to see what anyone else thinks so here's what I think may be the last question in my interview:

If I gave you a magic wand to create the most motivational dance lesson you could, what would you use it to do?

Another addition to my data collection methods is going to be the use of a diary. I will give my participants a small book (nothing too big or intimidating so that they feel they have to fill it) to write down their feelings and experiences of one really motivating dance lesson and one where they felt less motivated or perhaps even demotivated.
My reasons are as follow:

• A more immediate way for my students to capture their feelings and experiences than trying to think about motivation in the sterile environment of the interview.
• Offering students that are perhaps less able to verbalise their thoughts and experiences another way of getting their voices heard,
• An opportunity to spend as much, or little, time as they can afford on participating in the study,
• The control over what is relevant to the individual student and what is not, and
• The opportunity to choose to make an entry at time that is suitable to them.

I am very aware that I am asking a lot of my students but I am hoping that by offering two different methods of data collection I can gather more variety of data and therefore deeper insight into my topic of 'motivation'.
At the moment I also aim to use the diary as part of the interview as a point of reference for the student - a memory jog if you like - with them in control of the diary throughout. (I hope that I am able to do a short pilot, to see what the benefits/ pitfalls are, before embarking on my final inquiry.)


With the date rapidly approaching for the end of module assignment I have realised that the nature of my study does not allow for concrete statements of intent but rather that my inquiry will need to change, adapt and develop throughout the journey.
I have a strong rationale for my choice of topic, an evolving strategy for my research and methodology that I am continuing to refine, and a strong ethical awareness...I hope that this, coupled with my passion and enthusiasm, will make for an interesting and engaging proposal.


References
Fraleigh, S. H., & Hanstein, P. (1999). Researching dance: Evolving modes of inquiry. University of Pittsburgh Pre.

 

Greene, S., & Hogan, D. (Eds.). (2005). Researching children's experience: Approaches and methods. SAGE Publications Limited.

 

Riley, J. (1990). Getting the Most from Your Data: A Handbook of Practical Ideas on how to Anlayse Qualitative Data. Technical and Educational Services.

 

 

 

Being a co-pilot!

I had a really great experience this afternoon when Clare Orlandi and I trialed out a pilot interview over Skype.

Clare started of by putting me at ease and asking me some very straightforward questions. She was very calm, relaxed and gave me time to say what I wanted without leaving big empty pauses. When we moved on to the more in depth questions I felt that her wording was really well thought-out so that, although some required me to think and then respond, I never felt reluctant to answer anything she asked, nor felt that I didn't understand the question. We chatted, laughed, agreed, shared stories and generally I had a really great experience. I never once felt stupid, wrong or that I didn't want to be honest with her.

At the end of the interview she asked if she could read back any notes she had taken so that there was no question I had been misinterpreted or would be misquoted. This recap also lead onto further discussion and Clare allowed time for me to add anything I wanted to.

As well as being a very interesting and thought-provoking set of questions (I really felt that verbalising helped me to reflect on my teaching in a way that perhaps I don't usually, i.e. I had to find a way to communicate it to Clare so I needed to put action/ experience into words, being the interviewee gave me a whole new perspective on how I might better present myself and my questions in any interviews I might undertake as part of my inquiry.

It was also really nice to meet Clare in (virtual) person and to be able to share thoughts  on the course and the current module.
I hope that Clare found the time as useful as I did and I really look forward to learning more about her inquiry.

S

Fate isn't always so fickle!

Just a quick post today, after yesterday's great meeting with Rosemary and really good campus session with Holly, Hayley, Joannah, Georgie and Anastasia.

The one thing that I really kept thinking about yesterday was that, although the passion for our inquiry topics is clearly evident, the ability to encapsulate what aspect of that area we are try to study, or why we feel it is important to research it, into one smooth explanation is incredibly hard!

I spent all night pondering my own inquiry area, in which I am now very comfortable, and what the underlying rationale is for choosing this area of study or, perhaps, why it chose me...

This morning I carried on re-reading a book, that I had previously discovered way back in January, called Research in Dance. In one of those fateful (in a good way!) moments I decided to pick the following chapter Postpositivist Research in Dance by Jill Green and Susan W. Stinson (whom I am rapidly becoming a big fan of - see my Delicious page!). It's a brilliant explanation of the postpositivist approach to research, taking apart in detail three different forms - interpretive, emancipatory, and deconstructive - and putting them into the context of dance and dance education.

How is this related to the soul of my inquiry? Perhaps a little background first!

My inquiry, as you may or may not know from previous blogs/ SIG entries, is concerned with student experiences and perspectives of how they can be motivated or demoralised in the environ of the local dance school lesson. My aim? To better understand the causes and effects of dance class motivation, to give my students greater ownership of their learning (Fallows and Ahmet, 1999), and to make available that information for other teachers to consider and reflect on so that they might become more able to motivate their students, either by identifying tools they can employ or by listening to their students voices too.
So immediately I know that I am not going to be collecting quantitative data or producing graphs and charts in my reseach findings!
However, I am very aware of the subjective versus objective debate regarding research and of teacher-researcher power, inference and bias. I've also been reading more about the intangible nature of motivation and how we can only observe the effect not the phenomenon itself, which can only produce partial understanding and researcher/ participant interpretation rather than empirical or scientific data.

Hmmm... so, back to the book! In reading one perfectly precise paragraph I found myself wondering if this chapter had been written with my inquiry in mind:

If the primary purpose is to understand an aspect of the dance experience from the participants point of view, and to reflect on the meanings that are expressed, then an interpretive approach will be most useful. (p.113)

Yes, yes and yes!

I feel much more comfortable with my decision to take my inquiry in a very people-oriented direction and know that I am ready to present both the limitations of such interpretive research and the benefits for myself, my students, and other teachers in a similar situation to myself (perhaps not just dance but any 'after school' club or society).

I heartily recommend reading this book if you're inquiry is dance related. Not necessarily all of it, but those chapters that feel relevant to where your inquiry topic is taking you. However, be warned, you will have to fight me to get hold of this copy!!!

References

Fallows, S. J., & Ahmet, K. (1999). Inspiring students: Case studies in motivating the learner. Routledge.

Fraleigh, S. H., & Hanstein, P. (1999). Researching dance: Evolving modes of inquiry. University of Pittsburgh Press.

It can also be found online here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QkCSCt3e7hQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=researching+dance&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gPFvUdvkMtGT0QWW74GwBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false