The last main theme I have encountered on my journey through my inquiry so far is Passion for the field of work you are in. With many jobs there are certain passions that make you successful.
If you didn't enjoy dancing why be a dancer? If you don't like cooking, why be a chef?
There are many jobs out there that people don't have a passion to do, and some jobs are stereotyped to be a 'bog standard, couldn't get anything else' job. But how I feel is that no matter what the job no-one should be penalised for doing what they do if they love it and have a passion. Surely a passion for your job makes you good at it.
Certainly as a performer it is clear to see who is passionate and who isn't, for example on stage, a person that is beaming out looking like they are having a good time- probably is, and the person with a fake smile is probably hating every minute of it, Who is more passionate? It may be wrong of me to stereotype this passion to how an individual performs but for me if I didn't enjoy doing something I wouldn't do it.
When speaking to individuals in my interviews, passion and dedication for their job is noticeable in the way people respond to how much they enjoy it. Again when doing observations around the workplace it was easy for me to see who really loved doing what they were doing and who was just doing it for the money because they need a job.
For all performers I think passion comes naturally. The amount of money we spend on our training goes to show how much we love to do it, I can be bias when saying this but I know passion isn't something you can teach, I am doubtful to suggest passion is a transferable skill. I think passion is something that develops the more you do something, and something that does change as you advance through your career. Using myself as an example, I had a passion to dance, which became a passion to entertain and I have a passion to want to teach, as I move through my career each of these passions changes and develops.
Do you performers feel your passion was taught to you just by performing arts training?
Saturday 4 November 2017
Artefact Thoughts/ Ideas
I can't believe how fast this module is speeding through and already I am halfway through planning the final critical review and beginning to think about the professional artefact.
Having looked at some completed module 3 blogs and got some inspiration from our previous leader Paula's slide shares and Adesola's handbook I have come up with a few ideas that I would like to explore.
Firstly I have to ask myself what am I trying to portray in my artefact? Who is my target audience?
In my artefact I want to be able to appeal mostly to those performers who are worried about transitioning to other careers but also to people in other careers wanting to move to a different job as well. Basically I want my artefact to be able to be understood and viewed by all people. I want to explain who I am and the process I have gone through in my inquiry but also want to try and include my experiences in BAPP and what I have learnt.
A brief idea I had was to make a CV presented in an interesting way but then I thought it best to stick to the plan and avoid the paper and pen and think of something more creative.
I thought of an idea of using mannequins as an idea to represent the themes that came up but then I thought this wouldn't be easily accessible by all my target audience.
Working on cruise ships make me think that I want to think of something that is accessible via social media (youtube or Facebook etc) Digital Video/ Film would be a good way to do this however all I worry about is the producing of this, technically I do not know if I am able to produce a video, if I did manage to do this it would show a huge transition of my use of Web 2.0 from starting the course and I would feel a great sense of achievement. It would also help me develop skills to make a show reel etc. I just don't know if I want to risk being able to to make something of this standard for something that makes a big contribution to my final grade.
Other ideas I have thought of is posters and leaflets made via a computer programme so people can access this via a dropbox facility or something. Although easier to do I don't know if it really represents my professional practice, I would have to think of how to advance on this if I chose this option
Finally the last thing I thought of is to create an interactive image of a cruise ship (my practice currently) and use the decks as a way of representing stages of my inquiry and even my journey on BAPP, and perhaps using places and cabins on the deck as sub headers of the stages (for example themes from analysis stage) I believe this can be done on powerpoint programme, I have used this before in my job by creating gameshows using this programme so I would be intrigued to use something like this in my final artefact.
I think summarising I definitely need to think of an artefact that is accessible online via drop box or any Web 2.0 platform, this is the best way to appeal to my target audience.
Apologies for exceeding the word limit in this blog but would love to know if any of my ideas stand out to any of you performers out there and which of my ideas for an artefact would have the most interest to you, what would make you want to view it or access it?!
Having looked at some completed module 3 blogs and got some inspiration from our previous leader Paula's slide shares and Adesola's handbook I have come up with a few ideas that I would like to explore.
Firstly I have to ask myself what am I trying to portray in my artefact? Who is my target audience?
In my artefact I want to be able to appeal mostly to those performers who are worried about transitioning to other careers but also to people in other careers wanting to move to a different job as well. Basically I want my artefact to be able to be understood and viewed by all people. I want to explain who I am and the process I have gone through in my inquiry but also want to try and include my experiences in BAPP and what I have learnt.
A brief idea I had was to make a CV presented in an interesting way but then I thought it best to stick to the plan and avoid the paper and pen and think of something more creative.
I thought of an idea of using mannequins as an idea to represent the themes that came up but then I thought this wouldn't be easily accessible by all my target audience.
Working on cruise ships make me think that I want to think of something that is accessible via social media (youtube or Facebook etc) Digital Video/ Film would be a good way to do this however all I worry about is the producing of this, technically I do not know if I am able to produce a video, if I did manage to do this it would show a huge transition of my use of Web 2.0 from starting the course and I would feel a great sense of achievement. It would also help me develop skills to make a show reel etc. I just don't know if I want to risk being able to to make something of this standard for something that makes a big contribution to my final grade.
Other ideas I have thought of is posters and leaflets made via a computer programme so people can access this via a dropbox facility or something. Although easier to do I don't know if it really represents my professional practice, I would have to think of how to advance on this if I chose this option
Finally the last thing I thought of is to create an interactive image of a cruise ship (my practice currently) and use the decks as a way of representing stages of my inquiry and even my journey on BAPP, and perhaps using places and cabins on the deck as sub headers of the stages (for example themes from analysis stage) I believe this can be done on powerpoint programme, I have used this before in my job by creating gameshows using this programme so I would be intrigued to use something like this in my final artefact.
I think summarising I definitely need to think of an artefact that is accessible online via drop box or any Web 2.0 platform, this is the best way to appeal to my target audience.
Apologies for exceeding the word limit in this blog but would love to know if any of my ideas stand out to any of you performers out there and which of my ideas for an artefact would have the most interest to you, what would make you want to view it or access it?!
Performer Career Transitioning
Going from being a performer myself into other careers I have first hand experienced what my own skills as a dancer are and how I can convert them into another very successful and promising career.
There are plenty of books out there where individuals in performing arts have done the same.
Last Year I purchased ' Exit Stage Right' a book written about performers and actors etc transitioning into the next stage of their career. This was a great read and although not directly focused on my inquiry as I am not directly looking at the career transfer it really helped me distinguish some more themes and I will be using this in my final critical review.
There is also an interesting read on http://www.cpanda.org/data/a00191/changes.pdf and although written for Americans advising them of how to go about this career change there are quotes in there I have found really useful to my inquiry.
When thinking about transitioning to other careers its a scary prospect and I'm sure not just performers go through it but it all comes down to the transferable skills we have and thats why I wanted to focus my inquiry on what skills we gain really do benefit us elsewhere.
There are plenty of books out there where individuals in performing arts have done the same.
Last Year I purchased ' Exit Stage Right' a book written about performers and actors etc transitioning into the next stage of their career. This was a great read and although not directly focused on my inquiry as I am not directly looking at the career transfer it really helped me distinguish some more themes and I will be using this in my final critical review.
There is also an interesting read on http://www.cpanda.org/data/a00191/changes.pdf and although written for Americans advising them of how to go about this career change there are quotes in there I have found really useful to my inquiry.
When thinking about transitioning to other careers its a scary prospect and I'm sure not just performers go through it but it all comes down to the transferable skills we have and thats why I wanted to focus my inquiry on what skills we gain really do benefit us elsewhere.
Some great blogs out there!
Now that I am getting through module 3 after a complete mental block, I wanted some more inspiration and I have had a bit of time this week to really sit down and have a browse on the internet to try and find some blogs I can interact with outside of BAPP. I wanted to try and find people blogging on similar subjects to me.
I came across one blog that really put into perspective how others outside of our performing arts industry really stereotype us as performers. I have attached some link below for anyone wanting to have a read.
Kathryn Nailes Blog
What I found really positive from reading Kathryns blog is that I feel exactly the same as her and my own experiences really reflect her own. I think blogs like this really add to my inquiry as they are another source of evidence to compare my own data with. My favourite quote from her blog that really puts into light what I am focused on in my inquiry is ' So, training in dance makes one more disciplined, creative, effective at leadership, collaborative, and business-savvy, among other benefits. And, of course, there’s the joy in the art!'
Another blog -Sarah Jukes Ballet Dancers really captured her feelings for why ballet dancers make good employees.
I also encountered an article about someone who transitioned from ballet dancer to CEO an interesting read about her transferable skills.
Other blogs I encountered really captured the use of transferable skills. One blogger was a scientist and wanted to say that he wasn't just that, although not a performer and not in my industry, some of his transferable skills really linked to themes I have been finding. Scientist Blog.
So for anyone feeling a bit of a mental block on module 3, try and seek some blogs outside of BAPP and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
I came across one blog that really put into perspective how others outside of our performing arts industry really stereotype us as performers. I have attached some link below for anyone wanting to have a read.
Kathryn Nailes Blog
What I found really positive from reading Kathryns blog is that I feel exactly the same as her and my own experiences really reflect her own. I think blogs like this really add to my inquiry as they are another source of evidence to compare my own data with. My favourite quote from her blog that really puts into light what I am focused on in my inquiry is ' So, training in dance makes one more disciplined, creative, effective at leadership, collaborative, and business-savvy, among other benefits. And, of course, there’s the joy in the art!'
Another blog -Sarah Jukes Ballet Dancers really captured her feelings for why ballet dancers make good employees.
I also encountered an article about someone who transitioned from ballet dancer to CEO an interesting read about her transferable skills.
Other blogs I encountered really captured the use of transferable skills. One blogger was a scientist and wanted to say that he wasn't just that, although not a performer and not in my industry, some of his transferable skills really linked to themes I have been finding. Scientist Blog.
So for anyone feeling a bit of a mental block on module 3, try and seek some blogs outside of BAPP and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
Themes- TEAMWORK / INDEPENDANCE
Team work vs Independence. In the performing arts industry there are both of these skills required. My own experience faces challenges of being independent and going to auditions alone and fighting for the job against others, being self employed and completing tax returns, the independence of working for yourself, yet still every job is different and I have experienced having to work in a team just as much as I have independently. Dancing a solo vs Dancing in a team, when you dance alone you just consider the space to yourself- its all yours, whilst dancing in a team there is so much more to consider. Working at Warners really gave me a sense of working in a team, similar to what I will be working on the cruise and although I think performing arts training focuses more on preparing you for that independence alone there are still aspects of your training that you have to work with others.
Being able to work as a team is a skill that every individual I spoke to said they felt that this was a high skill for them, having said this, all of whom I spoke to worked at the hotel meaning they were forced to work as a team anyway, what I really wanted to find out was if they preferred working alone or in a team, personal traits like confidence and knowledge of the field came into this decision and those more confident people I spoke to earlier suggested they preferred working alone whereas those less confident people stated they prefer being in a team.
Being able to work as a team is a skill that every individual I spoke to said they felt that this was a high skill for them, having said this, all of whom I spoke to worked at the hotel meaning they were forced to work as a team anyway, what I really wanted to find out was if they preferred working alone or in a team, personal traits like confidence and knowledge of the field came into this decision and those more confident people I spoke to earlier suggested they preferred working alone whereas those less confident people stated they prefer being in a team.
Themes- ORGANISATION
In my industry organisation is key, whether it comes to being on time for a class at college or on time for an audition or on time for an interview. Across all the literature I have been focusing on the theme of organisation categorises as a transferable skill across all careers and of course organisation is key for daily life.
Gaining the skill of being organised has been an interesting one to talk about with my respondents. There was an even split between the participants I spoke to who had performance background, some saying they were very organised, to others saying they were the complete opposite. As a performer myself I automatically stereotyped all performers to be like me and thought of them as super organised people, HOW WRONG I WAS! I think it is safe to say that although organisation is key for some jobs there is a scale to how organised someone can be and this slides more into a personal trait dependent on the person not dependent on what they do. Again an even split on some people I spoke to who had never taken any performing arts training, some saying they were organised and others saying the opposite.
What I found particularly interesting was the further up in status the people I spoke to were in a job role, the more organised they perceived themselves to be, from interviewing certain individuals this became clear that the amount of responsibility a job entails is the outcome of how organised you have to be.
Literature out there does again stereotype performers as being organised people, and does suggest that this comes from the training they have received, it was interesting to see those in my industry didn't feel they had a skill what I thought was already second nature to my training.
Gaining the skill of being organised has been an interesting one to talk about with my respondents. There was an even split between the participants I spoke to who had performance background, some saying they were very organised, to others saying they were the complete opposite. As a performer myself I automatically stereotyped all performers to be like me and thought of them as super organised people, HOW WRONG I WAS! I think it is safe to say that although organisation is key for some jobs there is a scale to how organised someone can be and this slides more into a personal trait dependent on the person not dependent on what they do. Again an even split on some people I spoke to who had never taken any performing arts training, some saying they were organised and others saying the opposite.
What I found particularly interesting was the further up in status the people I spoke to were in a job role, the more organised they perceived themselves to be, from interviewing certain individuals this became clear that the amount of responsibility a job entails is the outcome of how organised you have to be.
Literature out there does again stereotype performers as being organised people, and does suggest that this comes from the training they have received, it was interesting to see those in my industry didn't feel they had a skill what I thought was already second nature to my training.
Thursday 2 November 2017
Themes - PRESENTABLE
Although when looking at my literature this skill wasn't a large topic that came up, I wanted to blog about my experiences and others close around me. I feel a lot of people on BAPP will be able to relate to this skill. As a performer the way we present ourselves is just as important as our talent. It is the first thing someone will see in an audition. I believe that presentation of the way we dress and look links massively to professionalism. Would you hire somebody who turned up to a job interview in tracksuit bottoms, again this does depend on the job role but most likely not. Unfortunately in careers and everyday life we are a book judged by a cover.
Speaking of my own experience at college we were taught how to correctly do our hair and makeup and this transferred to my professional career as a dancer ensuring costumes were always well presented and I always turned up to work with clean and ironed uniform, a face of make up and I know I always looked presentable. It is in my nature and part of my daily routine to automatically wake up on a morning and look good. As vain as this sounds I wouldn't have achieved half of what I have without having a good appearance.
In interviews when respondents were asked to rank certain skills out of 10, presentation and image for all performers came at a strong 9 and 10, ranking the same level as the importance of their talent. Of Course before I even began the inquiry I knew that presentation would be classed as a transferable skill that would of course benefit in other careers. However not all careers need the focus on how we present ourselves at work so this skill again is career specific.
It is also strange how the way someone presents themselves can sometimes make it very apparent what they do and what status they have within a company. For example we always see managers wearing suits and beauticians always having a full face of make up.
Image could be an inquiry of its own so I am not going to think too hard into evaluating how it can be transferable across other careers but I like to consider it as a personal quality important to performers and a skill that performers get plenty of hands on experience on.
Speaking of my own experience at college we were taught how to correctly do our hair and makeup and this transferred to my professional career as a dancer ensuring costumes were always well presented and I always turned up to work with clean and ironed uniform, a face of make up and I know I always looked presentable. It is in my nature and part of my daily routine to automatically wake up on a morning and look good. As vain as this sounds I wouldn't have achieved half of what I have without having a good appearance.
In interviews when respondents were asked to rank certain skills out of 10, presentation and image for all performers came at a strong 9 and 10, ranking the same level as the importance of their talent. Of Course before I even began the inquiry I knew that presentation would be classed as a transferable skill that would of course benefit in other careers. However not all careers need the focus on how we present ourselves at work so this skill again is career specific.
It is also strange how the way someone presents themselves can sometimes make it very apparent what they do and what status they have within a company. For example we always see managers wearing suits and beauticians always having a full face of make up.
Image could be an inquiry of its own so I am not going to think too hard into evaluating how it can be transferable across other careers but I like to consider it as a personal quality important to performers and a skill that performers get plenty of hands on experience on.
Themes- POSITIVITY
As a performer my positivity grows more and more each day, I put this down to facing so much rejection in the industry and having to brush it off and carry on. Likewise having to be positive on stage even when you might be feeling down. This feeling was shared in the article by Louis Catron - 'What Theatre Majors Learn'
Positivity is something that employers seek in all careers. Learning to accept disappointment is something I think all performers have gone through and speaking to people in interview situations it is apparent to see the performers very briefly speak about something that hasn't worked out for them in their career, there is no dwelling on the situation.
Positivity is massively transferable into other careers, negativity can bring staff within a team down and make them lose their passion for their job or task.
Likewise negativity can link to stress so avoiding this in a workplace is essential. Barbara Fredickson studies the power of positive thinking and quotes "Just as water lilies retract when sunlight fades, so do our minds when positivity fades” (Fredrickson 2009)
So does performing arts give us the skill to be positive, I believe yes because it takes our mind of what is negative and focuses on our passion, in my case to entertain and dance. When I get negative and down about the amount of work I perhaps have for university I can go and do my job and still be positive. All of the performers I spoke to in my interview expressed they were positive people when asked and all could explain why BUT do other careers make us positive people too? I think this skill is career specific, I spoke to a respondent in my interviews who had so many bad comments towards their field that they left their job role, perhaps if they had learnt like we do as performers to deal with this bad feedback and rejection would they have acted the same?
Positivity is an interesting theme that I don't think I have fully explored yet, I would be interested to see how others felt and whether they think positivity is something they gained or did not gain from training in performing arts?
Positivity is something that employers seek in all careers. Learning to accept disappointment is something I think all performers have gone through and speaking to people in interview situations it is apparent to see the performers very briefly speak about something that hasn't worked out for them in their career, there is no dwelling on the situation.
Positivity is massively transferable into other careers, negativity can bring staff within a team down and make them lose their passion for their job or task.
Likewise negativity can link to stress so avoiding this in a workplace is essential. Barbara Fredickson studies the power of positive thinking and quotes "Just as water lilies retract when sunlight fades, so do our minds when positivity fades” (Fredrickson 2009)
So does performing arts give us the skill to be positive, I believe yes because it takes our mind of what is negative and focuses on our passion, in my case to entertain and dance. When I get negative and down about the amount of work I perhaps have for university I can go and do my job and still be positive. All of the performers I spoke to in my interview expressed they were positive people when asked and all could explain why BUT do other careers make us positive people too? I think this skill is career specific, I spoke to a respondent in my interviews who had so many bad comments towards their field that they left their job role, perhaps if they had learnt like we do as performers to deal with this bad feedback and rejection would they have acted the same?
Positivity is an interesting theme that I don't think I have fully explored yet, I would be interested to see how others felt and whether they think positivity is something they gained or did not gain from training in performing arts?
Themes- COMMUNICATION
Communication is a theme that comes up across all literature I have reviewed from module 2
In an article by Louis Catron he expresses that students who study theatre can gain skills in oral communication, something that some people get sent on courses to learn. Performers are often perceived to be good at communicating due to being used to talking in situations like auditions or situations on stage. My own experience of developing my communication skills has definitely come from my work experience rather than my performing arts training, I think communication is something you develop as you mature rather a skill that can be taught in training whether that be performance based or not.
When looking at communication as a life skill and a transferable skill across all careers it is important to consider the act of being a good listener too. This became apparent in my interviews with my respondant's, those that really listened to what I asked and absorbed the information before answering gave good responses in the interview. Body language can really interpret how good of a listener someone is too. Performers as a whole are perceived to be good listeners, especially dancers who express choreography through lyrics and singers who listen to the music etc.
When researching communication in the arts and other careers a book by Michael Lopp called 'Managing Humans' appeared where he simply stated 'A good conversation is a bunch of words elegantly connected with listening'
When working in the school the other week I really noticed that teacher's are some of the best listeners, this is because communication is a huge part of their job role both with staff and pupils.
Therefore when considering communication as a skill I would say that communication isn't due to having performance experience but is developed across all types of occupations.
In an article by Louis Catron he expresses that students who study theatre can gain skills in oral communication, something that some people get sent on courses to learn. Performers are often perceived to be good at communicating due to being used to talking in situations like auditions or situations on stage. My own experience of developing my communication skills has definitely come from my work experience rather than my performing arts training, I think communication is something you develop as you mature rather a skill that can be taught in training whether that be performance based or not.
When looking at communication as a life skill and a transferable skill across all careers it is important to consider the act of being a good listener too. This became apparent in my interviews with my respondant's, those that really listened to what I asked and absorbed the information before answering gave good responses in the interview. Body language can really interpret how good of a listener someone is too. Performers as a whole are perceived to be good listeners, especially dancers who express choreography through lyrics and singers who listen to the music etc.
When researching communication in the arts and other careers a book by Michael Lopp called 'Managing Humans' appeared where he simply stated 'A good conversation is a bunch of words elegantly connected with listening'
When working in the school the other week I really noticed that teacher's are some of the best listeners, this is because communication is a huge part of their job role both with staff and pupils.
Therefore when considering communication as a skill I would say that communication isn't due to having performance experience but is developed across all types of occupations.
Themes - CONFIDENCE
Across all the literature regarding performers and arts in education I have found the theme confidence coming up all the time.
Being a performer myself my own experience of gaining confidence developed the more and more I trained. I put this down to being pushed onto the stage since being young and having to put on a confident front, it is then that I sit down and realise that I am not a confident person at all, I just portray this front of being a confident person. Some performers I spoke to in my interviews felt the same as this, yet when I speak to a few people not having any performance experience they consider themselves very confident, likewise portrayed this act of behaviour in their interview. From my own experiences I can also see that confidence can become arrogance especially in the performing arts industry in the situation of something like an audition.
I found it interesting how some performers shared an experience with me and said they have a confident front yet when the wall is broken down hiding behind it is in fact a shy person. Rather than saying performing arts gives you confidence I would say it gives you the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and become a confident person, it is the individuals choice if they take this opportunity and use it to its full potential.
Do non performers get the chance to step out of their comfort zone as much as performers do? Yes!
A great example of this was an observation I made at work noted in my journal...
A chef was doing a cooking demonstration in the theatre in front of 100 guests. The individual is normally used to hiding in the kitchen yet today put on a head microphone, stepped out of their comfort zone and talked about what they were cooking and how whilst answering questions from guests. Not only did they have to be confident about how they were completing the task of the demo but also the confidence that the food would taste good etc. I thought this was such a good example of showing the way a personal skill like confidence is transferable across all careers.
When searching literature on the life skill what came up was self confidence vs confidence. Self confidence is the act of stepping out of the comfort zone and confidence being the act of doing whatever the task is.
A great read on this topic is a blog by Daniel Fincke that I found online - Daniels Blog
Being a performer myself my own experience of gaining confidence developed the more and more I trained. I put this down to being pushed onto the stage since being young and having to put on a confident front, it is then that I sit down and realise that I am not a confident person at all, I just portray this front of being a confident person. Some performers I spoke to in my interviews felt the same as this, yet when I speak to a few people not having any performance experience they consider themselves very confident, likewise portrayed this act of behaviour in their interview. From my own experiences I can also see that confidence can become arrogance especially in the performing arts industry in the situation of something like an audition.
I found it interesting how some performers shared an experience with me and said they have a confident front yet when the wall is broken down hiding behind it is in fact a shy person. Rather than saying performing arts gives you confidence I would say it gives you the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and become a confident person, it is the individuals choice if they take this opportunity and use it to its full potential.
Do non performers get the chance to step out of their comfort zone as much as performers do? Yes!
A great example of this was an observation I made at work noted in my journal...
A chef was doing a cooking demonstration in the theatre in front of 100 guests. The individual is normally used to hiding in the kitchen yet today put on a head microphone, stepped out of their comfort zone and talked about what they were cooking and how whilst answering questions from guests. Not only did they have to be confident about how they were completing the task of the demo but also the confidence that the food would taste good etc. I thought this was such a good example of showing the way a personal skill like confidence is transferable across all careers.
When searching literature on the life skill what came up was self confidence vs confidence. Self confidence is the act of stepping out of the comfort zone and confidence being the act of doing whatever the task is.
A great read on this topic is a blog by Daniel Fincke that I found online - Daniels Blog
Introduction to Literature reviews
After printing off some articles regarding arts education and performance experience that I briefly encountered in module 2, I wanted to explore them in a deeper meaning, and like in adesolas blogs she tells us to try and find themes within our literature relevant to both our practice and inquiry.
With my title being Do the skills you can gain from performing arts benefit us in other careers and other aspects of our daily lives? I wanted to try and find some skills and themes that come up in the articles that have also come up in my experiences and interviews.
I came across an interesting document online about how we tie different skills into different headings... skills article for example personal skills being like confidence and trustworthiness and work etiquette and transferable skills being organisation and time keeping and communication and finally knowledge based skills being subject relevant, for example a dentist knowing about his field. I thought it interesting how most of the themes that came up in my interviews were all closely related to personal qualities rather than the other types of skill bases.
I have decided to briefly blog on each of the MAIN themes that are slowly being depicted out of my literature and data collection. There are other themes that crop up separately in my interviews and literature but spread across both of these is what I want to focus on. Keep an eye out on further blogs to be published and maybe some themes from your inquiry may be the same as my themes that I am finding, if so I would love to hear about your experiences to further expand on my evidence.
With my title being Do the skills you can gain from performing arts benefit us in other careers and other aspects of our daily lives? I wanted to try and find some skills and themes that come up in the articles that have also come up in my experiences and interviews.
I came across an interesting document online about how we tie different skills into different headings... skills article for example personal skills being like confidence and trustworthiness and work etiquette and transferable skills being organisation and time keeping and communication and finally knowledge based skills being subject relevant, for example a dentist knowing about his field. I thought it interesting how most of the themes that came up in my interviews were all closely related to personal qualities rather than the other types of skill bases.
I have decided to briefly blog on each of the MAIN themes that are slowly being depicted out of my literature and data collection. There are other themes that crop up separately in my interviews and literature but spread across both of these is what I want to focus on. Keep an eye out on further blogs to be published and maybe some themes from your inquiry may be the same as my themes that I am finding, if so I would love to hear about your experiences to further expand on my evidence.
Friday 27 October 2017
Stressful weeks but productive!
So after it being a month since the academic term started I have to be honest and say these past few weeks have been a struggle and I'm a little behind! I am preparing to go and work for P&O cruise lines but at the same time been working in a school the past two weeks as a holiday club assistant to earn some money before I leave the country to travel the world. Balancing all this as well as uni work and interviews at my previous work has been incredibly hard but slowly and surely I am getting there, throughout this tough time I have kept the odd journal and I want to use this in my inquiry however I am hoping the stresses will ease off a little once I get into the swing of my new job!
I think an important thing to remember for module 3 is to stick to the gant charts we made in our planning and also to not rush the processes into our inquiry.
I enjoyed reading the blogs posted by others about the first chat on Skype for module 3 as it was nice to see the topics discussed were the ones I would have asked about too! Now that I have got stuck in I hope I can feel a little more at ease!
A talk with Adesola my tutor at the start of the term assured me that my new job is only another way to broaden my research and expand on my inquiry so I am looking forward to getting started and doing some obversations in my journal. I will constantly try to keep a weekly blog update on here and likewise I want to be able to comment more on blogs this module so we can all share our thoughts and experiences together.
Hope everyone is getting on well and I'd love to feel that I'm not the only one feeling a little stressed at this point!!
I think an important thing to remember for module 3 is to stick to the gant charts we made in our planning and also to not rush the processes into our inquiry.
I enjoyed reading the blogs posted by others about the first chat on Skype for module 3 as it was nice to see the topics discussed were the ones I would have asked about too! Now that I have got stuck in I hope I can feel a little more at ease!
A talk with Adesola my tutor at the start of the term assured me that my new job is only another way to broaden my research and expand on my inquiry so I am looking forward to getting started and doing some obversations in my journal. I will constantly try to keep a weekly blog update on here and likewise I want to be able to comment more on blogs this module so we can all share our thoughts and experiences together.
Hope everyone is getting on well and I'd love to feel that I'm not the only one feeling a little stressed at this point!!
Tuesday 22 August 2017
summer is nearly over!
After a long time spent away from blogging and a lot happening in my life i thought it about time to blog an update!
I was pleased with the result of my module 2 work and hope that i can continue working towards the same standard for module 3.
I am INCREDIBLY nervous for the final stages of my degree especially as new opportunities have opened up for me career wise over the summer.... I applied to go and work on cruise ships and am awaiting a final casting day to see if I am successful. This has all come around much faster than I anticipated and is such an exciting prospect but such a worrying one at the same time.... I am scared at the thought of a career change massively affecting my upcoming university work... especially as a contract could begin before the academic term is over, meaning I could be doing the final stages of a degree overseas. I thought the best thing to do would be to wise up and get looking at the copy of the module 3 handbook sent to us by Paula. The last thing I want to be doing is deferring my degree for a later stage so I have decided to begin Module 3 off my own back early and pray that I am doing the right thing work wise. The earlier I start the sooner I finish, and in an ideal world I would love to have completed all written work for submission by the time I was to leave to go on a cruise ship.
Over the summer I have had a bit of time to sit down and study my feedback from module 2 that Adesola sent and have now written my module 2 feedback document to send over. I am aiming by the end of August/beginning of September I will have started my critical review and done the introduction and evaluation of my inquiry... also to start thinking of ideas for an artefact.
The artefact is what i am most worried about, I have had a nosey at some of the previous module 3 ideas and don't feel any of those paths are the way I can go with my inquiry so I am feeling a bit stuck when thinking about what to do. I know it is still early days but I worry I will spend too long thinking of what to do for that, that i wont have enough time to do anything else!
Out of all of Module 3 the thing I am least worried about is the oral presentation, I feel working in the industry I work in that I am already quite a good public speaker and good at socialising, hopefully this will make the process of an oral presentation a bit more relaxed than all the written academic work.
To summarise my feelings at this moment in time I can only say I am petrified, worried and stressed. Hopefully this will change throughout my module 3 experience and I will be able to add these thoughts and feelings from my reflective journal into my critical reflection at the end of the module.
I suppose the most positive outcome of the summer is that I now know, and understand what I am submitting at the end of this module, the task now is to just crack on and do it! easier said than done!
It would be great if there are any module 3 people out there still reading these blogs who can put my mind at rest that it is not all bad to feel the way I do, and that deep down there is nothing to worry about if the preparation is there!
I was pleased with the result of my module 2 work and hope that i can continue working towards the same standard for module 3.
I am INCREDIBLY nervous for the final stages of my degree especially as new opportunities have opened up for me career wise over the summer.... I applied to go and work on cruise ships and am awaiting a final casting day to see if I am successful. This has all come around much faster than I anticipated and is such an exciting prospect but such a worrying one at the same time.... I am scared at the thought of a career change massively affecting my upcoming university work... especially as a contract could begin before the academic term is over, meaning I could be doing the final stages of a degree overseas. I thought the best thing to do would be to wise up and get looking at the copy of the module 3 handbook sent to us by Paula. The last thing I want to be doing is deferring my degree for a later stage so I have decided to begin Module 3 off my own back early and pray that I am doing the right thing work wise. The earlier I start the sooner I finish, and in an ideal world I would love to have completed all written work for submission by the time I was to leave to go on a cruise ship.
Over the summer I have had a bit of time to sit down and study my feedback from module 2 that Adesola sent and have now written my module 2 feedback document to send over. I am aiming by the end of August/beginning of September I will have started my critical review and done the introduction and evaluation of my inquiry... also to start thinking of ideas for an artefact.
The artefact is what i am most worried about, I have had a nosey at some of the previous module 3 ideas and don't feel any of those paths are the way I can go with my inquiry so I am feeling a bit stuck when thinking about what to do. I know it is still early days but I worry I will spend too long thinking of what to do for that, that i wont have enough time to do anything else!
Out of all of Module 3 the thing I am least worried about is the oral presentation, I feel working in the industry I work in that I am already quite a good public speaker and good at socialising, hopefully this will make the process of an oral presentation a bit more relaxed than all the written academic work.
To summarise my feelings at this moment in time I can only say I am petrified, worried and stressed. Hopefully this will change throughout my module 3 experience and I will be able to add these thoughts and feelings from my reflective journal into my critical reflection at the end of the module.
I suppose the most positive outcome of the summer is that I now know, and understand what I am submitting at the end of this module, the task now is to just crack on and do it! easier said than done!
It would be great if there are any module 3 people out there still reading these blogs who can put my mind at rest that it is not all bad to feel the way I do, and that deep down there is nothing to worry about if the preparation is there!
Thursday 20 April 2017
Task 6D- DRAFT COMPLETE
It's safe to say module 2 for me has been the hardest journey of education so far! I have faced so many challenges and difficulties, change of minds etc throughout the whole process.
Today I felt a sense of achievement when I finally felt confident to send my draft and forms along with my critical reflection into my tutor! Although I was slightly delayed in sending it and perhaps a little late I still feel I have produced the best work I can so far.
As I anxiously await feedback so I can develop on it I wanted to reflect on how hard the experience has been for me. After module 1 I was certain that module 2 I would dedicate more time on the final submission. I definitely feel this is a target I have achieved, when I began writing my draft at the end of March whilst still completing the other tasks required of me in the module.
The hardest part of the module for me is the freedom we get to explore. I am so structured in life that I found it hard to just pluck out the research from anywhere with the freedom to research into what was most influential and relevant to our current practice.
I'm glad the experience has forced me to face difficult challenges and the whole module has made me more experienced and confident that there isn't a wrong answer or wrong way to do something.....
I wish you all the best of luck in your final drafts and submissions and the next post I write will be when I've submitted the final work! GOOD LUCK!
Today I felt a sense of achievement when I finally felt confident to send my draft and forms along with my critical reflection into my tutor! Although I was slightly delayed in sending it and perhaps a little late I still feel I have produced the best work I can so far.
As I anxiously await feedback so I can develop on it I wanted to reflect on how hard the experience has been for me. After module 1 I was certain that module 2 I would dedicate more time on the final submission. I definitely feel this is a target I have achieved, when I began writing my draft at the end of March whilst still completing the other tasks required of me in the module.
The hardest part of the module for me is the freedom we get to explore. I am so structured in life that I found it hard to just pluck out the research from anywhere with the freedom to research into what was most influential and relevant to our current practice.
I'm glad the experience has forced me to face difficult challenges and the whole module has made me more experienced and confident that there isn't a wrong answer or wrong way to do something.....
I wish you all the best of luck in your final drafts and submissions and the next post I write will be when I've submitted the final work! GOOD LUCK!
Wednesday 12 April 2017
6c- Award Speciality Title
This task put me in two minds, I genuinely had to have a long hard think about my choice for my specialism title.
Firstly I was immediately drawn to Musical Theatre, I have my trinity diploma in the subject so why wouldn't I choose for my degree to go in the same direction? After trying to write my reasons for the chosen title I realised that my future career and current career gain no satisfaction from me choosing musical theatre when I already work in a much more expanded world of arts.
This then lead me on to think about my future career and whether I should be choosing my own title....
Ideas for my own titles were as follows....
Performing Arts in Education
Performing Arts Teaching
Primary Education in Arts
Unsure whether I was allowed these titles I still wanted to list the pros and cons of choosing a speciality title of my own. All the titles I thought of were all based around what I wanted to do in the future, but realistically I wont be starting to do anything around teaching until at least September 2018 for a PGCE so I then realised I needed a title that would benefit me for the year after completion of the degree and also my future career.
I started to do some research into the deeper meaning behind performing arts....
Firstly I was immediately drawn to Musical Theatre, I have my trinity diploma in the subject so why wouldn't I choose for my degree to go in the same direction? After trying to write my reasons for the chosen title I realised that my future career and current career gain no satisfaction from me choosing musical theatre when I already work in a much more expanded world of arts.
This then lead me on to think about my future career and whether I should be choosing my own title....
Ideas for my own titles were as follows....
Performing Arts in Education
Performing Arts Teaching
Primary Education in Arts
Unsure whether I was allowed these titles I still wanted to list the pros and cons of choosing a speciality title of my own. All the titles I thought of were all based around what I wanted to do in the future, but realistically I wont be starting to do anything around teaching until at least September 2018 for a PGCE so I then realised I needed a title that would benefit me for the year after completion of the degree and also my future career.
I started to do some research into the deeper meaning behind performing arts....
The sentence above says it all. Print screened from google definitions. That sentence is the summary of my career now, and the one I want to be involved with in the future. Although I want to be a primary teacher in the standard maths english science etc there would be nothing stopping me specialising in dance classes within a school or drama classes for the older sector. This then made me want to choose the performing arts title. Why wouldn't I go for the one I am going to get the most benefit out of using. Below is the screenshot of my draft for the form I will be sending in for my submission in May.
Informal Trials for Inquiry
I have chosen to do two methods of informal trials to experiment with the tools I have been researching and understanding. From evaulating the tools I chose the Interview and Survey route to do my informal trial on. I also think a focus group is a great tool but hard for me to do an informal trial with my SIG as we all live in different parts of the country!!
Firstly I chose to create a survey using survey monkey. I made this anonymous and created two different ones depending on peoples circumstances. I did one for those who have a performing arts background of any form and I also made one for those without a performing arts background. For the informal trial however because I am testing on my SIG group and people close to me within the BAPP course I am sure the data I end up getting back will all be from the survey I created for those who have a performing arts background....
My aim is to get at least 3 -5 responses for the informal trial as there isn't too many people I can outreach to due to the fact this is just an informal trial for the tools. Below are the links to the two surveys I have created for the two different circumstances.
Performing arts background survey
Non - Performing arts background survey
The second tool I was interested to try is the interview type. This is also a hard tool to informally trial as I want someone to be able to do a face to face interview with so I can also reflect on their behaviour, the way they respond and their body language. I thought the closest thing I could do this with is SKYPE.... I have asked two of my fellow students from my old college and also on module 2 of the course to help me with this..... Sometime this week I am going to interview the both of them separate if I can, if not it will be a focus group situation with the 3 of us, and it will be interesting to see how their body language, facial expressions, tone of voice will differ from the answers they respond with in the survey. If I could it would be interesting to do both the interview separate and the focus group with them both to see if anyone else hearing their answers would make them change what they say. Again I will struggle for the other side of the people I want to interview who haven't had a performing arts background for this informal trial.
I think these informal trials will really help me with the development of my proposal because it will help me learn what I need to do differently and reflect on this in the proposal.
I would really appreciate if anyone within BAPP arts reading my blog could give the surveys a quick go as I would love to see if they work or not.... there is only 7 questions to answer :)
Firstly I chose to create a survey using survey monkey. I made this anonymous and created two different ones depending on peoples circumstances. I did one for those who have a performing arts background of any form and I also made one for those without a performing arts background. For the informal trial however because I am testing on my SIG group and people close to me within the BAPP course I am sure the data I end up getting back will all be from the survey I created for those who have a performing arts background....
My aim is to get at least 3 -5 responses for the informal trial as there isn't too many people I can outreach to due to the fact this is just an informal trial for the tools. Below are the links to the two surveys I have created for the two different circumstances.
Performing arts background survey
Non - Performing arts background survey
The second tool I was interested to try is the interview type. This is also a hard tool to informally trial as I want someone to be able to do a face to face interview with so I can also reflect on their behaviour, the way they respond and their body language. I thought the closest thing I could do this with is SKYPE.... I have asked two of my fellow students from my old college and also on module 2 of the course to help me with this..... Sometime this week I am going to interview the both of them separate if I can, if not it will be a focus group situation with the 3 of us, and it will be interesting to see how their body language, facial expressions, tone of voice will differ from the answers they respond with in the survey. If I could it would be interesting to do both the interview separate and the focus group with them both to see if anyone else hearing their answers would make them change what they say. Again I will struggle for the other side of the people I want to interview who haven't had a performing arts background for this informal trial.
I think these informal trials will really help me with the development of my proposal because it will help me learn what I need to do differently and reflect on this in the proposal.
I would really appreciate if anyone within BAPP arts reading my blog could give the surveys a quick go as I would love to see if they work or not.... there is only 7 questions to answer :)
Tuesday 4 April 2017
6b- Merits and Limits of Tools
Interviews Merits
- False information won't be recorded because you are the one asking the questions and collecting the answers
- I am in control of the questions as the interviewer, I can make them open or closed
- I am able to explain any questions the interviewee may have at the time there and then.
- I can look at body language and behaviour, even have the ability to record with the correct permissions
- I can choose who I interview and control the process of the choosing of people
- I can choose to interview any of the methods mentioned in reader 6.
- able to receive qualitative responses
- The interview is conducted in a private and confidential place unknown to others
Interviews Limits
- It's not an anonymous process because I am there and I know who it is, they may feel shame or embarrassment.
- Time and work schedules make interviews hard to arrange and also limited time to do them in when they are so time consuming
- I- as the interviewer may misunderstand the participants answer, leading to false results
- participants may lie
- I have to consider not to be bias in any questions I ask
Focus Group Merits
- People can participate with each other and not just the person conducting the questions
- A focus group allows for more questions to be developed
- again allows for a qualitative approach of research
Focus Group Limits
- A group of people may make others shy and feel exposed and also in turn a group of people may be too confident and cause tension and make others feel unhappy- causing arguments and producing no honest results
- People may speak over one another so if recording the process data is difficult to collect
- The process is incredibly time consuming
- Hard to get everyone together when we all work in the same department
- It isn't anonymous because everyone is in the room together
Surveys Merits
- produces quantitative data and statistics however allows for qualitative responses aswell
- completely anonymous so people may be more honest
- easy for the participant via the use of Web 2.0 - survey monkey and links on facebook etc
- collaborating data is easy if you use correct platforms to do so
- can collect data of a larger scale so more accuracy and averages
Survey Limits
- participants may leave the qualitative chances to respond blank
- not enough participants may even do it
- quantitative research isn't always the best for small scale enquiries
- the participants may not understand why a question is being asked and I am not there to answer any questions they have
- participants may lie
- behaviour can't be recorded or noticed
Documents Merits
- Able to expand knowledge and not repeat things that have already been studied/ researched
- literature and documents are easy to get hold of
- a good source of evidence to back up your own
Documents Limits
- there may be few resources in your choice of inquiry line
- depends on who the author is and what their conceptions and thoughts were to make the document bias
- incredibly time consuming because you need to find documents of huge significance
I think when it comes to my inquiry that interviews and surveys will become the most beneficial, however the use of documents is something I definitely need to consider as there is more chance for accuracy and evidence!
I'd love to know what all your thoughts and opinions are on the methods and whether I've missed any limits or merits out!
Task 6a- Reader 6
Designing Practitioner Inquiry
'In any inquiry design, importance is placed on the validity of the inquiry' - (Reader 6, pg 6, 2016) This is something I had already thought about in the ethical dimensions, not to ask a question unless it is a valid and relevant one. Using the tool interviews to obtain relevant information for example.
'Another concept, reliability, identifies whether you have carried your inquiry in such a way that will gain consistent results...' (Reader 6, pg 7, 2016) This essentially means that if I am asking similar people who have a performing arts background the same interview questions, am I getting the same results/similar answers from them.
Generalisability is also covered within the reader, will the research have relevance beyond its initial objective? Could I use the research for something else?
The research of the inquiry can be taken in two different ways, one being the qualitative, using participants views as a basis for the inquiry and the other being quantitative, using a more scientific paradigm, producing statistical data.
The qualitative researcher must be aware of their own biases and the qualitative research is less likely to be used futher than its original objective (generalisability).
The quantitative researcher is usesful to produce averages but on a small scale inquiry perhaps isnt as reliable?
Data Collection Tools
Observations- Conducting an observation allows you to watch and record/analyse an event, for example noticing behaviour of participants, observations ethically would mean the participants would have to know they were being observed but then does this in turn cmake them act differently. The situation of an observation at my workplace would be if the production manager was to come and watch a day of work , would we deliver the entertainment any different to our guests knowing we were being watched?
Interviews- Interviewing is a qualitative tool where you collect what people say. Interviews can be conducted in many ways, face to face, skype, telephone etc. It allows the questions to be asked , their responses can be used as data in the end result. There are a number of different methods of interviewing...open interviews( the interviewee speaks freely), semi structured (questions set by the interviewer are answered), narrative (a story telling format), informal/guided (covers topics but no set questions) Yes/no answers are closed questions, and open questions allow the participants to give their own interpretation.
Focus Groups- Essentially a group interview but they have interaction with the participants rather than just the interviewer. The atmosphere can open up new questions that you perhaps didnt think of but are very relevant to your inquiry. Shy personalities don't work in situations like this and likewise a group of performers would all be very opinionated strong confident characters so may create tension.
Surveys/ Questionaires- a survey for the participants is relatively an easy thing, low response rates will lower the validity of an inquiry. Web based surveys are becoming increasingly popular. They are a quantitative approach to research however open questions can invite a qualitative answer.
Looking at documents- gathering documents and analysing them can play a vital part to an inquiry, data collection is based on docments of various kinds. Journals/diaries are a qualitative approach whereas documents with existing research would be a quantitative approach. Reader 6 gives a good way of analysing a document and I will use the questions from the reader when looking at documents in the inquiry process.
Looking at all the inquiry tools I think the most useful for me would be an interview and survey situation. I would love to be able to do a focus group but I do think a group of confident entertainers will not be the best way to conduct some research, whereas individually, although time consuming I can get more detailed results. Surveys are also something I want to be able to conduct as I feel that the research doesn't have to be in my workplace, it can be any individual. Perhaps creating a survey with some qualitative approaches will help develop questions I can use in an interview situation.
My next stage of development is asking members of my SIG community some of the questions I am coming up with for my surveys etc. It would be interesting to know your thoughts and ideas on what tools you think are the best approaches for your inquires.
Sunday 2 April 2017
Interesting articles....
It's been a huge blog catch up day for me today! The past week I have found some interesting articles I think you could all enjoy reading if you are on a similar line of inquiry to myself! I am also sharing these with members of the SIG group I am a part of...
The first is a blog I came across asking 'Do we need art in our lives' It wasnt the article that interested me it was the question posed, the article allowed people to comment blog style and it is the comments that created the most interest for me! If you scroll down to the bottom many people have commented with their thoughts and opinions and it is great to see thoughts and opinions from people away from the BAPP arts course....
The second was a recent article posted on the guardian relating to Prince George and his ballet lessons he will be taking at his school in September.
Another I came across was an older post from Washington Post, discussing how children can develop certain skills from performing arts, what interested me was that most of the skills it stated on the article I felt I have and do include on documents like a Curriculam Vitae. Do you guys feel the same?
Working with the over 60's is something I come across in my place of work and teaching dance classes really brings to life the positives it has on their life... this article definitely shows my thoughts and opinions on the arts and aging are shared....
Some other articles I came across also discuss the positives of performing arts and the life skills it can give us.....The social benefits it gives us, and why people like performing arts...
I also found some controversial articles to the performing arts benefiting us and our lives
5d - Ethical Dimensions of Inquiry
Because I am using individuals for my inquiry I need to consider the ethical dimensions of this, especially when it comes to interviews and surveys, most of which I will be using for the purpose of my inquiry. I also want to use participants CV's to analyse against the interviews I have with them. This is using their personal data so I have to consider this too...... The main ethical issues I will face are as follows. I still want to be able to discuss with the SIG groups I am a part of to see if they feel the same way with their inquries.
Interview Questions- The questions I develop need to have relevance to my inquiry, there is no point asking pointless questions that I wont use. Consequentialism, do not ask a question unless the question will beenfit the greater good, in this case the greater good is the inquiry. My aim is not to offend any participants either nor be bias in my questions.
The Inquiry itself- I want to be able to use the information form provided to give to participants so they know exactly what this research is and why it's happening. I also hope to use this form to give them the understanding that they may benefit from the inquiry too.
Keeping Data/results- There are many factors that will come into this, I was looking at the ethics release form and I never even thought about having to store my results in a safe way with passwords etc! Any info on the computer and any recordings I will be saving into a file that isnt linked with any of my shared devices or shared networks like onedrive etc.... Any written data and hard copies I will keep in a folder locked away in privacy. Once I have used all of my findings and the inquiry is finished I will dispose of all information.
Consent- I will need to get consent off the individuals themselves to be able to use their Cv's and any recordings etc, this is at their own discretion and obviously they don't have to let me. The same goes for taking part in any interviews etc, there is no forcing them to answer any questions they dont want to.
Morals- There are some ethical morals I believe come into play with the inquiry as well, I need to make sure I deliver my interviews etc with confidence but at the same time respect and also make sure the interviewee themselves are comfortable and happy.
Interview Questions- The questions I develop need to have relevance to my inquiry, there is no point asking pointless questions that I wont use. Consequentialism, do not ask a question unless the question will beenfit the greater good, in this case the greater good is the inquiry. My aim is not to offend any participants either nor be bias in my questions.
The Inquiry itself- I want to be able to use the information form provided to give to participants so they know exactly what this research is and why it's happening. I also hope to use this form to give them the understanding that they may benefit from the inquiry too.
Keeping Data/results- There are many factors that will come into this, I was looking at the ethics release form and I never even thought about having to store my results in a safe way with passwords etc! Any info on the computer and any recordings I will be saving into a file that isnt linked with any of my shared devices or shared networks like onedrive etc.... Any written data and hard copies I will keep in a folder locked away in privacy. Once I have used all of my findings and the inquiry is finished I will dispose of all information.
Consent- I will need to get consent off the individuals themselves to be able to use their Cv's and any recordings etc, this is at their own discretion and obviously they don't have to let me. The same goes for taking part in any interviews etc, there is no forcing them to answer any questions they dont want to.
Morals- There are some ethical morals I believe come into play with the inquiry as well, I need to make sure I deliver my interviews etc with confidence but at the same time respect and also make sure the interviewee themselves are comfortable and happy.
Development of my professional inquiry
Because I have been looking into the learning process for both children and adults for my inquiry I have been asking myself a lot of questions throughout the research process. These questions are controversial to my thoughts on my inquiry questionfor module 2 so I thought the best way to stop the confusing thoughts in my head is to blog the questions and try and answer them.
Ive realised that the question I am basing my inquiry around is a factual one.... I don't want to come out with a factual answer.... I want to explore and find out the controversial answers. This lead me on to think about my own career and how I have got to here...
What I have so far been interested in is the way adults and children learn through performing arts, the experience I have at work with teaching adults dance and fitness and singing workshops is endless but the experience I have with children lacks.... I moved on in the inquiry process to just focus on adults but then when I was reading the literature I requested and searching online for ideas and speaking to guests about how they learn when I am teaching I began to feel somewhat bored of the topic. I then realised an inquiry is never going to be good when I feel bored of researching the results. I want to have something I feel passionate about. - The answer is right in front of my eyes.... My career.....
I love performing arts, the question is, has performing arts enhanced my life experience? Has it made me a better person, does it make people better performers, does it enhance our skill set as people? I believe researching my intial thoughts on an inquiry - How do adults and children learn through performing arts?... has lead me to want to research more into how has the learning process through perfoming arts enhanced my life.
With all these thoughts in my head I have spent the last week frantically searching the internet for things to help me develop this. The answers are all in front of my eyes..... I work with a team who primarily trained in performing arts, some havent but most have, I speak to guests everyday who have previously studied performing arts in their life, I work with both sides of the spectrum.. the people who haven't done any performing arts and the people who have! Why don't I use these people to develop the questions I am truly interested in.
I dont see this change of inquiry a failure, I see it only as a developement, at the end of the day the research from the previous inquiry ideas I had have lead me onto this.....
DOES PERFORMING ARTS BENEFIT US FOR OUR FUTURE?
DOES PERFORMING ARTS ENHANCE LIFE EXPERIENCE?
DOES A BACKGROUND OF PERFORMING ARTS MAKE YOU A MORE SKILLED INDIVIDUAL?
all these thoughts going through my head on this have made me excited to begin my proposal, and all the thoughts I am feeling now are ones I can review and reflect on in my critcal reflection on the process of module 2.
Whilst I am on the topic of module 2 and my development I have also taken the decision to delete my SIG group and just focus on the ones I am members of, this is because there hasn't been any development on the one that I made, no comments from others and no discussions whereas I am feeling more involved with the ones I am a part of and feel the discussions through those groups have also played a huge part in the development and changes in my inquiry. The sig group eleanor created - performing arts in education has really interested me with some of the articles that have been published on there and I feel I can now use these articles in the inquiry I am moving forward with.
I would love to know your thoughts on my situation and whether I'm feeling the right things and if you guys have had any fundamental development changes to your inquiry like I have.
Job change at work!
The reason I am sharing this with you all is because I believe ethics will play a huge part in the process. I have already been dance captain for a while, therefore I know the role, I know how I like to deliver the ways I do my job and I have my own way of doing things. By giving this to somebody else I have to accept that there will be changes to the process. I have to respect the fact I didn't want the role anymore and the new dance captain will have their own ways of doing things and it is not for me to comment on the way they do this.
My personal morals should come into this - respect etc which then in turn makes me a professional within the team and then this makes my organisation a happy one to work in. Being a professional is putting behind me what I did as dance captain and letting the new one take charge- even if some of the things I don't agree with.
Consequentialism is the best way to move forward with this, do not say anything unless it benefits the greater good of our team, this respectful character that I choose to be then makes my actions respectful also making me a virtue ethicist.
I am excited at the new prospects the change of role will give me and feel I will have a lot more time and dedication to focus on my degree as well.
5c- Professional Ethics
After studying Reader 5 it has provided me with a lot of information that I feel are relevant to the development of my professional inquiry. I feel out of all the topics this is the one I am struggling most with and it cam to light in Reader 5 that my thoughts are correct - 'Ethics is frequently not a case of black and white' (Reader 5 pg7, 2016)
The Reader covers 3 areas of ethics- PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL.
I believe in order to conduct yourself professionally, the personal morals have to be set which can then develop into your organisation.
In my place of work the way I am as a person in turn reflects the way I conduct my rehersals in a professional manner which then in turn affects the organisation I work in. The whole effect is like a ripple, the inner part of the circle is my morals, the middle ring is the professional and the outer the organisational. They all flow into one another.
I like image shown in the reader to represent this ripple effect.
Dentology and Virtue ethics differ from the theory above and the easiest way I understood these was to apply them to the Case Study 2 in the reader.... the outcome below is what I came to...
Case Study 2 as a consequentialist- The photographer should of only taken the photo if it maximised the good of others.... but did it? He won a prize for the photograph and did people enjoy his photo? By doing what he did I dont believe he maximised the good of others.... the girl died... he died? where was the positives in the outcome other than the prize?
Case Study 2 as a dentologist- The photographer was wrong... good will is not leaving the child to die....in this theory good will is always right.
Case Study 3 as a virtue ethicist- I believe the case study is controversial with this ethical framework... his character at first seemed selfish as he left the child to die and only focused on the photo and his career developing. But proof at the end proved his character was not selfish.. the guilt he felt only showed his character to be a caring one. His character was as important as the action in the end of this study.
There are many controversial arguments in the framework of ethics where the employers expectations, professional code and personal ethics all interlink with one another and can cause dispute.
Descriptive ethics provide a description of the reasons behind moral choices, it states what the case is.
Normative ethics examine the principles people use when they make moral choices. It raises more questions than descriptive ethics.
Ethical Arguments - Is there another way of seeing the situation? This is something I like to do when considering a situation that I don't know if I have done wrong or right. I would like to be able to apply this approach if a problem was to arise in my inquiry.
The whole reader has educated me to a higher level on the theory of ethics and the deeper morals behind them. I feel now I can apply ethics to my inquiry with the confidence I have the understanding of what they are.
The Reader covers 3 areas of ethics- PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL.
I believe in order to conduct yourself professionally, the personal morals have to be set which can then develop into your organisation.
In my place of work the way I am as a person in turn reflects the way I conduct my rehersals in a professional manner which then in turn affects the organisation I work in. The whole effect is like a ripple, the inner part of the circle is my morals, the middle ring is the professional and the outer the organisational. They all flow into one another.
I like image shown in the reader to represent this ripple effect.
I found the theoretical approach of consequentialism interesting- 'an act is morally right if, and only if, that act maximises the good' (Reader 5 pg 9, 2016) Working in the entertainment industry this rings true... I will only ever do something if it needs to be done. Telling my team that one of our shows was terrible wouldnt be maximising the good, telling my team that our show was amazing but we have a few things to work on would benefit them more than delivering a negative approach.
Dentology and Virtue ethics differ from the theory above and the easiest way I understood these was to apply them to the Case Study 2 in the reader.... the outcome below is what I came to...
Case Study 2 as a consequentialist- The photographer should of only taken the photo if it maximised the good of others.... but did it? He won a prize for the photograph and did people enjoy his photo? By doing what he did I dont believe he maximised the good of others.... the girl died... he died? where was the positives in the outcome other than the prize?
Case Study 2 as a dentologist- The photographer was wrong... good will is not leaving the child to die....in this theory good will is always right.
Case Study 3 as a virtue ethicist- I believe the case study is controversial with this ethical framework... his character at first seemed selfish as he left the child to die and only focused on the photo and his career developing. But proof at the end proved his character was not selfish.. the guilt he felt only showed his character to be a caring one. His character was as important as the action in the end of this study.
There are many controversial arguments in the framework of ethics where the employers expectations, professional code and personal ethics all interlink with one another and can cause dispute.
Descriptive ethics provide a description of the reasons behind moral choices, it states what the case is.
Normative ethics examine the principles people use when they make moral choices. It raises more questions than descriptive ethics.
Ethical Arguments - Is there another way of seeing the situation? This is something I like to do when considering a situation that I don't know if I have done wrong or right. I would like to be able to apply this approach if a problem was to arise in my inquiry.
The whole reader has educated me to a higher level on the theory of ethics and the deeper morals behind them. I feel now I can apply ethics to my inquiry with the confidence I have the understanding of what they are.
Tuesday 21 March 2017
Library Requests
To hopefully try and finalise what I want my title of my proposal to be I have requested some books from the library to read sections of and develop my thoughts on my proposal. I am still torn between whether I want to look at the learning process as we age or really aim in on the learning process for adults. Hopefully these literature requests will really help me gain more knowledge on certain aspects of what I am looking into :)
Ethical Values- Task 5b
After thinking through what ethical values and morals may apply to my role as an entertainer in the hotel industry I have been doing some more research into codes of conducts and what is actually expected of us here at Warner Leisure Hotels.
'A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norms and rules and responsibilities of, or proper practices for, an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical, honor, moral codes and religious laws.'A code of conduct lays out an organization's expectations and guiding principles for appropriate workplace behaviour.'
I took the above statements from various sites when researching codes of conducts. After some research I found some information internally for my own workplace's conducts.
Warner Leisure Hotels is underneath the umbrella of 'Bourne Leisure' along with 'Butlin's' and 'Haven' etc. I went back to my training handbooks and researched what codes of conducts applied. What was of most interest was the mission statement....'Maintain the integrity of the company and it's brand' 'Lead it's employees towards excellence, recognize achievement and provide opportunities to develop careers' 'Provide services and products which enable the maximum number of families to enjoy a holiday'.
A lot of the handbook talks about a lot of what I thought was expected of me and a lot of topics are covered within it. All team members are given one of these at the start of their training.
Social Media is covered
Gross Misconduct is talked about a lot in the handbook
Respect and Honesty
Timekeeping
Uniform
Anti Harassment
Equality and Diversity (Bourne Leisure pride themselves on the fact they are a diverse employer)
Data Protection
Safeguarding
One thing that really helps deliver morals within the work place is our 'Strategy Wheel'
Posted below it really helps put into light what are the moral principals of how we work in a team and treat our guests. What is interesting is that this wheel applies to all roles within our hotel.
'A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norms and rules and responsibilities of, or proper practices for, an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical, honor, moral codes and religious laws.'A code of conduct lays out an organization's expectations and guiding principles for appropriate workplace behaviour.'
I took the above statements from various sites when researching codes of conducts. After some research I found some information internally for my own workplace's conducts.
Warner Leisure Hotels is underneath the umbrella of 'Bourne Leisure' along with 'Butlin's' and 'Haven' etc. I went back to my training handbooks and researched what codes of conducts applied. What was of most interest was the mission statement....'Maintain the integrity of the company and it's brand' 'Lead it's employees towards excellence, recognize achievement and provide opportunities to develop careers' 'Provide services and products which enable the maximum number of families to enjoy a holiday'.
A lot of the handbook talks about a lot of what I thought was expected of me and a lot of topics are covered within it. All team members are given one of these at the start of their training.
Social Media is covered
Gross Misconduct is talked about a lot in the handbook
Respect and Honesty
Timekeeping
Uniform
Anti Harassment
Equality and Diversity (Bourne Leisure pride themselves on the fact they are a diverse employer)
Data Protection
Safeguarding
One thing that really helps deliver morals within the work place is our 'Strategy Wheel'
Posted below it really helps put into light what are the moral principals of how we work in a team and treat our guests. What is interesting is that this wheel applies to all roles within our hotel.
When looking at my inquiry it will be interesting to see what ethical morals relate from my workplace and I am just starting to look at the forms this week within the module so my next blog will be on those!
I am planning to get my proposal plan started next week so I have a good few weeks before I can send in my draft. My critical reflection is something I want to wait until I have done a little more researching and planning as I feel it needs to include more of the end experience of the module.
I also want to be able to get more discussions going on my SIG so I want to focus my time on that this week so I can get lots of feedback for ethical values of my proposal for task 5d :)
Ethics in My Workplace - 5a
Unfortunately I have been so busy with work lately I haven't managed to blog in a while! But I had has some drafts of posts and they just needed finishing so lots of publishing of the posts is occurring today!
Working in Entertainment within a Hospitality Environment opens up ethical issues in the workplace! Effectively I have have the correct ethical standards from both a hotel environment, and an entertainment environment.
My Job role as a Dance Captain effectively has so many main responibilities:
1: to host teach/ dance classes and other fun activities to resident guests
2: to teach shows to team and hold rehearsals re-teaching
3: to look after our guests to my best ability
4: as an entertainer I am also a zumba instructor and also work reception at the hotel to have responsibilities checking in guests, emailing artists that perform here.....
THE ETHICAL MORALS ARE ENDLESS however I am going to look specifically at my role as an entertainer!
When teaching the team into shows it is important I don't patronize and make sure that I am giving everyone the equal chance of learning the choreography before I decide if it is of a good standard to perform on stage. Everyone has different needs when learning things and I have to understand this.
Entertainment can be a very competitive career to be involved with and again it is important I don't let the competitive mannerisms slide into my way of working with everybody and to make sure I am being fair and treating everyone of the same value.
Socializing with guests is a huge responsibility I take on here as a performer... Guests can tell me private information about their lives and it is so important I am wary not to share this with others. Guests names etc. It is imperative to give them respect. The same goes for when I am teaching guest activities.... We have social networking sites to promote some of our activities and again it is imperative I ask permission off all guests if pictures can be published on sites like instagram etc.
Because my career allows me to be very personal and friendly with guests it is also important I don't do the same for my information and only tell them what I want to and what I wouldn't be afraid to tell anyone else. Private information, contact details is a NO NO however occasionally with very regular guests we make exceptions as they become more of a friend than a guest. Our relationships with guests can really change from a working relationship to one of a friendship.
Plagiarism is a big thing when using quizzes and crosswords etc. The materials we use for quizzes and things we deliver to our guests have to be checked and made sure they are not copyright.
A huge part of our job is also PASSION. Although not necessarily classed as an ethical code of conduct it is more of an ethical moral expected of the company. You have to love what you do in order for our guests to love it.
I have created a spider diagram of ethical and moral values based on my own thoughts and I am going to compare it with the researched ethical values when looking at Task 5b.
Working in Entertainment within a Hospitality Environment opens up ethical issues in the workplace! Effectively I have have the correct ethical standards from both a hotel environment, and an entertainment environment.
My Job role as a Dance Captain effectively has so many main responibilities:
1: to host teach/ dance classes and other fun activities to resident guests
2: to teach shows to team and hold rehearsals re-teaching
3: to look after our guests to my best ability
4: as an entertainer I am also a zumba instructor and also work reception at the hotel to have responsibilities checking in guests, emailing artists that perform here.....
THE ETHICAL MORALS ARE ENDLESS however I am going to look specifically at my role as an entertainer!
When teaching the team into shows it is important I don't patronize and make sure that I am giving everyone the equal chance of learning the choreography before I decide if it is of a good standard to perform on stage. Everyone has different needs when learning things and I have to understand this.
Entertainment can be a very competitive career to be involved with and again it is important I don't let the competitive mannerisms slide into my way of working with everybody and to make sure I am being fair and treating everyone of the same value.
Socializing with guests is a huge responsibility I take on here as a performer... Guests can tell me private information about their lives and it is so important I am wary not to share this with others. Guests names etc. It is imperative to give them respect. The same goes for when I am teaching guest activities.... We have social networking sites to promote some of our activities and again it is imperative I ask permission off all guests if pictures can be published on sites like instagram etc.
Because my career allows me to be very personal and friendly with guests it is also important I don't do the same for my information and only tell them what I want to and what I wouldn't be afraid to tell anyone else. Private information, contact details is a NO NO however occasionally with very regular guests we make exceptions as they become more of a friend than a guest. Our relationships with guests can really change from a working relationship to one of a friendship.
Plagiarism is a big thing when using quizzes and crosswords etc. The materials we use for quizzes and things we deliver to our guests have to be checked and made sure they are not copyright.
A huge part of our job is also PASSION. Although not necessarily classed as an ethical code of conduct it is more of an ethical moral expected of the company. You have to love what you do in order for our guests to love it.
I have created a spider diagram of ethical and moral values based on my own thoughts and I am going to compare it with the researched ethical values when looking at Task 5b.
Monday 13 March 2017
Exciting Prospects...
Yesterday I officially completed my Zumba Instructor training to be able to teach Zumba and also a speciality programme of Zumba Gold....
What I took away from the day was great! As most people have heard of zumba the fast paced latin dance fitness class I won't explain it all but specialising in the Gold Programme aswell was a highlight for me purely because I work with the older generation of people at my current job with Warner Leisure Hotels and essentially I gained two licenses.... one for active fit young people, the other a class of less impact for those people of an older stage, those people who are beginners and those people who may have any disabilities- mentally or physically.
One other plus to the completion of the course is I can now go and take a course to teach zumba kids.... helping me push my teaching career to get into schools even further.
The reason I'm writing this blog is to talk about the learning experience for how we compared teaching a normal fast paced zumba to a slower paced zumba built for people of an older age.
- COMMUNICATION: In zumba Gold verbal and non verbal cues are used for the choreography, things are broken down slower.. whereas in the other zumba there are no verbal cues and no breaking down of choreo.
- MOTIVATION: the motivation for zumba gold seemed to be at a higher level
- SOCIAL: we were explained that most zumba gold participants are there for the social, dedicating your time to them is of a big importance, whereas the other class are mainly here for one reason - to get fit and they have places to go and things to do after.
- USE OF SONGS: older guests are more experienced through life... their favourite songs arent played as much anymore.... zumba gold relives their youth all over again whereas current zumba we use a lot more current material.
- STYLE: most of zumba gold guests are baby boomers: they want to relive the rock n roll days, the swing days, we do that through zumba gold. #
There were plenty of other things I took from the day but I wanted to be able to use this as experience as one for my inquiry, I am now going to experience teaching a mature adult vs a younger adult... it will be interesting to see the differences and use the differences as evidence perhaps for my inquiry.
I became a member of the ZIN network and I can't wait to wear this funky top I got! ;) I might even think about making a small career on the side with it when I leave my job in entertainment.
Literature 3 - Pedagogy vs Andragogy
LONG POST ALERT
I have been looking into just the sector of Adult Learning for some more Literature.... WHERE TO START?! There are just endless amounts of it! I came across 3 websites all of which have their own reasons as to why/how adults learn....I have copied in the articles as well as attaching the sites they are from....
Opinions are definitely accountable for most of the literature in this post that I have attached and I would be interested to host a survey on how many adults believe in it.
One thing that certainly springs out of the literature is Adult experience... They have their own mind. I think the below 5 statements about adult learning are so relevant to my inquiry because if I don't know the reasons behind why adults learn a certain way I can't inquire about the best way to teach them.
1. Adults have a wealth of experience to draw on, and like to do so. There needs to be opportunities for adults to connect learning to their own unique personal or work situations, and opportunities for them to personalise the learning in this regard.
2. Adults aren’t used to taking direction in education like children are. Children learn because they are told to learn things that will have some relevance in the distant future and will do so without questioning why. Whereas adults need to be explicitly told what they are doing and why so they can connect the desired learning outcomes to their own goals and progress.
3. Adults need specific opportunities to self-reflect and internalize their learning. Children are more social in classroom settings than adults and talk to each other about their experience. Adults need to be offered these opportunities to reflect on new learning or else they won’t internalize and retain as much information.
4. Adults have preconceived notions about education, learning styles and subject matter. They prefer to learn a certain way, even if it is not the most conducive to their individual needs. Unlike adults, children will try most new tasks and see them through, regardless of how well they do. To overcome this adult learning barrier, we need to appeal to many different learning styles and present information in a variety of ways.
5. Adults are (often) afraid to fail. Children don’t have the same social filters and are more willing to experiment. Adult learning needs to be scaffolded (built on in small pieces and supported with extra learning) or they risk losing their intrinsic motivation and focus.
http://learnkit.com/2016/01/13/adult-learning-needs/
http://www.ccu.edu/blogs/cags/2011/10/how-adults-learn-compared-to-younger-learners/
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/awesome-chart-on-pedagogy-vs-andragogy.html
I have been looking into just the sector of Adult Learning for some more Literature.... WHERE TO START?! There are just endless amounts of it! I came across 3 websites all of which have their own reasons as to why/how adults learn....I have copied in the articles as well as attaching the sites they are from....
Opinions are definitely accountable for most of the literature in this post that I have attached and I would be interested to host a survey on how many adults believe in it.
One thing that certainly springs out of the literature is Adult experience... They have their own mind. I think the below 5 statements about adult learning are so relevant to my inquiry because if I don't know the reasons behind why adults learn a certain way I can't inquire about the best way to teach them.
1. Adults have a wealth of experience to draw on, and like to do so. There needs to be opportunities for adults to connect learning to their own unique personal or work situations, and opportunities for them to personalise the learning in this regard.
2. Adults aren’t used to taking direction in education like children are. Children learn because they are told to learn things that will have some relevance in the distant future and will do so without questioning why. Whereas adults need to be explicitly told what they are doing and why so they can connect the desired learning outcomes to their own goals and progress.
3. Adults need specific opportunities to self-reflect and internalize their learning. Children are more social in classroom settings than adults and talk to each other about their experience. Adults need to be offered these opportunities to reflect on new learning or else they won’t internalize and retain as much information.
4. Adults have preconceived notions about education, learning styles and subject matter. They prefer to learn a certain way, even if it is not the most conducive to their individual needs. Unlike adults, children will try most new tasks and see them through, regardless of how well they do. To overcome this adult learning barrier, we need to appeal to many different learning styles and present information in a variety of ways.
5. Adults are (often) afraid to fail. Children don’t have the same social filters and are more willing to experiment. Adult learning needs to be scaffolded (built on in small pieces and supported with extra learning) or they risk losing their intrinsic motivation and focus.
http://learnkit.com/2016/01/13/adult-learning-needs/
- Adults are self-directed learners, whereas younger students are adult-dependent learners. The traditional learning model naturally requires that children depend upon adults for the next lesson, the next assignment, and the next subject matter. Adult learning turns this paradigm on its head, by making the study of most subjects a self-directed endeavor. For the adult learner, less structure and oversight is required by the educator.
- Adults challenge new information, but younger students implicitly accept it. We’d have a problem on our hands if our nine-year old students questioned the legitimacy of their multiplication tables, or were skeptical about the spherical shape of the earth. For adult students, however, skepticism is part of the path to learning. It’s not just expected; it’s encouraged. The way that adults learn best is by challenging new ideas, comparing them to preconceived notions, life lessons, and other information, thereby cementing the new information into their minds.
- Adults pursue education with immediate application and relevance, whereas younger students simply engage in education without a clear sense of direction. It’s obvious that a fifth-grader hasn’t pegged his career path, thereby applying his geography lesson to his future job as an airline pilot. By contrast, most adults are already well into their career path. Thus, their education has immediate application to their daily life. Being able to walk from the classroom into the office makes one’s education truly applicable. For this reason, adults enter degree programs and areas of education that will immediately enhance their career, meet their needs, or solve their current problems. For the adult, education is relevant.
- Adults accept responsibility for their own learning, whereas younger students attribute educational responsibility to a parent or guardian. How adults learn is how adults live—according to their responsibility. After a childhood or teen years of dependency, the adult must now make his or her own decisions, even in education. Thus, the adult student will accept the responsibility—pass or fail—for his or her education and learning
The Table above is a Tool that compares an adult learner and a child learner.... This is a chart I am going to create in my next blog to show the differences between my classes of adults and children through performing arts, comparison tools are the best for visualising what areas need researching.
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/05/awesome-chart-on-pedagogy-vs-andragogy.html
Literature 2
The second piece of Literature I am going to analyse is 'Do Children and Adults Learn Differently?' by Deanna Kuhn and Maria Pease.
This piece of writing is definitely relevant to my inquiry if not on the very same lines of my inquiry so I needed to see how far the topic got explored as there wouldn't of been a point in doing an inquiry of a similar nature to one that has already been proven. The literature stated that the inquiry had been abandoned when the interest declined....
This piece of literature shows a study/ inquiry very different to something I am interested in but I want to focus more on the teaching differences than the retention rates. Perhaps my inquiry should be pushing more along the performing arts side of teaching rather than just general. Reading this article has shown me that the subject of just learning in general is far too big to break down for an inquiry.
The inquiry written in the literature is based on a case study experiment.
http://www.mx1.educationforthinking.org/sites/default/files/pdf/04-04DoChildrenAndAdultsLearnDifferently.pdf
This piece of writing is definitely relevant to my inquiry if not on the very same lines of my inquiry so I needed to see how far the topic got explored as there wouldn't of been a point in doing an inquiry of a similar nature to one that has already been proven. The literature stated that the inquiry had been abandoned when the interest declined....
This piece of literature shows a study/ inquiry very different to something I am interested in but I want to focus more on the teaching differences than the retention rates. Perhaps my inquiry should be pushing more along the performing arts side of teaching rather than just general. Reading this article has shown me that the subject of just learning in general is far too big to break down for an inquiry.
The inquiry written in the literature is based on a case study experiment.
http://www.mx1.educationforthinking.org/sites/default/files/pdf/04-04DoChildrenAndAdultsLearnDifferently.pdf
Literature 1 - Task 4c
Task 4d requires us to find out some literature and review it according to the topic we have chosen to research more about.....
The first piece of literature I want to talk about that I found whilst researching into adult learning was 'The cone of Learning' the article I read includes the history of the cone of learning to how we see it today and why it is perhaps misconceived......I printed it off and annotated what I thought were relevant points to my studies of how we the learning process changes as we age.The literature has also pointed me in the direction of some other interesting sources I wish to have a read of.
Before reading this article I had heard of the 'cone of learning' or the 'pyramid of learning' and I thought what an amazing image to show that maybe we all learn the same even as we age. The article has completely changed my opinion and created an argument in my head as to whether it is the same at all has certainly proved that not all the numbers are 100 percent accurate. It's opened my mind to explore whether we should be even using the image now to visually show our learning retention. When I realised how the current image we see today has been misconstrued from previous images by 'Edgar Dale' I can see how we were originally supposed to understand the image as 'The Cone of Experience' As the piece of writing states there is actually 'no conclusive evidence to back up the average retention rates' down the side of the new image produced by others since 'Edgar Dale's' first image. Instead as stated in the article 'Dale did not value one mode over another, but argued for a wide variety of modes depending on context'
I believe the article is very relevant to my inquiry as I was going to use the image as a big piece of evidence to show that maybe all ages through learning do have a large connection. This literature questions it may not! I can still use this visual representation but need to remember to try and find proven information when doing my inquiry
Shown below is the link to the article
http://acrlog.org/tag/learning-theories/
The first piece of literature I want to talk about that I found whilst researching into adult learning was 'The cone of Learning' the article I read includes the history of the cone of learning to how we see it today and why it is perhaps misconceived......I printed it off and annotated what I thought were relevant points to my studies of how we the learning process changes as we age.The literature has also pointed me in the direction of some other interesting sources I wish to have a read of.
Before reading this article I had heard of the 'cone of learning' or the 'pyramid of learning' and I thought what an amazing image to show that maybe we all learn the same even as we age. The article has completely changed my opinion and created an argument in my head as to whether it is the same at all has certainly proved that not all the numbers are 100 percent accurate. It's opened my mind to explore whether we should be even using the image now to visually show our learning retention. When I realised how the current image we see today has been misconstrued from previous images by 'Edgar Dale' I can see how we were originally supposed to understand the image as 'The Cone of Experience' As the piece of writing states there is actually 'no conclusive evidence to back up the average retention rates' down the side of the new image produced by others since 'Edgar Dale's' first image. Instead as stated in the article 'Dale did not value one mode over another, but argued for a wide variety of modes depending on context'
I believe the article is very relevant to my inquiry as I was going to use the image as a big piece of evidence to show that maybe all ages through learning do have a large connection. This literature questions it may not! I can still use this visual representation but need to remember to try and find proven information when doing my inquiry
Shown below is the link to the article
http://acrlog.org/tag/learning-theories/
Monday 6 March 2017
Literature
One thing I have done this week is focus on literature on the MDX Library, I have registered as a distance learner on there so I am able to request books to be sent to me that I want to read and use as sources. Doing this has created an extra resource for me to use to find literature other than online as my local library doesn't really stock much in terms of specialist subject books.....
I recommend anyone on the course struggling to find literature to get online and get registered with MDX for distant! It's free and you only have to pay postage fee to send them back. This week I am going to be requesting literature to help me with my ethics side of Module 2 :)
More blogs to follow of written up annotations of some interesting literature I have found into my line of inquiry! |I will also be sharing this with my SIG. Stay Tuned!!!
I recommend anyone on the course struggling to find literature to get online and get registered with MDX for distant! It's free and you only have to pay postage fee to send them back. This week I am going to be requesting literature to help me with my ethics side of Module 2 :)
More blogs to follow of written up annotations of some interesting literature I have found into my line of inquiry! |I will also be sharing this with my SIG. Stay Tuned!!!
Thursday 2 March 2017
My own SIG
I have created a special interest group for people interested in how we learn....
Now that I have a direction to go with a topic inquiry, I want to start getting more information and using this to develop my inquiry further.
I have chosen to study how everyone learns... through different age groups and also perhaps how a style of learner can develop through age....
I ask that anyone interested in primary education or teaching of any form could join this group and have discussions about how different ages learn best and how we teach different subjects best etc?
I created the group on google communities and would love as many people to join as possible!
https://plus.google.com/communities/112879565805875881970
Thankyou!
Now that I have a direction to go with a topic inquiry, I want to start getting more information and using this to develop my inquiry further.
I have chosen to study how everyone learns... through different age groups and also perhaps how a style of learner can develop through age....
I ask that anyone interested in primary education or teaching of any form could join this group and have discussions about how different ages learn best and how we teach different subjects best etc?
I created the group on google communities and would love as many people to join as possible!
https://plus.google.com/communities/112879565805875881970
Thankyou!
Tuesday 28 February 2017
1-1 with Adesola
Today I had a 1-1 skype chat with Adesola. The session answered some of the big questions I had!
Firstly I was worried that I was moving too far away from my practice and focusing too much on what I want to do as a future career. Adesola confirmed that my ideas were still within my practice as I am a performer.
One of my main topics of inquiry was 'The transition from Performer to Teacher' I thought this a too general subject. Adesola explained that finding depth to this general subject using ethics and tools would help me define this topic of inquiry. One interesting way to visualise this was that my inquiry was a piece of clay.... the tools and the ethics were the knife and spatula... therefore I use the 'knife' and 'spatula' to mould my inquiry into something more defined. I can't define the inquiry before finding the depth.
This was something I was definitely doing, I was trying to find an answer to my inquiry question before I go ahead and search for knowledge and use the tools and ethics to gain depth.
Another question I had was finding the SIG groups, did I have to create one or as long as I was a part of one is that all that I need to help me find the information and ideas I want to find,,, Adesola explained that the sig groups is about finding keywords... for example a big keyword for the general topic above would be the career change of a performer. - There is a fantastic book called 'Exit Stage Right' by Ciara Pressler that is made for performers unsure of where their career change is taking them or unsure of what they want to do....
After having another look at all my previous notes of topics etc. I have decided I am going to collaborate all the ideas I had around education and those within my practice to use my tools and ethics to look into the general topic of 'How do different age groups learn differently to one another?/ How does teaching differentiate between different age groups?
I feel using this topic relates so much to my current career and future... at the moment I teach adults of different ages dance classes and choreography from shows etc... further on in life I want to be teaching children of a younger age through primary education.
I think choosing an inquiry line of something like this makes me able to use my current practice as a dance captain to ask questions within my workplace and also gives me the freedom to use inquiry tools to find knowledge outside of the work place too.,... The question is both suited to my current workplace and my future one which I think is more beneficial than focusing on just the future pathway. If the question changes as I begin to look into the ethics and tools of inquiry then that's fine, its part of the process.
Having the tutorial with Adesola really helped me realise that I was looking too far into the future.... I won't get an answer for my inquiry within the 12 weeks as there are people who have been wondering this for years.....but I am looking foward to finding more out about it as it's something I am really interested in. I feel much better knowing I have a direction to go in now for Module 2.
Firstly I was worried that I was moving too far away from my practice and focusing too much on what I want to do as a future career. Adesola confirmed that my ideas were still within my practice as I am a performer.
One of my main topics of inquiry was 'The transition from Performer to Teacher' I thought this a too general subject. Adesola explained that finding depth to this general subject using ethics and tools would help me define this topic of inquiry. One interesting way to visualise this was that my inquiry was a piece of clay.... the tools and the ethics were the knife and spatula... therefore I use the 'knife' and 'spatula' to mould my inquiry into something more defined. I can't define the inquiry before finding the depth.
This was something I was definitely doing, I was trying to find an answer to my inquiry question before I go ahead and search for knowledge and use the tools and ethics to gain depth.
Another question I had was finding the SIG groups, did I have to create one or as long as I was a part of one is that all that I need to help me find the information and ideas I want to find,,, Adesola explained that the sig groups is about finding keywords... for example a big keyword for the general topic above would be the career change of a performer. - There is a fantastic book called 'Exit Stage Right' by Ciara Pressler that is made for performers unsure of where their career change is taking them or unsure of what they want to do....
After having another look at all my previous notes of topics etc. I have decided I am going to collaborate all the ideas I had around education and those within my practice to use my tools and ethics to look into the general topic of 'How do different age groups learn differently to one another?/ How does teaching differentiate between different age groups?
I feel using this topic relates so much to my current career and future... at the moment I teach adults of different ages dance classes and choreography from shows etc... further on in life I want to be teaching children of a younger age through primary education.
I think choosing an inquiry line of something like this makes me able to use my current practice as a dance captain to ask questions within my workplace and also gives me the freedom to use inquiry tools to find knowledge outside of the work place too.,... The question is both suited to my current workplace and my future one which I think is more beneficial than focusing on just the future pathway. If the question changes as I begin to look into the ethics and tools of inquiry then that's fine, its part of the process.
Having the tutorial with Adesola really helped me realise that I was looking too far into the future.... I won't get an answer for my inquiry within the 12 weeks as there are people who have been wondering this for years.....but I am looking foward to finding more out about it as it's something I am really interested in. I feel much better knowing I have a direction to go in now for Module 2.
http://www.popopics.com/quotes/image-download/science-quote-by-thomas-berger-9k.html
Monday 27 February 2017
stuck in a rut
This blog post is more of a question to all of you reading it!
At the moment I am working in a hotel as a Dance Captain, I have been doing so for 14 months... I want to start pursuing teaching as much as I can..... or even just working with children to get my CV more suited to a teaching pathway! I am really struggling to get my head in the door and wondered if there was anyone out there that has managed to do it?!
I have had very little experience teaching wise in an educational environment but plenty within a dance school environment but I want to be able to go into a school unqualified and teach... I am so clueless and researching on the internet about ways to do it just takes me back to square one!!! I know I want to do it after I was so sure when I spent a week in the primary school.
My plan once finishing my degree is get onto UCAS and apply for PGCE's or SCITT courses... easy to do if you have a degree to move forward but due to me starting my 15 month BAPP in september I am not due to finish till january 2018 which I regret massively! It now means I have to wait till sept 2018 to do anything like a PGCE.... 8 months after my degree finishing.....It puts me in a rut of I want to do it now but is this possible?!!!
Any comments or tips of how anyone has managed to do this would be great! i know it is possible somehow but I just don't know how!! Qualification wise I have 10 GCSE's all above A's, a level 6 Diploma validated by trinity.... PLEASE HELP!!!
Knowing that Module 2 and 3 are fast approaching I need to be able to find a job I'm going to stick in for the remainder of my degree so now is the time to do it if any!
I have had very little experience teaching wise in an educational environment but plenty within a dance school environment but I want to be able to go into a school unqualified and teach... I am so clueless and researching on the internet about ways to do it just takes me back to square one!!! I know I want to do it after I was so sure when I spent a week in the primary school.
My plan once finishing my degree is get onto UCAS and apply for PGCE's or SCITT courses... easy to do if you have a degree to move forward but due to me starting my 15 month BAPP in september I am not due to finish till january 2018 which I regret massively! It now means I have to wait till sept 2018 to do anything like a PGCE.... 8 months after my degree finishing.....It puts me in a rut of I want to do it now but is this possible?!!!
Any comments or tips of how anyone has managed to do this would be great! i know it is possible somehow but I just don't know how!! Qualification wise I have 10 GCSE's all above A's, a level 6 Diploma validated by trinity.... PLEASE HELP!!!
Knowing that Module 2 and 3 are fast approaching I need to be able to find a job I'm going to stick in for the remainder of my degree so now is the time to do it if any!
Task 4b - Creating a SIG
Task 4b creates questions for me...
Do I set up my own SIG? or Do I join another persons SIG that is the same topic as me?
Creating my own SIG would be good because it would enable me to start discussions of my own and get comments and ideas from others outside of BAPP but it is finding those outside people to be a part of it, however I notice Eleanor (also on module 2) has set up a SIG of the same topic as me. I would be worried that if I was to create my own SIG then I would clash with Eleanor's and we would end up talking about the same things.
Paula stated in the Skype chat the other day that we didn't necessarily have to create our own but as long as we could involve and engage with another of a similar topic we would still be able to get answers. I think it is best to consolidate all ideas into one SIG group so my next plan of action is to find out if this is possible for all the people interested in teaching/performing arts would be able to join Eleanor's group. As one large group of people is much more beneficial than 3 or 4 smaller SIGs of a similar topic. Networking from module 1 has certainly taught me this.
Paula suggested using images more and I think this is a good way to visualise our thoughts... the image below certainly puts into perspective how a SIG group can help with one big idea!
What I do plan to do is still create discussions but do this via my blog and try to attract the people in the SIG group already created to discuss topics I have found useful too.
For now I have joined Eleanor's community on google : 'Performing Arts in Education' and this is my first stepping stone into involving myself with discussions around this topic to help develop my lines of inquiry.
I am thinking of creating my own sig group about transitioning from a performer to another career...
Do I set up my own SIG? or Do I join another persons SIG that is the same topic as me?
Creating my own SIG would be good because it would enable me to start discussions of my own and get comments and ideas from others outside of BAPP but it is finding those outside people to be a part of it, however I notice Eleanor (also on module 2) has set up a SIG of the same topic as me. I would be worried that if I was to create my own SIG then I would clash with Eleanor's and we would end up talking about the same things.
Paula stated in the Skype chat the other day that we didn't necessarily have to create our own but as long as we could involve and engage with another of a similar topic we would still be able to get answers. I think it is best to consolidate all ideas into one SIG group so my next plan of action is to find out if this is possible for all the people interested in teaching/performing arts would be able to join Eleanor's group. As one large group of people is much more beneficial than 3 or 4 smaller SIGs of a similar topic. Networking from module 1 has certainly taught me this.
Paula suggested using images more and I think this is a good way to visualise our thoughts... the image below certainly puts into perspective how a SIG group can help with one big idea!
What I do plan to do is still create discussions but do this via my blog and try to attract the people in the SIG group already created to discuss topics I have found useful too.
For now I have joined Eleanor's community on google : 'Performing Arts in Education' and this is my first stepping stone into involving myself with discussions around this topic to help develop my lines of inquiry.
I am thinking of creating my own sig group about transitioning from a performer to another career...
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