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!
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