Task 4B (2)

[Written out on the 10/04/14, wasn't blogged until receiving permission from my SIG members' to be mentioned in this post.]
 

Within my SIG, Emma Price mentioned about her Inquiry topic being; "What are factors that go into managing a successful dance company"
All the comments given stated how this is far too broad a question. Mine is very similar to Emma's: 
'How to have a successful dance school/class?' Naturally I'm now starting to panic as mine is very broad. My pieces of literature in task 5D have given a lot of answers to this already, so how much further would I get with my research with such a broad question?

Natalie Martin's recent Inquiry topic;"What value does the use of music and movement have when, used by teachers, carrying out a learning activity and does this method enhance different aspects of a child's development within early years?" has got me thinking towards a more psychological theme. Maybe something more on the lines of weak abilities in children from the ages of 3-8.
There are children that I work with who struggle to take part in the lesson because they are too shy or too tired. This can get very frustrating as I actually don't know much about building children's individual weaknesses. This concerns my own abilities as a professional dancer and a dance teacher, and with my plans of setting up my own dance school in the future I would like to be able to help children who have difficulties in certain areas and not just to teach dance steps and technique. I'd like to be able to build up children's confidence in any aspect. 
I also teach some children who fall down easily, clumsy maybe, but maybe they have some kind of physical weakness?

I'm going to have a big rethink on my inquiry topic.


'Keeeeeeeeep blogging'

Task 4D (2)

So seeing as my inquiry topic has altered since doing part 4D earlier in the module, thanks to some advice from my SIG, I thought it best to do some literature research on my current, more official topic; In what ways can children improve stamina, physical strength, confidence and imagination through dance?
Based on confidence, I came upon an Australian website; http://www.brentstreet.com.au/Programs/Petite/boost-kids-confidence Which states this; '..confidence in small children stems primarily from a mix of a child’s innate personality and a loving and consistent home environment'. [agreed by Scientists] This gives me the impression that as long as my dance school is loving and consistently so, then it will help to build a child's confidence. This is too broad an answer and also I question; what about the dancing itself?
Nadia Klucznik says that if you 'give children activities they love then gradually they will come out of their shell.' This statement then starts a lot of questions in my mind;

• What activities do children love?
• What activities can build a child's confidence?
• What is a common dance activity that teachers use for confidence building?
• Is there a very strong guarantee that these activities can boost any type of child's confidence?  
• Do activities in the dance class have to have dance steps?

“If you help a child develop the foundations of physicality and groups early on, then they will naturally have more confidence as they move on to their next stage of development,'

• What type of group work?
• Is group work one of the best activities for improving confidence, or is this just opinion? 

I found a couple of sites which emphasize 'music' in dance/movement being important in building a child's imagination and creativity:
 http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1083957/dancing-helps-develop-childs-imagination
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=261

From the second link this got my attention;



'because dancing and singing are associated with art forms, we naturally assume that any activities involving movement and music will, of course, promote creativity. But the truth is, movement and music activities that ask the children to merely imitate the teacher or parent will do little to foster creativity.....Instead of showing, you simply present a challenge or question to which there are many possible responses. Examples include: "Show me how tall you can be"; "Find three ways to move across the balance beam in a forward direction"... Following the children's responses, you can issue additional challenges to continue with and vary the exploration (extending the activity), or you can issue follow-up questions and challenges intended to improve or correct what you've seen'
So;

• What activities to music improve imagination?
• Can these activities work just as well without music? If not why not?
• How could you add dance to the ideas mentioned from this section?

What strikes me about this is that it seems to be put very matter-of-fact, that these ideas do improve a child's imagination or creativity, full stop.  It does seem logical and straight forward to understand that copying is not prompting imagination/creativity. I remember as a child how much easier copying others was compared to thinking for myself, but being given challenges to be creative were a lot more exciting.
Going back to Confidence, surely a child (aged perhaps 4-7) with a lack of confidence would perhaps be too shy to take part in any Creativity activities. 
So another question is;

• Is confidence important for imagination or creativity activities?  
•  Do children with low self confidence have little imagination?

The first questions could turn out to be a very vital question to ask experienced dance teachers and the second question would be something to look at in psychology resources.

'Keeeeeeep blogging'

Task 6A (trial survey)

So, referring to my last post (task 5D) I actually feel relief after reading Reader 6 for the depth and information it's given about the methodologies for the Inquiry. I'd thought, 'Hmmmm how could I possibly use observation for what I want to know?' "Different questions require different methods to answer them" (Punch, 1998 p.19)
I haven't come up with my official inquiry questions as yet, so it will be interesting to see which methods will seem the most appropriate and reliable.

I decided to do a Survey as a trial, seeing as I hope to give questionnaire's to trained dancers and possibly parents (if permitted.)

The survey questions have some meaning as they will hopefully prove the importance of my chosen Inquiry topic. So, in a way, it's a Qualitative approach as it's showing why I am doing the topic that I've chosen.
It could also be used as Quantitative to see how many people went to dance lessons purely because of a weakness and what percentage of the participants were influenced by friends, parents or purely their own choice.

Please could you take just 5 minutes of your time to participate in the survey. There are only 3 questions which require either a simple answer or a small description.
Thank you!!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VYV9H7J


'Keeeeeeeep Blogging!'

Task 5D

Having discussions with my SIG in and beyond the course, I've finally come up with some ethical ideas to use when conducting my inquiry.


 Keeping all ethics in mind these are some things that have come up;

Interviews and Observations

Before giving an interview and doing an observation, I am going to make sure that I have given them a verbal and written plan of what to expect when I'm interviewing, and what exactly I will be observing. 
Firstly I will make certain that they are assured that what I'm doing is not an assessment, it is a simple interview and strictly an observation to help with finding different points of views, practices and opinions, seeing as I am the inexperienced student wanting to learn from them and that's what I need to accentuate to not cause any pressure on their behalf. The pressure is all mine as it's me asking for their advice. I will make sure to not make any comments, but ask questions on any answers they give that will be necessary for my research making sure that I steer well away from any negativity which could alter their mindset.
I will give them the amount of questions there with be and roughly how long it will take. 
When planning when to do my observations, I will give them the skills that I am looking into; Stamina, Confidence, Physical strength and Imagination/Creativity, and let them decide which classes would be good for each skill for me to observe. For subjects such as physical strength, I will broaden it out by giving the teacher strengths in several parts of the body such as; upper body, stomach, ankles etc. This reduces some of the effort on their part.
Putting the ball in their court as the professional is key. I will also explain how long I expect to watch the class for and whether it's suitable for them.
I will ask permission on asking questions about what they feel they were lacking when they first went to dance school at a young age and what they felt they improved on and in what dance style, if they had any weaknesses at all. I think it's important to put the ball in their court in many things, especially for personal stuff as I'm fully aware most teachers won't want to give information about their strengths and weaknesses as a child.
I will give them open questions during the interview and no closed ones as the answers would be based on ideas that I have come up with and then them simply agreeing or not. That wouldn't help me much at all.
Before observing I will explain to the teacher what exactly I will be observing such as; exercises used, how many children seem to lack confidence, how many lack strength in certain areas etc. I will then explain what I wish to do with the information as detailed as possible.

Surveys and Questionaires.
Before giving out any surveys or questionaires (adults only,) I will give a detailed explanation verbally and make sure it's highlighted clearly on each form as to what the survey will be used for and to make sure that each child will be made anonymous and kindly ask parents to not put names on forms.
I will wisely avoid asking any questions in the parents questionaires and/or surveys that mean that they would have to criticise their child in some way. I will keep to positive questions such as which dance style they think their child enjoys the most and feels confident and strongest keeping away from thinking about their child's weaknesses.
I will make a declaration that all my findings will go wholly towards my course work inquiry.
I shall stick to necessary questions only.

Biographies (and Literature)
When looking up literature (which I plan to do first in my Inquiry plan) I will make sure that my findings are professional using the Library and other professional resources in Web 2.0 and only use parts that are necessary and valuable to my inquiry.
 I will only use my findings for my professional use in the BAPP course and not use any acts of plagiarism.

For safety I will show my DBS (once CRB) I.D and C.V. to all interviewees and parents involved.
I will give a time frame for the teachers for my research giving them the upper hand on when I can come in to do my interview/s and observation/s. I will also assure that the people involved in my inquiry have the right to leave the inquiry if they so wish to at any point. 
I will be honest, professional, patient and organized throughout my research.

My topic inquiry is; 
How can children improve stamina, physical strength, confidence and imagination through different dance styles? 

'Keeeeep blogging'

Task 5C Ethics in a professional context

eth·ics

[eth-iks] Show IPA plural noun

1.

( used with a singular or plural verb ) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.

2.

the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.

3.

moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

4.

( usually used with a singular verb ) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethics?s=t 

 As I usually do when I've not been well acquainted with a particular word, above is the dictionary's very basic idea of what ethics means. But obviously this isn't enough to help me on my way with my inquiry.

The Reader, as always has been incredibly informative and valuable. It has been at my aide whilst carrying out task's 5A and 5B. I'm now very well acquainted with ethics.

Like I've mentioned in Task 5A the Reader states how ethics are based on three main contexts; Personal, Professional and Organizational. They each play a big part in society by promoting goodness.

• Personal - Family values, conscience and religion.
• Professional - Code of conduct, policy.
• Organizational - Culture, ethos, way of practice.

When thinking about my workplace at the Catholic school, there is a big connection with religion and ethos. From my research, religion isn't just part of Personal ethics at my workplace but Organizational too. In fact this is where it seems to have the the bigger impact. The ethos of the school is evidently based on Christianity. The school's mission statement/ethos is mentioned in my Task 5B . 

When looking through the code of conduct/policies of the school (the Professional ethics) I had noticed the error in the Child protection policy how it states we cannot promise a child to keep secrets but we are to protect a child from harm [see more in task 5B.] This can give a staff member such a tough decision, such as the photographer in Case 2 in the Reader when choosing which path to take. If I am ever in a situation where a child needs to tell me something important but will only tell me if I promise to keep it a secret, what should I do? 

1. Go with the child protection comes first part of the policy therefore lying to a child no matter how sinful? 
2. Or stick by the main part of the policy; influenced by the religious ethos of the school and not lie to a child no matter what?

When promoting goodness both the code of conduct/policy and religious part have their heart's in the right place, so to speak, but somehow there has been a miscommunication as I believe the child's protection must come first above the gospel values of not lying so how can not being able to promise to a child to keep secrets be in the Child Protection Policy when another part within the policy basically states to put a child's safety first? I know that outcomes could be dangerous for the child, but surely it's always better for the child to be honest. It's then up to the concerned adults to think of a strategy on how to deal with it prioritising the child's safety.
I can see a relation to this in case study 1; 'regulation being part of the problem' and the NHS not having a statutory obligation 'to be honest with patients when things go wrong.'  So this comes comfortably into place with the Theoretical Approaches to Ethics in Reader 5. 

Immanual Kant being a Deontologist, although not religious would go with option 2 of my questions above. As it mentions in the reader, Kant argued 'that the only absolutely good thing is a good will', yet he believes that lying is always wrong. I must admit that I am completely shocked by Deontology as having a good will would always clash with not being able to tell a lie which I find quite audacious. So the good will doesn't need to be acted upon if lying is involved? Surely having a good will should mean that you should be thinking about the consequences. It's mind blowing that people can be this way.

A Consequentialist like JS Mill would go for option 1 of my questions. The outcome is more important than the actions that worked towards it. For this kind of situation I would have to agree that consequentialism is the best approach even though it's a sensitive subject when a child's safety is at stake. I would go with option 1 as well and would consider myself to be a religious (christian) consequentialist alongside being a Virtue Ethicist in the best possible way. 

My conscience is beyond me sometimes. As a christian I don't believe in lying, but the consequentialist in me would gladly put that aside if a child wanted to confide in me. It may mean losing the trust of this child, but it would gain respect after some time. What matters is the child's safety. 
It would seem that the system of the NHS and hospital in case study 1 is based on consequentialism but with the consequence being focused on the welfare of the staff rather than the patients.

The Greek Philosopher; Plato as spoken of in the Reader tries to understand '"good , with the assertion that there is no such thing as "hot" or "cold". Rather, it is seeming to be hot or cold to this man and that man.' (Reader 5) This is part of Comparitive Ethics. I see a connection here with the approaches in the two previous paragraphs. What the Deontologist sees as "good" a Conseqentialist may see as "bad", such as I believe that not thinking about the consequences is bad. I believe this is a part of Personal Ethics as it is based on certain personal values. But who's to say one Theoretical approach is better than the other? Every body has their values and what they believe is more important. Values are what makes a person either a Deontologist, Consequentialist, Virtue ethicist or a mixture of them all. 

In Ethics and Morals, the Reader gives some examples of practices that are acceptable in one culture but unacceptable in another. One being 'polygamy'. Naturally I can relate this wholly to my place of work being Catholic as Catholics do not believe in polygamy and actually condemn it."Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive."(Catechism of the Catholic church, paragraph 1645.) 
Below are the facts I found about Polygamy as seen in some other religions:

• Judaism - Multiple marriage was considered a realistic alternative in the case of famine, widowhood, or female infertility,
• Islam -  In Islam, polygamy is allowed, with the specific limitation that a man can have four wives at any one time...The Qur'an clearly states that men who choose this route must deal with their wives justly.
• Hinduism - The Indian Parliament made polygamy in any form illegal in India. Prior to 1955, polygamy was permitted for Indian Hindus.
• Christianity -  The New Testament does not specifically address the morality of polygamy...but 1 Corinthians 7:2 states; "to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

It would seem that in Hinduism it doesn't state whether Polygamy is right or wrong so the laws make it their responsibility and what would seem morally right in marriage starting from their Personal Ethics right through to Organizational.
Lord Devlin argued that '..private behaviour should be regulated as in his opinion morality derived from Christianity.' (1959) I understand that the Hart-Devlin debate was based on homosexuality, but if Devlin's argument is right then has Hinduism been influenced by Christianity? I personally do not believe this.
When thinking about Ethics and Morals in my work place, although I am Christian there are certain things in the Catholic beliefs that I simply don't agree with, but as I've been told my the Headteacher of the school, Catholic, Christian or not at all, I am to support and encourage the ways and beliefs of the Catholic church. It's regulation against my own Personal ethics, but seeing as the religion is part of the Organizational ethics I have to put my beliefs aside to a certain level which is to work towards a better society within the school. I can connect this to Professional Ethics in the Reader with the Arena of professional practice figure below:

'..sometimes tensions can occur within this framework.' (Reader 5) So if I simply put my personal ethics (christian beliefs) before the professional code and/or employer's expectation I would cause problems or issues for myself and could end up as a  liability and cause a very unwelcome atmosphere. I could also get children in to trouble if I were to disrespect the school's procedures and ethos. I could say negative things about Catholicism or deny the beliefs that the children may have and teach them my beliefs instead. 
Relating to the Child protection policy mentioned earlier, if I were to go and promise to keep a secret to a child and then go straight to my superior on the matter, this could cause all sorts of tensions and issues regarding the framework of the policy/professional code.
Also looking at good attributes in professional ethics, to link to my current two jobs, here's what I came up with when focusing on having an effective and civil society:

• Teaching assistant - Supportive
•  Performing arts teacher - Encouraging and Fair-minded

As a teaching assistant being supportive is vital for civility for the children and adults. 

I wasn't able to choose between encouraging and being fair-minded for my performing arts teacher position. Being encouraging and fair-minded keeps the children focused and respectful and keeps the parents happy too, (apart from the parents who think their child should be the centre of attention at all times. There's always one.)

 

When handling ethics for my inquiry, I think that it's a good idea to look into the personal ethics first and foremost of the people in the performing arts business and parents of the children wanting to go to dance class or performing arts school.

 

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