Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

This module has improved my independent thinking and learning. I've enjoyed the process of reaching my final inquiry choice.

My initial ideas in  task 4a were questions with special interest in general and dance teaching. I began with the topic of respect in teaching which emerged from my engagement with my SIG; task 4b and I really had intended on looking into it more because I've found that I've struggled to gain respect in the past. But after some deep thinking I started to steer clear of general teaching because I had to consider my future more appropriately. I aim to do my PGCE and I realised that a lot of the questions I'd developed could be answered during that time.
In my task 4a-4c I started to think about my future dance school from my discussion with my mother (a very experienced teacher) over my dance teaching question based on running a dance school without employing a dance syllabus. This influenced me to go all out on the topic; 'How to have a successful dance school?' and did my literature research based on this. (see my first Task 4d) With the very valuable help from discussions within my SIG via facebook (see task 4b 2) and Alan Durrant's feedback, I started to get my act together and appreciate the reckless decision I'd made. It was too broad.

I began to think more about my current place of work and the issues I have right now, as I believed these would give more supportive reasons for the importance of my inquiry. Thus, I came up with focusing on weaknesses that my younger students have; confidence, imagination, physical strength and stamina. So I redid task 4d and researched articles relating to confidence and imagination in the limited time that I had left.

My developed ethical considerations for my inquiry topic were influenced by Reader 5 on Professional ethics. The three theoretical approaches; Deontology, Consequentialism and Virtue ethics helped me to think about my own views and approaches. Although my current approach to my inquiry is to use a mixture of the three approaches, previously during task 5c I initially thought that being a christian was Consequentialism alongside Virtue ethics [see paragraph 8.] I hadn't considered the ethical dilemma with consequentialism for getting the best out of my project by any means, right or wrong. This would be unfair of me as a professional researcher and a christian to put myself first before the participants, plus I believe my inquiry questions and proposed topic gives me no reason to lie. In Good Qualities of a Researcher it gives the good attributes/qualities to have during a research project [paragraph 10] which has influenced my approach greatly.

Within my project there are aspects that require me to think beyond the research and consider what impacts could occur. I joined a discussion in my SIG on facebook about things to take care on within the project, referring to ethics, and I came up with a statement on different tools that I planned on using at the time in task 5d. Since then, I've conducted a pilot questionnaire and interview which confirmed the importance of my proposed inquiry and the right methodology to use. [see task 6b]

The final part of this process was to consider my Award Title. This was decided after I'd handed in my draft to Alan of which I was advised to reduce the aspects of my chosen inquiry to just one to be able to conduct a deeper research. So now my Inquiry proposal is 'How do children (age range; four to seven) improve confidence through dance?'

Not only have my SIG within the course been at my aide, but also my SIG outside such as my family who are all teachers and my boss. [see task 4a-4c for proof of this engagement].

Literature links:
http://www.brentstreet.com.au/Programs/Petite/boost-kids-confidence

http://www.danceadvantage.net/positively-focused/

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/more/pshe/contents_developingconfidence.htm
http://confident1.com/how-to-build-self-confidence-through-activity
http://education.jiva.com/Lack-Of-Confidence.asp
http://www.sheknows.co.uk/parenting/articles/817143/why-dancing-is-good-for-your-child-s-confidence
Support on research:
http://qrj.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/07/22/1468794113495039.full.pdf+html <[page 3]
http://www.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/code_of_human_research_ethics.pdf

Task 6C

BA (Honours) Professional Practice (Dance)

I’ve chosen ‘Dance’ as my award title. I have been dancing since the age of three and have experienced a lot of dance teaching styles from the variety of dance teachers who have taught me. I’ve found this very beneficial because of my aspirations to become a dance teacher. I’ve always had a good eye for technique and performance, but I’ve never been able to grasp some of the deeper aspects of teaching such as encouraging confidence in youngsters. I’ve finally made a start with my dance teaching career and teach a variety of age groups at my workplace, but there’s the issue of building my students’ confidence. Referring to my questions I’ve come up with for my inquiry, dance is very much at the heart of every question. Although at the start of the module I had come up with teaching questions too, I hadn’t thought about how much more beneficial the dance teaching questions would be. I hope to do my PGCE in teaching, so through that I believe a lot of the questions would be answered. There are dance teacher qualifications to gain in my future but they are for being able to put students through exams. I’ve never aspired to be a dance teacher in a school but my goal is to have my own dance school and do supply teaching. Dance is very important to me, not only because of my experiences but because I love how it makes me feel and how I can express myself through it. This is not just in performing but in choreography and teaching. I’ve definitely found my own dance teaching style, but the encouraging of confidence and other aspects of dance I am very inexperienced in. 

'Keeeeeeep blogging'

Task 6B

Firstly I'd like to mention how glad I am about the mistakes I made with my trial interview and literature research. I always learn best from my mistakes and I like to correct myself and use reflection-on-action a lot now whether writing it down or keeping it well an truly glued in my mind.

Literature
Interview
Questionnaire

Seeing as my questions are in some need of interaction and little demonstration the interview was absolutely perfect. As well as explaining particular exercises verbally for example I was able to have a little visual explanation too which was good to note down in brackets. I used 'open questions' for the whole of my structured interview which gives more of a chance for me to 'follow up on ideas'(Bell, 2005, p157)  
I did use a leading question slightly when referring to music, but I added a counter question to see whether the interviewee actually believes music is needed at all. I found that without leading questions, I got a lot more open and accurate responses. The teacher I approached was a friend of a friend, but who I have never met. I phoned her to start my trial investigation and the only downside to this was that she sounded a bit awkward talking to a stranger about doing an interview. I asked if she wouldn't mind me sending her the details of my course and my inquiry via email of which she accepted. The few things that I have learned from this are that talking about an interview over the phone was not a good move, that I should've simply asked if I could send her the information about my course. I should've explained about my inquiry over the phone as well as via email, and about my aspirations. I should've made a big point over the phone that it was for my learning and not to assess, of which I did mention in my information email. All of these things I have made a note of and will not disregard during my professional research. The interview itself we did at her home which was her choice, after all it was she who was doing me a favour. I gave her a draft of my conducted consent form and asked if she would've changed any of it, but she found it all very sincere and fair, then signed it the way it was. The interview was very easy and quite relaxing. The answers she gave were quite broad but the information was thorough and I could easily see slight connections from my literature research. I don't believe that a different location would've made any difference to the accuracy in her answers, but might possibly have changed the depth. I will make a clear point in future, (although I was lucky this time,) that the location will be wherever the participant feels most comfortable to answer questions. Maybe refrain from using the word 'interview' full stop.  

The Literature that I'd looked at in one of the previous tasks gave some interesting ideas but they came across too matter-of-fact. Seeing as I believe that my most beneficial aim is about finding individual ideas to try out myself now and in my future career, these literature pieces only give a general understanding, and overall popular methods. I want to find out a range of unique ideas and also a deeper understanding about my aspect, so I think I will be more successful researching in to academic articles and books. So although what I did gave me more qualitative answers, I think I'd prefer to focus the qualitative on the interviews and keep to getting more professional views for my literature research in future.

I kept my questionnaire short and sweet, and the questions were basic and open. I got exactly the kind of responses that I had hoped for of which I could easily analyse, for example; eight participants out of the seventeen responses stated that it was somebody other than themselves who decided for them to start dance lessons, one being a doctor. I used my pilot questionnaire as a confirmation that approaching parents with a questionnaire about 'why their children started dancing' would be beneficial to me and foremost the parents that may approach me in the future.

I believe that the interview that I conducted could have helped the teacher I worked with in ways that improved their reflection-on-action. Seeing as the questions were all positive and didn't require any response from me, I think the trial interviewee went away feeling proud of her knowledge and probably improve her understanding of her work too. Therefore giving her a nudge in confidence could've helped her own students in the process. Same goes for the questionnaire. Although it was done through a technical resource; Survey Monkey, I think because of the questions asking for positive responses it would have helped the participants realize how much they love their dancing and given them a boost in confidence.
The survey/questionnaire was shared with my SIG and it may have helped some of them by giving them the understanding that the questionnaire can be done through technology or analogue, and that it doesn't need to have tones of questions.
The literature research, although not too valuable to me could include aspects that are valuable to my SIG and other teachers; inexperienced or experienced.    

All of my mistakes are valuable to me and I'm sure to my SIG and other people on the course. My experience could be helpful to any future BAPP students as well.


'Keeeeeeeeep blogging'
 

Inquiry Questions [Confidence and Imagination]

1.  How can dance (in general) help a child's (aged between four and seven) confidence?
2. Which dance style is most likely to be recommended for a child who lacks in confidence?
3. What exercises are there that boost a child's confidence? Which work the best opinionatively?
4. Are confidence boosting activities without using dance steps more effective?
5. Is music imported into exercises and activities for confidence building? Or just to make it interesting?
6. How do teachers improvise and keep the dance class interesting for children?
7. Do children need confidence to be imaginative?
8. Do children need confidence to show their imaginative/creative mind?
9. How can dance help a child's imagination?
10. Does building a good imagination make a child more empathetic?
11. What dance style is most likely to be recommended for a child who has little or no imagination?
12. What exercises/activities are there that boost a child's imagination? Which works best opinionatively?
13. Is music generally important for improving imagination?
14. For confidence and imagination; what type of music is commonly used?:

[Teachers choice?
Children's choice?
Popular music?
Disney?
Emotional? (happy, sad, exciting,)
Mysterious?]

'Keeeeeeep blogging'

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


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