I haven't thought much about where I would go with my inquiry as I was hoping that something would just emerge! I would like to focus on something in which I have experience in and use the idea of reflection to really immerse myself into a pool of ideas. So I have asked myself the following given questions in hope that a great idea will present itself...
* What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?
Generally when I teach I maintain a great deal of my enthusiasm. What really drives me is the determination from the students that I teach and the improvement seen as they develop their own understanding of what they are trying to achieve. This is generally something more achievable in a more mature student but what always fascinates me is when one student has the ability to immediately pick up a step and when another doesn't. In this case, both students would be of the same age and level, but what prevents one from understanding the step at a slower rate. My enthusiasm of teaching allows me to devise multiple ways to ensure that everyone is able to achieve a movement when I am teaching it.
I have a general admiration for all teachers who have the capability to teach what they love. Whether it be Sport, Dance or English. I have worked with many different people; other performers, teachers, choreographers and coaches. And all of these have one thing in common, they are all doing what they love to do!
Possible lines of inquiry:
Which factors affect the learning process of dance?
Is there a preferred age to introduce dance to a child to improve chances of a performing career?
What effects do teaching methods have on the effects of learning?
* What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?
A problem I have encountered on numerous occasions is the negative comments from some of the students I teach. This is more common again in the older students I teach, where the thoughts of giving up seem to be the predominant ones. This is one of the most frustrating situations I can find myself in as a teacher, and I struggle to understand it. Although as a child I would frustrate myself learning to do a new step I couldn't seem to master, I don't think I ever vocally announced it and would certainly not give up easily. But this makes it difficult for me to teach and also affects other students in the class.
A colleague that I worked with had a case of negativity in her class and to resolve this she sat the whole class down and stated that she did not want to hear any such negativity when in a class together. This made all students aware of what she expected and meant that the other students backed her up if ever a case like this was to arise again. I worked as a team effort to maintain the positive energy and keep morale up when finding an exercise or movement hard to grasp.
Unfortunately there is still a stigma attached to the way you need to look to be a dancer. Luckily where I am now out of this type of industry I don't have to experience it but I am fully aware of its existence. Although it has never directly affected me, when I was at college it was distressing to see how it would affect some of my friends. That's not to say that they were ever directly told that they needed to change their bodies in order to be a successful dancer, but with the expectations of how we should look made them question whether they needed to lose weight in order to be the right size to dance. The fact that some of the costumes we would be expected to wear would be similar to 'showgirl' style leotards, would bring on a worrying flurry of weight loss. Fortunately a friend of mine never let this phase her and I saw a great determination, despite being told that she needed to lose weight at an audition. She did make it as a professional dancer and proved that it doesn't always matter what size you are.
Possible lines of inquiry:
* What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?
As a teacher my most memorable experiences are always those in which I see a student achieve something they couldn't before. That moment when they understand a movement and can perform it accurately without hesitation. I love passing on my knowledge to others to enrich their learning and understanding. Recently I have seen a shift in confidence in one of my younger students, and after teacher her for two years, she has completely come out of her shell. This progression in my students makes me appreciate the role I have and the difference I can make.
Possible lines of inquiry:
* What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?
I always wonder how possible it would be to make a career as a self-employed dancer? I fulfilled my career as a dancer and although it was maybe not as long as I would have liked, I did have the option to continue. My main reason for this was because I wanted the security for the future and whilst dancing gave me so much enjoyment, it was not giving me the guarantee that I would be secure in years to come. The advantage I did have on this was that I had already achieved some of my teaching qualifications at college and this was always a second career that was still related to my training.
For many years I have been self-employed taking on multiple jobs at one time to be working six days a week and only to earn an average salary. So what I don't understand is, how is it possible to maintain such an unpredictable and unsteady career and create a future?
I admire anyone who has the type of business mind which has allowed them to explore the world of teaching and set up their own dance school. Last year I taught for an expanding theatre school which was set up in 2010. Since then, they have continued their success and now have five academies running in Kent. The drive I have witnessed from all the teachers involved in this successful business has overwhelmed me and I could not imagine running such a large business. And so this proves that you can be successful certainly as a self-employed performing arts teacher. But I can imagine how much work needs to be done to achieve such a respected goal!
Possible lines of inquiry:
* How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?
Over time the question of ethics have indeed become more apparent. More care and thought is needed especially within the teaching environment. This has been an essential part of my learning as I have progressed with my teaching practise and especially more noticeable since teaching within education. From a young age the 'hand on' approach used when I was being taught was never something I thought about. In fact the use of correction from my previous teachers I found essential to my learning of dance. As I was not lucky enough to have to use of mirrors when in dance classes as a child, my teacher would use subtle adjustments of my body to manoeuvre me into correct positions. This brings in the idea of muscle memory as so once you have the right position, you feel the position and come to realise where the body needs to be. And so next time you go to that position your body feels the familiarity of the correct placement. With the high awareness of physical contact in schools, I have found this a particularly hard concept to master.
Whilst recently taking my gymnastics coaching qualification, we were required to look into the teaching styles that can be used. This helped me to overcome the levels of physical contact that are deemed appropriate within dance in education. We explored the use of questioning: Using questions to check the understanding of the student. For example, "Where do you think your leg needs to be?" With open-ended questions like this you allow time for the student to think and respond. Their time for thinking means that they can aim to correct themselves and with a response means that the teacher/coach can check their understanding. This was one area which I developed throughout my training towards my coaching which gave me another way to teach. The use of actions and demonstration is more than likely the most common way for teachers to show students what it is they are wanting them to achieve. Whilst looking at the teaching method it was quite obvious that there is a negative aspect of this in that you are then not able to view the students to check their accuracy. The final method we looked at was to tell the student what to do with just the use of words. Obviously this method leaves you very open to explain and describe exactly what you want, but without the use of demonstration you would not necessarily achieve the correct movement. I now find that a combination of all these methods make a better teacher and help to control the level of physical contact.
Physical contact within dance is certainly needed to a certain degree but I do wonder if this can make a student more reliant on the teacher. Would the learning become more concrete to the individual if there was no physical contact involved? Once I got to Dance College and the choreography became more challenging, there was one situation in which physical contact was essential for the sake of safety. And this was in the use of partner work when attempting challenging lifts. Without the aid of a teacher using physical contact to help both students to try a new lift, it can prove to be dangerous.
When I am coaching gymnastics, I have had to intervene with physical contact to support the gymnast to ensure their safety. As a professionally trained teacher and gymnastics coach I have the knowledge to know when and where it is appropriate to use contact in situations such as these. A lot of the time, teachers in schools taking on PE lessons may not understand the same approach. Indeed they may worry on the grounds of ethical practice within lessons that may be more specialised in terms of the skill needed. I have recently taken on team teaching within my practice whereby the aim is that I am passing on my skills and knowledge of teaching gymnastics and dance. This however made it clear to myself and to those observing that this would never be fully achieved due to the intense amount of training I have received.
Possible lines of inquiry:
- How can the use of physical contact aid or hinder a dancers learning?
- How much physical contact is socially acceptable within the dance profession?
