Task 5b: Codes of Practice/Regulations

I began by looking into the regulations enforced at a dance school I teach at.  This is displayed in a form layout which parents fill out when their child begins at the school and comprises of contact details, medical conditions and essential information the parent/guardian may need to know and consent to.

The codes of practice outline three main areas: Child Protection Policy, Health and Safety and Consent.

The child protection policy outlines the fact that the students are taught in a safe environment and follows the Data Protection Act and Human Rights Act 1998 with regards to confidentiality.  It also details that all teachers are CRB/DBS checked and that the students can be taught by a male/female teacher.    

This was something I was not aware needed to be stated.  My thoughts would be that with today's outlooks on equality it wouldn't matter which gender you are being taught by and so it would not need to be noted?

The health and safety section details that the students are only to leave the premises when the parent/guardian is present and with the acknowledgment of the teacher.  It also states that the teachers are not responsible for the students once they leave the class area.

This is common knowledge to myself and so I would naturally work with this in mind.  It does however highlight the points and covers the teacher against vulnerable situations.  

The final section relates to consent for the provision of first aid.

                                                                                                                                                  

What this shows is the line of ethics from another point of view. Within task 5a I looked at ethics from my own point of view within an environment and how they would affect myself when teaching. What this document showed me is the ethics between what is essentially the client (parent/student) and the teacher. So I think that it is important to remember both these views within ethics to understand what needs to be monitored with relation to both the student, parent/guardian, teacher (myself) and the environment in which I may be in.

Looking at Reader 5 this relates to the idea of the three main contexts where ethics are considered: personal, professional and organizational. 

                                                                                                                                                 

As I teach in various schools it is hard for me to pinpoint one document of legislation that I can refer to as a code of conduct within education.

I decided to focus on one school in the hope that it would give a general outline of the guidelines schools try to implicate. This school is one in which I worked in for a whole school year, and so I feel like I have quite a good understanding already of how they operated.

The school makes their policies available online and as you can see, there are many to browse through!

East Wickham Primary Academy: Policies

I decided to pick 'Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy' which would affect me the most and that I could learn the most from.

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

As I took a safeguarding course last year, this was all covered within that session.  And again the majority of this is common knowledge but needs to be outlined for protection of all parties involved.  This particular document is available for anyone to look at but is signed by all teachers and staff of that school.

I also had a look at the teaching standards outlined by the Department for Education: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/301107/Teachers__Standards.pdf

These codes of conduct are a guidance for teachers within the UK so would be a useful resource to bear in mind for my future plans. 

There are two main sections; Teaching, and Personal and Professional Conduct.  

As far as teaching goes the document describes the many facets expected as a teacher and how to work within your practice to gain the best from your students.  This also emphasises what responsibilities are expected and they way in which lessons should be applied.

The personal and professional conduct states that 'a teacher is expected to demonstrate consistently high standards of personal and professional conduct'.  This is one area that I personally pride myself on and have always thought that my dance training has contributed towards this. 

Overall there is not much which differs from my assumption on ethics within my practice but what I do know is that within education there is a vast amount of documentation required by the schools to have on record.

Task 5a: Considering ethics within my workplace...

As my future lines of inquiry will lie within education, it is important to realise the important of ethics when working within such a regulated environment.  Not only this but my current practice and, more than likely, future practice will fall into the category of teaching children. This is a sensitive and vulnerable sector to work in when considering ethics.

As my current practice consists of teaching in both the private (dance schools) and public (primary schools), I wanted to consider different areas of ethics within both these areas.

Plagiarism

My understanding of plagiarism only seemed to spark the thoughts of written texts.  I would only connect this  to my practice within schools as within my company we use schemes of work.  These have either been devised by the company or adapted by myself.  Within the company we have collated a combination of other employees to devise schemes of work for half a term which can either be followed directly, adapted to suit your own needs or to create your own individual schemes.  I have done all three of these and even picked up some new ideas along the way.  Creating lesson plans is all about having a rough guide to work from and adapting this to fit in with timescales, abilities and teachers' requirements.  

As I have done work within schools outside the company, I have never directly used their schemes of work when not carrying out employment provided by them.  I have instead introduced dance schemes of ISTD and adapting modern and sometimes even tap syllabus to create fun classes.  

The other use of plagiarism within my practice would be teaching choreography and presenting it as my own.  This can be a fine line and I have previously taught choreography to my students which I have learnt from else where.  When doing this however, I have never claimed that I was the one who created it.

Protecting Data

As part of my dance school setting I have access to certain amounts of data about my students.  This data mainly comprises of important information about my students such as emergency contact numbers, date of birth, address and any health issues.  This information is essential for me to have and is kept within a folder that only myself and the dance school owner have access to.  I understand that this is private data and must not be shared with anyone.

Permission

With a closer look now at the way we are able to handle a child when teaching, the important thing to remember is whether a child needs a hands on correction.  I am aware that this should be minimal to avoid vulnerable situations and should only really be done when necessary and with permission.  However I think this will always be hard for a teacher involved in performing arts and sports.  As I am now involved in gymnastics also, there is even more reason to handle a child with the thought of safety.  Within certain movements, a gymnastics coach must be there to support a child in order to ensure a movement is completed in a safe way.  Whilst thinking about this it makes me think that maybe in dance we don't need this same approach as there are limited movements which could incur a safety issue.  

I think that it is sometimes best for a student to work out themselves where and what they may need to adjust their body and so is physical touch by a teacher necessary?  

In my current primary school I completed half a term of dance followed by gymnastics.  I used no physical corrections during dance, however with some of the more complex movements in gymnastics I felt it was vital to use physical support.  The way i handled this situation was to inform the class of the activity we were working on and why I may need to support them to make it safe.  I also asked if there was anyone who did not want the support but advised that in that case it would not be safe for them to participate in that particular activity.  

Was this the right thing to do?

Images and Photography

When working in schools, this is something which has never come about.  Any photography or filming has come from the teacher and not myself so has not been an issue.

In my dance school however, very often photography has been used for advertisement of the school, but this has not been a task taken out by myself and has been arranged by the manager of the school.  I know that when our students start they are required to sign a declaration to say that they are happy to allow their child to be filmed or photographed for promotion of the school. 


I know that there are many other areas of ethics and I am sure they will become clearer throughout this module.  The areas above are the ones which stand out to me.

Task 4c: Questionnaire

I wasn't sure which way to go with regards to asking questions that would relate to my inquiry.  I browsed through several blogs of other students on the programme to see if they would have any questions that inspired me.  After looking at Michelle Moriarty (Module 2), Rebecca Cox (Module 3) and Claire Radford (Module 3), they all had similar areas of interest to myself.  I used these ideas and set up my own questionnaire with questions I could ask several professionals outside the course.

Questionnaire to capture opinions within my chosen sector.

I have sent this questionnaire to multiple professionals in the hope that I will gain a varied set of opinions to help me towards creating an inquiry most suited to my progression. 

Task 4b: Special Interest Group

Reading up to this task my area of interest is becoming much clearer.  What I realised when looking at other groups that have been formed is that I could relate to a small group who are already looking towards the same area as myself.  

I came across Emma Corboz's SIG which she has created on Google + as a community and immediately saw similar interests by everyone who has interacted within the group.  Some of the discussions that have already been set up have already got me thinking and I think this will be a great way to help me develop an inquiry that will benefit my future practice.

If any one else has a similar interest you can request to join Emma's community and expand our pool of thoughts:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115388313863291261435

Task 4a: Knowledge

I recently look back at Task 2d to see what other questions emerged from Module 1.  The one which stood out for me that would be most relevant to my current practice would be:

How can dance develop life skills?

I suppose a better way to word this would be:

Can dance develop life skills?

Because I would like to continue using Dance as my tool for a future career I think it would be beneficial to understand how dance could have a positive impact on your life.  Is there an angle we should use to keep Dance within the curriculum of all schools?


Identifying Knowledge and Skills in the Workplace

I believe that my current knowledge is a key factor to explore to help develop my personal goals.  My knowledge and skills come from a variety of experiences within the performing arts world and I think that this will help and aid me within this module.  

As Eraut described, knowledge can come in 'different forms'. (1994, P.16).  The idea of breaking knowledge up into different concepts fits well with the information I have accumulated over the different areas of dance.  

I looked at 'The Theory of Knowledge' to gain a better understanding of the types of knowledge known.

Procedural knowledge would be the knowledge of knowing how to do something.  So relating to my current practice would be how I teach a certain exercise, position or movement.  What is interesting about this type of knowledge that Eraut describes is that for me this can be a trial and error process.  What might work for one would not necessarily work for another and therefore I am constantly trying to find new ways of doing things.  This varies upon several factors such as the level and standard of my students, the age and the environment in which they are being taught.

Propositional knowledge would be the facts linked with the procedural knowledge.  This is probably the type of knowledge I would need to focus on in order to ensure my practice is ethical.  When teaching someone you are indeed teaching them your knowledge but of course you need to ensure that the knowledge you are relaying is correct first.  As I progress into the next step of my career I would need to develop my knowledge further and ensure my propositional knowledge is accurate.

My practical knowledge is the form of knowledge that I would class as the most valuable.  This is the knowledge I have gained from my experiences which I would describe as very varied and therefore creating a wider spectrum to learn from.

After looking up a definition of tacit knowledge, it appears to me that this is a complex form of knowledge which requires knowing multiple forms of knowledge to gain the full understanding of this.  For example, to be able to dance something accurately you would need to have the knowledge of the style, musicality, body awareness, technique, performance and much more.  

How many teachers of dance in secondary education have tacit knowledge?  How much practical knowledge do they have?  

My knowledge within the dance sector has allowed me to understand dance within the performance and a small area of education whilst in primary schools.  As there is more than one discipline which I use to contribute towards my knowledge I would describe this as having an 'inter-disciplinary' approach to my knowledge.

This article gave an interesting insight on how an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching can benefit a students learning.

http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/interdisciplinary/why.html

I read through the extract from Eraut (1991) where he discusses his thoughts on the process of giving information.  One thing that stood out for me was the need between a professional and a student to be able to listen and translate information into a form that can be understood.  This is described as being 'most developed in teachers, because teachers need to both understand children's conceptions and ways of thinking and to develop a repertoire of possible representations of every aspect of their subject' (Sigrun Gudmundsdottir, 1989; McNamara, 1991)

What this means to me is having the knowledge to be able to understand the many ways in which things can be understood.  As a teacher I know that one student may interpret something in one way and therefore understand the concept, however another may not and that means that I need to draw from my existing knowledge to enable that other student to understand but in a different way.

This has led me possibly focus on the area of teaching dance within education and what already exists...


References:
Eraut, Michael (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, Abingdon: RoutledgeFalmer.

Pedagogy In Action: The SERC Portal for Educators. Why Teach with an Interdisciplinary Approach? http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/interdisciplinary/why.html (Accessed 8th March 2015).