Module 2: Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Looking back on the foundation of this course with Module One, I looked at the exploration of communication technologies, utilised the reflection on my professional practice and identified professional networks.  These are still ongoing themes within Module Two to develop my professional practitioner inquiry.

Developing Lines of Professional Inquiry

To find a line of inquiry  I reflected back to Module one and looked at the questions I previously asked, to see which ones stood out and what I could relate to for the development of my career (Appendix 1).  By extracting from a range of knowledge, I was able to pinpoint an area in which I could develop further to find out more and to benefit my professional practice.  My area of interest has remained linked to teaching within primary education and private performing arts schools as this is where my current practice resides. 

The use of literature has helped me to link performing arts and mainstream education (Appendix 2) to find out what is already known about transferable skills between these two sectors (Appendix 3).  Within this area of questioning, it led me to look into interdisciplinary learning as a supporting area to my inquiry question (Appendix 4).  After identifying other peers within the course who were looking into similar lines for their inquiries, I decided to join a special interest group (SIG) relating to performing arts in education (Appendix 5).  This group has been a great way to share ideas and thoughts, and to develop my lines for my professional inquiry (Appendix 6).   

Professional Ethics

I considered the ethics that surround my current professional practice, which was an important task required to explore my chosen area for my professional inquiry (Appendix 7).  I also looked at the codes of conduct relating to my current practice to identify what may need to considered in terms of carrying out research to support my inquiry (Appendix 8).     

Once I had a better understanding of what I would need to be looking at for the professional ethics of my inquiry, I created a draft of my Ethics Form and Employer Support Form ready for my inquiry plan.  These forms, together with the reflection of the ethical framework for my area of inquiry, have enabled me to consider and understand the implications of ethics within my professional practice (Appendix 9).   

Tools of Professional Inquiry

I began by critiquing the tools available for my inquiry, investigating the benefits, limits and ethical considerations of each to determine which tools would develop the research for my inquiry (Appendix 10).  This concluded my decision to use interviews, observations and surveys to collect data which could be used to inform my inquiry topic.  I created a pilot trial of a survey which I relayed on my blog, within my SIG and to my professional community (Appendix 11).  This not only gave me an insight into the responses but also allowed me to see what needed to be improved as well as structural layout discussed within my SIG (See comments: Appendix 12). 

Conclusion

The three themes discussed here have enhanced my knowledge within my professional practice and developed a set of questions which will benefit my understanding of the performing arts and whether they can be linked within education.

Literature Review: 'Developing an Integrated Dance Curriculum'

Jennifer Smith has more than 12 years experience as a teacher and at the time of this article she was an assistant professor and director of the dance program at Knox College in Illinois, USA.  Within this article Jennifer Smith looks at the idea of a holistic approach to dance to integrate the dance curricula and academic studies.

I found this explanation of what taking a holistic approach might mean:

"A holistic view means that we are interested in engaging and developing the whole person. You can think of this as different levels, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It’s the concept that the human being is multi-dimensional. We have conscious and unconscious aspects, rational and irrational aspects. We are a bodymind. Not just intellect, but emotion, instinct, intuition, as well. We support people in using all of their ‘multiple intelligence’ that means insight, rationality, logic, emotion, hunches, gut feel, creativity, a sense of harmony and rhythm. We believe there are more than five senses, and we wish people to use the information from all their senses, and assist them in developing ‘uncommon sense’."

Source: http://www.boastl.com/content/what-do-you-mean-holistic-approach  
Accessed 28th April 2015


Drawing Connections: Developing an Integrated Dance Curriculum - Jennifer Smith

"When examining the curricular structure of any dance department it is useful to begin with an analysis of work covered in technique classes, as they are often the backbone of a dance program."

It think it is important to note here that Smith links 'curricular' with Dance. Her views on Dance are that is does have a structure that can be curricular and I think this can sometimes be forgotten about by outsiders.  As Smith writes from a point of view of being within Further Education, the curricular links will be much stronger.  As dance in Primary schools is seen mainly as an active subject, hence its existence within Physical Education, there are no provisions for the theory side of dance.  

Whilst theory could be introduced, my experience tells me that with the limited time given for a Dance session there would not be a place for this addition.  The sessions could be structured to vary from week to week, but again from experience the Physical Education curriculum tends to work on rotation by changing the activity either half-termly or termly. 

Perhaps the idea of introducing more theory into dance could be something for classes within education, especially primary, could consider?

"The truth is that the majority of our students has never read a dance critique and do not possess the vocabulary necessary to discuss a performance, nor do they draw connections between what a dancer may be doing on stage and their own training in the technique being performed." 

The fact that Smith has identified the lack of analysis her students are capable of, questions whether Dance could be too practical.  Could this be diminishing the amount of knowledge the students are retaining?  Perhaps this could be a reason why Dance is looked at in such a way that it is not of the same importance as academic subjects.  These skills that Smith describes could be an important part of a students' learning.

"The focus on technical training that has led to this failure to prepare students to write about dance but such critiques do little to support a student's technical training."

The failure that Smith talks about here is her students' lack of experience to analyse movement.  But what what she points out is that this ability that they could gain, would not necessarily help their technical training and merely improve their skills to be able to critique others.  What I think, is that if you are able to critique others successfully then this could provide a backbone to be able to critique ones self.  And could this skill of analysis applying to other disciplines to look at the work being done to see if it matches the criteria?

"I have started to give my beginning students the following creative projects with the goal of educating them about how the human body works and building their sense of body awareness."

The idea of providing her students with a project, has a clear outcome and an outcome that relates to other subjects.  This may not necessarily be in written form, but there is still a form of learning happening here.  This would provide a link between dance and science.  Smith is forming ideas to develop her students' learning within the discipline of dance.

"Through both these assignments students are building skills in body awareness.  They are learning human anatomy, developing a connection to their own personal structure, and investigating how they can begin to use dance as a tool to re-educate their body by applying this knowledge to correct body use."

Smith is fully aware of what she is trying to achieve from her students.  What I would be interested to know from this is whether the assignments were successful and if the outcomes were achieved.  The skills which her students are being taught are valuable ones and although mainly related to dance, I think some of this can be transferred to other disciplines within education.  

"This project has also pushed them to develop their performance skills, and overall, my students are learning and retaining information more quickly in class and are more focused."

Smith set her students a different assignment which involved videotaping themselves performing on three different occasions.  This is a really useful tool for a performer and if they have the capability to critique themselves fairly it can improve ones form.  Smith identified the improvement made through this project which would then be benefit the students as ongoing skills. 

"I believe that it is my role as an educator to help my students learn how to use the tools of today wisely." 

This is an important statement that Smith makes, and relating education to her teaching is a clear point to note.  The use of tools can be a valuable skill which can aid other areas of everyday life.  Teachers can introduce additional resources into their lessons which can provide additional learning like Smith has done here.

"Dance History provides a context that a dance professor can use to discuss the ideas of politics, cultural identity, and technological progress, among other topics."

Here, Smith incorporates history into her sessions.  History is a vast subject and with that comes the great knowledge of how things has evolved.  Dance in particular is regularly used to demonstrate the changes through the decades and the links within cultures.  This now links dance to other subjects within the curriculum.

"They will be confident individuals in their own bodies because they will understand what role their everyday choices play in how they present themselves physically to other people.  Through the connections that they have made between what they are learning in dance and its relationship to their world as a whole, we will have provided them with life skills that enable them to become well-rounded, intellectually minded, and verbally articulate professionals in dance, or in any field they choose to pursue."

A vast list of skills sums up Smith's article to show the learning which can absorbed through dance.

Conclusion

Smiths article has opened my eyes to the learning created through dance.  Rather than looking at what skills can be directly taken from dance and transferred into other disciplines, as a teacher I can enforce the skills that I apply to my students to broaden their learning.  Although a teacher is bound by the curriculum, there is always room to be creative.  These creative ideas that Smith has used within her teaching has given her students a wider spectrum to learn from.

Smith, J (2007) Drawing Connections: Developing an Integrated Dance Curriculum, Teaching Artist Journal, 5:3, p200-204, London: Routledge                                                     

Literature Review: 'Dance in Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning'

Looking further into literature to help me to understand my inquiry more, is enabling me to see why Performing Arts is not necessarily present within primary education.  I am still on the look out for literature relating directly to Primary education rather than Secondary, but the majority of text appears to relate to education in general.  I think this will still be a source of information which will help develop my inquiry.

This piece of literature discusses dance as an interdisciplinary learning tool within schools.  I also saw this discussed in another piece of literature which I have looked at, where it was said that 'teachers can use dance as a unique vehicle for integrating teaching and learning across curricula'. (Hanna, p65, 1999).  As my inquiry is currently looking into the basis of performing arts providing disciplinary skills within education, I think that it is beneficial to also look at why dance specifically can be seen more as a tool, to incorporate learning within other subjects.  

Dance in Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning- Alison M Rhodes

'Dance if often positioned in contrast to more "academic" disciplines.'

Rhodes immediately begins by making a comparison of dance with other disciplines which are seen as 'academic' within schools.  I agree that this is very often the case, and by contrast is not a discipline in itself and used within Physical Education and therefore not as common as other subjects, as Rhodes says "dance is not valued as a discipline in its own right". (Rhodes, 2006). So this poses the question of: Why is dance not seen in its own right and therefore made compulsory within primary schools?

'When taught at all, it is often used for the purpose of increasing student engagement or advancing understanding in another subject'

I think it would be a good source of research to ask current primary school teachers whether they use dance for student engagement?  I would't make an argument that dance should be used to increase student engagement as Rhodes suspects is sometimes the case here.  From my own experience I would say that yes, dance and performing arts can engage students, and therefore they can learn from these disciplines, however, it depends on many factors.  These factors include: gender, confidence and previous experience.  I also think that if a student already has an interest in Performing Arts then they are more likely to put in the effort and achieve learning successfully.  In contrast I think that if a student does not have an interest then the effort is not there and therefore neither is the learning.

For dance to be used to advance understanding in another subject, I can imagine would be a suitable reason for teachers to introduce dance.  Although I have used cross-curricular links within my dance sessions in primary schools, I wouldn't necessarily agree that this has always developed the understanding of the linked subject.  For example, I recently used the solar system as a stimulus to create a dance piece within a Year 5 class.  I wasn't aiming to make this educational as such, but more to help the students develop ideas and creativity from a subject that they were already familiar with.  This was a really effective tool to use and enabled the students to stay focused on the task I had set.

Discussing interdisciplinary education: 'provides unique opportunities for learning about dance as well as through dance'

These unique opportunities are ones that I have seen myself.  As a professional dancer I feel that I have provided 'unique' sessions that students may not have had the experience of previously.  Whilst most Primary School 'dance' lessons are taught by their class teacher, the students that I have had the pleasure of teaching have been taught by someone who has had intense and professional training and has been lucky enough to gain professional experience within the industry.

Where dance is used within interdisciplinary learning, it exposes this discipline to students in a way they may have not experienced before.  This is providing the 'unique opportunity' which I think Rhodes talks about here.  And whilst this can create an interesting way for students to learn, I think it could sometimes take away certain aspects of Dance that may only come from a specific lesson dedicated to the learning of the Performing Arts.  At the same time we could look into the skills that are being learnt here; could these skills be seen a transferable skills from one subject to another?       

Source: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/43242_1.pdf (Repko, 2012)

This quote above, helped me to understand the definition of interdisciplinary studies.

'To validate its place within schooling, dance is often asked the play the role of supporting what are viewed as more "academic" disciplines'

Why is dance sometimes used as the supporting study?  Why can we not use dance simply in its own right?  I think this could be a useful question to place in one of my inquiry tools to find out what others think of this statement.  Surely dance provides students with some important skills which enable them to learn effectively and subsequently showing that dance can provide transferable skills?

'interdisciplinary understanding involves the "integration of knowledge and modes of thinking from two or more disciplines in order to create products, solve problems, and offer explanations of the world in ways that would not have been possible through single disciplinary means." (Boix Mansilla, Gardner, 2000)'.

As dance is classed as part of the Performing Arts, it has made me consider whether those who teach within the Performing Arts in education believe that this statement applies within this broad discipline.  Can two or more disciplines of Performing Arts; for example, Dance and Drama, 'create products, solve problems and offer explanations'?  From my point of view I would say yes, however this may be a bias view from someone who has intensely worked within performing arts.  

Conclusion

As dance isn't seen as a compulsory subject (National Curriculum, 2013), it does make sense to me that it is sometimes introduced as a subject to perhaps enhance learning of other subjects.  Currently the National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2, only has reference to dance under the 'Physical Education Programme of Study', where it states that 'pupils should be taught to perform dances using a range of simple/range of movement patterns'.  To me this comes across as very vague and doesn't seem to enforce the idea of dance.  

What I do find interesting is that the rest of the criteria for this subject content, refers to what should be achieved by use of other sports.  When in fact, dance can teach students balance, agility and co-ordination, which are mainly seen as fundamental skills learnt in common sports activities.  It is clear that Rhodes believes in Dance as an interdisciplinary subject and so it seems that this is how Dance, if used at all, is sometimes explored within education.  And so I question whether the idea of transferable skills is not really explored within Dance but the use of interdisciplinary learning appears to be supported.

References:

Boix Mansilla V, Gardner H (2000) On Disciplinary Lenses and Interdisciplinary Work, In: Wineburg S, Grossman P (eds): Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Challenges to Implementation. New York: Teachers College Press

Hanna, J. (1999) Partnering Dance and Education: Intelligent Moves for Changing, Interdisciplinary Learning, United States: Human Kinetics

National Curriculum KS1 & KS2 (2013):

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239040/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Physical_education.pdf Accessed: 26th April 2015

Repko AF (2012) Chapter 1: Defining Interdisciplinary Studies, Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory (2nd ed).  p16. United States: Sage Publications Ltd.

Rhodes. A.M (2006) Journal of Dance Education: Dance in Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, Volume 6 Issue 2, p48, London:Routledge

Task 6d: Inquiry Plan

After drafting up my inquiry plan, I have changed my inquiry question back to what I was originally looking at.  These two questions are still very much linked with transferable skills but what I want to make sure is that my intended inquiry will benefit my future prospects as much as possible.  As I do not know where my inquiry will take me and where my career will take me I have decided to continue to look into the transferable skills that can be applied to learning within primary education.

Inquiry Question: Are there any transferable skills which can be learnt from a Performing Arts class and be applied to enhance learning within primary education?

I would be interested to here your views and opinions on this inquiry question!

Task 6c: Award Title

This is not something I have particularly considered before now, and is not something that requires too much thought due to my background and my future goals.  The two areas I think my award title should relate to would either be Dance or Performing Arts.  I have used both terms throughout the modules so far, not intentionally but due to the environments I have been working in.  As I am still currently in and out of multiple jobs, I think it is important to remember what experience I have and what my future career goals are.  Therefore I have chosen as my award title:

BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Performing Arts)

Rationale:

My performing training began in Performing Arts and although predominantly has been Dance, I have always explored and enjoyed all aspects of performing.  My professional training was made up of all genres within the Performing Arts bracket and has continued to be part of my experiences within my professional practice.

Now looking ahead at where I would like to progress to, I want to keep the broad subject of Performing Arts as a particular area to focus on.  I would like to develop my knowledge of Performing Arts within the private and public sector to broaden my opportunities for the future.

I feel that my award title relates to my inquiry question to look at the teaching within Performing Arts.