I had a lot of questions in my mind on how I would be able to create an inquiry topic I was genuinely interested in which could be researched upon to discover new ideas and could also help me in my career as a dance teacher.
I progressed gradually, going through each task step by step until on the day that I submitted my Inquiry Plan I realised that I had a plan that I was happy with and I felt confident I was in a stable position to progress with the actual inquiry.
Now after a short break I am at the beginning of Module 3 and I sense that familiar feeling creeping in that I had in October when I read through the handbook and reader. Where do I go from here?
After reading through blogs of fellow BAPP students it seems I am not the only one who has raised this question.
It is remembering the stable ground that I was on when I submitted the work at the end of module 2 and the positive feedback that I've received from Alan, my advisor, that is giving me the confidence and reassurance that I need to put my Inquiry Plan in to action.
Overall I was pleased with the feedback I received from Alan and thrilled to know that I could progress on to the next module.
I have been reading through this feedback and planning on how I can apply Alan's advice in my Inquiry Plan.
The feedback highlighted two main points for improvement which are both quoted below:
I think you need to do one other thing at this point. That is to create clear ‘categories’ of questions and data you are seeking. You do mention these but a clear structured typology will help you. For example, motivation; the functional capability of teenager’s brains etc. Tag these categories as they will help form further questions and importantly help you access further literature.
You provide a good explanation of the coding approach you will take. Do read literature on this, it’ll help you.
- Categorise
- Literature
Below are my thoughts and how I plan to progress:
- The further I delved into my topic when planning my inquiry the more my questions developed and branched off into different questions and formed new ideas. This is something I was battling with the further I researched and the more my questions matured. I did avoid branching off as much as possible for fear it would take my topic off course but it became immediately clear that this branching off was inevitable and perhaps is probably necessary to help my plan develop into a genuine and mature inquiry. I did vaguely touch on this in my plan but after reading Alan's feedback I do agree that clearly categorising these questions will benefit me as I carry out the interviews and observations. Structuring in this way should help me clearly see the links between different sources of information gained through the interviews and observations and as Alan mentioned could also push me towards reading further literature.
- The literature that I have read so far has helped me greatly in developing a solid base for my line of inquiry. It was searching out this literature that I found quite challenging for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted and needed pieces of literature that were relevant and related to my topic of inquiry. Secondly, this literature wasn't supposed to back up my own theories and beliefs but instead develop new ideas and questions. Eventually I found literature that I felt covered both these points and provided me with new information to progress with the inquiry. I have now come to the conclusion that my research on literature shouldn't end there as not only did it help me develop my Inquiry Plan but it could also help me put this Inquiry Plan in to action, for example, by doing further research on coding it will make it easier for me to actually carry out this analysis method.
Over the next couple of weeks I aim to search out literature that will hopefully develop my understanding on categorising questions and the coding approach that I plan to use in my analysis. I believe these methods will benefit me when I begin collecting and analysing the data as it will provide me with a reliable and authentic piece of research.
