Module 2 Feedback and Applying it to Module 3.

When I started Module 2 initially I felt overwhelmed by the tasks that were involved.
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. 

1. Categorise
2. Literature

Below are my thoughts and how I plan to progress:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry.

Below is the Critical Reflection that I will be submitting along with my Inquiry Plan at the end of Module 2.

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

During this short essay I’ll be reviewing the key stepping stones which have helped develop my ideas for the inquiry since I started Module 2.

The initial task was to review Reader 4 on Professional Inquiry and develop a set of questions relevant to my practice. Looking back on these initial questions (Appendix 1) I think it’s clear to see the progression in the quality of my questions.

The starting point for me developing my questions was reading the section in the Reader on Penelope Hanstein, the professor and director for dance at Texas Woman’s University and author of many articles on the nature of dance.

The paragraph which stood out to me was from the book Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry co-edited by Penelope Hanstein and Sondra Horton Fraleigh (Appendix 2).

Hanstein highlighted the difference between a genuine question and a pseudo question, the former truly seeks an answer and the latter cannot be answered nor has an answer that is already known to the person asking the question. I immediately identified that the set of questions I had come up with at that point may have been more pseudo than genuine (Appendix 3).

Following this realisation, I rephrased the questions and scrapped some questions entirely which I felt could not be answered through investigation. Further analysis showed some of the questions needed to be more genuine in order for them to be answered satisfactorily through research (Appendix 4).

However, this was still a work in progress and after much thought, research on relevant literature and drawing from feedback received from experienced teachers and from the SIG my set of questions went through several changes before arriving at this stage where I am confident about them (Appendix 5).

Reader 5 opened my eyes to the necessity of ethics in the work place and inquiries carried out there.

For the first task in part 5, I considered the ethics in my work place relying on my own thoughts without the help of documents and discussion (Appendix 6).

I then researched the codes of practice which provide the ethical framework in my work place and to consult the Reader on Professional Ethics. I discovered there were some ethical standards I wasn’t adhering to as explicitly as ISTD demands. The ISTD Code of Conduct is comprehensive (Appendix 7), whereas my list of ethical standards just covered the surface and entirely missed some integral parts. I feel ethics are important for my inquiry and having researched the ISTD guidelines I feel better equipped to carry out my inquiry in an ethical manner (Appendix 8).

Following the completion of this module, I am now at a stage where I am confident to carry out my inquiry in a professional and ethical way with the tools that I have chosen (Appendix 9). My questions have been shaped and adapted from a primitive set, of which some could never have been answered satisfactorily, into a more mature set which should help me genuinely gain more understanding about my chosen topic. 

Proposed Award Title

I have proposed my award title; BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Dance Teaching & Management) as I believe this reflects where I am in my current career and where I want to be in the future.

At the moment I work as a freelance teacher, teaching for several schools in addition to running my own dance academy. My future ambition and aim is to develop this small business and turn it into a big, successful dance academy. I have only been running the school for just over a year now but already I have found that the key to success is not just through good teaching but also through having good people and management skills. 

Trial Plan

Below are my plans for the informal interview and observation. I have posted these on the SIG for people to provide feedback on and so I thought I would do the same on here.

I have arranged my questions for an informal interview which I will be conducting later today. I would like to see what arises from this interview, such as any other questions that could help and improve my inquiry and also hopefully gather feedback that will benefit me in the future for when the actual interview takes place.

1) How long have you been teaching dance?

2) What age range do you cover?

3) Do you find different methods to teach key stage 4 level to that of key stage 3 that work more effectively?

4) What are these methods that you find more effective when teaching key stage 3 level?

5) What are these methods that you find more effective when teaching key stage 4 level?

6) What ways have you found to inspire and motivate teenage students?


7) What effective methods of teaching have you found that promotes discipline within a class?


8) How do you keep a class fun and motivated but at the same time in order? Are you able to use your methods to inspire and motivate alongside those that promotes discipline?

I have also planned an informal observation which I will be carrying out this weekend.

I have put together several steps that I plan to cover:

1) Observe a free class such as street dance, where the teacher is running a class without a syllabus and the work is more fun and laid back.

2) Observe a syllabus class such as IDTA Ballet. The work is set and technical.

3) I would like to put it forward to the teacher to allow the students time to work on a project such as 15 minutes to choreograph a short dance to a piece of music.

The aim of these different kinds of observations is to see how the students respond in different environments with the different work they are presented with. My overall aim is to observe the verbal and non-verbal language between the teacher and students.

Breaking this down further I would like to see how:

• the students effort differs in each class
• high the concentration level is in each class
• much the student gains from each class
• the number of students are effected, for example is the percentage higher in the free street dance class than that in the syllabus class?
• discipline and control are effected
• positive and responsive the students are to each class

After carrying out the informal interview and observation, I will gather what I've learnt along with the feedback I've received and add this to my Critical Reflection on the inquiry tools that is blogged below.

Delicious

I have successfully set up a Delicious account so that I can store and share website links that have been helpful to me and may prove useful to others on this course.

Please click on the link below to go to my Delicious page.


https://delicious.com/carlalm88

Critical Reflection and Planning My Inquiry Tools

Up until now I have solely been focusing on the quality of my questions and not given thought to how I plan on collecting the data for my line of inquiry.
After reading through reader 6, I now realise the importance of planning how I am going to gather this information, in order to ensure that it is relevant to my line of inquiry.

The reader describes four different tools that can be used in gathering information, each tool having its own benefits but also its limitations.

After much consideration I have decided that the two tools I plan on using in my line of inquiry to gather information will be through OBSERVATIONS and INTERVIEWS.

OBSERVATIONS
I have chosen observation as I feel that this is the most natural tool for me, being one that I already use on a regular basis. Most recently, I have been consciously aware of when I am observing and mentally taking notes which has therefore helped me to progress not only as a teacher but also as a student on this course.
I also think that through observing I can gather data that is relevant to my topic, that is genuine, and a rich source of information of a behavioural nature where I can see with my own eyes the patterns of communication, verbal and non-verbal. For example, how a student responds to particular actions by a teacher and vice versa.

INTERVIEWS
I have chosen interviewing as my other tool because as with observing, it is something that I have become confident at doing recently. Since, starting this course I have been gathering information and feedback from different sources via informal interviews. I find it a good method to use as it is direct and you can respond and change course according to how the interview is going, so I think that chatting to a professional/expert on a one to one level will ensure that I gather relevant information.

The reader describes different interview methods such as:

• non-directive or open interviews that allow the interviewee to talk about anything they like 

This method is one that I most commonly use as it puts the interviewee in a relaxed state of mind, making them feel comfortable and it brings about new information that probably wouldn't have been mentioned otherwise in a more formal question/answer interview.

However, I am not sure this method would work for my inquiry as I need to ensure that the interviewee stays on topic. So the method that I think would work in achieving relevant data is a:

• semi-structured interview which includes set questions or themes with the flexibility of following interesting or useful emerging issues is often most appropriate for the work-based researcher because of its inherent flexibility.  

I had a quick read through Joe's blog which is always interesting, and he describes an interview that he conducted whereby he found that it became more of a discussion than a question and answer session, although he was careful to keep the interviewee on track by dictating the topic of conversation.

I am confident that if I can achieve these sorts of results in an interview then I will gather a wide range of information relevant to my line of inquiry.

One thing that I must be aware of though, which is also mentioned in the reader, is that the information gathered from each individual is based on their opinions and can be effected by their backgrounds.

FOCUS GROUPS
This tool is the least appealing to me although I can see it's advantages and why it would work well in a line of inquiry.
I think the reason why this is a tool I wouldn't use for my line of inquiry is because it is a method I have never tried before. I am unsure of it's full potential and also of any disadvantages it may have.
Nevertheless, because of my lack of confidence in this tool, I feel I should jump the hurdle and try it in a casual, informal setting.
The tools I will be using to gather data for my line of inquiry are observations and interviews, but I may use a focus group as a tool outside of the module and gather information on a different topic to see how it could benefit me in the future.

SURVEYS
To begin with this was the tool that I chose. I thought it would be a great way to gather information from a wide range of people and also because it is a quick, easy and familiar method to use for the participants and myself.
It was the reader which changed my mind and convinced me that this tool would not gain the results that I'm after.
If I did a survey, I feel that the answers I received would be lacking in depth and quality, even if I took great pains to ensure that the people I gave the surveys to were professionals/experts.
To me, it is a great way for businesses to gather information, but for me personally, I want to carry out my line of inquiry in a personal way, through one to one discussions and interviews and through observing lessons. I believe these methods will uncover wide, sincere and relevant results.

Literature No.3

The third and last piece of literature I have chosen is a blog written by Michelle Worgan, an English teacher who has been working in the teaching profession for over ten years. The piece she has written focuses on how to successfully teach teenagers. 
Although her subject is English, I believe the methods in teaching are transferable to any subject and her thoughts on what she believes works for teenage students will benefit me in my line of inquiry.

Please click on the link below to read the blog titled Tips for Teaching Teens (by Michelle Worgan):

http://www.teachingvillage.org/2010/06/29/tips-for-teaching-teens-by-michelle-worgan/

I thought this blog carried on nicely from the article I used for my second piece of literature titled 'The adolescent brain - Learning strategies and teaching tips.'

Michelle Worgan first writes about the reasons why teenagers can be difficult to teach due to the physical and emotional changes they are going through, etc, (which I now know a lot more about after reading the second piece of literature), and then she goes on to look at the aspects of the teacher-student relationship to see what makes a class successful.

Worgan makes some good points about first impressions and setting the record straight from the start that you mean business.
The section after that is of particular interest to me as it coincides nicely with one of my questions on how to combine the methods of motivation and discipline within a classroom.

Worgan writes:

Good Cop Vs Bad Cop 

I consider myself to be quite strict with teenage exam prep groups, and contrary to popular belief, research has shown that firm but fair teachers are preferred by this age group. Although you may be tempted to treat a group of sixteen year olds as adults, the fact is that emotionally they are not. Even though they may look like adults and demand to be treated like one, they don’t usually have the emotional balance and reason that an adult usually has. This means that if you do talk to them as if they were your friends or peers, they will often use this as an excuse not to study or do as you ask. At the end of the day, most teenagers don’t have the maturity to choose progress over fun and games, and you will find it much more difficult to get them to put in the required effort.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to bear the stick constantly – give them a carrot when they have been working hard! The idea is you are seen to be in control of the class – something that teenagers consider a quality of a good teacher. Rewards such as games and other fun activities can be a great incentive to get the work done. Do make sure though, that you do give them the rewards you promise, otherwise they will just think that there is no point in doing the work.

Like Worgan, I also consider myself to be quite a strict teacher, particularly when it comes to teaching teenagers. I try to remember how I felt as a teenager and what sort of teachers I preferred and it was always the firm but fair teachers (like research has shown), so when I am teaching teenage students my aim is always to be firm but fair.
This can be difficult to maintain though and I find that when students are moaning and their work is sloppy then this can make me more stressed, especially if we are working towards an exam or show and this stress can diminish some of the control I have over the class. 
I totally agree with what Worgan says about needing to be seen to be in control as teenagers see this as a good quality. I think the reason this is seen as a good quality is because, as Worgan has written, they may look and seem like adults but they are not, and they may not know it but they need that adult figure to look up to. If a teacher is showing control over the class, always being firm but fair, then this is somebody that teenagers can respect, listen to and learn from.

In the last two sections Worgan has wrote about motivation and humour.

Motivation 

One of the questions constantly posed by teachers of teenagers is “How can I motivate them? They aren’t interested in anything!” If you ask a group of teenagers what topics they would like to cover in class, they will come up with very few. Even if you do bring in some materials you have found about their interests, you will inevitably find that they show the same amount of enthusiasm as if they were the typical course book unit about the environment. The problem, I find is not the actual topic of the lesson, but the type of activities involved. Most course book pre-reading tasks for example, do not make you want to read! Trying to get a learner to read through a gapped text before attempting to fill in the gaps is a nightmare, usually because the text is about something not at all interesting and the student has no incentive to read. Imagine you have a text about someone who survived a shark bite. Instead of just asking your students to read, tell them the story from the survivor’s point of view from the beginning, but stopping before the end. Now ask what happened next, encouraging all kinds of funny or even gory answers, and then get them reading! The main thing is, unless you want to spend hours before every lesson trying to find interesting teenage material and planning lessons, to find fun ways to exploit the materials they already have in their course books.

Humour 

One of the reasons why I have enjoyed teaching this particular group of teens is that we have had some brilliant moments of laughter. Sometimes I have been the instigator and sometimes they have. Although I have made the students work really hard and cover as much as possible every lesson, a good laugh now and again can motivate teenagers to want to come to class. I started this by making up stories, usually to introduce some grammar point, that they actually believed (like having sprained my ankle – lots of limping around the classroom), and then got a bit of a reputation as a fibber! However, this gave me and the students an opportunity to relax. When they saw that I was prepared to joke with them, they were much happier about working. They would themselves decide to work hard so that later they could have a bit of a laugh. I had the odd trick played on me (in a nice way) that had me crying with laughter.

I agree entirely with Worgan on these points. A teacher needs to be firm to be able to get work out of students, but they also need to show that they have a humourous side, to prove they can have a laugh and have fun as this allows the students to relax and enjoy the lesson, so therefore they are motivated. Good Cop Vs Bad Cop strategy.

I think this a very intelligent piece of writing with great teaching tips. I believe it is just the starting point of what I will learn as my inquiry progresses and hopefully by the end I will be able to say I have discovered how to combine the methods for inspiring and motivating students while keeping order and discipline to achieve successful results.