Boud explains that Adult Educators may write a journal to ‘record an event, explore our feelings and make sense of what we know. It can be used to improve what we do and the way we go about doing it. Within the Arts I believe that as we are constantly being judged whether it is through an examination, within a class, on a stage production we continually need to be self motivated and self critical. Something which I feel we as people are not naturally comfortable in doing. Within the profession we need to accept critism as a way of learning. Personally I feel that by writing a journal then we are able to write down our positives and negatives thoughts as a way of progressing. He describes the importance of journal writing as a form of ‘self expression, a record of events and a form of therapy’ it is a way of recording events and increase our understanding of what we do and they way we go about doing it.
Boud continues to discuss the theory behind the theory of the way in which an experience can link with reflection and learning. Learning has been described in the Reader as a new idea not as simple as it seems. Reflection includes looking at the aspects of the event and drawing on trying to make sense of what happened including any thoughts, feeling or emotions that occurred along the way. The way in which we can use reflection can be used in many different ways and activities such as workshops, events of the past and of the present day. Relating to learning conditions the journal is the place in which the events are processed and transformed. This is therefore intended to make sense of the learning, reflect on the experience to form future effective reflective practice.
The value of having the ability to personally reflect on your professional practice is paramount for self learning. As I previously stated within the Arts one is constantly being judged and criticized that learning to record one’s personal perspectives on the event would help to improve skills as a performer. The recording of the corrections given within a class would help dramatically if you had written them down than just from relying on memory alone.
Personally I always struggled to retain information and whilst training as a dancer if I had recorded my own information of the corrections given or the exercises learnt in the lesson I would have progressed quicker within my training than I did
The way we learn all stems from previous perceptions of our understanding. As Learners we bring our own personal perceptions of an experience. Past experiences can play a significant role in what we count as important, they can make us become very susceptible to some features and dismiss us from others. He describes the thought process that Learning from experience is an active one, involving us as learners to be engaging to these events of which they are part of. However the advantage of engaging in any event can change our perspective and the aspects of what we think as important.
Relating journals to aspect of education can be encouraged by the use of having a day to day diary format, a chart, a picture or a video extract. Particularly within the Arts if the student doesn’t have access to a mirror then the most effective way of reviewing and reflecting on their work is by a visual aid. Boud discusses the importance of establishing the difference between writing for learning and writing for assessment. Thoughts, frustrations and feelings they may develop along the way could be considered inappropriate for an assessor to overview, however important in them engaging in their experiences upon reflection. To maintain an effective way of journal writing as a teacher you could focus on three aspects they wish to reflect over a period of time. For example it could be their group interaction, self motivation and the way in which they learn. This could be used as a group interaction activity as a tool to illustrate their own personal struggles and aspirations
Moon describes a number of reasons of the importance for writing journals. To enable learner’s to understand their own way of learning which I feel is a valuable tool to understand how you learn as a student. She also discuss’ that it enhances professional practice’ for example when preparing for a show or an examination is vital in sustaining the knowledge of the choreography. As I previously wrote us as individuals can sometimes not be good at being self critical. Moon states that it can ‘’deepen the quality of learning, in the form of critical thinking or developing a questioning attitude’ through using question and answer to write down your thoughts and emotions you are engaging and self reflecting at the same time. To encourage a way of drawing the group together and engaging with each other moons view is that it acts to ‘foster reflective and creative interaction in a group’ as it may be a very interesting and useful tool to perhaps share each others journals, thoughts and reflect together.
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