Task 2C-Relatrionship with Reflective Practise

Relationship with Reflective Practise

            The Relationship I have with Reflective Practise within my profession came when I was doing an Observation Module. Initially I began observing another teacher to understand and gain the knowledge of the varying aspects of a class. I would then have to plan a lesson and evaluate at the end of the lesson whether my plan was successful, if I had covered everything I had intended on doing and if I had achieved my aim. If it was not achieved I would need to evaluate the reasons why and make any alterations for the future. There would be different aspects of the class each week that I would need to pinpoint and then reflect on. This provided me a far clearer understanding of how to reflect on upon myself as a teacher and the effect I would had upon the students. At first I found this to be a very difficult task, as you have to analyse yourself of the positives and negatives of the way in which you teach. To develop the need to allow sufficient time for each aspect of the class to be delivered effectively.

TASK 2C-REFLECTIVE THEORY

Looking Outward

I choose to combine all of the Theories I have reviewed and discuss them as a whole....

The elements I will be reflecting upon of my Professional Practice are my Teaching and Performance based work. Definition of Reflection- The day to day activity we engage in gives information that we can draw from experience. Experience is observation of facts or events practice in doing something. From looking at the Reader many thinkers have looked at how we turn experience into learning and written about the tools they feel we should use to do this.

The key to Reflection is that we are learning from the experience and extending our own knowledge and understanding of the ways in which we reflect. John Dewey was interested in experience and said there were different levels of experience. He felt that the educational process is a ‘’continual reorganization, reconstruction and transformation of experience’’ which I feel whilst at school one does not fully appreciate and should be seen as a learning curve for all involved. It demonstrates that his theory is that we are always learning, engaging and changing from our experiences. His theory behind a reflective thought is that you should be engaging repetitively and with cautious concern. He felt that people who had a full experience and would be fully engaging within their lives that they would become a better part of society and have a better understanding to be able to deal with worldly problems.

This is a vital tool for engaging fully within the experience, I feel that it’s a vital tool for us to always try and fully engage to the best of our ability in whatever the experience may be and that school should be viewed as a learning curve for all involved. I felt that I was always learning from experience when you could view that I learn through my mistakes and to this day am still learning. I can remember viewing school as a chore as at the time you’re mentally very young and don’t have the capacity to appreciate it for what it is until you leave. In this current day school is so focused at getting the right results for the schools reputation when they should actually be focusing all of their time and energy into motivating the students to draw out the best of their individual ability.

In particular he felt that the integration within the Arts led to a ‘unique and valuable experience’. This is a fantastic view of being involved in the Arts whether it is within the Public or Private sector. There is so much experience you can gain from being involved such as self confidence, skill, ability, focus, self motivation, socially interaction and enjoyment. In the sense of Education I am so grateful that the curriculum has improved in its subject offering a wider variety of options for students wishing to pursue a career within the Arts as so many students are not academically minded that having the option to choose a more creative subject is excellent. 

I always do try and remind my students that until they are physically doing the movement repetitively they will not fully grasp the understanding of it at times. Therefore I feel that the students will learn kinesthetically, by physically doing the movement as appose to logically or mathematically.  Gardener also talked about the idea of VAK, Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic learning.  He also introduced the idea of ‘multiple lenses’ meaning the way in which we learn are like looking through the lenses at ‘learning and being a learner’. These theories were designed by Gardner to provide to the reader a clear understanding of the way in which we learn and engage. Within the lesson you could improve on each others way of learning by putting two students together; one who may learning logically and mathematically and the other musically to improve their learning skills

Twyla Tharp explains the idea of Muscle Memory where ‘‘her memory of the movement doesn’t need to be accessed through conscious effort’’ she has a physical understanding of the way in which to perform the movement ‘nonverbally’. I always use this to encourage my students who are struggling when learning a particular skill and to be able to perform something through the use of muscle memory only comes through the use of repetition

Relating in particular to dancers the practitioners Tufnell, Tharp and Moon show that the way we reflect does not have to happen through a written method. However they emphasize having the ability to communicate these ideas by means of poems, journals, sketches and drawings. The ability to be able to communicate the reflective process verbally is vital in gaining the understanding of the knowledge that has been learnt by the student within the class.

Schon’s introduced the idea of ‘Reflection in action’ where you are reflecting on it whilst it is happening. For example when one would be demonstrating a combination of steps across the floor and something is going wrong you would adapt on the spot to make improvements. This tends to be the ‘Hands on’ approach. He also had the thought of ‘Reflection on action’ whereby you would evaluate the process afterwards. To relate this to the dance class I feel that amending on the spot is difficult task to grasp and one that you may do when you are older as you have to have the complete understanding of knowing what is right or wrong. However to reflect on it afterwards is a functional way of digesting the movement for self correction and at times one may not be aware of the fact that you were wrong.

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

            Kolb’s view on Reflection is a cycle format. He believed that it is important to have the ability to recognize that you have had an experience and having the tools to be able to reflect on that experience. Relating this aspect of learning to teaching dance is essential in establishing the reason behind the way in which we learn and the reason for it. The cycle begins with the Concrete experience meaning the student is leaning whilst actually doing the movement. The Reflective Observation is where the student would learn by seeing others around them doing it and then reviewing and reflecting on that experience throughout. The Abstract Conceptualization is having the need to work it out in their heads first before applying it. The Active Experimentation is to conclude and learn from the experience and to try and plan out what they have learnt. He stated that the point in which you would learn and enter the cycle would differ from one person to the next and this is known as your learning style.

 

TASK 2C- Reflective Practise

·         What gets you angry and what makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found a way to work around the sadness or anger?

            I feel that nower days the students you teach often have a number of hobbies and due to this fact dance can be side lined if it is not their main focus, particularly when it comes to a show and examinations it lets down other members of their class or team. I think that some parents don’t grasp the extent of the way to discipline their children and encouraging them to remain disciplined.

            Having recently joined an amateur dramatics company and felt very angry at the fact that the Director, Musical Director and Choreographer didn’t appear to communicate with each other therefore we would turn up to rehearsal and the Director would know the set and staging of the piece without relaying that information to the choreographer and we would then have to make some slight adjustments within the piece which would cause extra unnecessary time that could have been avoided. I think it is important and will only work if all three team leaders work together and have meetings before coming to rehearsal.

·         What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

                        I love having the opportunity to share the passion and love of what I do onto others. Seeing a student come from a beginner and progress and develop with confidence and skill is so rewarding. I admire my previous teacher, Tracey Wring who taught at the school I began my training at, Jason Theatre School. I admire her teaching expertise and skill at creating some lovely choreography for show work. I also admire my previous colleague Jo Dilly, who taught Ballet at a previous school I worked for. She was so good at drawing out the best in the students and their ability and had the fine line between being an approachable teacher yet a having a natural sense of care and caricature about her.  I feel the only people who share my feelings are my peers who trained alongside me as they understand the pros and cons that occur from teaching children dance.

·         What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire and who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understand it interesting or beautiful or has asked the same questions as you?

                        I do not understand when students do not remain committed to lessons as they have a number of other hobbies that they do, I understand that they want to have an active lifestyle but time is often of the essence and I don’t believe that if they are doing a large number of hobbies that they would not be allowing each one the time or effort needed. The majority of parents do understand the time and energy required to remain a well skilled dancer and the commitment that is required but is frustrating when they don’t and they believe they know better than you.

2B Journal Writing Experience

            I found that my initial thought process behind writing a journal on a daily basis was a difficult one. When having to write at the end of the day about how you felt was a difficult task however a good learning curve. It is interesting on what you would write about at the time and I found it be easier as I went along to Bullet point specific points that I could relate back to another time. At the end of the day I would often call a friend up to liaise with and share my day and having to put those thoughts down on paper was a new way of thinking.

A Level Drama Production

Last wednesday night I was invited to go an watch an ex students A Level Production titled ''A Past Time'' where they had minimalistic props and 3 cast members. 1 being a boy, the other a war hero and the 3rd a student and I have to be honest for the first part of the play I had absloutrely no idea what was going on with the story line however I was still deeply engrossed and intrigued to discover the meaning behind the storyline....

I belive that the eary music that was played throughout the play and the lighting that had me ingrossed to disocver more and just proves that sound affects and lighting play a huge role in creating an effect

TASK 1B: Proffesional Communication technologies

Having read the Reader on Professional communications it re alliterated my feelings on the way in which we tend to communicate today. I feel that the way in which we communicate has developed in its form even since I was young. People will often communicate via a quick text, Facebook message and while I am one of those people I still feel that the world we live in today seems to be quite an impersonal way of communicating. I was surprised to learn from the Reader that there are more than 400 million users and 50% of them Log in every day.

The Positives and Negatives of Facebook

I remember the time that Facebook came to the current day and my friend sounding surprised that I haven't got an account for it yet, so when I went and had a look on the Internet I was intrigued to find out more. I think the idea of Facebook being a way of communicating with friends and family worldwide is a fantastic tool. I feel that as I've grown up many of my firends live all over the country and it is difficult to mantain regular contact that keeping up to date with what our friends and families are doing Facebook is a fantastic way, through photos and comments. I also feel that for the means of running a buisness it is good way to keep people update to date on the running of the buisness, a free means of advertising and a chance to spread the word.

However the negatives are the feel that you are powerless to what anyone would write about you, the observation that Lizzy Rowen made regarding the False sense of Perfection and I agree that it does seem a means of people using it nower days to pursue a happy, exciting lifestyle as a means of showing off.

TASK 2A: REFLECTIVE PRACTISE

Journal Writing Experience….Every so often I am asked to cover at BigLittle Theatre School in Bournemouth where I used to teach. I covered for a few Saturday’s leading up to their Festival Presentation of a two day show case. I felt that with the little time I had with them to teach a routine knowing that I was only going to be there for a few hours throughout the day was a frustrating yet learning experience. I found I was getting frustrated that they weren’t picking up the choreography quickly enough and I forget due to their age being only 7 and above that they were fairly limited in their abilities, therefore I had to simplify the choreography to create a polished piece that they would retain.  

Journal Writing Experience......March the 11^th after watching Festival, having just returned back from the BigLittle Festival I was so impressed with the talent that was shown throughout the 2 day event. Festival creates such a fantastic feel good family time where all the students would all join together young and old to watch each other, support, encourage and help.

In November I joined an Amateur Dramatics company and wanted to do it as something for myself as when you’re teaching you miss out on the buzz of performing.