Oral Presentation

So the final part of my degree was the Oral presentation which took place on Tuesday 3rd June at the University.

It was very nerve-wracking but I am hopeful that I got my point across and showed the results that my research had produced.

I have attached the power point presentation that I used during my Oral. Hope it makes sense.


http://www.slideshare.net/kymwalton1/uni-pp

Writing done ane submitted!

Well, its all done now and out of my hands! I am relieved but perhaps even more worried that I have done enough of the right thing to get a decent mark! Don't feel entirely happy as I don't like the uncertainty of it all. Its all down to someone else's opinion now. Anyway, just to Oral presentation to go and I am looking forward to meeting more of my fellow BAPPers on the 3rd June before we go to graduation! Gosh, a graduate - wish my headmistress from school could see this. She told me that I was wasting my grammar school education because I was leaving school at 16 to go to Arts Ed!
I have enjoyed reading other peoples Blogs and have found them inspiring and worrying at times!!
The finish line is in sight guys! \Well done to us all!

Finishing Post

Well here I am four days before submission deadline and I think I have finished! Just waiting for a bit of feedback on my artefact but other than that done! It has been an interesting journey that has taught me how to reflect on my work and really analyse things on more depth. My inquiry has helped me to understand how other teachers feel and that  my experiences are not unique! It has helped me to understand that, in some cases, it is not the children who are at fault, but changes in society and parenting skills! Roll on June 3rd for the oral presentation (although I am dreading this!!) See you all at graduation!

Writing, writing, thinking and writing....

Well, I have completed my Inquiry and written it all up! However, now got to add appendices and bibliography - when will it end? Still got to do my artefact as well. I am trying to decide what to attach as appendices -  Blog entries - copies  of them or links?? Links to Facebook posts?/ A copy of my consent form etc etc there is still so much to think about and I felt I had achieved so much having completed my inquiry.

The final sprint!

Well, I have been away from my Blog for a while as I have been away for three weeks. Before I went I had submitted a section of my analysis for feedback just to check that I was on the right track. When I returned from my holiday, I went back to this sample, read the feedback from Alan, and set to finishing that section. I think it did me good to have the break away from it as I was thinking too much about it. Once I sat down, it just flowed from me and seemed very logical. I have now submitted my completed analysis to Alan and apart from a little tweak here and there it is done. So now just to complete my Conclusion and then put it all together! THEN the artefact starts, so the next couple of weeks of intense work and then........that's it - done and dusted. Looing forward to seeing people at the Oral presentations. Graduation booked, how did that come round so quickly. For anyone on Module one or two - stick with it, it all comes together in the end!!

Surreal experience

I have just done a search on Google for an article that I had found, but I cannot access today through my Delicious account and up pops my Literature review as one of the search results. It was rather strange seeing my name and photograph and a link to my Blog!

Module 3 Group Skype tomorrow?

To all module 3 participants, we are planning another group Skype call tomorrow morning between 9 and 12 for anyone who wants to take part? I would just need your Skype address if you have not already been on one!! I have put in on our Facebook SIG as well, but thought I would Blog it in case this reaches more people!!

Literature review 3

Porter.L. (2008) "Evidence about disciplinary practices" in R.Matheson (ed)Young Children's Behaviour Practical Approaches for Caregivers and Teachers, 3rd Ed., Maryland USA. Paul H. Brookes Publishing
I wanted to find literature on morality in children and this book has a small section within this chapter relating to "Research about the effects of guidance". The section discusses morality and states
                    With respect to moral reasoning, children are more willing  to listen and will develop more sophisticated moral thinking when their parents reason and negotiate with them rather than deliver lectures about their behaviour. (Walker et al. 2000).


This would definitely follow the modern theories about child discipline and the way that parents are supposed to bring up their children, but has this theory caused a lack of "good old fashioned discipline" which told a child immediately that their behaviour was unacceptable ? The author also continues by saying
                   Controlling discipline may achieve immediate compliance, but at the cost of undermining childrens' moral reasoning by fostering an external focus of causality (I'm only doing this because they made me) anger towards and rejection of the disciplinarian and rejection of their parents' standards (Kochanska et al.2003)


We were taught what was and was not acceptable as far as our behaviour and this instilled our moral values, so can this decline in "controlling discipline" be the reason behind some childrens' declining moral standards and their lack of deference?
I am hoping that my inquiry will help us to understand how these changes in discipline have affected the class culture that we need to create with in a dance lesson in order the achieve the best balance of enjoyment but good behaviour.

Draft introduction

I have submitted the draft of my introduction to my adviser today , but on reflection I am thinking that it may have too much depth and not enough breadth. In other words I think I may have talked about the reasoning behind my inquiry and the background far too much and not covered all the theories behind why and how I am making this inquiry! This made me realise how much more I actually use reflection on my work!

Skype group chat

Well following on from the Skype session with Adesola on Tuesday, we had a small group chat with Natalie Kirk and Hannah Shepherd. After initial difficulties with the technology, meaning that Natalie was unable to call both myself and Hannah, I was able to set the call up and we talked for about 40 minutes. Both Natalie and Hannah are working in mainstream education teaching dance and their inquiries are relevant to that sector. Although I teach in the private sector and our inquiries are different our conversation was very helpful as we talked about how to analyse our information and format our inquiries and tried to help each other with any problems that we are encountering. I found it useful to verbalise my thoughts as I found it clarified things within my head! I am looking forward to repeating the process again maybe in a fortnight and hopefully with even more participants.

Literature review 2

I have found this article about classroom culture, which although aimed at school class rooms has a lot of relevance within the dance http://gallery.carnegiefoundation.org/collections/castl_k12/ewojcicki2/outcomes/characteristics_culture.htm
The majority of the article is very positive and are points that I would agree with. For example,
                     The teacher should exhibit passion for the subject or passion for teaching or both. Passion makes the students interested in and excited about the subject. Who wants to learn from a deadbeat?
 This statement, to my mind, is extremely relevant to a dance class environment and  is also one of the theories that I feel relevant to back up my research about practical demonstrations from older teachers with less physical ability.
However, the article also states
                    Students should not be criticized for their interests or their attire. If they want to wear pants that look like they are falling off, respect their right to do so. When they are twenty, they won't want to do it.


I am not sure how many teachers would agree with this statement, even in a school with a uniform code, I am certain that this type of attire is frowned upon. In a dance class, there are many rules relating to attire and I do not think many dance teachers would respect the right of the student to turn up dressed however they like? Of course this does depend on the dance class as a freestyle jazz or street type class may well be more acceptable of this freedom of attire.

Adesola's Skype coffee morning!

Well it actually turned out to be a very  good session for me as I was the only participant! I suddenly realised that this was my chance, I could ask the questions that have been bubbling away in the back of my mind without the fear of sounding stupid as no-one else was there! So Adesola, sorry if I sounded stupid but it really helped me to clarify the whirlpool in my head. We discussed my inquiry and how I was struggling to decide how to analyse the data that I was collecting, and Adesola pointed out that I had nothing to "rub it against". We talked this through and we talked about our days at Arts Educational school in London and how the school created its own classroom culture and how I needed to start from those memories.

This has inspired me to change  the title of my inquiry, although ultimately it all boils down to the same point about our expectations of the behaviour of children.

Thank you Adesola! A good Skype coffee morning yet again!

Literature review

I have found an article on a website aimed at new teachers, which I thought was relevant to my inquiry although it is not specifically aimed at dance teachers. http://www.newteacheruniversity.com/resources/teacher-articles/continued/teachers-must-earn-respect/
This article describes how new teachers must expect to earn the respect of their students by being the person that the students wish to become. Whilst I agree that this is one of the thoughts behind my research, I also think that as a teacher, you should also expect a certain level of respect from your students by the very fact that you are a person in authority. A person whom the parents have entrusted their children with. The article states

 

                                            "Today, in a society where good morals are on the decline, while self-                                            centredness is on the incline, we can't afford to educate students                                               like our teachers once did "back in the day"."

 

In my opinion this is talking about declining good morals creating a lack of deference in general to older people and to people in authority. This, to me, is different to the type of respect that needs to be earned by the teacher!

I have used this article as a source for my research, reading sections of it to my participants and recording their comments. I am looking forward to seeing how this progresses once I have all my information recorded.



Campus session, Wednesday 12th February

Well and eventful session this turned out to be!! Firstly, I had used the website to access the Uni library and found that I could have books posted to me, but as I was going there anyway, I put a request in for a couple of books that Alan had recommended. This meant that I just had to go to the first floor of the library with my reservation number and collect the books. I can also post them back when I have finished with them! I intend on using the postal service for a couple of other books as well to aid with my search for literature.
Secondly, the session was very informal with only three of us there and we spent the first half talking about "Love" which had come from a survey that the Uni are holding with reference to the "Love of Learning". We wrote the word "Love" in the centre of the page and came up with all sorts of ideas that the word could mean. So, lust, desire, passion or even its misuse instead of the word "like". We also added the fact that companies take advantage of the fact that "Love" is something that people would like to be on the receiving end of, so internet dating agencies. We chose this as our main focus from the many topics that came up from the initial word.
We were then talking about what we would want to discover about dating agencies and how that information would benefit ourselves and others.
So in summary we looked at something that was a massive topic, provoking many thoughts and ideas and eventually narrowed it right down to one topic.
This exercise was to help us to understand how to find our enquiry topic, starting with a broad topic which produced many questions and ideas and then hone in on the one that we found the most beneficial to research.
After this, we talked individually about our enquiries and any questions or issues that we had. We could have done with a another hour or so, but I did come away feeling enlightened and focused again!
Apart from not being able to get home afterwards because of the weather causing the trains to be cancelled it was a good day.
Points - Use the moodle for "Summon" to find literature. Use the library to find books that you cannot find e-editions of.
Above all - COMMUNICATE!!!

Campus session

Well, I was determined to reach the Uni tomorrow for the campus session despite the threatened tube strike. I had it all planned out, my train to Euston then forego my quick shopping visit to head straight to Hendon on the overground train. However, not needed now as the threatened strike has been suspended. Yipppeee!! London Oxford Street here I come albeit for two hours!! See you there!

Britains First medal on Snow!

Well here I am starting Module 3. I have been reading other people's Blogs over the last day or two and it appears that I am not alone with all my feelings at this point. As usual, at the beginning of the module it seems like I have a huge mountain to climb to achieve my goal. Just like Jenny Jones must have felt a few weeks ago when she was injured with a severe concussion it must have seemed like she had a huge mountain to climb to get to the Olympics. However she reached the peak yesterday as she took to her snowboard to win a medal for Great Britain at the Winter Olympics.

Now I am not expecting an Olympic medal, but this is my medal, a reward for my professional practice and my highly improved skill of reflective practice.

I am determined to use my inquiry to help me improve my understanding of teachers thoughts on the children that they teach and the changes in the reactions of children to people in authority. Hopefully, my research will help other teachers understanding and improve their teaching practice.

As I said in my Youtube presentation in Module 1 "Its not where you start it's where you finish!" so here's hoping that the next 12 weeks see me progress smoothly up the mountain!!

Moving on!

Well today I thought I would sit down and spend a couple of hours reading through the Handbook for Module 3 and reader 7 to give me some sort of insight into what we are expected to produce and the timescales to work at. However, although I am able to read through, until I get the feedback from my module 2 submissions, I cannot start the work required for Module 3, so instead I am going to continue trying to find the most relevant pieces of literature for my inquiry. Onwards and upwards!!