Husserl

It is thought that ‘natural knowledge begins with experience and remains in experience’ (Husserl, 1931).

The phenomenology of Husserl has really made me realise that this ideology is most suited to my research plan. Mostly because it reflects my research project and my learners that will be interviewed, after all, I will be interviewing those learners of varying experiences, all of whom will carry a different insight and thought. Husserl believes that we ‘behold the living experiences of others through the perception of their bodily behaviour.’ After observing the learners across my different classes, I have hand picked a small selection of individuals that are at different points in their career; those approaching A Level, those approaching University and an adult learner, all offering a different perspective to the research. 

My research will adopt a non - positivist approach, echoed via the thoughts of Husserl as this enables me to get to grips with the experience of my learners, learning from and through them. It will be interesting to hear a range of responses that may possibly link to ideas and suggestions that I hadn't thought about. I also wonder whether this research project will enable my learners to take their summative feedback (from exams and competitions) a little more seriously as a mark of progression and to use this feedback to improve and progress.

Ethics is an area that I had to understand in further detail, I have handed out forms for my principal and parents to sign to consent to their children being part of this project. I have to take into consideration presenting my learners as subjects in order to protect their identity, and I have also read the Data Protection Act (1998) to make sure I understand how long it is appropriate to store details for. There is definitely more to be considered and learnt about ethics in qualitative research...the reading continues.


Data Protection Act, 1998. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents

Husserl, E, 1931. Husserl Ideas. Oxford: Routledge.

 

Literature Review and Key Texts

Across this weekend my literature review is mostly falling into place (I think) after receiving some feedback. I have identified four key texts that help support my research project in terms of whether dancers benefit fundamentally in regards to their progress and career when participating in examinations and competitions. Three of which key texts will be discussed in this blog...

Kleiman (2007) discusses how creativity and assessment are not mutually exclusive terms and therefore when assessing creativity, the assessment process must be fair, valid and reliable and also experienced and perceived to be so. When training for exams (as the place where I teach have just started to do this), I believe it would be fairly reliable to say that via the board, all examiners are highly regarded and well trained. Learners will be assessed fairly according to the guidelines of the syllabus and the marking criteria. Learners receive their grades, certificates and feedback that is individually tailored to that individual learner. As much as this process seems fairly straightforward and a 'no brainer' in terms of 'this would definitely suit my learners' unfortunately there is lack of interest in exams. These learners are competitive dancers and have been educated in a school that learn choreography at speed for up and coming competitions. They win a a lot or get placed a lot. They are successful across various competitions and therefore individual talent is recognised through a different route - one that brings medals and that feeling of 'success' bringing out the competitive edge in these learners. They are used to working for that short term goal and are successful in this approach. 

Kolb's learning cycle (1974) learning involves four stages; concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. As learners recognise they are good at something it instills that self belief, the self actualisation that enables them to confirm they are good at something. As much as this may very well be true, can we bank on the opinion of an adjudicator on that particular day to confirm that this is fact? With so much more to take into consideration such as; the other competitors on the day, level of talent and ability, the amount of people who have entered the competition and of course the adjudicators personal choice. Therefore does winning and getting placed necessarily stand for anything? Or is it more beneficial to a dancers career to have those qualifications that essentially 'prove' something has been worked for and achieved?

Examinations require a lot more study, a longer time to improve and progress and therefore this requires more from the human character; determination, motivation, hard work, repetition, motivation, rehearsal etc etc etc....it's more of a long term goal and process. As thought by Dewey (1916) education is dominated by specific goals encouraging a static educational process that creates a separation between the activity, the student and the goal itself, where education should be a continuous process as opposed to goal-directed activity. Therefore, this contradicts that period of exam study and perhaps short term goals are better for the individual learner? Perhaps short term success is something that increases self esteem and progress and therefore continually encourages the learner to keep going developing motivation?

 

Methodology

I am currently looking into the next step of my research proposal in terms of the methodology.
Coming from a non - positivist approach will enable me to collect information in the form of interviews. The interviews will be personal to that learners experience and expertise and therefore will form qualitative data and also echoes a non - positivist approach. Furthermore, I am looking for individual responses from those who are 'in the know' therefore, quantitative data will not suit my research plan and ideas.

This week, I have been looking at, how this will benefit the learners being interviewed? I have selected from learners across different ages and of varying levels and abilities. I considered how this will benefit my younger learners (those aged 14), my middle group of learners (those aged 17, pre University) and one learner who is an adult and experienced learner. I believe my research may support these learners who are looking at moving forwards for a dance career, will examinations and competitions benefit their career choices as a dancer? I would really like them to reflect on the reports they have had so far, these learners have not yet undertaken exams but regularly participate in competitions...do they read their reports? Do they reflect on them? and most importantly do they use this type of summative assessment to reflect on their feedback? If not, then the process almost seems pointless. If learners are not aiming to correct their mistakes or to improve from feedback they are given then how can their progress be measured? As they participate in competitions regularly, is it of all importance that they are receiving feedback from one person in the form of an adjudicator or judge? Does this actually mean anything? Or is this just classed as one individual's personal choice and perhaps on a different day, in front of a different adjudicator the results may be very different. For my adult learner, I feel she can speak from the role of someone who has entered competitions and undertaken exams where I feel her opinion will be very valuable to my project. Although to be part of the research may not me of much benefit to her of which I anticipate may be a problem, I believe she would like to move across to teach at some point and therefore may be of use to any future plans she may / may not pursue.

Examinations are currently in the process of being taught at this school, it appears clear that learners are not as keen on exam lessons as they are choreography and performance! I come to question whether examinations are more important than competitions due to the fact they are linked to a qualifications board, therefore, they carry some kind of recognition. Does it stand for more as a person if you are undertaking exams as you are showing that commitment to a longer term project that requires you to develop skill, technique, musicality, muscle memory as well as performance? Yes these lessons are more 'rigid' in their approach but is this somewhat better for discipline and accuracy throughout exercises? On the other hand, are exams actually a good thing as only certain criteria is being assessed?

Any thoughts are welcomed : - )

A Positivist / Non Positivist Approach

A non positivist approach is finally making sense and resonating with me that this approach to education and learning is unmeasurable and can shift and change according to the particular experience and learning curve.

As a dance teacher and artist, no class or performance can ever be measured. What occurs in one episode can completely switch and change in another.
Education and learning is often based on a quantitative approach, results based and a strict line of results to prove what you have achieved / not achieved. It's truth based according to the proven results.

As a dance teacher, dancer and choreographer, creation varies day to day. There is no 'set in stone' method, it is more about the practicality of experimenting and experiencing with the group you have and who you are working with. There are numerous factors that can change the way creation is developed; feelings, emotions, resources, music, stimuli, space, inspirations etc etc the list could go on and on that would create different possibilities. Learners learn through each other and from each other in this creative process where interpretation and individuality is encouraged. This brings a whole wealth of different ideas and thoughts that may reach out to someone that the choreographer or 'expert' had not considered. Different ideas brought by learners collectively can help to enable that audience to see, feel and understand that perhaps hadn't been considered by the choreographer. Therefore this collective experience and input can help to further interpretation, understanding whilst encouraging development of the mind through movement pushing the learning boundaries of those involved. This severely shifts away from a positivist approach and becomes a non positivist approach enabling learners be able to freely create and learn through their experiences, thoughts and knowledge.

Although a non positivist approach links us more to qualitative data, this to me matters in terms of talking to and interviewing people who have the experience and who are 'in the know' as opposed to facts and figures. I like the idea of multiple realities as my reality in dance and choreography would be entirely different to someone else's or any of my learners and therefore no reality is ever going to be the same or measurable. I feel understanding helps to enhance learning whilst showing awareness of your own progress, self criticism and taking opinions and ideas off others helps us to review ourselves and learn from OUR experiences.

Literature Review, Research and Interview Techniques!

My main focus of today has been to understand more about what the expectations are for this module. I have submitted my literature review for feedback where I drew upon two key texts. My project will be looking into whether dance examinations and competitions are compulsory to a dancers learning experience and dance career, and furthermore whether the type of summative assessment received via exams and competitions is fundamental to a dancers learning. Both exams and competitions are summative assessment and success is benchmarked through how high the grades / marks are, how good the feedback is that has been received or whether the dancers are placed with a medal in the competition. My first key text is Dewey (1916) who believes that learning is a continuous process as opposed to goal-directed study. Dewey further believes that although long-term goals are important, they are just as important as the short-term goals in learning. In reading this, I felt this struck a chord for me in terms of teaching dancers on a week by week basis. Dance exams are marked according to the exercises that are undertaken specifically composed by the exam board and dance competitions are geared around how well that dancer performs on the day. Although these goals are useful to have and enable us to measure progress with support from external sources such as an examiner and adjudicator, the continuous process of learning is fundamental in class on a weekly basis to ensure learners are developing all round technique and solidifying their knowledge according to each dance discipline. Feeding back to learners formatively on a weekly basis enables us as teachers to measure progress more regularly than that of competitions and exams and therefore echoes Dewey's description of learning being continuous and long-term. 

My second key text was Maslow (1954) who believes that society is too dominated by results that then force us to lose humanistic and naturalistic experiences. He believes dancers are not proven to be good or successful through following an exam board and should be encouraged to lose their inhibitions and self-consciousness through dance. This was very interesting to my chosen topic of research and has encouraged me to think differently about how I can tailor my dance classes to consider naturalistic and humanistic experiences through class based exercises. For instance, by creating exercises that enable the dancer to listen to a piece of music or explore a stimulus that encourages them to channel their inner feelings related to that particular song or stimulus helps them to feel and link their emotions as part of a routine. Therefore, they are thinking, listening, feeling and encouraging their bodies to move according to all of these aspects. When creating competition dances, I have now taken on an approach to discuss with my learners about how pieces make them feel or how they feel a stimulus should be represented in a dance routine. Therefore, it is encouraging them to think more independently and they are not being told how to feel or think. Their own participation to routines has proved valid to the way they perform as opposed to following teacher led choreography. 

I have considered the next step for my research which is interviews and I have a range of students from beginner to advanced. I aim to conduct mostly one to one interviews, although will select a small group for interview too. This helps me to broaden my experience of interviews and different techniques. These interviews will be held with learners from varying experiences, some have only ever competed in dance and one learner has only ever done examinations. I am interested to gain different responses according to the questions I will ask. I feel the indication towards my interviewing will be semi-structured as I want my interviewees to elaborate on their answers as opposed to closed questions. I feel this will help me to gain a range of responses to form my qualitative data as well as gaining opinions from varying dance backgrounds and experiences. 

How to move on to the next module? What topics interest me and what area do I feel will have enough literature in order to shape my research? It's certainly a tough one!
From the group conversation yesterday, it was interesting to learn that others are in a similar position to me in that do they carry on with something they did in their AOL or find a new area. As I touched on very very briefly, I will moving on from my job role as of April and therefore do not feel I can continue with my AOL's due to them all being based on this particular job role and therefore I will not be in this same career position to help base my research and ethics etc. I feel a new area for me based in a dance school I teach just once a week is going to be more of a realistic possibility in terms of time frames, research and gathering evidence. Additionally, I don't think it is specific to just the aol's as it is a learning journey and therefore I would imagine it would be ok to look at a different area, I wonder if there is some way I can link it back to one of my aol's...will think this one through further.

It was interesting to hear some wonderful thoughts off others, it helped me to feel like I was not alone especially in my uncertainties and often the questions that are asked reflect my own areas where I lack understanding and clarity. Although these were not directly answered, I think it still helps to know you are not alone in this process. Besides, our one to one tutorials can help with direct questions and for me, I go away from one to one tutorials with a lot more clarity and understanding. I think for me personally, this way of learning is a lot better and more thorough. I very much wanted to be involved yesterday but didn't feel I had much further to add or contribute, however, I learnt from listening to others and I am a very good listener and this does help me. After inputting just once at the very end, I felt I had perhaps said something wrong as it was then queried whether these groups are helpful as questions are not directly answered. I went away and reflected as I have spent the entire first module reflecting on my practice and used Gibbs Reflective Cycle to help me to understand how I was feeling. I left the conversation as though I had said something wrong, I felt I guess, just strange like somehow I had annoyed others - again I left the last Skype chat feeling the same as a very very similar thing happened. I found the experience as a whole was good as I learnt from others and it was so good to hear so many differences in thoughts and contributions. For me personally, I felt it needs to be a more positive experience for me to continue attending these Skype sessions as the last twice I have left feeling quite down and disappointed and I simply cannot and will not allow myself to feel this way when it is not about that. I am learning more about myself than maybe I realised both from both a teaching and personal point of view. Perhaps I am quite sensitive to people's responses (perhaps raging pregnancy hormones also aren't helping me here!) and that also I feel I need to contribute more. In reflection, this is something that I would do differently next time. I think that maybe because I tend to hurry through what I need to say on the Skype chat to avoid babbling on and taking up too much time, maybe I do not clarify the most important points of what I am trying to say. Perhaps in another conversation, I need to learn to relax and make points of what I want to contribute prior that will enable me to speak directly about what it is I wanted to say...otherwise, I tend to drive myself crazy wondering what did I say? How should I have said this more clearly / concisely? Additionally, in reflection, I think for me to make notes on what I want to contribute and what I learn from others is also valuable. Again this enables me to speak directly about what it is I need to address and clarify etc.

So the start of module two has been a lot more complicating and confusing than I originally anticipated. I did't expect to start reflecting myself from a personal point of view and I am surprised that I am learning through more ways than one, this is not a bad thing, it just wasn't expected. So now I know how better to approach a Skype conversation and also to not take things as personally - however, this process enables me to link this directly back to teaching practice. I will make notes before every lesson, I will deliver the lesson and certainly do not take comments from students personally. I reflect on my practice and move on from the learning experience. I feel this approach works for me in my professional career and therefore can link back nicely to planning, preparing and moving forwards in my personal life. So there we go, I am learning as I am writing!

Onwards and upwards to find a topic suitable for module two...I am interested in two areas mostly, one being dancers of whom have physical and mental disabilities, and then contrastingly would be to look at how progress in dance is measured, i.e; exams, competitions, shows, I just feel this area needs a little bit more meat to it in order to make it into a project. The latter idea allows me to link to my teaching practice that is an ongoing position and therefore a little bit more realistic to time frames, ethics etc.

Off we go taking a huge leap (grand jete for the ballet dancers amongst us) into the unknown that is module two!