My main thoughts after today's discussion were about being in a new learning situation myself and how beneficial this is to my work.
Perhaps one of the best ways to help students is to be a student yourself. I feel I am moving much closer towards empathising with their concerns, difficulties and processes, to a much greater degree then I have been able to in the past. I'm gaining great insights from all involved in MAPPDTP as to how to provide inspiration, through the things I say or do as a teacher to help facilitate this learning process for the students I work with. Others were saying this as well this morning, but it's taken many weeks for this thought to crystallise for me!
Another point that stayed with me was about openness. Allowing for the twists and turns in progress. It's strange as I feel I can be very open in a choreographic process and quite happy not to know what I am aiming for, to accept things as they develop, but when in a more academic process there seems to be a tendency towards rigidity and inflexibility! maybe this is a result of being out of the comfort zone, trying to make sense of new knowledge and skills, and is to be expected and acknowledged.
Regarding practicalities and study tools, something that I've recently been working on is to try and prioritise, or rank, the different sources of information for the course. To decide, or find out, which are the most reliable and important, which the most up to date, which the most useful. This is also something I've been attempting to do with the various texts I've been reading.
Good to clear up the hand-in details today. I get a little confused by differences in university procedures between where I work and Middlesex so great to clarify it all.
Sunday 15 December 2013
Sunday 1 December 2013
positive/negative learning experiences
I'm thinking today about positivity and negativity in relation to the characteristics of a learner and attempting to relate this to myself and my previous learning experiences. I've often felt reluctance to voice more negative thoughts as I worry about how it will be perceived but Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985) talk about this in Reflection:Turning Experience into Learning and when reading it I felt a kind of affirmation that what I had been feeling, in relation to past training experiences, was important and should be taken into account. They use the term 'emotional load' to describe the feelings that people often carry with them from previous learning situations, whether, positive or negative, and how these feelings can have a huge impact on someones present ability to learn in certain situations. Teachers will often never know about the past experiences of their students, so I'm not sure yet what to do with this idea but I feel it will help to be more aware of this issue in my teaching practice.
Sunday 3 November 2013
Questions questions.....
I've just come across this in http://mdx.mrooms.net/course/view.php?id=566 and I can't understand what it means in practice.
Bitesize step 4
"It may be that you develop AOL’s at two different levels of learning, for example at levels 6 and 7. It is possible to gain up to 30 credits at Level 6, the other 40 must be at Level 7. Alternatively, all of your claim may be at Level 7"
Could anyone shed any light on it? I'm not sure how you would write an AOL to claim at Level 6 as opposed to one that you would be claiming for at Level 7? Is it perhaps about any AOL's based on any formal learning you have done at these levels? or is it that, we need to seek advice and then decide how much an AOL is 'worth'?
I've been experimenting with not allowing myself to skip ahead and look at guidance on upcoming tasks until I've feel I've made a major attempt at tackling current activities. The draw back to this, I've been finding, is that sometimes the answers are waiting to be found just around the corner!
Sunday is the day when I have all day, well at least a few solid hours, to really try and get some momentum going for my Module 1 work. But I seem to be bogged down in the detail and can't seem to get warmed up to tackle the bigger tasks requiring focused, connected thinking. It feels as if the 'bitty' details are dominating my thoughts rather then working with a wide perspective where I can see how to connect all the dots. Do others feel that they touch on something but the thought is out of focus and then it slips away without becoming defined or concrete?
I came across the idea of mentally warming up to study, in one of the study skills handbooks and like it! It's such a given part of practice in dance, there's no way I could skip some gentle mobilising and stretching whilst mentally running through my class before I teach and yet I expect to somehow launch into some insightful and well structured writing completely 'cold'. On that note I'm going to try reading some of Gillie Bolton's book on Reflective Practice, thanks Amber for mentioning it in your blog, and see how that effects my study outcomes as a whole today.
Bitesize step 4
"It may be that you develop AOL’s at two different levels of learning, for example at levels 6 and 7. It is possible to gain up to 30 credits at Level 6, the other 40 must be at Level 7. Alternatively, all of your claim may be at Level 7"
Could anyone shed any light on it? I'm not sure how you would write an AOL to claim at Level 6 as opposed to one that you would be claiming for at Level 7? Is it perhaps about any AOL's based on any formal learning you have done at these levels? or is it that, we need to seek advice and then decide how much an AOL is 'worth'?
I've been experimenting with not allowing myself to skip ahead and look at guidance on upcoming tasks until I've feel I've made a major attempt at tackling current activities. The draw back to this, I've been finding, is that sometimes the answers are waiting to be found just around the corner!
Sunday is the day when I have all day, well at least a few solid hours, to really try and get some momentum going for my Module 1 work. But I seem to be bogged down in the detail and can't seem to get warmed up to tackle the bigger tasks requiring focused, connected thinking. It feels as if the 'bitty' details are dominating my thoughts rather then working with a wide perspective where I can see how to connect all the dots. Do others feel that they touch on something but the thought is out of focus and then it slips away without becoming defined or concrete?
I came across the idea of mentally warming up to study, in one of the study skills handbooks and like it! It's such a given part of practice in dance, there's no way I could skip some gentle mobilising and stretching whilst mentally running through my class before I teach and yet I expect to somehow launch into some insightful and well structured writing completely 'cold'. On that note I'm going to try reading some of Gillie Bolton's book on Reflective Practice, thanks Amber for mentioning it in your blog, and see how that effects my study outcomes as a whole today.
Sunday 27 October 2013
Reflections on motivation and goals in dance
I read an interesting article today titled Considering motivation, goals, and mastery orientation in dance technique
Carey E. Andrzejewski, Adrienne M. Wilson, Daniel J. Henry
Research in Dance Education
Vol. 14, Iss. 2, 2013
I had come across it as I browsed for inspiration through the journal online, looking for something that would shed more light on the thoughts I was left with following teaching this week. These were centred around the goals of students in class, how I motivate everybody through my teaching but also enable students to motivate themselves and finally, how I help such a diverse group of students to improve. I still consider myself very new to teaching in HE with a lot to learn. A key tool for learning that I would love more access to is class observation and reflection from colleagues but the timetable doesn't allow. So for me one of the ways I feel I can develop my pedagogy is through reading as much dance literature as possible as well as discussing my teaching experiences with anyone who will listen!
I suppose I was looking for research that discussed the issues that are concerning me, to know that others are interested in exploring the same things and for something that perhaps provided some validation of my current teaching strategies with students.
The article addresses many important ideas that I would like to test and research with my students but it also led me to reflect on my own first experiences as a dance student at HE level.
The article left me with a sense of sadness (maybe the pregnancy hormones are running riot!) that many of my teachers hadn't engaged with the kind of pedagogical approach used by Adrienne Wilson in this research.
Having more self knowledge now, I wonder if I might have thrived more in an environment that focused on mastery orientated goals and personal growth; where reflective progress is discussed through a dialogue with the teacher and where the student-teacher relationship quality is of high importance.
As the article points out though, students can be resistant to certain teaching approaches and styles for many reasons and there is also the possibility that my memory doesn't serve me correctly as I think back! I have many students who have indicated in discussions that they prefer other methods of learning and organisation to some of the ideas outlined in this article. However, at 18 I certainly arrived in an environment that seemed to favour the more successful few while others were left to feelings of frustration and failure. I feel that aspects of teaching that are important to me now and are an essential part of many HE courses, were not a part of the conservatoire training I experienced but would have been extremely valuable skills for my younger self as I started out.
As a teacher, I don't want my students to feel as I often did at their age, slightly lost and invisible, but to end on a positive note, the article predominantly serves to highlight how much impact on the motivational climate of the dance student a teacher has. I can't turn back the clock but I can work to give my students a positive experience as they learn and progress.
Carey E. Andrzejewski, Adrienne M. Wilson, Daniel J. Henry
Research in Dance Education
Vol. 14, Iss. 2, 2013
I had come across it as I browsed for inspiration through the journal online, looking for something that would shed more light on the thoughts I was left with following teaching this week. These were centred around the goals of students in class, how I motivate everybody through my teaching but also enable students to motivate themselves and finally, how I help such a diverse group of students to improve. I still consider myself very new to teaching in HE with a lot to learn. A key tool for learning that I would love more access to is class observation and reflection from colleagues but the timetable doesn't allow. So for me one of the ways I feel I can develop my pedagogy is through reading as much dance literature as possible as well as discussing my teaching experiences with anyone who will listen!
I suppose I was looking for research that discussed the issues that are concerning me, to know that others are interested in exploring the same things and for something that perhaps provided some validation of my current teaching strategies with students.
The article addresses many important ideas that I would like to test and research with my students but it also led me to reflect on my own first experiences as a dance student at HE level.
The article left me with a sense of sadness (maybe the pregnancy hormones are running riot!) that many of my teachers hadn't engaged with the kind of pedagogical approach used by Adrienne Wilson in this research.
Having more self knowledge now, I wonder if I might have thrived more in an environment that focused on mastery orientated goals and personal growth; where reflective progress is discussed through a dialogue with the teacher and where the student-teacher relationship quality is of high importance.
As the article points out though, students can be resistant to certain teaching approaches and styles for many reasons and there is also the possibility that my memory doesn't serve me correctly as I think back! I have many students who have indicated in discussions that they prefer other methods of learning and organisation to some of the ideas outlined in this article. However, at 18 I certainly arrived in an environment that seemed to favour the more successful few while others were left to feelings of frustration and failure. I feel that aspects of teaching that are important to me now and are an essential part of many HE courses, were not a part of the conservatoire training I experienced but would have been extremely valuable skills for my younger self as I started out.
As a teacher, I don't want my students to feel as I often did at their age, slightly lost and invisible, but to end on a positive note, the article predominantly serves to highlight how much impact on the motivational climate of the dance student a teacher has. I can't turn back the clock but I can work to give my students a positive experience as they learn and progress.
Monday 14 October 2013
Present moment - AOL's
Hi all,
So here's my Areas of Learning list as it stands so far. I've been brainstorming and mapping out each one to some extent but I'll just give a quick overview here:
- Dance in HE: teaching theory through practice, developing resources, working with colleagues, assessment, using virtual learning tools, working relationships with students, giving feedback, planning modules, teaching technique, choreography, improvisation, fundamental teaching skills.
- Dance for Children and Young People: in the curriculum (primary and secondary), learning through creative movement, choreographing for youth companies, working with boys
- Contemporary Techniques: trends in training, methods, Limon/release, gaga, aerial dance, imagery and musicality
- The teaching persona: physicality (being a 'model'), pregnancy, psychology and personality in teaching
- The independent dance artist: continuous development, job creation, funding, projects and commissions, versatility, collaborations, managing projects, profile, devising.
- integrating pilates and somatic approaches in dance training: in teaching, experiential anatomy, injury prevention, my own training experience and practice, safe practice, modifying for different participants
- Working in integrated dance
- Versatility in performance: drawing on my work with a range of choreographers
Helpful Skype chat with Adesola, Amber and Jamie this morning. I realised that while I seem to be able to reflect at length on my work and what I actually do day to day in the studio and with students, I find it difficult to hone in on my thoughts and feelings about my own learning process on this module! It is still early days I know.
Perhaps looking outwards is somehow easier for me then recognising my internal/individual process. It could be a case of familiarity with thinking about work but not with thinking about thinking! I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else!
It feels like I have to work on this before I will be able to connect the two kinds of reflective process.
Thanks for everyone's questions (and answers) today, they brought quite a few things into focus for me, including making mental processes explicit and making links between journal entries, blog posts, CV's and reading.
Speak soon
Monday 7 October 2013
study behaviour
I'm finding that sometimes your concentrations levels, priorities and motivation to study don't always fit perfectly with the schedule you've organised for yourself.
So today I'd planned to work for a few hours in the morning in my study, no interruptions, perfect, but I sit and find I can't focus, I wonder why, procrastinate, think about the planning I have to do for teaching this week. Get some fresh air, have a drink, nothing helps. Perhaps sometimes you have to stop struggling and wait until you feel more able or match the task to your mood. It feels like a luxury to think this way when time is so tight and precious but might be more productive in the long run.
On the flip side, there are times I'd set aside to do something else, like start to strip the wallpaper in the babies room, or plan exercises for my new class, and I find that I'm drawn to the computer to write in my journal or read a chapter.
I often tell students in class to listen to their bodies about what is right for them that day and not push themselves too hard as it's not always necessary. Perhaps allowing yourself some space and time without the pressure of 'this must be done now' can actually can lead to new and different discoveries.
This made me think of choreographing or working with a set curriculum or syllabus and the struggle between discipline, sticking to the plan, and creativity, process and achieving a final product or result.
So today I'd planned to work for a few hours in the morning in my study, no interruptions, perfect, but I sit and find I can't focus, I wonder why, procrastinate, think about the planning I have to do for teaching this week. Get some fresh air, have a drink, nothing helps. Perhaps sometimes you have to stop struggling and wait until you feel more able or match the task to your mood. It feels like a luxury to think this way when time is so tight and precious but might be more productive in the long run.
On the flip side, there are times I'd set aside to do something else, like start to strip the wallpaper in the babies room, or plan exercises for my new class, and I find that I'm drawn to the computer to write in my journal or read a chapter.
I often tell students in class to listen to their bodies about what is right for them that day and not push themselves too hard as it's not always necessary. Perhaps allowing yourself some space and time without the pressure of 'this must be done now' can actually can lead to new and different discoveries.
This made me think of choreographing or working with a set curriculum or syllabus and the struggle between discipline, sticking to the plan, and creativity, process and achieving a final product or result.
Sunday 22 September 2013
My route to here
Hi,
Good to chat with those of you who were part of the Skype conversation on Friday and hello to everybody else.
So, we've started the course, I'm definitely daunted and excited at the same time. I think this will be a very different type of learning experience to those I've had in the past. Reflective learning is something I've been introducing my students to in the last year but something that I've only had a tacit awareness of myself in my practice.
Reading Honey and Mumford's summary of learning styles in the handbook and thinking about this activity of starting a blog, something I've never done before, I think I'm a Reflector, taking my time to research how it could be done, maybe looking at other examples but without coming up with any sort of strategy, writing a bit and then coming back to it later. I'd love to know what someone else thinks my learning preference might be.
I've learnt that group Skype conversations can be a bit tricky (did anyone else feel the same?) because you can't read facial expressions or always identify who is talking. It difficult to know when people might want to contribute or just listen so gets a bit stilted. Maybe there's some kind of system we could put in place to make it easier to manage? Someone mentioned Google hangouts as a similar kind of thing for group online conversations but I haven't tried it, has anyone?
I wasn't sure if we are all going to be posting a biography or introduction to ourselves on our blogs but here's a bit of background about me and my work. I would love to hear about yours.
I wasn't always sure I wanted to dance, I didn't start any serious training until I was 18 but always did lots of ballet, gymnastics and contemporary dance as I grew up. I was a physical child and enjoyed sports and outdoor adventure as much as dance and music. I still do.
Back in the mists of time I was going to study French at University for my first degree but had a change of heart, motivated by jealousy when some of my friends were auditioning for conservatoires, and realised that was what I really wanted to do. I was lucky in that my parents let me choose for myself but I grew up in a family who loved the arts so I guess they were happy I chose dance in the end.
So I studied for four years at Laban, graduating in 1999, and since then have worked in numerous jobs, teaching, performing and in offices.
My performing work included dancing with inclusive companies, with some fantastic choreographers, outdoor pieces, site specific work and aerial dance. My teaching has ranged from primary schools, professional classes, adult community classes and lots of work with young people in many settings.
Since 2006 I've been working with a close friend and long time colleague to create our own live and video dance. This is on a project basis and happens when we are awarded funding and when our work loads allow, or when we feel inspired! Our projects have always involved an educational aspect and we enjoy inviting different regional artists to collaborate.
I qualified as a Stott Pilates instructor a few years ago and see it as an ongoing training. I love applying Pilates to dance training but I also teach adults with no movement background and often with chronic joint issues.
I live in the North East, near Stockton on Tees, am 37 and currently am an associate lecturer at Teesside University on the BA(hons) Dance degree. There I teach Dance Facilitation, Contemporary technique, mainly Limon, Pilates, Contextual Studies, Choreography and am Third Year Tutor. I've been in the post for a year and work with some fantastic colleagues. I enjoy being part of a team in contrast to the isolation I often felt as a freelancer, and am on a very steep learning curve!
Sailing and travelling are my other big passions and I need to work out how to combine them with my work!
Starting this course feels long overdue and I hope it will be a broadening, deepening, exploring and connecting learning experience.
Speak soon I hope
ps. Anyone know the MAPP DTP group name on Linked In? I can't seem to find it.
Good to chat with those of you who were part of the Skype conversation on Friday and hello to everybody else.
So, we've started the course, I'm definitely daunted and excited at the same time. I think this will be a very different type of learning experience to those I've had in the past. Reflective learning is something I've been introducing my students to in the last year but something that I've only had a tacit awareness of myself in my practice.
Reading Honey and Mumford's summary of learning styles in the handbook and thinking about this activity of starting a blog, something I've never done before, I think I'm a Reflector, taking my time to research how it could be done, maybe looking at other examples but without coming up with any sort of strategy, writing a bit and then coming back to it later. I'd love to know what someone else thinks my learning preference might be.
I've learnt that group Skype conversations can be a bit tricky (did anyone else feel the same?) because you can't read facial expressions or always identify who is talking. It difficult to know when people might want to contribute or just listen so gets a bit stilted. Maybe there's some kind of system we could put in place to make it easier to manage? Someone mentioned Google hangouts as a similar kind of thing for group online conversations but I haven't tried it, has anyone?
I wasn't sure if we are all going to be posting a biography or introduction to ourselves on our blogs but here's a bit of background about me and my work. I would love to hear about yours.
I wasn't always sure I wanted to dance, I didn't start any serious training until I was 18 but always did lots of ballet, gymnastics and contemporary dance as I grew up. I was a physical child and enjoyed sports and outdoor adventure as much as dance and music. I still do.
Back in the mists of time I was going to study French at University for my first degree but had a change of heart, motivated by jealousy when some of my friends were auditioning for conservatoires, and realised that was what I really wanted to do. I was lucky in that my parents let me choose for myself but I grew up in a family who loved the arts so I guess they were happy I chose dance in the end.
So I studied for four years at Laban, graduating in 1999, and since then have worked in numerous jobs, teaching, performing and in offices.
My performing work included dancing with inclusive companies, with some fantastic choreographers, outdoor pieces, site specific work and aerial dance. My teaching has ranged from primary schools, professional classes, adult community classes and lots of work with young people in many settings.
Since 2006 I've been working with a close friend and long time colleague to create our own live and video dance. This is on a project basis and happens when we are awarded funding and when our work loads allow, or when we feel inspired! Our projects have always involved an educational aspect and we enjoy inviting different regional artists to collaborate.
I qualified as a Stott Pilates instructor a few years ago and see it as an ongoing training. I love applying Pilates to dance training but I also teach adults with no movement background and often with chronic joint issues.
I live in the North East, near Stockton on Tees, am 37 and currently am an associate lecturer at Teesside University on the BA(hons) Dance degree. There I teach Dance Facilitation, Contemporary technique, mainly Limon, Pilates, Contextual Studies, Choreography and am Third Year Tutor. I've been in the post for a year and work with some fantastic colleagues. I enjoy being part of a team in contrast to the isolation I often felt as a freelancer, and am on a very steep learning curve!
Sailing and travelling are my other big passions and I need to work out how to combine them with my work!
Starting this course feels long overdue and I hope it will be a broadening, deepening, exploring and connecting learning experience.
Speak soon I hope
ps. Anyone know the MAPP DTP group name on Linked In? I can't seem to find it.
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