Monday 24 May 2010
Tuesday 4 May 2010
CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON LEARNING IN THIS MODULE
The aim of this module (WSB 3835 Project Planning and Development) was to learn, and gain a sufficient understanding of the various research techniques, methodologies and terminology that will be essential in the next module- the project. Having little to no initial knowledge of the research techniques, I have had to work very hard to gain a suitable understanding but can now see the progress that I have made. I am now competent in the knowledge of a substantial amount of research terminology which has in turn helped me when reading about techniques and methodologies.
Admittedly I have had a somewhat love-hate with this module. Having a full-time job as well as embarking upon the development of my own business in the form of a dance school, I have found difficulties in regards to time management, which has in turn, proved a huge disadvantage to me, despite my interest and passion in the chosen topic.
Work commitments have also prevented me from attending campus sessions and I have therefore almost entirely had to rely on written feedback from the campus sessions from fellow students and academic advisors. As I learn best when discussing ideas and interacting with others, this has been a particular problem to me and I have found it hard to get my head around the tasks required of me for this module.
In hindsight, I spent far too much time getting bogged down trying to decide on a title for my project, rather than becomming familiar with research methodologies and found myself getting very panicky at the last minute having finally decided on a title because I did not fully understand what was expected of me in the research proposal.
I have, however, on a positive note, found the guidance notes provided by the university extremely useful in that they break down the module in to smaller and less daunting sections to work through. Admittedly, at first I found the wording of Judith Bell's book difficult to understand, but after re-reading several times, her writings became very beneficial to me in guiding me through the project planning.
Admittedly I have had a somewhat love-hate with this module. Having a full-time job as well as embarking upon the development of my own business in the form of a dance school, I have found difficulties in regards to time management, which has in turn, proved a huge disadvantage to me, despite my interest and passion in the chosen topic.
Work commitments have also prevented me from attending campus sessions and I have therefore almost entirely had to rely on written feedback from the campus sessions from fellow students and academic advisors. As I learn best when discussing ideas and interacting with others, this has been a particular problem to me and I have found it hard to get my head around the tasks required of me for this module.
In hindsight, I spent far too much time getting bogged down trying to decide on a title for my project, rather than becomming familiar with research methodologies and found myself getting very panicky at the last minute having finally decided on a title because I did not fully understand what was expected of me in the research proposal.
I have, however, on a positive note, found the guidance notes provided by the university extremely useful in that they break down the module in to smaller and less daunting sections to work through. Admittedly, at first I found the wording of Judith Bell's book difficult to understand, but after re-reading several times, her writings became very beneficial to me in guiding me through the project planning.
LEARNING DIARY 4: AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT!
At the secondary school that I work at, the entire of year 11 have PE, for both lessons on a Friday afternoon. Every term they choose an activity option for each of the one hour sessions. Since I have been employed at the school, dance has been an option offered for both of the sessions along with activities such as yard football, basketball, boxercise, fitness, badminton and aerobics and one offsite option such as squash or swimming. My dance option took in a large number of female pupils, particularly those uninterested in or not so competetent in other sporting activities offered. Many of the girls even chose to do double dance. My sessions sparked quite a lot of interest in dance and it was requested by many that I start up my own dance classes outside of school too.
Last Friday, year 11 pupils were asked to choose new options for the summer term which included: rounders, softball, kickboxing, athletics, tennis and cricket. Many of the girls complained at the absebce of dance as an option and that they didn't like or weren't good at any of ther other sports, to which I positively replied that it would be a good opportunity to improve in other sports. I overheard a number of pupils discussing with each other that they simply would not participate in PE lessons or choose options which they felt they could get away with not doing very much such as those activities not consisting of team games or simply choosing an option based on how much they like the teacher leading that activity.
Upon discussion with another collegue of the PE Department, I discovered that she agreed that it was enough of a battle to begin with, getting year eleven girls to participate in physical education lessons and by not offering an option which they enjoy was only going to make the situation worse. We decided to go to the head of department and explained that there was a significant amount of girls requesting to do dance so could we make it an option to which she flatly refused much to my own and a large number of pupils' disappointment.
This led me to a more refined statement for the title of my research project:
"Dance is an effective way, with a number of health and social benefits, of encouraging young people to participate in physical activity. Particularly those that are not so interested or competent in other sporting activities"
Last Friday, year 11 pupils were asked to choose new options for the summer term which included: rounders, softball, kickboxing, athletics, tennis and cricket. Many of the girls complained at the absebce of dance as an option and that they didn't like or weren't good at any of ther other sports, to which I positively replied that it would be a good opportunity to improve in other sports. I overheard a number of pupils discussing with each other that they simply would not participate in PE lessons or choose options which they felt they could get away with not doing very much such as those activities not consisting of team games or simply choosing an option based on how much they like the teacher leading that activity.
Upon discussion with another collegue of the PE Department, I discovered that she agreed that it was enough of a battle to begin with, getting year eleven girls to participate in physical education lessons and by not offering an option which they enjoy was only going to make the situation worse. We decided to go to the head of department and explained that there was a significant amount of girls requesting to do dance so could we make it an option to which she flatly refused much to my own and a large number of pupils' disappointment.
This led me to a more refined statement for the title of my research project:
"Dance is an effective way, with a number of health and social benefits, of encouraging young people to participate in physical activity. Particularly those that are not so interested or competent in other sporting activities"
LEARNING DIARY 3: AN INTERESTING WEBPAGE ABOUT BREAKING DOWN THE RESEARCH PROJECT, POINTERS AND GUIDANCE AND SOME OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES
Whilst browsing the internet for more information on research planning and development, I came across a page with some useful basic guidance on planning a project. I have listed some of the pointers from the page which some of you may find useful as I have:
1. Select a general topic which interests you in some way.
For me this would be dance within secondary education
2. List the key words to help you look up information for your project.
For example "dance" "national curriculum" "dance in secondary education" "dance in PE"
3. Go to an encyclopedia or other reference source to get an overview for the topic.
4. Make source cards for whatever sources and information you will use.
5. Using the general overview, begin to focus the topic into something you can cover well.
6. Write a statement of purpose about the chosen topic.
7. Brainstorm Questions about the chosen topic.
8. Group questions under similar headings.
9. Add any new questions you can think of under those headings.
10. Identify the sources that can best help you to answer those questions.
11. Begin making note cards. Use your brainstormed questions to guide your notetaking.
12. Change your statement of purpose into a draft thesis statement.
13. Make an outline of your headings.
14. Re-focus the thesis statement if necessary.
15. Write the body of the paper from your notes.
16. Cite any necessary information.
17. Write your introduction and conclusion.
18. Write your works cited/bibliography.
19. Create a title page.
20. Evaluate your work.
I am aware that maybe these pointers are not useful to everyone or maybe just a selection of them are useful and you have your own step by step plan which you like to follow but I have found that this guidance has helped me to visualize some structure to the module rather than being daunted by the mass bulk that I have previously seen it as. I will definately be using some of the ideas such as using source cards and note cards.
Some of the sources which I have found useful specifically to me are:
www.publications.dcsf.gov.uk- MAIN RESOURCE, Tony Hall's Dance Review
www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/dcsfd Government Response to Tony Hall's Dance Review
www.dance.about.com
www.pbm.com/nlindah/lad/vol1/teach.html Article on Teaching Dance to "Non- Dancers"
www.gtce.org.uk General Teaching Council for England
www.eric.ed.gov Article about researching as a practicioner in education
www.statpac.com/surveys Information on Survey and Questionnaire Design
1. Select a general topic which interests you in some way.
For me this would be dance within secondary education
2. List the key words to help you look up information for your project.
For example "dance" "national curriculum" "dance in secondary education" "dance in PE"
3. Go to an encyclopedia or other reference source to get an overview for the topic.
4. Make source cards for whatever sources and information you will use.
5. Using the general overview, begin to focus the topic into something you can cover well.
6. Write a statement of purpose about the chosen topic.
7. Brainstorm Questions about the chosen topic.
8. Group questions under similar headings.
9. Add any new questions you can think of under those headings.
10. Identify the sources that can best help you to answer those questions.
11. Begin making note cards. Use your brainstormed questions to guide your notetaking.
12. Change your statement of purpose into a draft thesis statement.
13. Make an outline of your headings.
14. Re-focus the thesis statement if necessary.
15. Write the body of the paper from your notes.
16. Cite any necessary information.
17. Write your introduction and conclusion.
18. Write your works cited/bibliography.
19. Create a title page.
20. Evaluate your work.
I am aware that maybe these pointers are not useful to everyone or maybe just a selection of them are useful and you have your own step by step plan which you like to follow but I have found that this guidance has helped me to visualize some structure to the module rather than being daunted by the mass bulk that I have previously seen it as. I will definately be using some of the ideas such as using source cards and note cards.
Some of the sources which I have found useful specifically to me are:
www.publications.dcsf.gov.uk- MAIN RESOURCE, Tony Hall's Dance Review
www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/dcsfd Government Response to Tony Hall's Dance Review
www.dance.about.com
www.pbm.com/nlindah/lad/vol1/teach.html Article on Teaching Dance to "Non- Dancers"
www.gtce.org.uk General Teaching Council for England
www.eric.ed.gov Article about researching as a practicioner in education
www.statpac.com/surveys Information on Survey and Questionnaire Design
LEARNING DIARY 2: RESPONSE TO MICHELLE WALLBANKS' COMMENT ON INVOLVING MINORS IN RESEARCH
I noticed, when catching up on other students blogs, a very interesting point made by Michelle Wallbanks on the issue of involving children in the research project. She suggested that by informing her pupils of the research that she would be carrying out, she may not gain fair results because the children may act differently if made aware that they were being observed in some way.
My recent experience of my first OFSTED inspection as a teacher rather than a pupil, in my opinion, very much relates to Michelle's point. I observed that, during OFSTED's presence in the school, the usual daily routine and practice of the secondary school changed in terms of both pupil and staff behaviour under the pressure of insepction and awareness of observation. For example, lesson plans were provided for Teaching Assistants such as myself before lessons began, wheras often they are not and lessons were far more structured in general. Pupils behaviour improved under the pressure of their teachers, who had for this time, imposed even stricter sanctions for misbehaviour in an attempt to discourage it.
It is arguable, however, that dependant on the nature of the research and topic, this viewpoint could be much more relevant and applicable to younger children. For example, by the age of fifteen to sixteen, one might expect children to be mature enough to be honest and open in their behaviour or answers to survey questions, interviews etc and behave in a way which would provide me with fair observation, not letting the knowledge of my research interfere with routine practice.
Hopefully by this age, pupils will be willing to co-operate and may even engage in the research on a personal interest level and assist me where possible in the collection of fair and accurate data.
My recent experience of my first OFSTED inspection as a teacher rather than a pupil, in my opinion, very much relates to Michelle's point. I observed that, during OFSTED's presence in the school, the usual daily routine and practice of the secondary school changed in terms of both pupil and staff behaviour under the pressure of insepction and awareness of observation. For example, lesson plans were provided for Teaching Assistants such as myself before lessons began, wheras often they are not and lessons were far more structured in general. Pupils behaviour improved under the pressure of their teachers, who had for this time, imposed even stricter sanctions for misbehaviour in an attempt to discourage it.
It is arguable, however, that dependant on the nature of the research and topic, this viewpoint could be much more relevant and applicable to younger children. For example, by the age of fifteen to sixteen, one might expect children to be mature enough to be honest and open in their behaviour or answers to survey questions, interviews etc and behave in a way which would provide me with fair observation, not letting the knowledge of my research interfere with routine practice.
Hopefully by this age, pupils will be willing to co-operate and may even engage in the research on a personal interest level and assist me where possible in the collection of fair and accurate data.
LEARNING DIARY 1: PROJECT SUBJECT (Initial Thought and Brainstorm)
Upon much research and personal debate, I have decided that, in order for my research project to keep me interested and engaged throughout, it needs to be based upon something that I am am passionate about and that particularly interests me. I would also need the research findings to benefit me and possibly other colleagues, pupils etc. to make it worthwhile me doing. Finally, I would like it to be a topic which I am faced with on a day to day basis so that I can constantly be working on, thinking about, and developing my research, without it interferring with my daily routine practice or preventing me from gaining valuable concrete experience in my chosen field.
Considering all of these factors, I should think it wise to base my research on some element of dance within a secondary education environment when considering my history in performing arts and my current role as Teaching Assistant and Dance Specialist at Sir Thomas Boughey Hig School, Staffordshire.
Considering all of these factors, I should think it wise to base my research on some element of dance within a secondary education environment when considering my history in performing arts and my current role as Teaching Assistant and Dance Specialist at Sir Thomas Boughey Hig School, Staffordshire.
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