CRITICAL REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER INQUIRY

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER INQUIRY

Idea Development

From this course I have increased my own knowledge of education to enhance my own dance teaching. I desired to continue with my own professional development and to go on to gain full qualified teacher status. I wish to prove the value of dance as a creative and enjoyable subject, which inspires individual development in terms of talent, fitness, confidence and social skills, and give my students a platform in which to move into full time vocational training in the performing arts. I plan to further develop Performing Arts at my institution making good use of the equipment and resources available within the college. It will benefit the college with improved exam results. As my college have Media specialism I decided to explore using these resources as teaching tools and to evaluate if these will enhance my own teaching in dance.

Data Gathering Tools

Through researching for my Professional Inquiry I have discovered a number of tools that can have been used effectively for gathering data for my line of inquiry. Reflecting on what went well and what can be improved on. (Appendix A My Blog).

When attending a BAPP course on data gathering tools for inquiry I  learnt to use a wider variety of tools, and to sample these first A link below to Alan Durrant’s course feedback; http://adurrant.blogspot.co.uk/ (Appendix D).  I found that by piloting these tools I was able to evaluate their effectiveness as part of my inquiry (Pilot Survey Monkey link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LSG5JC2)

I have found these tools help me to learn in my workplace and are useful as part of my professional practice, in terms of continual professional development. I can take on board the feedback received from piloting these tools and implement changes in my own teaching, for a positive outcome. For example……………  Observing other colleagues in my own profession has highlighted what skills I need to further develop in my own practice.

Reflective Practice

While doing the work on module 2 I have continued to take a more professional approach to using networking sites such as Linkein, Twitter and my newer improved Facebook account for professional use http://www.facebook.com/?email_confirmed=1 (Wright-Press:2012).  My increased social network has enabled me to share and discuss ideas for my professional inquiry with people who have a similar interest in my line of inquiry and colleagues. (Appendix…….) http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/253041654781486/

During studying the BAPP course I have discovered the importance of ethical practice. I have found this extremely interesting as I had not previously considered the consequences of neglecting ethics. http://gemmawrightpress.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-i-have-learnt-about-ethics-5c.html#comment-form I realised that for my inquiry plan I will need to gain permission from all my students involved in order to carry out my inquiry on using ICT in dance.  Having learnt about the theory of "Obligation" I will need to create a disclaimer consent form for [participants, which will to re-assure my students that they will remain anonymous. I will also clarify that there is no penalty for refusing to take part. I will be acting as a teacher researcher. (Appendix C…….). The course also encouraged me to engage in discussions on blogs and share research links through ‘delicious tag’ on my professional blog. Here is the Link: http://delicious.com/gemcakes/%2Bbapp these links enabled me to access and to explore further ideas and the course has given me the skills to think more critical about my own experiences. I have developed my ability to think critically, to use theory and research and to apply this to my own teaching work. Exploring different ideas has given me a greater understanding to implement my skills to the beneficiary of the pupils that I teach. I have established new practice from using ideas from this course.

 

Literature Review 6C

As my ideas for inquiry are based on the effects of using ICT in dance education, whilst attending a continual professional development course at my Academy I was introduced to the theories of John Hattie. I was interested in discovering his size effect chart showed that using a number of different ICT tools had a positive effect on teaching and learning.

James Nottingham, leading the discussion, uses Hattie's size effect chart as part of his research into how students learn. James Nottingham focus's on stretching and challenging students. He teaches that while students need to practise skills in order to learn they must go out of their comfort zone and work above their current ability- 'Wobble'. He uses Hattie's chart to demonstrate which teaching methods will enhance student learning. This course inspired me to look further into Hattie's "Distribution of effect sizes".

John Hattie's "Distribution of effect sizes" chart shows the average effect of a number of different teaching methods, to include many ICT tools which are shown to have a positive effect on student learning. Most teaching and learning methods have a positive effect but the average effect is the point where we look to help students to make 'significant' (more than average) progress. These teaching methods are those which have more effect than the "hinge point" of 0.4. "An effect size of 1 indicates that a particular approach to teaching or technique advanced the learning of the students in the study by one standard deviation above the mean".

This lead me to then question why some teaching methods are more effective than others in relation to students learning and progress. I researched the work of Herrmann who divided different learning styles into four categories; Theorists, Innovators, Organisers and Humanitarians. In 1982 Herrmann developed a model for whole brain learning whereby he identified these four learning styles relating to right-brain and left-brain learning. He believed that each person will learn by using two of these styles, so teachers should aim for whole brain learning, using a variety of teaching strategies to ensure individual progress. Herrmann saw the four different learning styles as "complementary ways to understand a topic, rather than as alternative approaches that the learner can choose from" (Geoff Petty 2009).