Critical Reflection

Module 3 has been, by far, the most work load and the most difficult to organise out of all the modules. It has tested my organisation skills and my time management, both I think are important skills to have in any future career. During my studies I have discovered new tools which can be use to explore a topic, analyse information and persuade or influence people to your point of view.  

I particularly found peer discussions  and social media interaction useful tools for understanding others perspective on the topics.  Looking back on my journal writing and blogs has shown me how I have grown in confidence over the last year in seeking to understand my profession better.

I started Module 3 by looking over the work that I had done in previous modules and what thoughts and motivations had led me to start this line of inquiry. I realised that the idea of looking further into teaching styles had come up in one of my blog posts in module 2, so it is something I have been thinking about for a while on this course and have thoroughly enjoyed researching.  Looking back at Module 2, I re-read all the literature pieces I had found to see what the existing ideas and opinions were on current teaching standards and practices. I realised that researching into different teaching styles and standards didn’t have enough substance to it and so I started looking into starting up a dance school because I always like the idea of being my own boss but knew next to nothing about it. The literature from Module 2 and some initial research into starting a business, helped finalise my topic area and mold my critical review.

The next step was to put my inquiry tools into action. I had planned to do two interviews and as many observations as I could fit in. The observations were time consuming but a very useful tool because you see things from your own perspective and decide what you think of them. The interviews gave me the information I needed from professionals. Before Module 3, I had never interviewed anyone, so I was very nervous that I wouldn’t get all the information I needed. My first draft of interview questions were too structured, similar to a questionnaire, but left little room for interpretation and wouldn’t have allowed my participants any room to expand their answers. In reality my interviews followed the pattern of answers from my participants, allowing me to expand on a topic if I needed to. I felt that with the inquiry tools I managed to combine a mixture of personal knowledge that I gained from observations and professional knowledge from interviews and web research. 

Once I had gathered my research it was time to analyse my findings, identifying similarities and differences and finding the words to describe that. The analysis section of the critical review was definitely the most challenging section but it made me think about my research in more depth because I needed to find the crossovers between the literature and my findings. 

Overall it has been so interesting to find out about this topic area and to have the knowledge now to start a dance school when I want to do that.  The next step for me is to get my teaching qualifications and I feel my research has helped me realise how challenging dance teaching is but hasn’t changed my decision to do it because it’s still something I’m passionate about. I think it’s very important for other professionals looking for a career in dance teaching to know about their options if they want to become their own boss in the future. Module 3 has given me the knowledge for my future undertakings and I’m excited to continue building on this and sharing with other professionals.