Professional Artefact

Hi Everyone!

I have posted my professional Artefact on slideshare which is about basic things you need to know about starting up a dance school. I can't figure out how to connect slideshare to my blog so that it can post directly onto my blog so if anyone knows how then I would really appreciate the help!

Click on the link below to view my artefact!

My Professional Artefact

Hope people find this helpful.

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.

Starting Module 3

Hi everyone!

I've been very slow getting started on the module because life is a bit hectic at the moment, which I'm sure everyones is. To begin, I have re-read my Module 2 inquiry to remind myself of my ideas and objectives. Below I have written a summary of my project so far as suggested by the handbook, taking into account the feedback I received from Module 2.

Working title: 'Initial study into establishing a Dance school and improving my knowledge of teaching'

Research Inquiry Questions:

1. What Preparation is needed to start a Dance School?

2. What are the roles and responsibilities of a Dance teacher?

3. What are the different teaching styles and techniques?

I realise that as part of my final piece I will have to define the terms, dance school, dance teacher and explain in detail what I have been researching. 

Ethical Issues:

The ethics Board has approved my research and I am aware of the ethical procedures I have to follow to ensure my research is carried out correctly. As a researcher I will ensure participants autonomy, keep data protected and make sure everyone is treated equally and with respect. Before my participants are involved in my inquiry, it is my responsibility to inform them of the nature of the inquiry, how I am going to use the data that I collect and why their involvement is necessary and how I will protect them as a source of information. Each participant will need to sign a consent form before I start my research and any questions that they have I will answer. My participants will know their right to withdraw from the inquiry without it affecting my research.


In addition I will be re-reading Reader 5 to refresh my memory on ethical considerations to ensure my research is structured accordingly. 


Literary Review:

My literary review is in the process of being expanded from the items I found in Module 2. After reading my feedback I am interested in looking into Gardner's theory of 'Multiple intelligence' as I believe it will further my inquiry questions. Furthermore, the nature of my inquiry requires me to look more into statistics and figures, which I haven't explored yet. 

Changes:

I haven't got any major changes to my inquiry as off yet, but I will be keeping my options open for any possible changes depending of where my research takes me.

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Any comments are welcome as I'm sure everyone is feeling overwhelmed about this Module!

Award Specialism title

Title: BA (Hons) Professional Practice in Arts (Performing Arts)

My rationale is as follows:

When deciding on questions for my professional inquiry, I wanted to do something that would not only help my profession but my professional colleagues and anyone else in the performing arts sector. I wanted to choose something that I have knowledge on, like the dance world, but also extend my knowledge to all of the performing arts so that I can learn new things. I have chosen to focus on funding in the arts because I feel that it is something that some students struggle with after they leave college if they want to start their own projects, with regards to where to find it, if they are eligible to get it, how to receive it and what are the terms of the funding. It will also be beneficial for me to research for future reference if I ever wanted to start my own dance school or performing arts project.
The purpose of the inquiry is to find out what performers and non-performers know about funding, how I can get more information out there about funding, how funding cuts are affecting the arts council and other funding establishments and hopefully give all artistic professions more of an idea of what help they can get.

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This is a draft version of my rationale, any comments or advice about how to improve it would be very helpful.
Thank you!

Task 6a- Finding the right Inquiry tools for me

It is crucial for this Inquiry to find the right tools that work for us. The tools that we can use are; observation, interview, focus groups, surveys and questionnaires, diaries/journals and literary research. Of course we can't use all of the tools because it would be too time consuming and we probably wouldn't have time to analyse it all.

Observation 

This involves watching, recording and analysing events of interest. The observation method can be very time consuming because you have to observe classes or have to fit into someone else's schedule. It can be difficult to collect all the data that you need because you may not see anything of interest when you are observing. On the other hand it can be a very useful tool because usually in observation the participants aren't talking and therefore you can pick up on the behavioural side of things. 

Interviews

This involves asking questions to people that have experience and knowledge of your subject. You can have varied interview types like; semi structured, open interviews and informal interviews. You have to pick which one is most beneficial for your inquiry and which will give the data that you need. Before you do an interview, you have to consider where it will take place? What information do you need to collect? Why have I chosen this person to do the interview? How will you record the information? Is everything going to be on the record? Will all the interviews include the same questions, if not why not? What is the structure of the interview? So there are a lot of things to take into consideration and it can be very time consuming. But also you can uncover data that you didn't think was there.

Focus groups

Focus groups are similar to interviews. You have a group of people all with knowledge on your topic area and you ask the questions. The positive thing about focus groups is you can collect a lot of data because of how many people are giving their opinion. It also allows people to debate within the group giving you ideas you didn't have before and you wouldn't have got with a one on one interview. The down side is it can be hard to control. If lots of people are talking at once it could be impossible to analyse the data and the group could be taken off topic with the flow of the conversation. If you choose this method, you need to know how to control the group and keep on topic. Maybe you want participants to state their name before they talk so there's no confusion. 

Surveys and questionnaires 

Surveys and questionnaires are a good way to get quantitative results. To ensure that you get feasible data from these surveys you have to make sure you ask a range of people. Surveys are usually quite a popular tool because it is relatively easy for participants to do. Surveys aren't time consuming and it isn't an ongoing process. With surveys you need to make sure your questions make sense, they are in the right order and it looks presentable. You also need to know which type of questions you're going to use e.g. yes or no questions or questions where the participants are given the option to write their opinions. The participants need to know why they are taking part in the survey and need to be thanked after. The down side of surveys and questionnaires is you may not get in depth answers to help with your inquiry or enough people to take part which will affect the reliability of your data. 

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To help me know what tools I want to use I have decided to do a pilot survey. I have included yes or know questions, questions that give participants the option to give their opinion and questions that have more narrative responses. I would really appreciate people taking part, it will only take a couple of minutes because it isn't that long. 

My Survey

Any feedback would be very helpful! Thank you.

Bibliography

Reader 6 (2015-16), BAPP, Middlesex University 

Task 5b and 5c- Ethics

Task 5b-

After thinking of what ethics there were relating to dance based solely on my own thoughts, I researched professional sources to see what else there was. I found a very interesting article on a website called Dance Archives written by Anna Malitowska called Dancers' Professional Ethics. Malitowska writes 'Fulfilling professional duties may not, in such a case, be justified by ones own moral expectations but by social expectations'. I think this is very important to understand because when you are in a professional working environment you have to obey the rules that are set out to you, not the ones you set out yourself. Malitowska's list of a dancers duties include;

• A duty to improve one's skill
• A duty to care for the image of the profession
• Building trust between fellow professionals and care for their reputation
• A duty to respect other individuals, including their freedom to create
• A professional dancer is obliged to support and actively help others realise their professional goals
• To not blindly follow someone else's steps but to use someones advice in agreement with one's self-knowledge. 

I think that these points are very useful and have helped me see more ethical and moral duties of a dancer. I also wanted to research the ethical issues of a teacher. I found this website Ethical standards for teaching that talks about the purpose of ethical standards and what they are. It is a flyer written by Ontario college of teachers. The purpose of ethical standards include;

• To inspire members to reflect and uphold the honour and dignity of the teaching profession
• To identify the ethical responsibilities and commitments in the teaching profession
• To guide ethical decisions and actions in the teaching profession
• To promote public trust and confidence in the teaching profession

Their ethical standards for teaching are;

• Care-Compassion, acceptance, interest and insight for developing students potential
• Trust-Fairnesss, openness and honesty, professional relationships are built on trust
• Respect-Members honour human dignity and emotional wellness and cognitive development
• Integrity-Continual reflection assists members in exercising integrity in their professional commitment and responsibilities.   

I feel that this further research has expanded my knowledge on ethical standards and will help me approach my inquiry with the ethical standards that have been written by me in the previous task and researched in this one. 

Task 5c-Reader 5 Ethics

Reader 5 is quite a lot to take in but I feel that I have expanded my knowledge of ethics and will be able to confidently apply it to my Inquiry. Ethics is a difficult subject because it is not black and white, it isn't as easy as saying this is right and this is wrong. It is open to interpretation and what the moral standards of society are, may not be the moral standards of your personal life that you like to live by. There's a sort of grey area in the middle where there is a lot of uncertainty. The development of ethics can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. The Greeks code of ethics was concerned with the 'good' or the 'right' way to carry out actions and keep a civil society. The evolution of ethics involves digging deeper into what is perceived as 'good'. 

For Aristotle, ethics is manifested in 'habitual actions'. For example it is not good enough to be honest every Friday but instead you must be honest everyday. Immanuel Kant (1779) believed that moral rules are absolute and you should help people in need no matter what you feel or want. He also believes that lying is always wrong in any situation. This contrasts with JS Mill's view, who believes that if the overall outcome is for the greater good then it can be done, even if the action is questionable in terms of morals. For example if you need to kill one kitten to save 12 kittens, then your action is justified. 

Therefore morals and ethics are interchangeable between each person and what I find acceptable other people may not. The moral structure of society and your personal views can change and what morals you live by now may not be the morals you live by in 20 years. For example, up until 1967 homosexuality was illegal but now the position has changed and homosexuals rights are protected and since March 2014 same sex marriage has been legalised. On the other hand same sex marriage is still not legal in Australia. So even though we as a society in the UK have moved forward, what we accept as our cultural norm, is not accepted everywhere.

Another issue which Ethics is when our personal ethics conflict with our professional ethics. There can sometimes be tensions between personal ethics, professional ethics and employers expectations. For example a Catholic nurse is asked to assist in terminating a pregnancy but the rules of the Catholic Church say she is forbidden. It puts people in impossible situations. At what point do you let your own moral standards slip in order to keep your job? It's an impossible question to answer and thankfully not one that I've had to answer yet but definitely something that I will take into consideration when writing my inquiry.

Planning the our inquiry includes planning what ethical considerations we will take into account. We have to think about who it is benefitting, what we hope to gain and how we will go about handling our data and our treatment of the participants. This includes addressing our participants with respect and writing about them in a respectful way. Making sure our participants know that they can leave the inquiry if they want to. Making sure our questions aren't biased or urging the participant to give the answer we want to hear. I will be expanding on these points in my Inquiry and in my Ethics form.

Any feedback or thoughts would be very helpful!

Bibliography

Anna Malitowska (2012) Dancers' Professional Ethics, Dance Archives

Ontario College of teachers https://www.oct.ca/-/media/PDF/Standards%20Poster/standards_flyer_e.pdf

Reader 5 (2015), Middlesex University

Literature Research

It has proved very difficult to find any literary research based on my topic of Inquiry. I have decided to expand my questions, so that I can find more information about funding in the UK.

What funding is there for all the Arts from the Government and other funding companies?
How easy is it to get funding for a project e.g. opening up an arts school or company?
How are funding cuts affecting our economy?
How many non artists/artists go to watch theatre, singing, poetry or dancing? And how often?
How many arts organisations are being affected or shut down by government funding cuts?

I found this interesting article by The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/13/arts-funding-cuts-regions-badly-affected-econom-ic-stupidity

The article concentrates on Birmingham and Newcastle but still gives an insight to government cuts. In 2010 the cuts in Birmingham to arts organisations was 17% in 2010 and 20% in 2013 (The Guardian, 2015). In Newcastle 2012 the council threatened to reduce its budget by 100%, in the end they were still cut by 50%. This reveals along with other statistics I have found that government cuts happen every year and they show that the percentage goes up each time.

Clare Brennan, who wrote the article, pointed out that 'flourishing arts attracts attention, signal prosperity and encourage investors...cities with high tourist numbers have flourishing cafes, shops and theatre'. George Osbourne recognised the importance of putting money into the arts "£1bn of funding adds a quarter of a trillion pounds to the economy-not a bad return". So isn't it in our best interest to put money into the arts and fund new projects?

With regards to my question about how many people are there going to watch arts productions, I'm going to set up a survey for my fellow students on Survey Monkey, so lots of participants would be really helpful. I will then give the same survey to non artists and compare the results. I will put the survey up on my next blog post and I hope to find some more literary research surrounding my topic.