Survey Monkey

A research tool I used was a survey which I created on Survey Monkey. I think the concept is really fantastic - that you can create a survey so easily and it can instantly reach so many people. The limitations I came across however, were that simply not enough people completed the survey to make it a fair representation of what the majority think or do. 9 people answered my survey for me. I actually found that the questions that I had left a comment box available were much more beneficial than the ones where they ticked a box. I think that on a wider scale, this could have shown me some clearer information, but as it was, the statistcis didn't really show any obvious answers. If I use this tool again, it needs to be done on a much wider scale and I think I will use more comment boxes. I acutally received comments on my blog and facebook page (for those I sent the survey to who are not on the BAPP course), saying they would have like to have been able to explain more in their answers

Focus Group

I conducted a small focus group using an open telephone conversation (every one was on speaker phone and could therefore hear each other's comments). I spoke to two former language teachers, Mr Alistair Pearson and Mrs Lesley Pearson. I wanted an unbiased opinion and therefore settled on teachers who did not teach any of the core subjects - Maths, Enlgish or Science, or the creative subject - Dance or Drama.
The question I put to them was 'why are academic subjects favoured in education?'. Alistair Pearson responded by saying that maths and English are transferable subjects that are used as everyday life skills. Both, however agreed that what is necessary as a life skill, is not what is being taught. Pupils who do not intend to pursue further education or a career in Maths or English literature, are currently spending up to eight hours a week, being taught information they are unlikely to ever have to access. This conversation has lead me to propose that pupils should be given the option to choose whether to study Maths and English as they currently stand, or a 'life skills' based syllabus of 'Arithmetics' and 'Literacy'. These lessons would concentrate on areas such as multiplication, addition, grammer, spellings, punctuation and writing skills. This would then free up timetable space for pupils who wish to concentrate on other areas more frequently.

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

 So as to introduce myself to the concept of evaluating and exploring an area within my professional practice, I have studied three areas which will ultimately lead me to produce my own inquiry during module three. 

Developing Lines of Professional Inquiry

 I began researching a set of questions that related to my profession (Appendix A). The questions veered towards a topic I had already considered during module 1, ‘The importance of the Arts in education’. I discussed these questions with another practitioner and recorded their responses (Appendix B). In order to evaluate these areas of inquiry with fellow students who had similar interests, I created a Special Interest Group (SIG) on ‘LinkedIn’ entitled ‘arts in education’ (Appendix C). This enabled me to debate the topic, also participating in other SIGs too (Appendix E).

 I looked in to finding some literature associated with my developing line of inquiry. I read the book Hanna, J.L, 2000 ‘Partnering dance and education: Intelligent moves for changing times’, which displayed studies into areas I was witnessing as a teaching assistant, such as pupils who do drama, displaying more confidence in academic subjects such as English. I realised that in order for the inquiry to not be perceived as biased, I would have to research the benefits of academic subjects within education, as well as the creative (Appendix F).

 In order to narrow my inquiry, I decided to specify which area of the arts I wanted to study and changed my title to ‘The importance of dance and drama in education’. (Appendix G)

Professional Ethics

When conducting research, it is imperative to acknowledge and adhere to all professional ethics concerned. Initially, I was unaware of the ethical procedures so I acquired the ‘codes of conduct’ from my place of work (Appendix H). I discussed in my blog how ‘ethics’ are really only what one perceives as right and wrong (Appendix I). This can be seen by differing schools having different codes of conduct, though many are found to be generic. I then proceeded to read the ‘Data Protection Act 1998’, in order to familiarise myself with what is lawfully acceptable when using personal information acquired through research (Appendix J).

Tools of Professional Inquiry

During module 3, I will be using certain tools in order to collect data and information. In order to use the tools best suited to my inquiry, I conducted ‘pilot’ versions of surveys, interviews and focus groups. I concluded that the most beneficial tool for my inquiry was the interview format. I conducted two differing interviews – the first via email and the second by telephone (Appendix K) (Appendix Kb).  I also used ‘Survey Monkey’ in order to gather data and a focus group using open line telephone. I have become aware of how to use the tools when conducting my professional inquiry and one of these has been finding appropriate literature. I have found that reading reviews, sources and opinions of others highly beneficial, often provoking further questions to research (Appendix L).

Whilst working through this module, I have gained insight into how an inquiry can be conducted and both the ethical and lawful procedures one must follow for protection. It has become apparent to me that by producing this inquiry, I can potentially educate both myself and others to improve the education of the future generation.

New inquiry title

Having spoken to Paula today, I have come to the conclusion that my line of inquiry title is too broad. Previously it was ' The importance of the arts in education'. Due to the fact that 'the arts' would include subject areas such as drama, theatre studies, dance, music and art, I have decided to narrow the inquiry down to 'The importance of dance and drama in education'. This is more specific and concentrates on the two subject areas that my expertise lie in. I have realsied that by using the term 'the arts', and therefore including all areas of this subject, I would be making my inquiry very difficult to research within the time scale. I have personally never studied music or art in a the public education sector, and feel that this makes it an area which I should not be researching.