Today I have re-read my feedback from module WBS 3630 in order to clarify in my mind where I am and which areas need to be focussed on.
The working title of my inquiry is 'An exploration into the importance of Dance and Drama within education'. The overall intention of my inquiry was to evaluate whether subjects such as Dance and Drama have a place in today's educational system. I initially had grand ideas of putting my arguement across to the Principal of the secondary school I work in as a Teaching Assistant, and somehow re-molding the curriculum to incorporate more time to the creative subjects. Although I whole heartedly believe that this would be a massive leap in the right direction for the British education system, Paula's feedback made me realise that with the time frame I have and to be quite honest, the lack of authority I pocess, it would be too difficult to 'prove' that a creative curriculum should be adopted in my school. This could be regarded with a certain dispondency, but what Paula also highlighted to me was that although I can not necessarily change the teaching methods that the government have set in place, I can certainly use the valuable, creative teaching methods I have explored to improve my own teaching performance.
The literature I had read during Module WBS 3630 was appropriate to my inquiry and so the next step for me will be to find further resources which may also include educational policies and curriculum information.
Having realised that the initial question to my inquiry is too wide a topic area, I may benefit by concentrating on the sub-questions I had proposed in my Inquiry Plan. 1. Are creative subjects considered as important as academic subjects and why? 2. Should Dance and Drama be taught independently of governmnent run schools? Choosing just one of these avenues will allow my inquiry to be more specific and ultimately executed with more precision.
My feedback also encouraged me to take on some voluntary activities that could aid my inquiry. I recently directed the Shakespeare's school festival production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', which has enabled me to witness first hand, the growth in terms of confidence and ability, pupils' learn when taking part in creative projects. This has been as invaluable addition to my inquiry.
I have noticed a mistake I made whilst writing this up. Question 2 should read: Should Dance and Drama ONLY be taught independently of government run schools? Paula pointed out to me that of course, dance and drama are already taught outside schools! My point is that seeing as so much focus is put on academic subjects in education, would it make sense to only teach dance and drama outside of schools? This would then allow me to go in to circumstances such as financial implications.
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