Module 3, campus session 1

For those of you who could not make the campus session today, here is a summary of what was discussed.

First of all Paula spoke to us about the importance of stress management. Knowing in advance that this is going to be an intence period for us, means that we can prepare ourselves. She suggested that we all make ourselves an artificial deadline so that we have further time should an event cause our schedule to be interuppted.

Ways to beat stress: Breathe
                               Exercise
                               Make a plan of action
                               Make time to socialise
                               Get with nature (a walk in the woods/ spend time with your pet)
                               Do the action plan

Don't be caught out by technology....SAVE YOUR WORK! Technology will, at some point inevitibly let you down. Use multiple USB sticks and paper coppies.

We then started looking at the criteria of module 3:
                                                                              Part 1 - Critical Review
                                                                              Part 2 - Professional Artefact
                                                                              Part 3 - Oral Presentation

Part 1 & 2 will be marked before we do part 3. The deadline for parts 1 & 2 is 7th January 2013. The preliminary date of the Oral Presentation is 24th Janurary 2013.

The following information can be found in the handbook.
 We then looked at the 5 stages of work that will take us through module 3. Paula asked us to take the time to see which stage we are currently at and what needs to be done next.

Stage 1
Write and post to Paula a written review of your feedback from your inquiry plan. Do you understand what you have done so far? Is it understandable? What does your feedback tell you you need to do to improve?

Stage 2
carry out your literature review. You can use up to 20 sources of literature. Whose previous work/literature has influenced you? Find some really good sources.

Stage 3
Carry out your inquiry. Make sure you do the things you have said you are going to do. Explain why, if there is a reason that you cannot include something you have said you are going to do in your inquiry plan.

Stage 4
Analyse your findings to show that your understanding

Stage 5
Complete the assessment using part 1, part 2 and part 3 (See above). Although this will be hard work, it should ultimately be something you are very proud of! :-)

Use your academic advisor. Email questions, skype, text and call.
Keep your subject/topic alive on daily basis. Talk to other people about what you are doing.

Next we discussed the Critical Review in more detail. Paula reminded us that it must be written formally. Peter Thomas will be holding an academic writing session on 23rd October 10am-2pm for extra help. (See home page on libguide). Explain how you have used it to improve your learning. What have you learnt? How? Why? Make sure you explain the outcome of your inquiry at the beginnning. Say any significant outcomes straight away. Don't leave it till the end.

During the session, we were given two exercises to do. The first was to answer a series of questions which will help you to start module 3 and recognise which stage you are at. This was fairly hard to do when put on the spot and with no prompts to help you to remember!

1. What research have you done so far?
2. What is you working title?
3. What are the ethical issues of your inquiry?
4. What are your literature research sources?
5. What data have you gathered?

The second exercise was to write down your action plans. Mine are:
* To schedule my interviews
* To leave a month for analyisis
* To create a university timetable using the suggested weekly feedback guides found in the handbook
* To arrange dates and time to do the interviews
* To read my literature
* To do the interviews
* To collect a portfolio of literature sources and quotes

Lastly, Paula encouraged us to continue blogging and communicating within our SIGS. All of us agreed that one of the biggest challenges is finding the time to blog as well as keep on top of the work to be assessed. We all thought that shorter but more regular blogs and also making your blog page a 'favourites tab' (up by the tool bar - easy access) can contribute to an increase in blogging. 

I hope this summary gives a brief idea of what was discussed today. Any questions, feel free to ask.
Sarah

Time management - Stage 1

Throughout the last two modules, I have definitely had timing issues. Even though my intentions have been good, I have realised that I have left things far too late resulting in very hectic deadlines! I have promised myself that this will not happen the third time round. Easily said! I am so very busy at work it is becomming increasingly difficult to find any spare time and with week one drawing to a close, I have already found myself falling behind the schedule. Tomorrow is the first campus session and I am relieved that I have been given permission by work to attend it. In preperation, I am trying to read the handbook and criteria for module 3. Unfortunately, I will not be able to write my review of module 2 in time for tomorrow. I have however found the information in the handbook about the five stages of the Professional Inquiry very useful. I agree that by modifying the task into 5 stages, it becomes much more manageable. This is something that I often suggest to GCSE pupils when tackling coursework.
So at the moment I am in the process of getting through stage 1, which will now merge in to week 2!
Does anybody else find one of the most challenging aspects of the course is simply managing time? How do you overcome these difficuties when trying to juggle full time (or in my case, two) jobs?
Looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it, tomorrow.

Module 3

I can't believe that I'm already on my final module. It feels good but very scary. Although I am very pleased that I have done well in the previous modules, I feel that I am rather out of my depth! I have never worked to such a high academic level before and am sometimes surpised at my own ability. This work doesn't come easily to me at all, so the next 12 weeks feel somewhat daunting. I am very goal orientated though, and am determined to achieve!

Since the end of module 2, I have undergone a massive upheaval at work. My school has been completely re-built as part of a multi million pound project. It has been in the process for two years but this summer, we actually moved out of the old building and in to the new one. Coming back in September was extremely stressful with both staff and pupils having no idea where anything or anywhere was and having to spend over a week merely unpacking. Due to these circumstances, it has been impossible for me to conduct any of the interviews needed for module 3 which means that I already feel that I am behind shcedule.

 On top of this, due to financial reasons, I have also had to take on a second job in the evenings for 3 days a week which means I am very pushed for time. Before starting this course, I'm pretty certain I would have caved in and would not have managed with so much on my plate. However, I have learnt that it is possible to time-manage effectively and have therefore set myself a timetable to follow in order to fit in my two jobs, university time and be able to still clean my house!

I'm looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it to the first campus session on Wednesday and also commenting on each other's blogs and SIG boards.

Sarah

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.