This will hopefully help those who couldn't make yesterday's campus session and help me to clarify what I have learnt so far on this module.
In yesterday's session we began by identifying our professional practice and mapping out our professional knowledge then presenting it graphically to the whole group. We discovered that some elements were generic (to all professions), some were specific skills needed for a particular profession, for example you must be able to dance to be a dance teacher, and other parts were transdisciplinary (the need to draw on knowledge from another discipline). An example of this is the need for knowledge of business and finance to be a successful dance teacher in order to promote yourself and manage accounts and invoicing.
We then went onto think about our 'Big Question' and share those with other members of the group. Here are a few of the questions that came up;
How important is technical ability in casting ability?
Why do a lot of dance teachers transition into being dance teachers?
What is the socioeconomic effect on success?
Natalie posed the question 'How do you break into a new sector of the industry?'
This question is of particular interest to me as this is something I am in the process of doing. It also triggered quite a few sub questions:
How does one successfully transition from actress to presenter?
What does one need to prepare and retrain in?
How much of your current knowledge base as an actress is still relevant?
Who has already done this successfully?
How would ones professional network need to adapt to accommodate this change?
This is definitely one line I'd like to develop further as it's relevant to my current professional practice and that of others around me.
The other line of inquiry i am interested in relates to dance teaching.
What are the effects of social networking on children we teach and their ability to learn?
What are the effects of media and music on children's behaviour?
Is it possible to use dance and drama in core (literacy and numeracy) formal education to enhance learning?
The final part of the day was spent focussing on how we would like to form our SIGs.
The general consensus was to create a facebook page that we would all be part of, from there we would develop Similar Interest Groups and create threads were we would discuss these topics in more detail. Every so often the initiator of each SIG would blog a summary so that everyone is kept in the loop!
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ReplyDeleteHi Joanna
ReplyDeleteI was unable to make yesterday's campus session so your blog has been really helpful. I now feel I can give this module more thought having seen how so of my initial ideas weren't to disssimilar to others.Thank you for you notes.
Rebecca
Great to meet you on Tuesday! Your blog is a great summery and reading everyones thoughts are helping to clarify my own.... See you in a couple of weeks at the next session
ReplyDeleteNicole
Hey, I really like your sub questions to my question especially what skills and knowledge are still relevant? I hadn't thought of it in this way but it is a really useful question to consider as I think maybe we have more skills and knowledge that are still relevant than we think we do? I don't think it's like starting again and erasing everything we know but maybe just transfering our knowledge so it's appropriate for television?
ReplyDeleteSome really useful questions.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to pose another that relates to the issue of 'transition'.
Is transitioning a feature of professional practice in that, over a professional lifetime, we can all expect to 'transition' from our entry jobs, to other roles?
You may find the work of Michael Eraut interesting because he looks at professional practice from this perspective.
HE has produced an interesting paper and its worth looking at his work ... here's a good starting point.
How Professionals Learn through Work.pdf accessed from:
http://learningtobeprofessional.pbworks.com/w/page/15914995/Michael-Eraut
The transition question really appeals to me too as I am wanting to move in to teaching more. I'm going to read Eraut so thanks Alan. Joanna I think you're right with question about what skills are still relevant and I (like Natalie) hadn't thought about it before.
ReplyDeleteYour final question about use dance and drama in core formal education is also something I'm really interested in. Have you watched Sir Ken Robinson's speech on TED that Ross posted on his page? You should because I think you'd find it really interesting.
Here's the link
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Look at Paula's blog about singing in schools and how it has a positive impact on kids. I think you'll find it interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://paulanottingham.blogspot.com/2011/02/teaching-singing-and-wellbeing.html
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments and relevant links. I watched Sir Ken's talk during the last module, i thought it was absolutely brilliant. He had me totally hooked. However i think its worth another look with these new found lines of inquiry in mind. I will also check out the link on Paula's blog!
Thanks again