I'd like to propose an award title
BAPP (dance teaching and dance in education)
I have chosen to include dance in education as well as dance teaching as this is the area where I plan to focus my inquiry and am keen to develop in the future.
However I'd like to see the creative curriculum developed within schools, through dance, music, drama and art. Another award title I could propose is;
BA Hons in Professional Practice (Creative Arts in Primary Education).
I have worked for 8 years as a dance teacher both in performing arts schools and various workshops and after school clubs. Alongside this I have worked in a mainstream Primary school in an academic setting and am keen to collaborate my knowledge and explore the positive affects on learning and the learning environment.
Has anyone else thought about their award title? What do you think?
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Professional Code of Conduct (Dance Teacher)
Here is what i propose as a professional code of conduct for a Dance Teacher.
- Punctuality
- Adhere to legal requirements
- CRB, complete annual tax return, national insurance contributions
- Comply to rules of the establishments in which you work
- Respect the ethos of the people you work for
- Present yourself well, both verbally and physically
- Create equal opportunities for children
- A responsibility to encourage each child to achieve their best.
- Be aware of physiological needs of students, finding a balance between a body centred and person centred approach.
- Be consistent
- Be honest and trustworthy
- Work as part of a team
Professional Ethics
Today's campus session was based around Professional ethics.
I will give a brief overview of what we discussed and my developing thoughts in this area.
'Ethics'.. Derived from the Greek word Ethos meaning character.
After looking at the definition of ethics, we began to look at our personal virtues/ values and then those that relate to our profession.
Theory behind Ethics
We looked at 3 main theories...
Consequentialism- acting for the greater good. The example given in the reader is that to kill one person in order to save nine would justified with consequentialism. (WBS3835, Reader 5, pg.7). The action is justified by the result.
Deontology- with this there is no grey area. As in lying or stealing is always wrong.
Virtue ethics- where the emphasis on being rather than doing, which is traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Moral behaviour and character is as important as the action.
Conflict in personal and professional ethics
This is something that has gotten me thinking in all aspects of my life. If ethos means character then should it be a consistent part of who you are? To say i'm a generous person and display that in my close friendships but then refuse to give 50p to someone collecting money for homeless children, am I really being generous or is my generosity circumstantial?
Although my professional and personal ethics may vary for different situations, I'd like to think that if they were built upon my character there would be a thread running throughout?
The conflict might come when you are asked to comply with the rules or the ethos of a company which you work for that compromises your personal values or beliefs.
I think I can most relate to the theory of Virtue Ethics, where decisions are based on character. For example, as a teacher we are told not to hug children but if a child is terribly upset and clearly in need to affection then a hug might be appropriate. Likewise, if a child is in danger of hurting themselves or another child we, as teachers have a responsibility to restrain or remove that child from that situation. In these cases i feel that Virtue Ethics would apply, ones personal ethos to care (built into character), is as important as the action.
I will give a brief overview of what we discussed and my developing thoughts in this area.
'Ethics'.. Derived from the Greek word Ethos meaning character.
After looking at the definition of ethics, we began to look at our personal virtues/ values and then those that relate to our profession.
Theory behind Ethics
We looked at 3 main theories...
Consequentialism- acting for the greater good. The example given in the reader is that to kill one person in order to save nine would justified with consequentialism. (WBS3835, Reader 5, pg.7). The action is justified by the result.
Deontology- with this there is no grey area. As in lying or stealing is always wrong.
Virtue ethics- where the emphasis on being rather than doing, which is traced back to Plato and Aristotle. Moral behaviour and character is as important as the action.
Conflict in personal and professional ethics
This is something that has gotten me thinking in all aspects of my life. If ethos means character then should it be a consistent part of who you are? To say i'm a generous person and display that in my close friendships but then refuse to give 50p to someone collecting money for homeless children, am I really being generous or is my generosity circumstantial?
Although my professional and personal ethics may vary for different situations, I'd like to think that if they were built upon my character there would be a thread running throughout?
The conflict might come when you are asked to comply with the rules or the ethos of a company which you work for that compromises your personal values or beliefs.
I think I can most relate to the theory of Virtue Ethics, where decisions are based on character. For example, as a teacher we are told not to hug children but if a child is terribly upset and clearly in need to affection then a hug might be appropriate. Likewise, if a child is in danger of hurting themselves or another child we, as teachers have a responsibility to restrain or remove that child from that situation. In these cases i feel that Virtue Ethics would apply, ones personal ethos to care (built into character), is as important as the action.
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Dance and Drama in Education SIG
Just to let you know that i've started a SIG on our facebook page. Dance and Drama in Education is extremley broad and i'm trying to tailor the questions i'm asking a little bit. If anyone has similar interests then i'll look forward to seeing you on the SIG discussion board!
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
A brief summary of yesterday's campus session and some more questions...
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!
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!
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Some more thoughts...
The second question I'd like to propose is 'what is the correlation between the arts (dance and drama) and academic studies?'
During a literacy lesson I used 'role play' to develop the children's ideas for the piece of creative writing they were about to complete. The findings were astonishing. Children whose language is usually/typically below average expressed themselves with excellent vocabulary during the role play. This had a positive effect on the written work that followed and the ideas that were generated. Could it be that there are in fact elements of the mathematics and literacy (core subjects) that can be enhanced through creative curriculum i.e; dance and drama?
During a literacy lesson I used 'role play' to develop the children's ideas for the piece of creative writing they were about to complete. The findings were astonishing. Children whose language is usually/typically below average expressed themselves with excellent vocabulary during the role play. This had a positive effect on the written work that followed and the ideas that were generated. Could it be that there are in fact elements of the mathematics and literacy (core subjects) that can be enhanced through creative curriculum i.e; dance and drama?
Tomorr Kokona wrote an article entitled ‘Dance Mathematics’. (March, 2009). He explores the use of Dance and movement within education and the positive affects it has had as well as his personal experiences. Having grown up in Albania then moved to the UK his experiences were less than pleasant until a teacher arrived who gave the students an opportunity to be physically active during the lessons using up bottled up energy that can otherwise only be let off in the playground.
Could drama and dance/movement be used to develop learning for children who have English as an additional language?
Monday, 31 January 2011
Developing lines of inquiry within my area of professional practice... My initial thoughts.
In order to begin this task I first had to identify my area of practice. Although my desired area of professional practice lies in Children's television presenting my current practice is dance teaching and 'dance in education'.
My initial line of question was derived from something I briefly explored in the first module; the social and emotional aspects of learning within dance, the question arose 'what affect does the music we dance to have on the emotional wellbeing of the children we teach?'
It is not uncommon for one to leave a dance class singing the lyrics of the song that has been played on repeat for the past 40mins. Which then leads me to think 'what are we allowing to circulate round the young impressionable minds of children we teach?'.
I have discovered that there are certain 'feel good' songs which I often use to warm up to which sets the tone for the class. But if another type of music was chosen, containing swearing or violent or sexual themes, would the atmosphere during the class be the same and would it create an optimum environment for the children to learn in?
What are the lasting effects of listening to a particular piece of music repeatedly?
I began to explore who else has asked similar questions. Through simply googling ‘music influence on children’ quite a few articles and websites came up. Here are some of my findings;
‘The type of music your child listens to and how he engages with the music can enhance his learning and development or have negative consequences.’ eHow.com The Influence of Music on Children
The article goes onto say that when music is combined with training and education, it is an important tool in developing children's self-esteem. Singing or learning to play an instrument gives children a sense of accomplishment. Taking part in a musical performance can teach important life skills such as how to conquer nervousness. Could this be applicable to an environment where dance is being taught?
Another website ‘Media Influence on children’ states that: To date no studies have documented a cause and effect relationship between sexually explicit or violent lyrics and adverse behavioural effects, however there is an acknowledged overall effect that music has an effect on people. If it didn't have an effect on people in general there would be no point listening to it.I think social and emotional effects of the music listened to in a dance class is relevant, particularly if the effect is long lasting and ripples into one’s ability to learn and behavioural patterns.
Charles Reade puts it beautifully when he says ‘Sow an thought, reap an act; sow an act reap a habit; sow an habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny’
The young people of today are the leaders of tomorrow. I anticipate that this line of questioning would be relevant and important to a large proportion of society, from parents and careers to teachers and those in positions of influence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)