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Thursday 5 April 2012

Hello Everyone!!

Wow Its been a long time and a bit of a life rollercoaster for me since our last module that I have only just started on our final module!
The Inquiry itself!

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Critical Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio



During this process I have aimed to compare educational PE dance classes with professionally taught dance classes and if there are differences and the skills needed for each.

My initial thoughts on my questions were;
How Professional Dance teaching is different to School PE dance lessons?, How can discussions/questioning enhance a dance lesson?, How creative are my lessons (Professional) compared to your (School) dance lessons? And have the children learnt 'dance'?
I then went onto think about a plan of how I will find my final question and develop these areas.
‘I am working on these questions and to get my questions I would like to collect evidence/questionnaires and graphs.
I have come up with the idea that in my Reception Class of which I am a Teaching Assistant, I would like to do:
- 2 Dance classes which I set a routine as a Professional Teacher as I would at my Dance School,
Ask all the children who took part to answer a basic questionnaire and how they felt
- 2 Dance Classes with own creativity as a School dance PE lesson,
Again ask the children the same questionnaire and how they felt
And also do a final questionnaire of which they preferred and which they enjoyed more’
I did think about a focus group after a few interactions with ‘Stephanie Thomas and Rosemary McGuiness’ but I felt this was not appropriate with the children I planned to work with and that open and closed questions directly after sessions would give me more information and data to analyse.
The questions I am going to ask the children directly after the second session of each:
1. How do you feel after that lesson?
2. What did you learn?
3. Would you like a PE class like this again?
4. What was your favourite part? Enjoy the most?
And the same questions after my Educational PE Class with the same children with one extra question which was:
5. Which PE dance class did you prefer? Being taught
This is how I planned to gather my information and data. And by also asking other Peers, professionals and educational teachers questions and I did this by using a questionnaire I handed out and received back. Also by setting up my wikispaces discussion and my online Survey.
I also plan to ask teachers in education of older students as the children I am using are of very young age.
‘How these are different also as the children grow a little older so I am going to then ask my colleagues at school who teach classes 1 and 2, 3 and 4 for there feedback and whether this applies to them as they are older and have learnt 'dance' in gestures and how to move to music whether they then teach routines and evaluate in professional ways?’
My initial Ethic considerations I thought about were initially about my dance school (professional) and how I would gain consent for each child. I have planned in my inquiry to do this and in discussion with ‘Stephanie Thomas’ I decided that I would need to make a consent form to enable all parents to sign and ensure they are happy with my study and the use of confidentiality and adhere at all time to my code of practise.
With this I also had to think about the Primary school of where I work and with using children of such a young age in my Inquiry. I there fore decided also to form a consent form for the Classroom teacher who will be in these sessions and will be monitoring and supporting me through my Inquiry and the Head teacher who gives consent for the children to take part in school time in my inquiry as no confidentiality will be breached and school code of conduct adhered to.
Another thought about questions: How we teach differently in Professional Dance Class and Educational PE dance class?
I have quite a few more Ethical issues to consider when planning for my inquiry and the Ethics are very important.
 Making sure that whoever I do include in my inquiry whether it be a focus group, audio/visual questionnaire they are totally aware of what I am doing, my plan of inquiry and why I am inquiring.
All information I receive is confidential and, I and the university in my assignment are the only people to view this information but the research, plan of inquiry and the inquiry will be information to benefit the relevant people in my inquiry. 
My literature of which I have included in my blog and discussions were:
I found these a very interesting read but they do not support my study of inquiry.
My final decision after analysing data and gathering information is that my questions is this:
‘What is the comparison and skills needed for teaching dance in Primary Educational PE classes and Professionally taught classes, and how do we evaluate and monitor students improvements and progression?’



Friday 9 December 2011

literature cont...

'delivering-dance-in-primary-schools-'

This is a lady giving advice and information/help to primary school teachers who are not professionally dance experts/professionals/skilled and giving advice on how to teach dance in Pe lessons its a very interesting read

A Piece of research I have found interesting about Dance in Education...

Please take a look this peice of writing it's about Dance in Education and some interesting links and information off this website it also reads 'Dance has become second only to football as most popular activity in schools around the country' 


Take a look 'agreatstepfordance

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Questioning the children after my classes...

After my professional dance classes I asked each child:

1. How do you feel after that lesson?

2. What did you learn?

3. Would you like a PE class like this again?

4. What was your favourite part? Enjoy the most?

And the same questions after my Educational PE Class with the same children with one extra question which was: 

5. Which Pe dance class did you prefer? being taught exercises/routines or creating?

Myself and the classroom teacher wrote these but asked the children individually after the session and wrote exactly what they replied. 

This was successful and graphs to follow...

My Thoughts on the Ethics of my Work places...

I have quite a few things to consider when planning for my inquiry and the Ethics are very important. 
In my Teaching Assistant role at the First School I work at I have to consider: 
- The children I use are under 18years, only 4/5years old
- Consent from the school, headteacher and classroom teacher
- Not to use any names in my inquiry making them confidential and anonymous
- I can put names on the adults with their consent
- I will not ask irrelevant questions eg age, this is not appropriate for my inquiry

In my other work place which is my Professional Dance setting, My Dance school I have to consider: 
- If  I question the children, I need consent off every parent and again anonymous and no irrelevant questions
- If I question parents then this will also be anonymous 

Making sure that whoever I do include in my inquiry whether it be a focus group, audio/visual questionnaire they are totally aware of what I am doing, my plan of inquiry and why I am inquiring. 
All information I recieve is confidential and, I and the university in my assignment are the only people to veiw this information but the research, plan of inquiry and the inquirywill be information to benefit the relevant people in my inquiry. 

any thoughts on my Ethics for my inquiry? 

Monday 28 November 2011

Questionnaire for Dance teachers/teachers and my wikis discussion link please join

My 'Questionnaire' - Please click on the link and fill out my questions primarily for Dance teachers whether it be Educational or Freelance/Professional.
Please take a look and my wikis page link for discussion on this is 'Educationalandprofessionaldanceteaching' is this something your interested in? Teaching in schools and at a dance school?