Possible Tools

I will consider the following tools for my Inquiry:
observations, questionnaires, interviewing, trialling and focus groups


observations
(wikipedia) Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity. An observation can also be the way you look at things or when you look at something.




Questionnaires
(wikipedia) A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case.




Interviewing
(wikipedia) An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.




Trial and error
(wikipedia) Trial and error, or trial by error, is an experimental method of problem solving, repair, tuning, or obtaining knowledge. "Learning doesn't happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change, and then trying again."




Focus groups
(wikipedia) A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members.

Ethics for teachers

As a freelance dance teacher I knew of ethics, but the ethics I personally use are just through general knowledge and experience.  As bad as it sounds I have never looked into ethics, however, I believe that the ethics I use meet requirements.  I know that in a school environment there needs to be a stricter approach and so I looked into a few different codes of professional ethics and found the following two links useful:




This one is very clear and would be similar to one produced by any school


http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/active/0/NUT-Code-of-Professional-Ethics.pdf



This one, although American, states the different areas of ethics used by teachers, namely:
towards students, practices and performance, professional colleagues, parents and community.


http://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics

Changes and My Inquiry Direction

I have decided that my focus should be on something that will benefit my career, rather than thinking what may teachers want to know? This should be i want to know? (may also benefit others)

My proposed career is to go into teaching in the education sector, but what differences would there be from my current employment, in dance schools?

I brainstormed my ideas :

The Journey

I have been wondering why this course has been so difficult to get going with (especially this module), but having spoke with Alan the other day it has become much clearer.  I was confused by myself? Why did I find it difficult to get going on this course? It is for a DEGREE! 


Alan explained that this course is something I am not used to.  I am used to being taught...waiting to be taught.  This course is part of a journey, from used to being taught - to teaching myself and eventually, beyond this course, I hope to be the teacher! It is about learning something for yourself and this transformation was hard for me to grasp at first, but now I feel my learning is falling into place.


I hope this helps if any of you have similar feelings, as it has really helped me.

Finalising my reward title

So after careful consideration and not wanting to limit my award title I have decided on:

BA (Hons) In Professional Practice in Dance and Education.

I previously posted about my award title, saying that I didn't want to limit it and so I think this is a perfect balance.  I hope to go on to teaching dance in secondary education, which my award title covers.  Another option is to go into primary education and, like Michelle said in her post, this title shows I have dance experience and it also carries on from my 'National Diploma In Professional Dance'.  The education part of the title will be the next step in my career, whether it be primary or secondary.

Any more thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Developing Questions

It is strange to believe that at the beginning of this module it was hard to think of questions, mainly because I was thinking too hard !  Now narrowing it down to one question is difficult.  I have thought about this long and hard - and it has been hard...I have been into my local secondary school and also thought about my current employment to try and inspire me.  After thinking about my proposed career, teaching in Secondary schools, I started  to think about the changes I would need to make.  Whilst volunteering at my local secondary school I decided to make notes on differences I came across between what the teachers do at the school and what I do when I teach at local dance schools.  A big one I came up with was Motivation! Every teacher needs to motivate their pupils but I would like to look into it in greater depth.  This is because I currently teach at dance schools where the majority choose to attend out of enjoyment, whereas from previous experience in secondary schools, years 7-9  have to participate whether they want to or not....What methods of motivation are used for those who have no interest in dance whatsoever?!  I hope to look into methods of motivation to benefit the next stage in my career, and I hope this will be of benefit to others too, who are wanting to do the same.

Teaching Routes

The other day I went into my old high school to talk about my next step after completing BAPP.  With the talk of GTPs being stopped / cut / reduced I was getting worried as I think this may be the only option available to me?.  I have a house to pay for and I could not afford not to work.  Why is it getting so hard? Anyway, I was told it is hard to get onto a PGCE without experience never mind a GTP! So I was advised to start volunteering and to apply for teaching assistant roles to help me gain experience in schools.  So this may help others wanting to do the same.  Going into the school on a weekly basis will give me experience and also enable me to carry out my Inquiry there.