As a manager I feel as though
I am always assessing others and reflecting on their professional performance,
and I do not spend enough time focusing on myself or reflecting on my own
professional practice. This module has been great in making me realize how beneficial
reflection is and how taking a small amount of time each day to write a journal
can make a huge difference in the development of myself in my practice, and
consequently in my career.
I have always thought that I
was a dedicated person - very focused on my career and aiming for the top. I
want to progress successfully and I thought that putting 100% effort into my
practice each day would be the way to get me there. Always dancing full-out on
stage, arriving early to ensure that I am fully warmed up and staying late to cool
down and look after my body. But I have come to realize that this is not
enough, because the physical side of dance is only one part of my practice. At
first glance, my practice is mostly physical. Dancing is of course an active
job and many wouldn’t think that dance has an academic side. But focusing on
the written side of my practice, documenting experiences, challenges, ideas, is
what will help me to develop and be a step above. I have been staying within
the safe comfort zone and not pushing myself past this to explore what more I
can do to be the professional that I want to be. What other parts of my
profession can I explore and learn from? I think that generally I am aware of
when I make a bad decision, when something goes wrong or when I have come
across something that is new to me. But I have never thought to write down and document
these things. It was something that I never knew could be so helpful in growing
within my practice. I was narrow minded and didn’t see that my practice can be
more than just dancing. I need to take time to realize when I have had an
experience that is something that I can learn something from. I need to look
back on how I have handled a situation and think about how I can do it better
next time. Thinking about these things and having them written down to be able
to look back on, compare and share is something that I am excited to get stuck
into and something that I am sure I will see great results from.
I have been working
professionally within my practice for the last 5 years. Just because I haven’t documented
my progress does not mean that I am the same performer now that I was when I
started. I haven’t stayed in once place, I have definitely grown and become a
more experienced, knowledgeable professional. But I think that I could have
grown a lot more if I had focused on reflecting. Seeing the things that I need
to look into further and spend more time working on - being more aware of my
strengths and my weaknesses so that I am working on relevant areas of my
practice rather than focusing on my favorite aspects. Looking at what I need so
that I can organize my growth and development in a beneficial and thought out
way.
I think it is very important to
explore learning and work on understanding myself as a professional and how I
learn. If I know what I need from a learning opportunity, then I can put myself
in ideal situations where I know I will get the most out of them. But if I don’t
know this then I can spend too much time in situations that aren’t as useful to
my learning style, or to my practice.
For example…I know that I
prefer reflecting in-action. It is something that I do naturally, every day in
my practice. As the company manager within my cast I cannot just focus on
myself and my performance, I need to look at everyone else, the technical
aspects of the show, the audience reaction. My brain is constantly processing
multiple things at once and figuring out ways to improve things, help cast
members should someone become injured, find a way around a technical-glitch
that may affect the show. I simultaneously do this whilst performing myself and
I feel as though my brain works best ‘online’. In other aspects of my practice
when I need to work ‘offline’ - looking back at a video of the show, breaking
down choreography for the cast to give them notes, spending time making a
rehearsal schedule - I have found that I
tend to second guess myself, over think things and find problems where there
really isn’t a problem at all. I have found that because working ‘offline’ doesn’t
come so naturally to me I utilize the help of others around me by asking for
their opinions and advice on certain situations. I think this shows that I do know
my weaknesses and I always try to improve on them. My profession has definitely
had a huge impact on the way I think and reflect and why I naturally prefer
reflecting in-action. If my practice involved more down-time, working in an
office for example, I would have more experience in reflecting on-action - taking
time to analyze ideas and decisions. But due to the nature of my practice,
reflecting in-action is definitely something that comes more natural. I plan to
work on combining the two…reflecting in-action and then writing about this in
my journal and looking deeper into it as I reflect on-action. I think that this
will help me to develop different reflection skills and hopefully learn more
from my experiences.
Before working through this
module I knew that I made better decisions in the moment and that when I took
the time to analyze and plan I really struggled. But I didn’t understand the
difference between the two. I found Donald Schon’s idea of reflecting in-action
vs. reflecting on-action helped me to distinguish between two different
reflecting styles and therefore help me to understand why I find one style
easier than the other. And Robert Kottcamp’s development of this by adding the
idea of reflecting ‘online’ and ‘offline’ is a very visual description for me
and something that I can easily picture and relate to.
As a professional I think
that is very important to be versatile and have the ability to adapt to
different situations. I think that within my practice this is something that makes
me employable as a performer. Being open minded and able to work in many
different atmospheres and situations is so important for me. It is good to know
what I need to be able to perform at my best, however it is also good to be
able to make the most of situations that may not be an ideal learning/work environment
for me.
I am still exploring my
practice; what it is, what this means for me, and how I can develop further. As
I look deeper into reflection and start linking it to my own practice I am
learning a lot about myself as a professional and how I can continue to grow.
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