Module 3

We are a couple weeks into the term now and I have been very busy with my Module 3 inquiry!

Unfortunately I have been unable to attend the Skype Sessions due to being at sea. Although this has been frustrating, browsing other peoples blogs from the course has proven super helpful in keeping me in the loop of what has been discussed and helping to guide my personal learning. 

I have spent time going over my inquiry plan from Module 2 and using the feedback given to consider any changes that I want to make. I am pleased with my plan but I do think it is important for me to be open to the fact that my inquiry might inspire questions that I hadn't even considered, leading me to further questions in other areas! This is something that I have noticed is highlighted a LOT in my Module 3 Handbook...to be looking for my research to lead me to ask more questions, rather than looking for a closed answer. 

I have also completed my Study Plan - I think this is such a helpful tool in making sure I keep on top of my work. I am starting to see already how easy to is to get so deep in amongst carrying out the research that it is hard to know when to 'stop' and start analysing. So the plan is a great tool at staying within time limits.

Something I am struggling with at the moment is waiting on other people! I am waiting to hear back from participants to carry out several interviews - it is proving hard to find times that work for both parties, especially for me being out at sea for the majority of October. This just means that as soon as I get confirmation and the interviews take place, I need to be in a good spot with the rest of my research...allowing me to start my analysis on track.

Discovering my practice and my preferred styles of reflection...

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.

Monday 9th October - Online Skype Session

On Monday I attended an online Skype session for Module 1. I was at the later session of 5:00pm.

I almost didn’t make it, with the time difference and it being a sea day I thought I wouldn’t get connected! I was about 10 minutes late but I am so glad that I was able to attend as it was such a beneficial session!

Firstly it was so comforting to see that people were still figuring the course out for themselves too. I haven’t studied anything so academic in about 4 years and with this course having so much freedom for us to learn in our own way I was worried that I wasn’t necessarily doing it ‘right’. I realised that there is no right or wrong way, as long as we really make the most of all of the resources available to us & commit time to our studies. This thought led to a discussion of the idea of push & pull within learning. Most of us are used to being sat in a classroom and having information pushed at us. But this course has so much freedom for us to use all of the tools and information available to us and pull out as much (or as little) as we want. I find this a more mature way of learning and is a really good way of developing self-discipline.

We heard from everyone in the group and we all spoke about where we are at so far in the module. Most of us are looking at Web 2.0 at the moment. 

We spoke a lot about reflection and interestingly, the difference between reflection & criticism. I have found personally that when I reflect on myself or how I have done something I am usually critiquing myself and focusing on what I could have done better. As performers I feel that we are our biggest critics and so naturally we see the negative things first. Adesola asked me to think about teachers or directors that I have had in the past and whether this may have had an impact on why I am so harsh on myself in this way. I found that so interesting and it made me think back to many different teachers and situations. I also started thinking about ballet and how it is such a disciplined practice, maybe this has caused me to be so critical. 

It is easy for reflection to slide into criticism and this is something that I am really going to work on. If you’re struggling with this too there are a few things that we spoke about in the session that really helped me and the way I think about reflection…

• Firstly to critique ourselves in a more constructive way. Rather than focusing on negatives, think about how we fit and what we did right, not just what we would change.
• Looking at ourselves from a different perspective. Not just as another person but maybe as an object or an article of clothing. This will help us to step away from the situation & look in at ourselves, causing us to go further in and to reflect more deeply.
• To spend time questioning ourselves, looking at WHY we are making the choices we are making. Not just noticing what we are doing in our practice but asking why we are doing them.
• Not just looking at what we’re doing but looking at what we’re learning too and how this is helping (or hindering) our growth and development.
• Looking at our essence and what we bring to our practice, instead of focusing on how to improve.
• We also spoke about feedback. Not just giving it but receiving it too and how this can help with reflecting on our practice. 

We did speak about the importance of our blog too. How it is a great way to note everything and store evidence of our studies, creating an overview of how we’re growing and what we’re learning. Not only is it a good way to keep a track of our thoughts but its useful in sharing ideas and learning from each other which will help us to get the most from this course.

Over the next week I plan to complete all of the tasks in the first section and also spend time thinking about my practice and defining what it is.

If you’re struggling with reflection too and how to reflect constructively without focusing on negatives, and have found other ways to help please comment and let me know as this is something that I am finding very interesting & really trying to work on. 

Meg