Module 3!!

The fun begins..................From reading blogs I can see everyone is pretty much in the same position as myself. After reading Luke Bohanns Blog http://lukebohanna.blogspot.co.uk I felt so much better. I feel like I am going to repeat everything he has blogged.

I am currently working on land in a gym (shift work) also fitting in Promotional work as well as any auditions. Coming home from the cruise and starting life on land after two years has been mayhem however I now feel like I am getting settled and getting into as much of a routine as I possibly can. This is the first time since graduating that I have not got a dance job lined up. It's scary! I am teaching but I am feeling the pressure and expectations around me to get my next break hence Module 3 unfortunately  taking the back seat.

Where I am with Module 3

I have printed parent/guardian consent forms for any students that are under 16 with in the class I observe. Which will begin to take place next week.

I am still working on my questionnaire. A questionnaire is not as easy as it looks, I am struggling to find the most beneficial questions. Not to get the answers I want but to get the data I need to benefit my inquiry.

I have arranged to interview three teachers, which will take place after my observations are complete. I do not want the interview to influence that classes that I observe.

I have decided to focus on the four following;

1. Questionnaire Questions - I need to finalise my questions by next week. I need to keep moving forward with this inquiry and this is holding me back. 

2. Gathering Data - This needs to be done ASAP, I need to go in head first and full out!

2. Structure my analyse (This thought panics me) - Start preparing for analyse, I feel like I am going to collect data and not know what to do with it. I need to plan and prepare myself so when I have received all the data I know how I am going to organise it. Especially my excel spreadsheet for the data from my questionnaire.

4. Literature - I need to research further into my chosen topic, Performance. I have found websites that supports teachers and also a university that has tutorials in performance. However I need to deepen my search and find readings relevant to my inquiry.

From everyone that has blogged about the first campus session I saw that Paula's slide show was a big help. I am currently working my way through as you can see from above. Kolbs cycle now becomes even more relevant to our current work. The timeline is a great way of keeping on top of things and showing myself that I am moving forward. I intend on moving steadily in the right direction.

Critical Reflection on module 2

I am going to look at module two, explaining what I have gained, the ideas that have become present in my studies and my experiences I have had exploring the three readers.

Developing lines of professional inquiry

When reflecting on Reader 4 I thought deep into where I am going. I have so many avenues to explore being at the beginning of my career. I shared all my thoughts; (Appendix A). Little did I know that a lot of the questions and inquiries that I had linked together. Even though my phone calls to Paula were few and far between due to my circumstances, I was always able to feed of her to define my questions. Realising this I made it a regular thing to discuss my progress and get ideas from the cast I am currently working with.

Due to the limited Internet and also the storm “Sandy” I did find this module a struggle; (Appendix C). I wanted to share all the ideas I had and my views on others blogs. I tried to do this as much as I could, by saving peoples blogs to my computer and writing out a reply for when I could get connected was very beneficial. So many people had good ideas and comments that would help me progress. (Appendix D)

Professional Ethics

I never realised the depth of ethics; personal, professional, organizational and social, that’s a lot to take onboard. However the more I read and researched the more I realised it was common sense. In the world we live in, it’s nature and nurture for the majority to be brought up in an ethically correct society.

My personal ethics were something I had to reflect on continuously. My ethics are just something that I do everyday they become nature and it was difficult to clasp the idea of them being virtues that I have. When you work for a company they have there own rules that you should follow but that still allows you to have your own - (Appendix E). Within my inquiry I need to follow the ethics of the company I will be working with, also considering age and consent as well as me personally.

Tools of professional inquiry

This is all about trial and error. When piloting the tools I gained unnecessary information, inaccurate statistics (Appendix F) and was under prepared. When I looked back I needed structure for even the paper that I take the data down on. I need to ask the questions that are going to get the answers on the information I lack (Appendix G)

I now feel a lot more confident in myself for when I have to use these tools in my inquiries. I feel I made all the mistakes to insure they will not happen again.  Listening back to the interview the more confident I became the more information I got from the participant. From everything I have learnt from Module 1 and Now Module 2 I feel I am ready to conduct an ethically correct inquiry using the tools I have to their full potential.

Inquiry tools – What I discovered!!

Questionnaire

Links:

Survey-

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YMPSM9C

Results-

file://localhost/Users/kimberlyjane-/Documents/SurveyMonkey - Survey Results.webarchive

“the purpose of the survey is to produce statistics, that is, quantitative or numerical descriptions about some aspects of the study population”

I certainly got statistics from my survey however they were not correct. If you answered question 2 with “yes” you should have then answered question 3.

22 people answered yes so there should have been 22 people answer question 3 however I got 24 answers as you can see from my results. Due to the misinterpretation I had incorrect data. I would not be able to justify using this.

The majority of people that answered my questionnaire went to the same school as myself. I got very similar data. Could this be bias?

Quantity over quality, it was difficult to get people to even fill in the survey. People don’t have time to spare nowadays, even getting friends to do you a favor and pilot it for you.

You can’t get the “why” in! I wanted to ask the four people why they didn’t think that acting would contribute to their performance skills but I never got the chance.

Interview

First of all I received permission from the participant to conduct the interview then also asked if they were happy for my to record.

Preparation is vital. I did not have enough questions. Even though the conversation flowed and I was able to ask “why” and get in depth answers and follow up on things that interested me I could have had more planned. I felt that I did not maximize the time and opportunity.

I recorded that the interview so I could listen back to it and take down the necessary information.

I found this beneficial and was able to gather a lot of interesting information.

Observation

It was hard to get my head around whether I was being bias or not. Paula described it as my interpretation, which made it become a little clearer. Again with all the inquiry tools preparation is the key. You need to be clear of what you are looking for, have a clear structure of how you are going to get it on to paper. It is very easy to get sidelined onto other subjects as one thing leads to another. However it is very interesting to actually focus on one thing and see what becomes apparent. I trialed both participating in the observation and also being an insider. It depends on what you are researching to which one is most beneficial. For my question at the time was; what makes a good performer? I think both were just as good and I got the results that I needed.

Focus Group

This was the most useful tool that I used for my particular question. I found that everyone feed off each other and I got a lot of great ideas and answers. I did not record the focus group and I wish I had. I found it extremely difficult to write everything discussed. I was asking people to repeat themselves, if I had recorded it I could have gone back later. It also was restricting my chances at being part of the group, I could have kept the conservation flowing in the right direction as well as delving deeper into peoples thoughts. When researching this method I found the “long table approach” which I could use once the conversation had been written down. You can the cut up to conversation and sort the answers in categories of questions and topics. I did not use this tool to its full potential however I got some great results.

Overall

The key is Preparation.

Plan how you are going to record Data.

Use Memory, Field Notes, Flip charts, Drawings and Audio Recoreder.

Develop and Finalise good Questions.

Have Key Words.

Summarise the end.

Be systematic.

Have a Process and be able to describe it to others.

Know where to look for Information.

Have the right Resources.

Know your audience

Tools of Professional Inquiry

Having scrutinized and finally outlined a question that still needs refining I am going to pilot my tools of inquiry. I need to test these tools so that when I conduct my inquiry I not only can gather the most beneficial results but also document and reflect upon them. All with be prepared and completed ethically subject to the place and people taking part.

Pilot Questionnaire

Even though this is a less personal way to research I can collect a larger amount of data with in a shorter time. Surveys can take 2 minutes to fill in and the data can easily be put into graphs and percentages. I have to risk that questions maybe left incomplete and people may misinterpret the question but I feel that statistics are a good piece of evidence.

I have chosen to use Survey Monkey and have posted it to everyone with in my SIG and all affiliations.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YMPSM9C

                   

Pilot Interview

Being a qualitative method it enables flexibility in the questions that I ask and I am able to explain if the interviewee does not understand. The questions need to be structured fittingly to gather honest and non-bias answers. Even though the interviews will be time consuming and more complicated recording and using the results I feel they will contribute to my inquiry.

I have made a content form that the interviewee must complete before the interview commencing. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNDcobg4-YMt-uDCVDV2-8EFL25x2REowBw2YKXJfjM/edit

Below are a few questions that I would like to ask, it will be semi-structured which allows for discussion. Depending on the answers alters the following question.

Has your performance face always been natural to you or something that you have had to concentrate on?

Do you have a technique behind your performance?

What do you think makes a good performance?

Was acting classes integrated into you professional training?

Have you ever used your life experiences to create a character on stage?

Would you consider acting classes to enhance your performance as a dancer?

Focus Group

Being on a ship and having limited internet I do face the problem of creating a focus group. However I do life on a ship with 15 other dancers, from all over the world, with different training backgrounds, different experiences and all of different ages. It would be a waste not to get all these people in one room to share ideas. It allows me to explore everyone’s opinions on a subject everyone is currently practicing.

I will use the same questions that I use for the interview and again put forward the questions that fit in with the answers I receive.

Observation

I am struggling to complete or trial an observation while on the ship. I am going to think further into this. I would ideally watch a specific acting class for dancers and look into the effects. Even participate in the class myself. However I do not have access to such a class. Any ideas would be welcome baring in mind my current situation.

Once I have gathered the results I need to analyse and preserve the data, honestly and in the most beneficial way.

                                                            

I have all the tools but I need the question!

 I am now coming to the end of my second contract on a ship. I will finish this module on the ship but will be completing the last module on land. For me I need to create an inquiry that is versatile, that will accommodate both situations.

As Paula knows I have been back and fourth with my inquiry question. I decided to ask myself two questions;

What do I do well? And, What do I want to do on my return to the UK?

Appendix A

For myself and along with all professional dancers I want to get a job on land with in my profession and not have to work a “normal” job. This is up to me no one can help. I will be teaching at a local dance school but I would rather be on stage and leave that for later in my career.

I then asked a group of 14 people three questions.

What do you do to prepare for an audition?

I will need to audition. I have been to a fair few but if I knew how to do a perfect audition, if there was such a thing I need to be close to it.

What makes a good performer?

I want to stand out. In my opinion and experience performance makes you. It shows somebodies passion and can potentially get them the job.

If you could have been given one bit of advise before you started your full time training, what would it have been?

I will be teaching young adults that are training to go to a professional dance college. I want them to have more knowledge than I did. I want to inspire and give them advise.

Appendix B – The group of 14 people started writing their ideas on the paper I left, shortly after it turned into a full on discussion, which I was not prepared for. I noted down as much as I could.

PICTURES OF SPIDER DIAGRAMS

I noticed a link in a lot of the answers I received.

“Life experience”      “Game Face”  Making hard steps look easy and easy steps look good”  Face! Face! Face! Even if you mess up, do NOT show it on your face” “Ability to recover effortlessly”       “Character”    “Be versatile”             No matter what have fun, and sell the performance with your face”                  “Dance should be fun, if it isn’t you will see it on your face”       “Always remember where you are from”             “Act on what you feel”                       “Dance should be an extension of what you are and how you feel”      “originality stands alone” – all of the previous are quoted from the informal discussion, Appendix B.

Ethics is all about acting appropriately in different places. From the answers I received I feel like having a successful career is about acting correctly at the right time and place. Does acting contribute to a dancers performance? Could this contribute to me gaining a job?

I am going to pilot this question while trialing my inquiry methods.

 Appendix A