Task 3b - Response to Reader 3 - The Networked Professional

After first reading Reader 3 I have decided that I will be approaching my reflection on the Reader in relation to my professional practice as a teacher in a mainstream secondary school.  The reason to this is due to the fact that after undertaking the previous tasks in this module I have found that the different areas of my professional practice have me reflecting, networking and acting in different ways.  

A professional network is 'a work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs’ (Cited in BAPP Reader 3).  In my opinion, in all professional practices the professional network is a very important tool which can be used positively to encourage positive outcomes, such as; 'your success, promotion and development, your sense of worth and fulfilment, and even enjoyment in your working life' (Reader 3).  Within the idea of the professional network there are five different concepts which I will now reflect on a analyse their worth in relation to my professional practice.

Cooperation:

The concept of cooperation is one which looks at the rewards and gains available to an individual or all parties within a working relationship.  The concept of cooperation works in relation to Game Theory, a theory based on the idea of two participants working with each other but resulting in the gain of one participant at the loss of the other.  Robert Axelrod states a question within his writing that on reflection I have realised faces every individual every day, 'When should a person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person?' (Axelrod, Cited in Reader 3).  As society we are constantly questioning what we are being subjected to and the tasks that are put before us.  The one reason that tasks are completed by the individuals is for a personal gain.  That gain could be something that only enhances the life of the individual, or a gain which also enriches the lives of others. 

There is a game which links to the Game Theory called 'Prisoners Dilemma'.  In this game the individual plays 'against' the computer choosing between two choices, one of which is to 'cooperate' or the option to 'compete'.  If both parties choose to cooperate both parties will gain 3 coins, if both parties choose to 'compete' they will only gain 1 coin each and if one party chooses to 'compete' but the other chooses to 'cooperate' they will gain 5 and 0 coins respectfully.  The system is set up in a 'tit for tat' methodology, as long as the individual is willing to 'cooperate' then so is the computer, but as soon as the individual decides to 'compete', the computer will 'compete' in the following test.  Therefore, the only way to beat the computer is to only 'compete' before withdrawing after selecting to 'compete'.  This game holds strong links with the ideas presented by Axelrod as he presents the idea that there are only benefits in cooperating with others until one reaches their highest point of benefit (Reader 3).

In my current professional practice it is important that I undertake the concept of cooperation with all of the other staff that I work with.  An example that I have had recently of cooperation in the workplace is in the trading of expertise with another member of my department.  I offered to take a practical workshop with my colleges class whilst she took a theory session with my class.  This benefited the both of us as we both experienced gains by the reward of our classes being taught by the most capable teacher.  When I offered to take the practical session which I knew my college wasn't keen on delivering I put myself in a position where I could loose out as she could have taken my offer but not given me anything in return.  This would not of been a good idea for my college to carryout as although should would have had an instant gain, she would not be able to 'defect' in the way that Axelrod suggests as she still remains part of the establishment after the 'deal' has been carried out and therefore if she had of defected leaving me as having lost out her reputation would have then gone down amongst all the staff and her reputation tarnished, thus, removing all possibilities to cooperate in the future.

This aspect of professional networking has made me realise that there are people that are continually looking at different situations strategically rather making a decision based on emotions, something that I think I will now be wary of within my professional practice.

Affiliation:

The second concept within the area of professional networks is the concept of affiliation.  The concept of affiliation in relation to professional networks is that of having a support network described by Crisp and Turner as 'a network of support that will help us when we are in need’ (Crisp & Turner 2007 pp266).  To affiliate with someone is to associate one's self with another due to a common interest.  I believe that affiliation isn't only created for professional gain and support but is also an ingrained instinct that is established within us from an early age.  In their writing, Crisp and Turner cite research presented by Larson, Csikszentmihalyi and Grief  in 1982 which stated that 'it was found that adolescents spent about 75 per cent of their waking time with other people. Such sociability appears to yield benefits' (Crisp & Turner 2007).  As children we are constantly with others from an early age, mainly due to the fact that we are dependant, from their we start to affiliate with others similar to ourselves throughout education before then moving into adulthood and affiliating with others.

In my current professional practice I am affiliated with others that working within my department and then my school as a whole, but I do find that I support my expertise through the use of other individuals who I have previously been affiliated with, such as individuals that I trained with.  I often will bring these individuals into school to speak to my students, in a way providing a guarantee to my students of what I have said to them in relation to my professional training or my knowledge of the industry.

Having just writing the last two sentences I have just started to question my understanding of affiliation, once you have become affiliated with something or someone can you then become unaffiliated? I have suggested that these professionals are people that I once was affiliated with, but does affiliation die or get removed? If so, by what?

Looking at affiliation has allowed me to create challenges to me viewpoints, something that until this point I have been less comfortable with doing.  In life it is important to be able to look for another point of view, especially in relation to the concept of cooperation, as it is important to be able to make balanced and secure judgments on occurrences and situations that are presented.

Social Constructionism:

Like some of the other students on the BAPP course, this is the concept that I have found the hardest to establish a concrete understanding of.  In essence I understand that it is a concept of creating meanings for the justifying their social interactions.  In my professional practice I engage with multiple people, both staff and students, and through my experiences I have found that I have established, constructed and justified these interactions and therefore been presented with a meaning for them.

In my opinion, all interactions within the workplace commonly hold more relevance than that of a social interaction as they are always prompted by the working environment which is pushing for a result from the interaction and therefore it is easier to establish understanding from them.  It could be argued however that affiliations that are constructed in the workplace are not solely there for work related interactions and support which then opens up a whole new argument counteracting my previous statement.

Social constructionism is a concept that I need to expand my understanding of and in my opinion is an area that I will be able to gain a greater understanding of now that I am aware of it alongside carrying out my professional practice.

Connectivism:

Connectivism is something that has been thrust into light in the recent years to acknolodege the change in the wy we learn, change caused by social environment.  In essence, connectivism is a learning theory, focusing on the social and cultural context of the information which is being taught and being learned by the individuals.  It focusing on learning being a cycle of practice and reflection on the practice rather than to be taught directly in the more 'traditional' way.  I have witnessed teaching change from being teachers reciting the method, the process and the answer to students doing.  In my current teaching position, independent learning is something that we are encouraged to include into our lessons, letting students do, learn and teach, with minimal teacher input.  Cited in Siemens, Driscoll relates to this idea by acknowledging that 'learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences' (Driscoll in Siemens, 2004), and thus the learners are creating their knowledge themselves and it is not being embedded in them by their classroom teacher.

I am a strong believer in the fact that it is our experiences that we grow from and we are constantly learning and developing everything in our lives on a daily basis as we inevitably strive for perfection.  Acknowledging the change in a approach and the change in the social context of learning is something that I feel is very important not only for those who teach to undertake but for everybody to reflect upon in their lives.  As I stated, I am a strong believer in the power of experiences and undertaking the reflection upon these concepts is beginning to make me justify and analyse my development and my professional practice.  

Communities of Practice:

Lave and Wegner define a community of practice as 'a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice' (Lave & Wegner, 1991).  After reading the section of communities of practice within Reader 3 I have come to form the opinion that this concept places ideologies from the other concepts and puts them together to form a way of learning, doing and developing.  One of the main key functions for a community of practice is the fact that it needs to be community orientated, cooperation must be present amongst the community members with each taking on their opportunity and responsibility to develop the community.  The process encourages the social interactions amongst it's community, finding meaning within these interactions and developing from these.  The fact that these communities of practice are present in professional and social 'situations' makes links with the changes of learning that is expressed through the idea of connectivism.  

By all means I may be misunderstood or wrong, it may be that as communities of practice was the last concept that was presented to me, but what I have come to realise in my mind and the opinion that I have formed of the communities of practice theory is that it is a group of people that are confident in their social context, willing to put in an equal amount of work and are within the blurred boundary between professional and social, but above all, working within a network which they feel supported and confident within to enable them to develop.  

To Conclude:

On looking back at my work it would be easy for me to suggest that the concept that I have found myself drawn to the most is the cooperation theory, and in some aspects that is correct, but from what my mind is now telling me, I believe that I could assosiate with all of these concepts within the ideas of development and networking.  Networking is something that until recently meant to me attending occasions that I didn't necessarily want to be at to talk to people that I didn't necessarily want to speak to, but now I have realised that a network is far more than this.  Within the influx of Web 2.0 and social media, networking has spread into all fields across social, professional and cultural.  Networking is as much there for support as it is for opportunity.  The different concepts above hold a huge amount of relevance in relation to the opportunity of development but I have decided that in my opinion, the best for of support network is one which you have to give into as much as you take out and therefore confirming my trust in cooperation theory, or is that social constructionism, or affiliation or it could even be the formation of a community of practice.  

You decide.

Task 3c - My 5 Most Important Sources of Information

As well as acknowledging the five sources of information that I consider to be the most important to  me, I have decided to rank these top five to see what is my most important source of information and therefore will be presenting this blog as if it was the countdown of the chart on Top of the Pops.  So here we go!

In at 5 we have - Colleagues

In my current professional practice, my colleagues act as a kind of support network for me.  Not only do they support me whilst I am working through informing me of various techniques and teaching practices but also through informing me of developments within the professional and also information on potential job opportunities along with other outside information.  The reason I believe colleagues to be one of the top five most important sources of information is because on a whole they are individuals that commonly do a similar job to me and therefore they are also professionals in my field.  In any profession, I believe that it is very important for colleagues to work as a team and therefore help each other.  The most common way this help is delivered is by the answering of questions and the delivery of information that may be useful.

At 4 it's - Traditional Media (Newspapers/Magazines)

Newspapers and Magazines, that I have labeled 'Traditional Media', are still a great source of relevant information in my day-to-day undertaking of my professional practice.  One of the main ways in which I use magazines is mainly for looking for job opportunities and also researching the opportunities that are out there to continue my professional development, like classes and seminars for professionals.  Magazines also play a large part in the gathering of information by the delivery of popular culture.  This may seem like something that is not important in the professional industry but it is most definitely important within the arts industry.  The reason for this is because the arts industry is largely based in the world of popular culture and therefore it is important to have a knowledge of the developments within the popular culture world.

A tie at number 2 between - Mobile Phones and The Internet
Much like Melanie Brown I am quite ashamed to say that I do rely on my mobile phone and the internet to gather a great deal of information and I agree with her when saying - how bad is that!  It is crazy to think about how much we all rely on modern technologies when things like these have only been accessible by all in the last few years.  It really raises the question of how people survived, developed and progressed in the past.  My mobile phone is connected to the internet and the two work in unison to make sure that I am continuously updated with the information that I want to receive, so much so that I can wake up to job adverts and go to bed watching the latest choreography of my friends and professional colleagues.  Though said in jest previously, I do feel it is important that we all remember that people were able to develop, progress and ultimately survive without these technologies before the last 15 years and therefore we should not base our existence on them either.  The influx in the reliance on modern technologies is slowly breaking down the use of older sources of gathering information but in a fast moving world it is most important to stay up to date with the progression than work against it.

At number 1 - Friends
The source of information that I consider to be the most important is my friends.  As I said in my previous post, my friends are a huge part of my networks and play a great role in my professional practice and further development.  Through my networking of friends it has been common that if I have a problem or puzzle that I need to solve I will usually have a friend that knows the answer, either due to  having gone through a similar puzzle previously or knowing someone else that knows the answer.  Ultimately, friends are a working network that is constantly being developed, but to be able to rely on this network and this source of information, it is important to help the network out in the same ways that they help you out.  If one was to become a non-active member of a network, and by that I mean not contributing information to the problems, questions and puzzles of others, it is possible that one could become ostracised from the network and therefore loose that which is, in my opinion, the best source of information.

Task 3a - Current Networks

When thinking about how to approach this task I thought that I would take each of the questions and try to answer them individually to make sure that I cover all of the topics to an extent that I can easily check up on and also speak on specific elements in relation to a specific focus and therefore will be listing and answering the questions in this post.

Before answering the questions I decided to have a look at my current networks.  I made a list of everything in my current professional practice that I consider to be a network and then analysed the ways in which I was connect to these.  The list that I created is as follows:

·      Teacher

·      Class

·      Performers

·      Choreographers

·      Musical Theatre/Commercial Dancers

·      BAPP

·      Agent

·      Stage School

·      Clients

·      Friends

·      Family

·      Colleagues

·      Employers

·      BBC/Nickelodeon/Lime Pictures

·      TV & Film Directors

·      Mainstream Education

·      Head Teacher – Mainstream Education

·      Head of Department – Mainstream Education

·      Middle Leaders – Mainstream Education

·      Senior Leadership Team – Mainstream Education

When looking at the above list and beginning to analyse the information which it holds I started to see that many of these link together and that a trace line can be mind to find the origin of my whole network.  On reflection following the analysis I have realised how important networking is, even if I previously haven’t realised that I was in fact ‘Networking’.

What are the current and different ways (tools) that you have, or do, engage your professional network?
And
Are there methods, approaches and technologies that you use socially that might apply and help you develop your professional networking?

There is a great saying; ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

I think that in the performing industry there is nothing more true than this statement.  After looking at the different tools of networking that I currently use, or have previously used;

·      Facebook

·      Twitter

·      Blogging

·      Personal Contact Details – Phone Numbers/E-mail Addresses

·      Agent

·      Word of Mouth

I have come to believe that one of my strongest and most successful methods of networking for me has been my network of friends and previous colleagues.  Though the method of word of mouth through my group of friends is the most successful method of networking, in my opinion, due to the influx of social media in the industry, this method would not be as strong without the inclusion of things like Facebook, Twitter and Blogging sites.  It is through these sites that my network of friends is able to strive and work to it’s strongest as I am constantly connected to my friends.  Social media has had a fantastic impact on the way in which professionals within the arts network.  I have found that whilst my Facebook is mainly filled with my friends, I also tend to link up with other professionals that I have come into contact with through my Facebook account.  This enables me to stay in the minds of the professionals that I have worked with and also give them the opportunity to contact me at the click of a button.  This does however throw up some problems with reference to the combining of my private and professional life, similar issue to those that I presented in a previous task.  

Due to the fact that I consider friends and word of mouth to be the strongest and most natural way to network, it is the way that I choose to network the most.  I consider this to be one of the best ways to network due to the fact that a positive relationship can then be included into the working environment, one can have an understanding of how the other likes to work and this can then make the job more enjoyable.  As previously stated there are some problems that can present themselves through working and networking through friends and the establishment of friendships.  One of the most prominent possible problems that could be presented through this kind of work is the blurring of the fine line that stands between professional and personal.  When working with friends I am always careful that the barrier between my professional and personal world isn’t crossed.  The way that I am able to ensure this is mainly due to my change in attitude as soon as the professional scenario has been entered.  With this being said, it is always important to remember that having a positive, friendly relationship with the people I work with will usually enhance my work and the working environment.  

What are the established (and different) ways that others use their networks, especially if they are more established or experienced practitioners that you admire?

When working with more established or experienced practitioners, at first I was quite ‘star struck’ due to the fact that I often admired their works or have an understanding of their works and the success that they held through these. 

Lots of established choreographers have Facebook, Twitter, a blog or their own website which they can be contacted directly through.  They, commonly, will use these aspects of social media to advertise job opportunities, castings that they are holding, perspective projects that they are considering or shows that they are currently working on.  The use of social media in these ways is allowing them to build upon and thus develop their industry network. 

When training I have lots of contact with industry professionals who were brought in to the stage school to either teach classes or deliver lectures.  I found that not only was this a great way for me, as a student, to build my network, this was also consider a great way for the professional to build their network.  Occasional, professional choreographers would hold impromptu auditions for up coming work within the classes that they were teaching.  This meant that they were able to build their network in three different ways at once; they were teaching for a stage school and therefore building up contacts with the owner and other teachers, they were auditioning dancers to build their network of potential cast members and also they were meeting students who admired their work and therefore promoting their profile amongst the next generation of dancers. 

Having professional choreographers come in to the stage school and audition me from an early age was something that I found very useful to start building up my professional network.  I found this particularly useful when graduating as not only did I have a network of professional choreographers, I was also in the network of those their I have auditioned and performed along side. 

After speaking to one of my friends that works professionally within the arts I heard of the how she is relentless in the building of her professional network.  She told me about how she auditions every year as a stage dancer for shows like The X-factor just to be able to meet and speak to the choreographers that work on the show.  She said that even though the show holds auditions yearly, they always seem to have the same cast of dancers, with possibly a few exceptions, due to the choreographer knowing how those dancers work.  This method of networking has recently paid off as she has managed to gain a part of a different ITV show working with some of the same choreographers.

When you reflect upon current networks, can you think about the motives of others to be in the network and what values and purpose they have in mind?

Due to the impact of Web 2.0 on networking, networks and never solely used by the person who has originally built up the network.  The individuals network can be accessed and used by a third party to their advantage and therefore it is common that others will try to build themselves into strong networks and use them to their advantage as they have not had to put in the work that is needed to build up a strong for themselves.  Therefore the superior motive of a third party to join a successful network would be to reap the rewards of being a part of such a network with minimal work output on their part. 

What would your ideal network look like and why?
And
What realistic things could you do to work towards developing your ideal network?

As I have previously stated, my favorite method of networking, and therefore the basis for my ideal network, is the use of my network of friends and the use of word of word of mouth.  The main reason that this is my ideal method of networking is due to the fact that whilst I can come across as a very confident person, my confidence really does show when I am working with people that I have already built a positive relationship with. 

To develop into my ideal network I would have to be for proactive in ‘putting myself out there’ to a greater extent.  The first way that I would do this would be to create professional social media accounts which I could link up with only the people that I would like in my professional circles on.  I could also widen my knowledge of established practitioners and different types of practitioners that are not within my precise areas of expertise.  I am happy with the quality of my networks as they stand but do understand that I commonly achieve in the area that I feel safe and to be able to get out of my safety zone I need to expand my networks to my students and their parents through the use of word of mouth, thus continuing my network cycle and building upon itself. 

What tools and methods do you need to use? What do you know about your current, and intended networks, and importantly, what do you not know?

In today’s 21^st industry, Web 2.0 is a very important tool within networking.  It gives people the ability to be connected within their networks at all times and allows individuals to build on their networks through their contacts.  With this being a very important tool I do also believe that another very important tool is word of mouth and the ability to speak to people in a positive way and a way that is going to make you stay prominent in that persons mind.  With regards to the different things that I do not yet know, I think that there will be many things that fit this category, and not just for me but for everyone.  With the continuous development in social interaction, there are constantly things that not everyone will understand, but I think that one of the most important things that I have learnt about the successful building of networks is to not solely rely on the use of Web 2.0 and meeting and speaking to individuals face-to-face is still something that will make a more memorable impact.  

Task 2d - The Inquiry Task

What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

I have a passion for the teaching of dance and in a whole it is something that I am very enthusiastic about.  I think the main thing that makes me so enthusiastic is seeing students that do not have any dance tuition in any aspect of their life have the chance to learn, choreograph and develop a ‘professional’ routine, similar to those that they see in music videos on the television.  This is similar to my overall drive for working at the school that I currently do (click here for school website).  The school that I work in at the moment has students with very varied backgrounds, a great deal of which do have deprived home lives.  Giving these students a service, within their education, that they would usually have to pay for and seeing how grateful and happy they are to be given the opportunity constantly enthuses me to continue to do what I do.  The second thing that makes me enthusiastic in my current daily practice is seeing the progress that is made by students within my lesson.  The levels of progress made by the most able students really do enthuse me in a certain way, but in my opinion the most enthusing progress that can be made is by the students that do not think they have any dance ability and working with them until they feel like they have achieved and progressed. 

A person that I admire is the subject leader for PE, Laura Cade.  Laura entered teaching in a similar way to me.  Her passions for the job also match mine in most ways.  Laura has strived to build a department which is fully inclusive of all students and one which supports all, taking both the most and least able into account.  Laura is a very support subject leader from the point of view from her staff.  One of her most important aspects is to enthuse her staff on a daily basis, especially if there are circumstances that could bring down the moral among the department.  The reason she sees it as her job to enthuse the staff is because of the students.  Laura wants her staff to all be inspiration to all students and to do this we all need to be in lifted spirits.

What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

The thing that makes me angry when I am working in my current professional practice is mainly the staff.  I very rarely get angry or upset by things that the students do due to the fact that there are policies and procedures to be followed in response to these actions rather than have my anger or upset as the response.  One of the main things that makes me angry is when staff do not follow the policies and procedures that are in place to respond to the poor or positive behavior, attitude or work level displayed and presented by the students.  With one case in particular, there was a student that had been misbehaving all day and by the time she got to me should have had incident reports and follow up meetings happen numerous times for her behavior throughout the day.  When the student displayed poor behavior during my lesson, I followed through with all the correct procedures to which the students’ behavior escalated due to the fact that she had been behaving in this way all day and this hadn’t happened.  I think this particular student’s situation could have been dealt with in a far more professional way if the staff body had of all followed the school’s procedures and policies in the correct way.  Somebody that I admire who shares my annoyance with respect to these occurrences is the person who is second in charge of PE called John Bose.  John has taught me that even though it is frustrating, it is better to be the member of staff that is following the protocol than the one who isn’t and to lead by example.

From my experience of working in the industry, the thing that makes me upset and angry about the working conditions is the fact that getting a job is never solely based on the person’s ability.  The majority of jobs that come up also focus on the individual’s look and appearance.  I believe that if an individual is capable of doing a job they should be considered for it, rather than having to look the part before the ability is judged.

What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

There are two things that I really do love in my professional practice, the first of which being the feeling that I get when I take a bow at the end of a performance and the second the feeling that I get at the end of a class.  In both occasions the feeling that I get at the end can be both positive and negative and also can be felt with enthusiasm or felt with gratitude for the end.  In all of these different occurrences it is always a feeling that I love due to the fact that it is always a sense of achievement.  A person I trained along side, but who is also one of my best friends, also shares this feeling of achievement on seeing the close of a class, a show or of any event that she has been a part of.  Amiee Singer is someone that has been able to build a career in the arts.  One of the main things that she has learnt is that she has had to take on jobs that she hasn’t necessarily wanted to do to get to where she is.  She taught me that the best thing about doing a job that you do not necessarily want to do is the sense of pride and achievement at the end of it.  I think I have been able to take on this sense of achievement into any negative experiences in my professional practice and I think this is why I always love the feeling of getting to the end, whether is has been a positive or negative experience.

What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I think in my current professional practice you are never able to get to the stage where you feel completely as if you understand everything.  I am constantly learning and developing my role.  From carrying out my degree I have begun to reflect even further into my ability and have found that not only are there more areas that I can pick faults in within my practice, I am also able to find ways of finding out the information that is needed to fill these faults.  Somebody at school that I admire for his abilty within the teaching industry is Paul Kean.  He is currently in his Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) year, yet his ability in teaching, his knowledge of education and also his role within the school supperseeds his experience.  He is currently a middle leader and is very determined to reach leadership.  I admire the fact that he puts in 100% effort and always tries to give his best.  He has taught me to never settle for being ‘good enough’ or ‘second best’, he always pushes me to reach my full potential.  Another person that I have found myself looking up to on this degree is Iona Holland.  She clearly has great determination to succeed in this qualification and also has learnt to use and maintain a blog account much faster than me.  She I someone that pushes me to work to my best and her work also inspires me to complete my work to my best ability and to make my page look its best.  Please take a look at her blog by clicking here.

Task 2c - Critical Reflection on Reader 2

Critical Reflection on Reader 2

Reflection is something that I use all the time in my profession, not only reflecting daily but also by the hour/minute.  Teaching is a profession that requires one to constantly review and adapt the chose approach.  As mentioned in Reader 2, ‘reflection is used in and by a number of professionals, particularly those professionals whose job it is to be in the process of change’ (Middlesex University, 2012: 4), and as a teacher the change that I am a part of the process of is the change in the minds of my students, enabling them to learn and develop.  The only time that I have considered myself to have learnt from experience is when I have failed at something, commonly when I do something right I do not consider my actions to have taught me anything.  Obviously, when undertaking an action, be that correctly or incorrectly, you are always going to learn from what you have done but I only seem to think I have learnt from experiences that I have had that have gone wrong or badly.

The first part of Reader 2 that really made me consider and reflect on my profession was the exploration of Kolb’s learning cycle.  I have always considered the process of learning as an on-going cycle as I think that even when at the top of your game you are continuously striving to improve further, with the improvements coming from the review of previous actions.  When first considering where I entered Kolb’s cycle I thought that I would enter the cycle at the concrete experience stage.  The reasoning behind this was based upon the idea that as a former dancer, and now teacher of dance, I learn through doing.  Something that concreted this idea was the fact that I have never liked to sit down and write a plan for what I was going to do, due to the fact that I have never been one to sit and write anything, even when I was at school.  This initial thought process linked to the allocation of my place in Kolb’s learning cycle could be linked to Carl Jung's idea ‘that learning styles result from people's preferred ways of adapting in the world’ (Online: [2]).  On further reflection I think that I had let the knowledge of my past, from being at school, heavily influence this decision without fully considering the other options as when I fully considered all areas of the cycle I realised that the place at which I most commonly enter it was not concrete experience and rather abstract conceptualisation.  Though when actively learning something I do tend to get up and do it this always comes with some planning, though not the planning that I first thought of which I removed from possibility due to the written element.  I realised that I always think something through in head before attempting it.  The fact that I made this initial mistake does not surprise me as I also consider myself as somebody who Donald Schon would say undertakes reflection-in-action rather than reflection-on-action.

Donald Schon has made me realise that timing of reflection plays a key part in the reflection that takes place and as I have previously said, I will commonly not only reflect daily but also hourly or even by the minute.  If Donald Schon’s idea holds truth that the different amounts of time between action and reflection should throw up differences in the outcome of my reflection.  The fact that I consider myself to be someone who is able to and feels more comfortable to undertake reflection-in-action is something that does surprise me after reading Robert Kottcamp’s opinion that reflection-in-action ‘is more difficult to achieve’ (Kottcamp, R. B. 1990).  I think the main reason that I find this more time allotted way of reflection easier is due to my previous professional experiences working as a performer.  When working as a performing it is imperative that one is always considered to be working at the highest ability and therefore the process of reflection-in-action is necessary as, as said by Donald Schon it is ‘the more powerful for improvement of practice’ (Kottcamp, R. B. 1990) due to the fact that is the performer their self realises that they are not working to the best of their ability they can make instantaneous improvements, thus fixing the flaws in the practice.  Kottcamp has taken the idea originally presented by Schon and altered to allocation of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action to ‘on-line’ and ‘off-line’ respectively, emphasising the change in time and type of reflection between the two.

Undertaking this module has required me to keep a journal for the first time in my life.  In his chapter titled Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice in Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education David Boud states there are many different purposes for writing a journal including;

‘to capture an experience, record an event, explore our feelings, or make sense of what we know. We may want to narrate something of importance so that others can see what we saw in it. Sometimes we write primarily for ourselves, sometimes for others. Journal writing is as varied as those who engage in it.’ (Boud, in Middlesex University, 2012: 14)

My journal was for a purpose that didn’t necessarily fit one of these purposes suggested by Boud as though I was keeping the journal for myself I was also keeping the journal to experience keeping a journal, so primarily for the experience of journal writing and having a physical representation of my active reflection.  Boud goes on to describe the practise of reflection as the ‘taking [of] the unprocessed, raw material of experience and engaging with it as a way to make sense of what has occurred’ (Boud, in Middlesex University, 2012: 15), this however if something that I personally do not agree with.  As I have previously mention, I consider my personal approach of reflection to fit with Schon’s model of reflection-in-action, or as Kottcamp has named it, ‘on-line’, and therefore when I come to writing my journal the experiences that I am engaging with are not unprocessed or raw.  To an extent I would argue that as soon as one has undertaken an experience the reflection process, whether consciously or subconsciously, starts immediately.  As I have touched on previously, I consider myself to only consciously reflect on situations that have gone wrong, yet, I still believe that I am reflecting on my practices that do go correctly as I will always endeavor to follow the same or a similar method in future, thus some form of reflection must have taken place.  This type of reflection is referred to as Reflection in Anticipation of Events.

After starting this module, journal writing is now something that I am no longer new to and no longer daunted by the thought of as I have come to realize it is just an extension of what I do every day, either when I think back over all the things that have went well whilst having a nice relaxing bath or thinking about all the things that went wrong whilst pouring myself a glass of wine.  The main thing that daunted me when I first realized I would have to write a journal was the word write.  Writing is something that I have always been put off by as I feel that it stunts my creative ability, though through the keeping of a journal and also through the trial of different journal writing styles this is something that no longer is a barrier as I now see it as an extension of my own reflection process which I undertake actively on a daily and hourly basis.

Bibliography

Kottcamp, R. B. (1990) means for facilitating reflection. Education & Urban Society, 22, 182-203.

Middlesex University (2012) Reader 2: The Reflective Practitioner.

Online Resources

[1] http://www2.unca.edu/et/br022102.html

[2] http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm