Sunday 23 April 2017

Husserl

It is thought that ‘natural knowledge begins with experience and remains in experience’ (Husserl, 1931).

The phenomenology of Husserl has really made me realise that this ideology is most suited to my research plan. Mostly because it reflects my research project and my learners that will be interviewed, after all, I will be interviewing those learners of varying experiences, all of whom will carry a different insight and thought. Husserl believes that we ‘behold the living experiences of others through the perception of their bodily behaviour.’ After observing the learners across my different classes, I have hand picked a small selection of individuals that are at different points in their career; those approaching A Level, those approaching University and an adult learner, all offering a different perspective to the research. 

My research will adopt a non - positivist approach, echoed via the thoughts of Husserl as this enables me to get to grips with the experience of my learners, learning from and through them. It will be interesting to hear a range of responses that may possibly link to ideas and suggestions that I hadn't thought about. I also wonder whether this research project will enable my learners to take their summative feedback (from exams and competitions) a little more seriously as a mark of progression and to use this feedback to improve and progress.

Ethics is an area that I had to understand in further detail, I have handed out forms for my principal and parents to sign to consent to their children being part of this project. I have to take into consideration presenting my learners as subjects in order to protect their identity, and I have also read the Data Protection Act (1998) to make sure I understand how long it is appropriate to store details for. There is definitely more to be considered and learnt about ethics in qualitative research...the reading continues.


Data Protection Act, 1998. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents


Husserl, E, 1931. Husserl Ideas. Oxford: Routledge.
 

Saturday 15 April 2017

Literature Review and Key Texts

Across this weekend my literature review is mostly falling into place (I think) after receiving some feedback. I have identified four key texts that help support my research project in terms of whether dancers benefit fundamentally in regards to their progress and career when participating in examinations and competitions. Three of which key texts will be discussed in this blog...

Kleiman (2007) discusses how creativity and assessment are not mutually exclusive terms and therefore when assessing creativity, the assessment process must be fair, valid and reliable and also experienced and perceived to be so. When training for exams (as the place where I teach have just started to do this), I believe it would be fairly reliable to say that via the board, all examiners are highly regarded and well trained. Learners will be assessed fairly according to the guidelines of the syllabus and the marking criteria. Learners receive their grades, certificates and feedback that is individually tailored to that individual learner. As much as this process seems fairly straightforward and a 'no brainer' in terms of 'this would definitely suit my learners' unfortunately there is lack of interest in exams. These learners are competitive dancers and have been educated in a school that learn choreography at speed for up and coming competitions. They win a a lot or get placed a lot. They are successful across various competitions and therefore individual talent is recognised through a different route - one that brings medals and that feeling of 'success' bringing out the competitive edge in these learners. They are used to working for that short term goal and are successful in this approach. 

Kolb's learning cycle (1974) learning involves four stages; concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. As learners recognise they are good at something it instills that self belief, the self actualisation that enables them to confirm they are good at something. As much as this may very well be true, can we bank on the opinion of an adjudicator on that particular day to confirm that this is fact? With so much more to take into consideration such as; the other competitors on the day, level of talent and ability, the amount of people who have entered the competition and of course the adjudicators personal choice. Therefore does winning and getting placed necessarily stand for anything? Or is it more beneficial to a dancers career to have those qualifications that essentially 'prove' something has been worked for and achieved?

Examinations require a lot more study, a longer time to improve and progress and therefore this requires more from the human character; determination, motivation, hard work, repetition, motivation, rehearsal etc etc etc....it's more of a long term goal and process. As thought by Dewey (1916) education is dominated by specific goals encouraging a static educational process that creates a separation between the activity, the student and the goal itself, where education should be a continuous process as opposed to goal-directed activity. Therefore, this contradicts that period of exam study and perhaps short term goals are better for the individual learner? Perhaps short term success is something that increases self esteem and progress and therefore continually encourages the learner to keep going developing motivation?