Initial thoughts on Reflective Practises Reader

Today I started working on some choreography for the upcoming show I am involved in. I managed to get quite a bit done once I got into it and am feeling much better for having done so.

I then began to take a look at the Reflective Practises Reader which I am finding very interesting.  I decided when it came to putting my Blog together I definitely entered Kolb’s ‘learning cycle’ at Reflective Observation. I wanted to see what other people had done first before I started my own, it enabled me to see visually what I liked and what wasn’t for me and set me off in the right direction whilst getting my thought process and ideas started.

I understand that not everyone would want to start off this way. I know for sure that my husband would join Kolb’s cycle at Active Experimentation. He always goes in to thinks head first and would work it out as he went along through trial and error. If it ended up unsuitable or not how he wanted he would scrap it all and start again!

I fully agree with Howard Gardners idea of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983), that people are intelligent in different ways.  Just because you may not be particularly academic or score highly on IQ tests does not mean that you are not an intelligent person.  People show different strengths in different areas, some people are naturally gifted in the arts whilst others will be able to solve intricate mathematical problems.

Wikipedia defines Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Visual learners as the following:

Auditory learning is a learning style in which a person learns through listening. They may struggle to understand a chapter they've read, but then experience a full understanding as they listen to the class lecture. Auditory learners may have a knack for ascertaining the true meaning of someone's words by listening to audible signals like changes in tone. When memorizing a phone number, an auditory learner will say it out loud and then remember how it sounded to recall it.

Kinaesthetic learning is a learning style in which learning takes by the student actually carrying out a physical activity, rather than listening to a lecture or merely watching a demonstration. It is also referred to as tactile learning. People with a kinaesthetic learning style are also commonly known as do-ers.

Visual learning is a teaching and learning style in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and techniques

I realised that today whilst I was choreographing I was using all three of these learning tools, and was in my own Cycle.

Auditory

Listening to the music tracks I have been given - different styles/ tempos/counts.

Visual

Writing down steps, patterns and picturing what I want happening in each routine.  Personally I need to write these things down so I can read back over them and reflect on my thoughts and feelings

Kinaesthetic

Physically trying out the moves, in ‘doing’ I can figure out what feels right and what works and what doesn’t. If I am not happy I will go back to listen to the music again to form some new ideas and so the process continues until I have a finished routine!