Help...confused about word count again!!!

Hi Guys

Wondered if anyone could help!?

I am wondering about the word count on the assignment which says not to exceed 3000 words but in the programme hand book it says we are "expected to keep within +/- 500 words of the specific word count".

I know i asked the same question last term, and was told it was fine to go over which i did but because this term it says do not exceed 3000 words i am unsure if we are aloud to go over!?!

Any help please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance and i hope everyone is getting on ok with it all.

Review of Interviews as a research tool

Interviewer:

I chose to interview an experienced dance practitioner to gather information, opinions and personal experiences about differentiation.

It turned out to be a long process in setting up and organising a suitable time and date as with a busy work and family life her circumstance kept changing. This meant that the interview did not happen when first agreed but only took place a couple of weeks later. This was not too much of a problem at this stage but when it come to my actual research it will be important for me to get interview dates and times secured in advance as I will be working to a limited time scale, and moving things around could have a knock on effect on other research.

We met on neutral ground at a coffee shop. Although there were others around it was mid-week and so fairly quiet so we were able to find a quiet corner to conduct the interview. I used a semi structured approach which worked well as I was able to ask questions but it allowed the interviewee a lot of freedom when answering and I could follow anything interesting that came out of their answers which often overlapped into some of my prewritten questions anyway.

The interview was very relaxed and had a conversational feel despite there being some structure to it. On this occasion I didn’t not have a Dictaphone and so relied on hand written notes which although were useful I would have been able to recall much more detail had it been recorded. I will defiantly do this on any future occasions.

Interviewee:

I also volunteered myself to a fellow BAPP student to be an interviewed by them over the phone. I thought it would be interesting to see how it felt being interviewee as opposed to interviewer and whether it would bring me any further insight into the process.

Overall the style of the interview was fine, I felt happy to answer questions and I wanted to be as truthful as possible as I empathised with her cause.

Questions were in a good order, some of my answers overlapped (which may or may not have been intended when structuring the questionnaire), but it gave me chance to reaffirm any points I wanted to.

There were a couple of questions that needed further explanation, as I was unclear how to answer them and felt I needed more clarification before giving a response, but she was happy to do this and explain in more detail. This made me realise how important it is to word questions appropriately, and also to make sure they will have the same meaning for each person taking part so you can compare results accurately.

One thing that struck me which at first I thought could have been due to the fact it was conducted over the phone but now I think it could also be a factor in face to face interviews, was that sometimes i felt a little on the spot, and a little under pressure to give an answer. I am not sure whether some answers were just the first thing that came into my head, and if I had had more time to think over the questions perhaps I could of provided a more informed answer, more beneficial to the research. I came to the conclusion that had I had a copy of the questions in advance I would have had time to think about my answers and possibly give a better, more detailed and structured response.

Review of my observations

I observed a group that I have been co leading a dance project on for the last seven weeks and so am familiar with the group as a whole. I watched behaviour throughout the lesson, looking out for highs and lows within the learning.

It began with an informal talk about what the project was about and what they had learnt so far, certain louder members of the group were happy to talk and make comments but not everyone appeared comfortable with having to voice their opinions and knowledge.

When it came to movement tasks, some of the members who had been quieter in the initial discussion really stood out in picking up the steps quickly and precisely. Participants were put on the spot and asked to add in one movement each to the sequence, some had an abundance of ideas and had to be restricted to one movement where as others found it difficult to think on the spot to come up with anything.

As I was involved in the teaching of the class as well as observing I found it hard to take in and make note of all the things I was observing. There can often be a lot going on and as a teacher my attention was needed to help members of the group or answer questions and so sometimes my train of thought about an observation was lost.

I feel I would need much clearer criteria when it comes to observing and teaching, keeping observations more structured and perhaps limit them to record only one thing at a time.

Having read Joanna’s review on her pilot observation I discovered she used the Ofsted observation grid to record information. The grid is too complex and not in line with some of the criteria I will be observing but struck me as a good tool for recording information if I was to construct my own simpler version.

I think observation is a great way of getting first hand data in your specific line of inquiry but I am aware that different observers may draw different conclusions from watching the same thing. I hope to overcome this by continually monitoring the same group over a period of time in order to gain a full understanding of their behaviour and to collect a large about of observation data giving me as much evidence as possible to draw my conclusions from.

I decided to also observe a dance class that I was part taking in as a learner this time and not the teacher. The class was very fast paced, some participants already new the routine and so it was re taught to others quickly by the teacher demonstrating large sections and the rest of us copying and picking it up as we went along.

Although competent in dance, there were times where I had feelings of inadequacy as I was not up to speed with some of the others. Despite this being due to the fact they all had prior learning on the dance I could not help compare myself.

On reflection of the session I feel that much of the focus of a dance class was put on the finished dance product, and that the learning process of arriving there was somewhat overlooked, not making it a particularly enjoyable learning experience.

I found this class easier to observe as although I was taking part I didn’t hold the same responsibility as I did when I was teaching. I did not make notes during the class and so had to be quick to write everything down as soon as it was over in order to retain as much information as I could. 

On reflection of my observation I feel being a participant of the class led me to be biased towards my own feelings, emotions and what was happening to me rather than taking an overview of all participants within the class.

Literature Review

Differentiation, the new monster in education: Colin Everest, The Guardian, Tuesday 18 February 2003. 

Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/feb/18/furthereducation.uk4

This Article is taken from the Guardian newspaper; it talks about the concept of differentiation within a class room. Although it is talking about an academic setting rather than a dance class it struck me as an interesting article as the author writes in such an angry tone, which was apparent straight away just from simply reading the title.

Having read the article it became clear that he is not so much angry at the idea of differentiation and actually understands the importance of using a “...range of approaches and all available resources”, but his anger comes from the hype and pressure put on teachers to adopt such ‘buzzwords’ within their practice. As a teacher himself he argues that a lot of these “obvious” ideas about people having different strengths and learning in different ways are already incorporated into how he teaches so why the need for them to be labelled and built up as the craze everyone must follow.

The feeling I get from the article is that the writer dislikes being told how to do his job by education managers, that they are perhaps creating such fuss and hype around ‘new’ teaching strategies for the sake of it and to keep their bosses happy. Rather than acknowledging good practice among teachers, they are being made to feel inadequate. 

In relation to my inquiry the article does show that perhaps some teachers would prefer to be left to their own methods and teaching styles. In my opinion I think all teachers should be open to new ideas and influences that could help improve their practice. This is not to say that they were doing a bad job before but I believe there is always room for improvement and new ideas can be incorporated into your established methods to refresh your teaching.

I see that constantly trying to off load new strategies on teachers would get tiresome, and without and praise for the work you do I can sympathise as to why the author would be feeling so frustrated with the so called “experts” higher up.

Dance teaching methods and curriculum design: Gayle Kassing, Danielle Mary Jay, 2003. Page 27: "Applying Multiple Intelligences to Dance Instruction"

Available at:  
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bTm-W4oX0HgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%E2%80%A2%09Dance+teaching+methods+and+curriculum+design&source=bl&ots=PEUrRdV26A&sig=bfNmU4qiL5AC7pt1oegblq6ztvE&hl=en&ei=IA2nTejYIMaAhQeeqOHMCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book provides information on teaching methods for dance and relates educational theories to dance. The section that caught my attention was about how to apply multiple intelligences to dance instruction. 

As I am looking into differentiation with in a dance class I have already studied Gardners theory of multiple intelligences. In dance I think most people would decide that learning kinaesthetically is the obvious intelligence. However, although movement of the body is a large part of the dance process I agree with the authors when they say that many other intelligences are used in dance also, “…spatial, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.” Being aware of the various intelligences should help us recognise how best to deliver certain aspects of a dance class to suit the learners needs. Visual, watching and feeling tasks can all be utilised to enhance participants learning and dance development which are factors that I want to look at throughout my inquiry.

With regards to using other intelligence such as logical-mathematical I disagree with the authors when they say this only comes into use to …”support dance when it is translated choreographically, vocally or into written form.”  I would argue that you use mathematical skills as you are dancing as well; counting the beat, use of patterns and symmetry. Erik Stern and Karl Schaffer are the creators of ‘Math Dance’, and have taken this idea further by using dance and movement to teach maths.

I agree that dance education should aim“…to develop the person spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually”. This links in to the theory that a body centred approach to dance teaching will enable the individual to “flourish as a person as well as a dancer” (Botham, 2000). This is important to remember as a dance teacher, that it is not just about the outcome and final result but the importance of the process and learning undertaken to get there.

References

Botham, S. 2000. "A dancer is a person" (online). Available at: 

http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk/downloads_assets/A%20Dancer%20is%20A%20Person.pdf (accessed 14 April 2011)

Schaffer, K and Stern, E. Math Dance (online). Available at: http://www.mathdance.org/index.html (accessed 14 April 2011)

Digital Portfolio Clarification....any help please?!

Hi Guys

Just wondered if anyone could help and give me slightly more clarification on the revised online portfolio element of the assignment!!

 I have read and understood what i need to do but when it says that we should submit it as an appendix to the inquiry plan, does that mean we should be linking our plans to it also...like we did in Module 3002 referring to appendix a, b, c etc throughout our plan???

Or do we not actually need to mention the appendices within the plan,i just write about them on one page linking them all together as a separate piece of work?

Any help would be much appreciated!!! Thanks

Also when it comes to writing the summary portfolio, does this have a more relaxed narrative style to it or should it still be academic in its wording and structure?

Delicious!

After i read Marks blog I was encouraged to try out Delicious for myself. Even though it was talked about earlier in the course I had no idea what it was about or what I could use it for!

It’s really quite simple though…it lets you book mark pages on the internet, so anything you find of use or may want to go back to you can save all in one place! 

It also shows you if anyone else has booked marked the same page as you in the past which means you can check out their other bookmarks to see if any of them will be of use to you around that subject.

My homepage is: http://www.delicious.com/cerysdixie