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.