Plan B - DANCE TEACHERS PLEASE FILL OUT MY SURVEY!

I had a great success rate with my Students Dance survey but am having a very different response from the Dance Teachers survey that i have sent via email to a sample of dance schools and organisations across the UK. It was sent via email for both the participants and my own convenience however I have had only ONE response.

As I am well known to the students I teach they were more than willing to help me by filling in their surveys but it seems as I am not known to any of the Dance Teachers potential respondents that they are not as willing to take part.

Plan B….I know from previous modules that social media can be a great way of networking so I am now going to Facebook my survey to as many dance teachers I have in my contact list and also ask the BAPP community to get involved and if you are a dance teacher PLEASE FILL OUT MY SURVEY. It’s very quick and easy but it would be much appreciated!!! Thank you

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M9638CW

SWOT Chart

STRENGTHS Good relationship with the school and the principal. Support and consent of principal, parents and participants. Group of participants involved in observations, surveys and interviews are already established and easily accessible as are part of my weekly classes. Confidence in inquiry as initial findings and feedback supported it as a worthy inquiry line.	WEAKNESSES Limited time scale – less time than initially thought and am starting later than planned Have no previous experience in undertaking a research project Literature specific to my line of inquiry in the dance field is limited Criteria for observations not set Interview questions not set
OPPORTUNITIES Improvements may be made in my personal teaching practice Results could allow for all students I teach to feel engaged in learning and challenged within their own capabilities Improve my knowledge and understanding in this field which could in turn help me to gain future work opportunities (both within in the arts and other teaching opportunities) Help other teachers	THREATS Other work commitments to contend with. Information provided could be false or inaccurate. Am working to other deadlines at the school (choreography for end of term show), research must not affect this.

Students Survey So far....

I created my Dance Survey for students and handed them out leaving two weeks for the hand in date, ensuring I had covered a range of ages and had a proportionate number of boys and girls.

I gathered the selected students together and gave them an explanation as to why I was handing out the surveys. I highlighted the fact that there were no names on the surveys a number of times and explained that I would not know who had written what so I wanted them to be as truthful as possible as that would be most helpful to me. I stressed the importance of the hand in date also and that they were not to be given back to me but put in the drop box in reception so again I would have no idea who’s was whose. A number of the students were very excited by the fact that they had been asked to fill out the surveys which is not something I had anticipated, and they wanted to do them there and then.

Ideally I had wanted the students to take the surveys home and complete them in their own time away from the school but with so many asking to do them there and many saying if they took them home they would probably forget to bring them back I quickly had to decide what would be the best course of action to take. I knew if they completed them there then the response rate would be much better but I didn’t want them to influence each other’s answers. I had however also seen on Stephie’s blog that she was struggling to get surveys filled out by her student participants and so came to the follow decision.

I gave the students a choice, if they preferred to take them home and do them in their own time then that was fine (and again stressed the importance of bringing them back, so suggested they keep them in the files that they bring each week). Or if they wanted to do them there they would be supervised during break time by the principal and could find a quiet corner to do them and then drop them in the box. I said that I didn’t want them doing them in groups or with anyone else as answers needed to be honest and their own opinions, they were happy with this and many students took it upon themselves to complete them during the break time.

The hand in date has now passed and I have been really pleased with the response, having received 81% back. Now it’s time to record the information and analyse the results to see how I want to focus my interview questions and further observations.

Reviewing Feedback

After reviewing my feedback from the previous module I have picked out the areas that were lacking in information or clarity and gone through them to make sure that I am clear about what is needed to be done to improve upon these.

Ages and Language

Although it was clear in my plan that my research will involve working with minors it was unclear exactly how old the students were going to be. This is important as language used to inform students of the research and during observations, interviews and surveys needs to be appropriate.

When designing my survey I struggled with this a little bit as the ages of the students asked to fill out the surveys range from 6 to 16. Language and layout used had to be simple and easy to understand particularly for the younger students but then I did not want it to become too babyish for the older students.

By keeping language simple and by using a mixture of words and pictures I hope to have achieved a child friendly survey for all ages.

 

Students involved in observational research are between the ages of 9 and 12. I made the decision to inform the students about the research so they were aware of what I was doing and so they also had the choice not to be a part of it should they not want. Language used to disclose this information was kept simple in an informal group talk where questions were welcomed.

Surveys

One point raised in my feedback was to be clear about the different types of data and topics covered by using both surveys and interviews. 

This puzzled me slightly as I knew that some of the topics covered with both tools would be similar and would overlap slightly. I clarified this with my advisor by saying:

“I was going to use surveys at the very beginning of my research and then from looking at some of the results i was going to use interviews on some of the same groups of people to probe further for deeper explanation and more detailed information. This would mean i would be covering similar topics with both research tools but be using the two to gain a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data.” Cerys Dixie, 2011

This is now clearer and the data I gather from my surveys should help me to set questions for my interviews and explore areas in greater depth.

Ethical Benefit

Although I had addressed a number of Ethical issues in my plan which is particularly important as many of my participants are minors, I overlooked some of Ethical Benefits of my inquiry.

Through my inquiry I hope to achieve a better understanding of how I can use differentiation within a dance class to ensure that all children are learning in a way that suits their needs and is challenging them at a suitable level. 

The ethical benefits of this mean that all children will feel included and are taught equally through a variety of teaching strategies and as a teacher I will not be undertaking a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Looking at students as a whole through a person centred approach takes in to account a person’s feelings and emotions and gives a rounder learning experience ensuring individual differences are recognised and valued.

Criteria to be Observed

I had wanted this to be set before undertaking any observations but have since approached it slightly differently (mainly due to lack of time and planning on my part). I wanted to start observations early in the term but had not set out my criteria so instead I began observing lessons and making filed notes afterwards about the session in general. I introduced some visual aids and have tried different tasks and ways of doing things with regards to differentiation and have seen some interesting results. What I plan to do as the next step is look at what I have already found and from here set criteria to observe the rest of the sessions in a more structured format

Back in the Game

At last i am back in blog land, its been a long time coming and i feel there is so much to do, read, say and catch up on! For a number of unforeseen circumstances i didn’t get started on my research an inquiry as soon as i would have liked too and am not feeling up to date or where i had planned to be at this stage.

I have read through the reader and looked back over my inquiry plan along with feedback given. Planning and time management is key in this module and as i don’t have as much time on my hands as i initially thought i would i really need to put a system in place to help me before it all becomes too overwhelming!