Dance Journeys with Youth Dance England

Yesterday I attended a conference held by Youth Dance England at the Northern Ballet School. The theme of the day was that everybody has a different dance journey, and the seminars throughout the day were related to the facilitation of young peoples dance journeys.

The day was fantastic. I saw some great lectures and heard about some very interesting research, and got a real insight into how Youth Dance as a whole is coping with the recent changes to education the government are making. I also got some great networking done, meeting the youth and community dance director for Youth Dance England who encouraged me to apply for a Project Managing job that she thought I would be great for! I also got to meet the Head of Youth Dance England; the person who would choose whether or not to employ me. I found the whole experience of being there and being involved empowering and inspiring, and also reassuring  being around so many other practitioners who run into the same obstacles and struggle with the same hurdles that I do.

I wanted to share some of the issues and debates that came out of the conference, as I think a lot of BAPP students will find them extremely interesting. This blog will be the first of a few reviewing what I took from the conference.

The first talk was from Linda Jasper MBE, Director of Youth Dance England.
She first spoke of Arts Council figures showing that in the last few years the number of dance activities had doubled, and that the number of people making up dance audiences had tripled. This is all with only 11% of the Art Councils funding.

The popularity of dance among young people is second only to football.
She pointed out that "Dance is the only activity that combines physical literacy with imagination and creativity." Jasper 2012.

She believes the effects of the implementation of EBACCs, and more importantly the exclusion of Arts from the EBACC, is going to have devastating effects on our national bank of artists and creative people. With this proposed system in place, "we won't have the means to produce what we did in the olympic ceremonies this year" Jasper 2012.

A point she made that was particularly of interest to me was the effect this is going to have on male participation in dance. Most boys will not actively seek out dance outside compulsory classes, and therefore if dance is not included in the curriculum  far less boys will be introduced to dance and this will be greatly damaging to the dance sector!

I would urge EVERYBODY that reads this to go straight to www.baccforthefuture.com and sign the online petition that calls for an enquiry into the inclusion of Arts in the Ebacc. There are only 17000 signatures so far. I know that there are more people out there who don't want to see Arts disapear from schools, so please sign the petition.

Literature Review: Young Children and Movement: The Power of Creative Dance by Connie Bergstein Dow, Mar2010, Vol. 65 Issue 2, p30-35

In this Article the Author talks about the benefits of creative dance and movement in children, specifically primary school children. 

She structures her argument as a list of the benefits of creative movement, elaborating on each one. I have condensed her argument into an overview of her views on each benefit, and a selection of quotes that Dow uses to support her Article:

Access for all children:

Dow argues that creative movement can be accessed by any child, because it requires little or no equipment, other than a spacious room. It can also be adapted to suit disabilities, changing movements for children who are physically impared. For example, a child in a wheelchair could throw their arms in the air instead of doing a jump, or create a letter shape with their hands instead of their whole bodies.

Curriculum Enrichment:

Dow believes creative movement can be used as a vehicle for any subject or theme, helping bring the topic alive and engage the children.

Physical Development:

Incorporating creative movement into a primary school childs day helps to develop their 

“coordination, body control, balance, stamina, and overall strength.” Dow 2010.

Antidote to obesity:

Dow argues that incorporating movement into every class would be an extremely effective way of combatting childhood obesity: 

“Incorporating active, enjoyable, creative movement into classroom routines is just what the health professionals ordered!” Dow 2010

Social and Emotional Development:

Children learn to work as a group. “Creative movement is one of the best ways for children to learn the social skills needed for working together” (Gilbert 2002)

The National Dance Education Organization states, 

"Dance promotes psychological health and maturity. Children enjoy the opportunity to express their emotions and become aware of themselves and others through creative movement. A preschool child enters a dance class or classroom with a history of emotional experiences. Movement within a class offers a structured outlet for physical release of feelings and emotions” (CNDEÜ 2009).

Creativity:

“In the years ahead, children will enter a global workforce. We need to teach children to look at problems in new ways, to practice critical thinking skills, and to learn collaboration and cooperation in finding new solutions.” (Dow 2010)

Dow believes that creativity can practiced and enhanced through creative movement in schools.

The mind body connection: Movement and the brain:

“Research shows that movement and exercise can spark the growth of new brain cells and facilitate learning” (Ratey 2008)

"Movement, a natural process of life, is now under- stood to be essential to learning, creative thought, and high level formal reasoning. It is time to consciously bring integrative movement back into every aspect of our lives and realize, as 1 have, that something this simple and natural can be the source of miracles" (Hannaford 1995. 214)

"Exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it pre- pares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another. which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus" (Ratey,2008, 53). 

"Building muscles and conditioning the heart and lungs are essentially side effects. I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain" (Ratey, 2008, p. 3).

She summaries thusly:

“Evidence is mounting about the benefits of movement in the learning process. Creative dance is the perfect vehicle for enhancing the mind-body connection in young children and an important part of early education. Once educators become familiar with movement and its many benefits, instead of asking. "What is creative movement?" the question will be, "Why not creative movement?"” (Dow 2010)

This Article is directly relevant to my study. It is concentrating on the benefits of creative movement, which is the foundation of dance. It will be interesting to see if there is a link between the benefits Dow perceives primary children receive through creative movement, and the benefits of participating in dance teachers and secondary age students perceive. Some of Dows points will be slightly to complex to justifiably link to my research results i.e cellular structure of the brain etc. But it might be possible to draw links between Dows arguments of Access for All and curriculum enrichment and the opinions of students and teachers about how dance participation benefits the students.

Early experiments with processing data

I am close to having all my survey data collected and so I have started experimenting with how I will process and present the data.

Here is a very early attempt at displaying results to a question as a pie chart with percentages. Please ignore all formatting and layout issues, it looks beautiful on my Mac but as soon as I upload it to Google Docs it gets pulverised.

Early attempt at data processing

"Facilitating dance making from a teacher's perspective within a community integrated dance class", Research in Dance Education, Cheesman, Apr2011, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p29-40.

This particular article is written from the perspective of a dance teacher who speaks about her own community integrated dance class and why she thinks it is successful.
My study is exploring whether gaps exist between the teachers perceived benefits of dance and the students perceived benefits of dance, with the hope being that I will be able to improve the success of my own classes. Students attend classes with certain expectations, and the teachers do the same. In this observational study Cheesman states the following in her conclusion:

"I think reasons why this class works are inextricably linked with the people who chose to come to this class. Individuals attending this class come primarily to dance, and enjoy improvisation and the social interaction with other people. In this class we dance, play, and laugh a lot, and much of what happens comes from within as opposed to being imposed." (Cheesman, 2011.)

This is a perfect example of student and teacher expectations matching, and therefore the class is successful in both the eye of the student, and the teacher.

What if an experienced, traditionally trained dancer attended the dance class, possibly with a different set of expectations and perceptions of dance? Would that student leave the class having enjoyed it and benefitted from it? Would they go back again, or would they seek out a different class more in tune with their own perceptions of dance?

Cheesman goes on to say:

"Interesting to note is that this class does not usually attract participants who have had what we might call traditional dance training. I suspect this may be because the differing bodies with differing abilities are too confronting, challenging their ideas about what dance is and who can dance." (Cheesman, 2011)

Cheesman focuses on a sense of community, inclusion and freedom of voice; these are her perceived benefits of dance. Those particular benefits may not be the only ones she acknowledges professionally, but certainly in the case of this class, they are the ones that she focuses on. Seemingly (referring back to the first quote) the participants expectations of the class match what Cheesman is delivering, and therefore "the class works" (Cheesman, 2011). I would assume that if her students were attending with the expectation to improve their flexibility, technique and aesthetic quality they would regard the class as inappropriate and a waste of time. This is not to say that the class is poorly delivered or constructed, merely that it has been created to implement the teachers perceived benefits of dance, not the students.

This article serves as a great example of perceived benefits of dance being matched between student and teacher. It could be that the students and teachers that are part of my research are in the same situation, but it could also be that there are differing perceptions and expectations.

My study aims to explore how this relationship between perceptions effects the quality of a dance class, and by altering perceptions can dance class delivery be improved? If so, how can this be accomplished?

Literature Review: Uncertain times for dance in schools

'Keep arts at heart of curriculum' says Nicholas Serota

By Judith BurnsEducation reporter, BBC News

This article that Paula posted in a blog has got me feeling extremely concerned.

It feels like the arts have only just got a decent footing within schools, and it now seems they are being pushed out again! The article strongly suggests that the arts are going to be pushed out of the National Curriculum altogether, which I feel is going to have a massively detrimental effect on childrens education. As Nicholas Serota (director of the Tate art galleries) is quoted,

"We know that there is a great body of evidence now that has been gathered over the past 20 or 30 years which demonstrates that, where you have schools which give time to cultural learning, there is benefit both in that sphere and also to the other disciplines," 

"By making art a part of the national curriculum, we give the next generation of artists, designers, engineers, creators and cultural leaders the opportunity to develop the imagination and skills that are vital to our future." Nicolas Serota (2012)

I followed a link from this article to another which went into more detail about the new English Baccalaureate Certificate system which will be coming into force over the next few years:

GCSEs replaced by 'English Bac' in key subjects

It seems like such a huge step backwards!! In this new system, there will be no course work, no modular assessment, just one exam at the end. Talk about pressure!! This is not focusing on the process of learning! 

"we can have truly rigorous exams, competitive with the best in the world, and make opportunity more equal for every child" (Michael Gove, 2012)

This makes no sense! How does scrapping coursework and modular assessments make opportunity equal for every child!? Some children will crumble under the pressure of the final exam, regardless of how well they have grasped the subject or how great their classroom work is. It doesn't leave room for different ways of understanding and learning, how is this a step forward?

Literature Review: "Dance education: an examination of practitioners’ perceptions in secondary schools and the necessity for teachers skilled in the pedagogy and content of dance" (John Connel, Research in Dance Education, volume 10, issue 2, 2009)

In this article, the author has conducted a survey "examining practitioners’ beliefs, understanding and attitudes towards the teaching of dance in secondary schools" (Connel, 2009)

The aim of the study was to discover how the teachers in secondary schools that are responsible for delivering dance feel about the subject and how they approach it.

It was interesting that the findings suggested that a large proportion of the teachers of dance that made up the sample were non dance specialists. Out of 198 subjects, only 29 were trained dance teachers, and 8 dance artists. 146 were P.E teachers.

This seems strange to me. How would a parent feel if their child came home and told them that they were being taught maths by an English teacher with no experience or qualifications in Maths? This would be a problem surely? A school wouldn't dream of allowing a teacher with no experience in a higher profile subject to teach it, yet this is the case with dance.

Is this because there is a lack of dance practitioners applying? Or is it because most schools don't offer dance as an individual subject and therefore can't afford to employ a dance teacher to work with the P.E department? 

The study is 3 years old and since then a number of schools do now offer GCSE dance as a subject. It would be interesting to see how many of those posts are held by trained dance practitioners.

This study relates to my Inquiry as I am looking at dance teachers and dance students perceptions of the benefit of partaking in dance, and within the results of this study the respondents are quoted thusly:

"Participating in dance in school can improve understanding of the world in which young people live and this can be greatly increased through their artistic and aesthetic experiences of dance, enhancing their appreciation of the expressive nature of this subject." "In dance lessons, children have the opportunity to be creative and express themselves in different ways." "Children can improve their cognitive ability through the choreographic elements of dance and an appreciation of the fundamentals of movement; action, space, dynamics and relationships." "Performance with others, in the variety of relationships encountered through participation in dance, helps to assist a pupil’s consideration and appreciation of their physical, emotional, mental, social and cultural needs." "Participating in dance helps pupils develop an understanding and appreciation of their body in action, the necessity for safe practice, and the way their body moves and what happens inside the body as they move."                        (Connel, 2009) It will be interesting to see if similar opinions emerge from my study, which is gathering responses from teachers in the Private sector and in a community dance setting.

Module 3: First Campus Session

Today was the first campus session for the final module, and the very first one in the entire course I’ve been able to attend!!

It was a bit of a unique one, because Paula ended up doing two sessions, one 10-1 and one 2-5 I believe. Sarah Pearson has posted a fantastic overview of what was covered, very well laid out. It will be a useful point of reference for people who are still a bit foggy and unclear about where they are and what they need to do.

As Sarahs blog is such a good one I’ve decided to make my post about specific elements of the session that really helped me.

First of all: Literature Reviews.

I have, until now, had a massive fear of literature reviews. Here’s why. In my head, to do a literature review I had to:

• find an article/journal entry/case study etc and read it over and over until I had a firm grasp of it in its entirety.
• Decide whether it was completely and specifically relevant to my exact enquiry topic.
• If it was, write a full blown essay about the literature.

This is incorrect!!!

In truth it’s more like this:

• Find an article/journal/case study etc and read as much of it as is necessary. Scan it and see if any particular bits jump out as relevant to your study. If so, maybe read a bit deeper, but not necessarily! Just take from it what is valuable to you and don’t worry about the rest.
• Write about what the literature is about (briefly) and explain how it has influenced your thinking and your study (again, briefly and to the point). It doesn’t need to have done so in a massive way, but if it has contributed to your enquiry, boom! There’s a reference and something to back up your thinking!

Realizing this has been a break through for me and I feel it will make me a lot more comfortable and willing when it comes to finding sources and referencing them.

Secondly: Don’t be afraid to tweak!!

I came across two issues with my inquiry title and was terrified that these realizations were going to ruin my whole project! Preposterous way to look at it now I think about it!!

Paula explained that if you can justify the changes and explain why you’re making them, and how it will help your project be a success, it’s actually very simple!! Here are the issues I came across:

1.    I had planned to use children in my study aged 14-18 using two different groups from two different places of work. Upon my return after the holidays I discovered that in one of the groups 80% of my students were around 12 years old due to age groups being merged. I was left with maybe 2 or 3 14-18 year olds, and 13 12 year olds!! I was going to have to change the age bracket, but how can I justify the change? 
Well, my long term goal is to work in a secondary school as a dance teacher, and what’s the age bracket for secondary school children? 11-18!!! (once the new leaving age kicks in) Bingo!! I am changing the range range in my study in order to cover all the ages I am hoping to teach in my future career! A short, justifiable reason and it’s all good.

2.    The title. My title was going to be “An exploration of dance students and dance teachers perceived benefits of dance education within the styles of street/creative dance.”

My issue was, having drafted the surveys and began the process, it was becoming clear that the genre of dance was not going to be specific. Also, one of the groups I was studying could’t really be classes as “dance education” as it’s a youth dance project, and probably better falls into the category of “community dance”.

So I changed it to: “An exploration of dance students and dance teachers perceived benefits of partaking in dance classes”.

Here’s the justification I will use:

I changed “within the styles of street/creative dance” to “dance classes” because upon reviewing the settings of my inquiry I have realised that street/creative dance is not really relevant. In both settings I teach a range of styles, and not all of it can be accurately referred to as “dance education”. Also, when I achieve my goal of teaching full time in a secondary school I will be required to teach a range of dance styles, and therefore it would be unnecessary to specify the style being researched.

I have made a believable argument for the change, and made it clear how and why my project will benefit from the change, so it’s ok!!

So in summary

• Don’t be scared of literature reviews! Find a piece of writing (using summon on unihub is generally effective in finding what you want), read as much of it as you need in order to take something useful from it, then write about what that something was, why it is useful and how it will support your study! Simple! And as short or as long as is relevant.

• Changes and tweaks of you enquiry project are good!! It shows you are actively developing it. As long as you can justify why you’re doing it and prove that the change will benefit the project, you’re golden. (and this is actually more simple than it seems! Identify the problem, decide on the change you want to make and then FIND a way of justifying it)

I really hope this is helpful to people. These two revelations have really helped in calming me down (see sarahs blog for stress management techniques!!) and getting in control of my plans, I hope they help others too!!

Don’t forget, comment comment comment, blog blog blog!! The more we blog with each other the easier everything will be!!

Teacher Survey!

I am inundating the blogosphere with survey drafts!!!

This one is the first draft of the survey I am going to give to dance teachers. Any advice would be appreciated as always!

Teachers Survey 1st Draft

Final Draft for my Student Survey

Here is the final draft for my student survey! As a procrastinator and a perfectionist I would to spend much longer tweaking this, but I have a tight schedule, so it's going to the printer!! Thanks to all who have commented! 

Student Survey Final Draft

2nd draft, and hopefully final draft, of my student survey

Here's a link to my slightly revised and completed survey that I will be giving to my 14-18 year old students.

Survey 2nd draft

Have a look and tell me what you think! Right length? Right level of sophistication? clear and concise? None of the above!? Let me know, thanks. 

Action Plan

When browsing the module handbook and reader, time and time again I kept seeing how important it is to have a structured action plan.

Here's mine:

Action Plan

Week 1: 

• Write permission letters
• Issue permission letters to the under 16’s to give to parents
• Design surveys for both students and teachers
• Write 2 Literature reviews
• Re-work and re-structure as needed based on advice from peers and on the literature reviewed.

Week 2:

• Conduct the surveys
• Write 2 literature reviews
• Analyze the results of the survey. Look for patterns, contrasts etc.
• Design some short interviews based on the survey results with the view of exploring key issues further.

Week 3:

• Write 2 literature reviews
• Conduct 6 interviews with students

Week 4:

• Write 2 literature reviews
• Conduct 6 interviews with teachers

Week 5:

• Analyze the interviews, relating them back to survey responses, looking for patterns, contrasts, links etc.

Week 6:

• Conduct 2 observations, one in each research setting, looking for visual evidence of my findings, recording the observations in written form.
• Analyze the findings from the observations, looking for links or contrasts to the results found from the interviews and surveys.

Week 7:

• Concentrate on collaborating my findings from all 3 inquiry tools, relating my findings and analysis to other sources and literature, using these sources to further analyze and explore the findings, and to begin to construct my Critical Review.

Week 8:

• Work on my critical review

Week 9:

• Begin to build my artifact. 

Week 10:

• Work on my artifact.

Week 11:

• Begin constructing and writing my presentation.

Week 12:

• Re-draft, edit, fine tune everything! 

*** I want to know what everybody thinks! Too ambitious? Not ambitious enough? How does it compare to everybody elses plan? 

Paula, what do you think? Good or bad plan? ***

Taking the plunge!

Hello!

This is always the hardest bit, getting started again! It seems like such a long break since the last module!!

I've started the module off by re-reading everything I did last module and getting my head back in it again. I then had a conversation with Paula about where I was and just tried to clarify everything again!

I've spent a few hours today drafting a survey that will be my first form of data collection for my enquiry. The title of my enquiry is:

An exploration of dance teachers and dance students perceived benefits of dance education within the styles of street/creative dance.

The survey I have started with will be the one I give to students, aged 14-18, but I'm not happy with it yet. Here it is:

student survey 1st Draft

Please have a read and tell me what you think!

A Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry. First Draft.

In this Module, I have explored the concept of a professional enquiry as a way of further enhancing my professional practice.

In part one of the module I began with exploring lines of professional inquiry. I started this process by creating a diagram of “where I was” professionally and where I wanted to be, hoping that a set of questions would emerge that would aid me in getting there. They did, and my first set of questions covered a vast range of topics. (Appendix A) At this stage my line of enquiry had no real direction other than I wanted it to be beneficial to my career.

I then spent some time researching and read a piece of literature (P.Brinson (1991), Dance as Education: Towards a National Dance Culture, Routledge Falmer) which inspired my line of enquiry to take new focus and direction towards dance within secondary education. (Appendix B)

I created an SIG on LinkedIn which sparked a discussion focusing on the different qualification routes you can take within dance education and training. (Appendix C) In exploring my lines of enquiry, and setting up an SIG, I had already learnt a lot about the process of becoming qualified to teach dance in the public sector. This highlighted to me the importance of the process of exploring potential lines of enquiry and how much I could learn from it.

As well as creating my own SIG, I joined a number of others created by fellow BAPP students that were relevant to my topic area. In one particular SIG I was involved in a discussion about the importance of children accessing creative subjects as well as academic (Appendix D). I was surprised by my level of passion on the subject; it was clear was a topic area of great interest to me and it fitted in well along side the other topic areas I had been considering.

I explored my existing professional network. I had a meeting with one of my employers and had an open discussion about what I had explored so far, and conversation turned to the comparative benefits of public and private dance education. The conversation developed, and moved on to discussing the general benefits of dance education and training. This helped to create a more focused (yet still quite broad) line of enquiry. I then used the advice given via comments on my blog and a discussion with my Advisor to further tune my enquiry (Appendix E).

In part two I explored ethics within my professional practice, beginning with reviewing my own instinctive ethical rules (Appendix F). I then compared these with actual codes of conduct found within my profession (Appendix G). This helped me to appreciate the importance of ethical awareness when conducting my enquiry.

In part three I explored the tools I would use when conducting my inquiry. I piloted a survey and reviewed the usefulness of this tool via blog comments (Appendix H). Helping another student construct her survey also helped me realise the importance of clarity (Appendix I). I also piloted an interview, discussing the positives and negatives (Appendix J).

Literature was another tool I explored, discovering many pieces of literature relevant to my enquiry. I chose two and conducted literature reviews (Appendix K & Appendix L). Discovering the abundance of literature was encouraging, as referring to these while conducting my enquiry will add depth to my findings.

In conclusion, this module has enabled me to develop my initial lines of inquiry by focusing them and developing them using literature, SIG discussions and discussions with other members of my professional network. I have explored my own ethical guidelines and as well the ones generally used in my professional field, and this has opened my eyes to the ethical considerations I will need to take when conducting my inquiry. I have experimented with different tools of inquiry which has helped me shape my enquiry plan, and led me to consider the ways in which I will analyse the data I gather. I feel that my professional enquiry is gaining real shape and focus now, and that it promises to be an extremely useful and insightful process, aiding in the development of my professional practice.

Pilot Interview

As part of planning my professional enquiry I conducted a very short interview in order to review the benefits and draw backs of using this tool to gather data for my inquiry. I interviewed a woman in her early twenties who has been dancing since she was 3:

1.       Why did you start attending dance class?

Because my mum took me. I was only tiny, but then I liked it.

What do you remember liking about it?

Not much really. Just remember getting excited to go dancing. It was fun getting dressed up for it and going to see my friends.

2.       Was discipline one of the things you learnt about when attending dance class as a child?

Yeah I think so. Our teacher was always quite strict and because we were so young when we started it kind of stuck with us when we got older and went to school.

3.       Do you believe dancing influenced your personality?

Yeah I think so...it made me more confident.

And did that confidence transfer into other aspects of your life?

Yeah a little bit...but im a shy person anyway.

4.       How do you feel your dancing has benefitted  you?

Its improved my fitness and kept me slim my whole life. And its given me a purpose and something to be good at, cos i wasn’t good at any other subjects at school.

5.       Do you think what you learnt in dance classes helped you with any other subjects?

Yeah P.E, and drama.

In what way?

Cos i was already fit from my dancing for P.E, and drama cos I was already used to performing.

Upon reflection I think I may have kept the questions a bit too open, as I don't feel I achieved the answers I was looking for. I think when I come to plan my interviews for my enquiry I will be able to use the data gathered from the surveys to inform what questions I ask and how I structure the questions.

Another point worth making is that I think the participants shyness effected the quality of the responses. This is something I will need to address, as it is likely that a lot of my participants, being aged 14-18, will also be shy. I need to find a way to relax them in order to get more in depth responses. This of course is also reliant on the structure of my questions.

Literature Review 2

Here is my 2nd Literature Review on an article I found called "Dancing Thought: An examination of children's cognition and creative process in dance." This article presents a study which produces results that suggest that not only does dance develop children emotionally and physically, but that dance can in its own right can aid a childs cognitive development.

Literature Review 2

Literature Review 1

This piece is reviewing an article by a Professor of dance education about defining the term "Dance Education" and what the benefits would be of dance becoming a part of school curriculum throughout primary and secondary education. It is extremely relevant to my enquiry, and she makes some very interesting points.

A review of the article "Toward a definition of Dance Education"

Pilot Survey to be completed by anybody that has ever attended dance classes

Hi everybody! I know I'm a bit late with trying out a survey, but please please complete it and let me know what you think! It's only tiny!

Pilot Survey

Task 5b: What existing Codes of Practice steer my professional work?

In my previous blog I reviewed my own personal and professional ethical guidelines, which I established had been built up through common sense and from picking up good practice from my own teachers when training.

Following this blog, I then went on to researching the actual Codes of Conduct that exist within my professional community. Although I am not a member of the ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing), their website was the first place I went to look, as I am quite heavily involved with an ISTD school. I therefore feel like I am a part of this particular organisation, or at the very least I feel I am held by the same standards as any fully qualified ISTD teacher by my employer.

It turns out that the ISTD use the Code of Conduct published by the CDET (Council for Dance Education and Training), which I was advised to look at prior to this by one of my employers along with a few BAPP students. This can be found here: CDET Code of Conduct

Reading through the Code of Conduct, I can honestly say that I knew and currently practice all of it, having never before seen it. This just shows that I have picked up excellent work ethics from the teachers that trained me and the people I work for, and I feel very lucky!

The RAD (Royal Academy of Dance) is other prominent organisation in my area, and so I found their Code of Practice as well in order to compare. RAD have a much more breif and condensed Code, but essentially it covers the same ground as the CDET.

So it seems that in the world of Private dance education the CDET Code of Conduct is a great guideline to follow for any dance teacher. They also recommend a book called Dance Teaching Essentials which is available from Dance UK which I have ordered. Will it simply be a more in depth version of the Code of Conduct, or take a more advisory role? We shall see!

I have also contacted another of my employers, ERYD (East Riding Youth Dance). This is a council funded organisation that provides weekly dance workshops and termly performances. It is of course Public, and therefore it will be interesting to see how a dance teachers Code of Conduct in the Public sector differs from that of the Private Sector. (Read part two of this blog to find out!!)

Task 5a: Ethics Applying to my Workplace

For this task I decided to run though the process of teaching a class from beginning to end, picking up on each "unwritten" ethical rule that I abide by as I go.

Preparation:

Before each class I teach I ensure that the class is properly planned in terms of structure, in order to ensure that the class runs smoothly. This includes:

• A list of class content and song choices.
• Usually a pre-choreographed routine. 
• Making sure I am presented in a professional and smart manner in order to maintain a level of professionalism.

Upon Arrival:

I always arrive at least 15 minutes before a class in order to:

• Clear the room of any obstacles or obstructions, ensure all the required light are on and the room is the correct temperature.
• Arrange my music, notes and register so that I can begin as soon as I can.
• To make sure I am in the room before anybody arrives as this appears much more professional

During the class:

• If there are any new students I ensure the parent signs a small disclaimer acknowledging that it is their responsibility to ensure the child is dressed appropriately, and that during the course of a dance class some student/teacher contact may be required and that it will always be carried out in a professional manner. (I feel as a male dance teacher this is particularly important) 
• I carry out a thorough warm up making sure my students are participating fully, as it is my responsibility to ensure they are properly prepared for dancing.
• I aim to give equal attention to each student. They are all paying the same amount of money and therefore it would be wrong to focus more on the struggling students, or more on the ones excelling.

After class:

• As much as possible I make myself available to parents if they wish to discuss anything related to the class of their child.
• I maintain a professional manner until I have left the building.

Its interesting looking at what I've written, as I started to consider where I have picked up these codes of conduct/unwritten guidelines. I've never been taught them directly, therefore I must assume that I have picked them up from teachers that have taught me in the past, or simply instinctively known what is right and wrong.

Is working on ethical instincts alone enough? As I only teach free classes (no examination bodies or syllabus involved), my own personal and professional ethics are the only ones I've ever followed. Is this something I should remedy, and if so, what organisational ethical guidelines should I follow? And would they even differ that much from my own Personal/Professional ethics?

Task 4d: Award Title

The factors I considered were:

• I have trained in dance since the age of 12
• I have worked as a professional dancer for 3 year
• I have been teaching freelance classes in a variety of styles for nearly 2 years
• My aim is to become a full time teacher in the public sector
• My enquiry is not entirely focused yet, but it's clear that it will be concentrating on dance education within secondary schools.

With all these factors considered, the most appropriate title I can think of is:

BA (Hons) Professional Practice Dance Education

I felt that including the word dance in the title was obvious and a necessity, and the word education bridged over to where I am aiming to get to professionally.

Effective Blogging: How to encourage comments on your posts.

An issue that keeps on coming up is "How can I get people to comment on my blog?"

Tip 1:
Comment on others blogs...a lot!
If student no.1 goes onto their blog page and sees that student no.2 is frequently and consistently commenting on their posts, they will feel obliged and obligated to comment on theirs in return.

Tip 2:
Go out of your way to help.
When commenting on students posts, make your comments about them and their work. By all means relate it to your own work, but don't make it selfish. If the recipient of your comment finds it helpful and encouraging, again they will feel obliged to return the favour. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours".

Tip 3: Subscribe to responses.
At the bottom of every comments page on every blog entry, there is a link that says "subscribe by email". By clicking this link, you receive an email every time somebody comments on that post. My advise: click that link on every single post you write or comment on. This way you will never miss a comment and you will be able to respond quickly, keeping the people who are commenting engaged.

Tip 4: Presence
It's extremely difficult, and all of us go through phases when our blog attendance is poor, but the best way to ensure you receive comments is to spend as much time as possible posting and commenting. If your presence within the blog community is strong, you will "trend" and become a popular person to interact with.

I hope those tips are helpful. Please let me know if they are, or indeed if they're not!

This is by no means a fail safe plan, but if you follow these tips it should generate more comments.

Thanks for reading,

Liam.

Student Representative Facebook Group!!

Hello everyone,

I have now set up a Facebook group called "BAPP Student Representative". The purpose of this group will be to provide an environment where we can all discuss the course and raise any issues, ask any questions etc. Add me on Facebook: "Liam Conman (Liam Driscoll)" and request to join the group.

Here's the link: BAPP Student Representative

I really want to get some real discussions going so I can identify where the issues lie and what you guys want to see changed or improved.

Thanks!

Liam.

Task 4c: Developing Questions

Last week I met with Fleur Stevenson, my friend and employer who has ran a successful ISTD based dance school for many years. I spoke to her about private dance education and how it contrasts with dance in schools. She was of the opinion that private dance education is much more about the technique, where as public dance education is more focused on expression, improvisation and creation. She acknowledged that both skills are important, however she made the point that a student can only progress to a limited level of dance if their technique is not solid.

We then moved on to discussing how the benefits of studying dance from a technical point of view are often unknown by parents of students, or overlooked and thought of as not important.

With this topic in mind, we came up with a potential line of inquiry:

"What are the benefits of dance within secondary school education?"

This is a question which I think would produce a lot of very valuable information which would aid my transition into public education. There is plenty of Literature on the subject giving me plenty to research...

This is by no means the final draft of my question, and I plan now to discuss the question with another friend of mine, Dr Jonathan Rees. Jon has a PHD in music and works as Course Co-ordinator and Head of Singing at Stella Mann College. As you can guess from his title, he is very academic and will hopefully be able to help me in fine tuning my question.

What do you all think? Is the question too vague, too broad? Is it too obvious? Does a better way of wording the question immediately jump out at you? Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Slogging away

After a good solid 5 hours of reading, researching, searching through previous student blogs for inspiration etc etc, I feel I'm making very little progress. I feel a bit lost, and compared to the last module, without any real direction!

However, after reading a couple of chapters from Dance as Education: Towards a National Dance Culture by P. Brinson, it's becoming clearer and clearer that my area of interest lies with dance within public education.

 i.e what is dances value within education? 

Is dance utilised enough within schools at present? If not, why not? 

Is dance still being stuck under the umbrella of P.E rather than being regarded as an independent subject like music or art? 

If it is, why is it not valued as much as music or art, both of which are similarly creative disciplines?

P. Brinson talks about the need for the gap between private and public dance education to be bridged...it seems like such a logical step forward to ensure that children nationally experience dance as part of their education, and yet it still hasn't happened! Why!?

I have no idea where to start researching all these questions...

Task 4b: SIG

Hi Bappers!

I have just created my SIG on LinkedIn.

I will be recruiting for it soon, but in the mean time have a look and if you think the group is relevant to you feel free to join! Dance within Secondary Education

Task 4a: Questions!

It's taken me quite a while to get started with this task. It's a very daunting concept, focusing such a broad area of interest to one specific question!

I decided to start by doing a brain storm on where I am professionally now, and where I want to be, hoping that questions would arise from trying to work out how to get there!

What does the education of dance in public education require that doesn't apply in private? 

How can I create a professional package that appeals to secondary schools?

What direction is secondary dance education going in and how will this effect my attempts to get involved in it?

Will marketing myself as a freelance teacher able to do one off workshops in secondary schools help me to get my foot in the door or public education?

How can I break down the lingering prejudices towards male dancers and performers in order to get more boys involved in dance in general, not just the "cool" styles i.e street/breakdancing?

How can I contribute towards a more organic educational system?

These are just a few questions that have surfaced, and it seems clear to me that dance in secondary education is the umbrella under which my  enquiry will be sheltering, so that's progress at least!! I will just keep chipping away and hopefully a more specific direction will begin to emerge. One thing I think I should certainly start doing is building up a knowledge of the history of dance within public education. When did it start being introduced? How far has it come? etc.

I know that there are others on the course that already work within public education and if any of you could offer me some advise as to how I should go about trying to infiltrate it I would be extremely grateful!

Student Representative

Hello everybody!


For those of you who haven't yet seen the notice posted on LibGuides, I’ve volunteered to be your student rep! In order for me to effectively communicate your views, issues and feelings about BAPP, I need to hear from you! I myself am in my second module, but as I am currently the only student rep I need to hear from all modules. So if you aren’t following my blog yet, please do, irrespective of module! This is because from time to time I may post blog entries specific to my role as student rep, and this way everybody will see them.

My role will be to communicate your views, issues and feelings about BAPP to the university at the Board of Studies meetings. Please email me at liamconman@gmail.com with anything you wish to be brought up at these meetings.

Just to get the ball rolling, here are a couple of topics for you to consider:

• UniHub – Any issues with the use of UniHub, any difficulty accessing resources, any confusion or lack of knowledge as to what’s available, ways it could be improved, things you really like about UniHub etc.
• Communication – Are you happy with the level of communication with your advisor and the course in general, is anybody struggling with keeping in touch with the course, is there any way you think communication could be improved etc.

These are just two areas we have highlighted, but if you have any subjects (great or small) you wish to be addressed please email me at the address above; my role becomes pretty redundant unless I hear from you guys, and this is how we can get our points of view across! So please, it would be great to get as many people involved as possible!

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you. Please help to spread the word as much as you can via the blogs!!

I have returned!!

This blog is going to officially mark my return to the blog and the start of my journey through Module 2. Does it seem daunting? yes. But I plan to follow the same plan of action as I did in the first module:

I will throw myself into the deep pool of water. I will be disorientated, panicked and breathless at first, but eventually I will right myself and begin to float smugly on the surface wondering what all the fuss was about!

I am excited about conducting an inquiry and already I can think of a short list of people I will want to interview regardless of the specifics of the inquiry.

I've begun my first day back working on BAPP by catching up with my google reader and commenting on a few posts, as well as reading through the module handbook. It's got me going, and I'm sure I'll soon be back in the full swing of things!