Task 3b: Theories Relating to Networking

Of all the readers so far, I found this one the most difficult to get comfortable with. There are a lot of quite heavy concepts to process. This is what has resulted from me muddling through the theories, let me know what you think.

Task 3b: Theories Relating to Networking

Task 3a: Current Networks

This task is an extremely interesting one for me, because of my recent transition from “dancer” to “dance teacher”. Initially, I thought the way I network as a teacher was completely different to the way I used to network as a dancer, but in actual fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I am currently working as a freelance teacher, and therefore finding teaching work is not that dissimilar from finding dance work. Only the other day I taught an “audition” class, i.e I taught a class for an organisation as a way of auditioning to become a regular teacher. I obtained this audition through another teacher working for said organisation that I knew from another teaching job. So it all works very similar to the dance world itself! I hate to use the overused, cliché phrases, but “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and “being in the right place at the right time” are of course very true.

Currently, my main networking tool is good old fashioned face to face conversation (along with others of course). The reason for this is my current environment. I live in a small town in Yorkshire where a lot of the dance professionals I am currently in contact with are local, and therefore face to face meetings are quite often convenient. Of course, this isn’t always possible and this method of networking is used along side phone calls, emailing, texting and letters. On occasion I will use Facebook too, but as so many others have pointed out, sometimes your facebook profile doesn’t place you in the most professional light!

I have toyed with the idea of creating a website, and definitely plan on getting one at some point in the near future. However, I don’t feel I have enough of a demand for one yet. Strangely though, I keep coming across schools and organisations that either don’t have a website, or have very basic, out of date websites, and it’s a pain. One school in particular that I work for doesn’t have a website at all, and I personally feel the school is constantly held back by this. In this internet oriented world we’re living in, the first port of call when trying to find any service or product is the internet. By removing themselves from that platform, the school is surely missing out on a lot of exposure and business. This doesn’t really apply to me yet, because I’m not yet in the position where potential clients are seeking me out, it’s vice versa. However, once I reach the stage were I am being contacted by potential clients, a website would certainly make me appear more professional and give me a quick and easy way of making a good impression.

Task 2d: Enquiry

Finally I am posting the final task of part 2. It is extremely late due a number of things in both my personal and professional life taking over in the last couple of weeks. It is so difficult sometimes to find time, and as usual everything happened at once and "life" took over. I hope the inhabitants of the blogosphere haven't forgotten me in my absence and I would love to hear your thoughts on my piece.

Task 2d: Enquiry

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

So...I have been obsessing over this task for a very long time. Adesolas recent post spoke about week 6 of study and how we should be careful not to get caught up in creating the "perfect task". This made me realise that this is exactly what I had been doing and so I have finally stopped obsessing over this task and posted it.

It is long, but I am proud of it and enjoyed writing it, because it's shown myself how much I have learnt about Reflective Theory over the past few weeks.

Let me know what you think and please criticise as much as possible! (if you can endure the length!)

Task 2c: Reflective Theory

Reflexivity - An Alternative Form of Introspection

I have found so far when reading articles within the readers that I feel a lot like a man, stood in a river, looking for gold. The article is the river bed, and the words are the pebbles that make up that river bed. I repeatedly scoop up a paragraph of pebbles in my sieve and search through them, and every now and again I find a little bit of gold. I keep going until eventually, I have enough flecks of gold to melt down into a nugget, or even a bar!

Well, I have just read "Action Evaluation and Action Theory: An assessment of the process and its connection to conflict resolution" Ian Darling, March 2008 from the list at the end of reader 2, and here is my nugget...


Ian Darlings piece is all about comparing Donald Schons idea of Reflection, more specifically In-Action Reflection, with Jay Rothmans concept of Reflexivity (an alarmingly similar sounding term!!).
"Reflexivity involves delaying the instinctive and unexamined reactions to external stimulus, and analysing them before responding" (Rothman, 1997, 36). In other words, slowing down your reactions enough to analyse said reactions before acting.
Initially, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that is exactly the same as Reflection In-Action, but upon reflection, of course it isn't! The idea of Reflection In-Action is that you reflect and alter your practice as you are doing it, but this still requires the sequence of Action, Evaluation, Modification. Reflexivitys equivalent sequence would be Thought, Analysis, Modification, Action. Reflecting before you've acted!


What a mind boggling concept! Surely if you were involved in an argument (which incidentally is what Rothmans field of study is all about: Conflict Resolution) and everyone was pausing to think about their reaction before they even contributed, it would take days! Or would it? Would the argument even get off the ground? It could be said that arguments, more often than not, escalate as a result of the exact opposite of Rothmans Reflexive Practice. Due to emotions running high, each participator blurts out the first antagonising or offensive thing that reaches their lips without thinking. The other participants react to this by doing the same, and it escalates. What if each of the participants practised Reflexivity? Would there even be an argument? If there was, it would certainly be a lot more controlled and resolved more quickly.

All this led me to ask the following question:
How can I apply this theory to my own Professional Practice?

Task 2a/2b: Reflective Practice and Reflective Writing

Having finished reading reader number 2 I have so many thoughts I don't know where to begin!

I am feeling so overwhelmed with all the reflective theory, not because I don't understand it, but because there seems to be so many different ways of looking at it and approaching it that I simply don't know where to begin! There are so many ideas, methods and concepts under the term Reflective Practice!

I was fascinated by the idea of Tacit Knowledge. This is a term I had never come across before, which is ironic because as a dancer and dance teacher I have now come to learn that most of my knowledge is tacit! This an example of something I have been experiencing for years without having realised. Now that I have realised that knowing how to stay on balance when turning, or knowing how to adjust may stance in order for a certain lift to work, is tacit knowledge, I now have knowledge of "tacit knowledge".

The Module Gangs: Bridging the Gap

After reading Alans Post - Developing your support Network I realised he was making a very good point and vowed to explore the other groups of student bloggs on BAPP...and didn't get round to it.


However, today I noticed a pioneer had written a comment on my blogg!! Stephanie Thomas has bridged the gap between Modules and I think we should all follow suit!

I'm starting by urging anyone who hasn't yet tackled the video task (1c) to watch Stephanies video, as I think it is a fantastic example and should inspire those who are unsure.

Lets get following the students in other module groups, it's a resource we're not utilising!