I remember being taught to get that perfect pirouette positioning; neck long, shoulders down, core in, hips under, knee out , no sickling etc. It was daunting and having to do all of that straight away whilst turning on the spot. I found out I could not think of more then two of those things at once. In which case, I thought of one thing in particular to concentrate on each time. I practiced in the corner over and over again until it became natural to do everything at once. A classic example of Reflection-in-Action.
Reflection-in-Action is the reflection of ones actions simultaneously. Reflection-on-Action is to reflect at a later time, when one is out of the situation. Kottcamp conveys the previous as the harder of the two, with which I disagree. However, that may be because I am from the reflection-in-action mindset. I like the idea that I can make a correction or adapt straight away on a matter, that to me shows alertness and a type of intelligence that not many people could achieve. I might presume that I admire this way of thinking as it is a popular belief that dancers are less intellectual than others. Reflection-in-action, I feel proves them wrong. Reflection-on-action , gives you the time and full engagement that you might need to reflect on a matter. There is no dead line or immediate need for conclusion like on-line reflective practice.
Peer discussions can also be helpful for reflective practice. There is no doubt that quizzical discussions between peers opens the minds of every individual, while being able to share opinions and resources makes these group discussions invaluable. Being at a performing arts school we also had a lot of personal and one on one feedback. We were able to have 10-15 minutes of an individual teachers time , with which they presented us with a feedback sheet with good qualities and improvements that we could work on. Being able to inquire about personal issues to the sole teacher, I found to be very helpful as I was given feedback which was personal to me and I felt that I was getting the right attention that I needed in certain area's.
'We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on the experience' (Dewey) . Taking in to consideration that reflective thought is supposed to be an active thought process, it should make it easier to use these thought patterns , being an active person. Looking at Kolb's learning cycle you can see how all of these aspects would come into play within my profession. For example, you may try to do a certain dance move. It doesn't quite work the way you want it to, so you watch the choreographer again. Taking in tiny gestures that they do ,there footwork etc. You wonder what is different from what you are doing to them. You then take into consideration what you have watched and thought about , to then try again - The Cycle
So I decided to use this diagram and use my own experience's. I used an audition I attended last.At which point, I found out that surprisingly I am more of a Theorist compared to an Activist ,which startled me. I came to this conclusion by realising that I had more to say about reviewing and concluding from my experience then the doing and the feeling.
From the outcome of this ,I then decided to look into Gardner's view on having multiple intelligences;spacial, Logical-mathmatical, Interpersonal etc. I remember doing a questionnaire at school on this matter. So I went online and found a 'Multiple Intelligence Survey'. Unfortunately, it was for children but it had the affect I wanted . Out of this I came out as Bodily- Kinaesthetic . Gardner identified that there can be 'Multiple Lenses' through which we learn, enabling us to not be confined by one learning style. Me using both Kolb's and Gardners Ideas proved this theory.I feel that I now have a good basis of different learning tools I can use to help my personal learning through out this course & career because of Gardner and Kolb.
Of course, there are oppositions to all these written down thesis's. Tufnell & Crickmay describe their views on reflection as a more spiritual discovery. "It is within our bodies, in our industrial and sensory responses, that we discover the changing field of what is happening to us"(2004). Sometimes, words can not describe what our body is feeling or doing but there is importance that we try to convey them into words or other interpretations. Some people are Verbal- Linguistic or Logical- Mathematical's. They would find it hard to interpret a dance sequence by just watching you and your muscle-memory. This has been very interesting to me, as I am quite the non-verbal dancer and I now know the importance of being able to recall on idea's and put into perspective everybody's different learning requirements.
On researching Reflective Practice , I came across an Essay titled "Private Practice:Schön and the missing dimension" by Ben Kotzee, from the university of London.It is questioning wether Reflective Practise is needed or useful to the individual in any way.Reading through his interesting paper and why he feels that there is not much point in critical reflection I came across Ludwig Wittgenstein and his book "Philosophical Investigations".A section from Wittgenstein's book to make you think about language;
Reflection-in-Action is the reflection of ones actions simultaneously. Reflection-on-Action is to reflect at a later time, when one is out of the situation. Kottcamp conveys the previous as the harder of the two, with which I disagree. However, that may be because I am from the reflection-in-action mindset. I like the idea that I can make a correction or adapt straight away on a matter, that to me shows alertness and a type of intelligence that not many people could achieve. I might presume that I admire this way of thinking as it is a popular belief that dancers are less intellectual than others. Reflection-in-action, I feel proves them wrong. Reflection-on-action , gives you the time and full engagement that you might need to reflect on a matter. There is no dead line or immediate need for conclusion like on-line reflective practice.
Probably the most common tool to use for Personal Reflection is a diary and can be extremely beneficial to us as individuals. I myself struggled at first with my diary, wondering what to put and wether it was relevant or not. After reading Reader 2 and doing some more in depth research, I came across the idea of having a 'Reflective worksheet' to use as my diary entry.Example below.
file://localhost/Users/philipclarke/Desktop/Diary%20Entry.pdf
Using Gibbs debriefing of Kolb's cycle for my inspiration. The questions are already there waiting to be answered and I found it nice to have some structure. This is presumably come from my dance background of always having structure.
Peer discussions can also be helpful for reflective practice. There is no doubt that quizzical discussions between peers opens the minds of every individual, while being able to share opinions and resources makes these group discussions invaluable. Being at a performing arts school we also had a lot of personal and one on one feedback. We were able to have 10-15 minutes of an individual teachers time , with which they presented us with a feedback sheet with good qualities and improvements that we could work on. Being able to inquire about personal issues to the sole teacher, I found to be very helpful as I was given feedback which was personal to me and I felt that I was getting the right attention that I needed in certain area's.
'We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on the experience' (Dewey) . Taking in to consideration that reflective thought is supposed to be an active thought process, it should make it easier to use these thought patterns , being an active person. Looking at Kolb's learning cycle you can see how all of these aspects would come into play within my profession. For example, you may try to do a certain dance move. It doesn't quite work the way you want it to, so you watch the choreographer again. Taking in tiny gestures that they do ,there footwork etc. You wonder what is different from what you are doing to them. You then take into consideration what you have watched and thought about , to then try again - The Cycle
So I decided to use this diagram and use my own experience's. I used an audition I attended last.At which point, I found out that surprisingly I am more of a Theorist compared to an Activist ,which startled me. I came to this conclusion by realising that I had more to say about reviewing and concluding from my experience then the doing and the feeling.
From the outcome of this ,I then decided to look into Gardner's view on having multiple intelligences;spacial, Logical-mathmatical, Interpersonal etc. I remember doing a questionnaire at school on this matter. So I went online and found a 'Multiple Intelligence Survey'. Unfortunately, it was for children but it had the affect I wanted . Out of this I came out as Bodily- Kinaesthetic . Gardner identified that there can be 'Multiple Lenses' through which we learn, enabling us to not be confined by one learning style. Me using both Kolb's and Gardners Ideas proved this theory.I feel that I now have a good basis of different learning tools I can use to help my personal learning through out this course & career because of Gardner and Kolb.
Of course, there are oppositions to all these written down thesis's. Tufnell & Crickmay describe their views on reflection as a more spiritual discovery. "It is within our bodies, in our industrial and sensory responses, that we discover the changing field of what is happening to us"(2004). Sometimes, words can not describe what our body is feeling or doing but there is importance that we try to convey them into words or other interpretations. Some people are Verbal- Linguistic or Logical- Mathematical's. They would find it hard to interpret a dance sequence by just watching you and your muscle-memory. This has been very interesting to me, as I am quite the non-verbal dancer and I now know the importance of being able to recall on idea's and put into perspective everybody's different learning requirements.
On researching Reflective Practice , I came across an Essay titled "Private Practice:Schön and the missing dimension" by Ben Kotzee, from the university of London.It is questioning wether Reflective Practise is needed or useful to the individual in any way.Reading through his interesting paper and why he feels that there is not much point in critical reflection I came across Ludwig Wittgenstein and his book "Philosophical Investigations".A section from Wittgenstein's book to make you think about language;
"I send someone shopping. I give him a slip marked 'five red apples'. He takes the slip to the shopkeeper, who opens the drawer marked 'apples', then he looks up the word 'red' in a table and finds a colour sample opposite it; then he says the series of cardinal numbers—I assume that he knows them by heart—up to the word 'five' and for each number he takes an apple of the same colour as the sample out of the drawer.—It is in this and similar ways that one operates with words"
I feel this reverts back to Graham Mcfee's description of what is a bachelor. Correct we could not understand the concept of a Bachelor with out understanding what is marriage but from this example from Wittgenstein's book, it shows evidence that by just watching and then interpreting this knowledge into our own minds that to a certain extent, we can make assumptions to the correct answers of what words are. Having this experience of seeing the word 'apple' on the slip of paper and then reflecting that there was a draw containing apples, labelled 'apples' we can then notice that we have indeed learnt something with out fully understanding it but from that experience have gained the knowledge of what an 'apple' could be. This also leads back to Dewey's idea's that the quality of education is linked to the level of engagement while being conscious that you are learning from the experience.
While being in the professional dance class you often hear teachers interoperate moves with sounds "whoosh", "BAM", "ahh". Those words are associated with a feeling that the choreographer wants you to capture in your movement. Everybody in the room will have a different interpretation of what the choreographer wants from these words and the choreographer themselves will not be able to describe to any one exactly what they want. Which brings me to a section in Reader 2 "Have you ever known something before you realise what it means to you". We know that if the choreographer shoots his right arm in the air with a "BAM" sound, he would like the movement to be sharp and dynamic. We only know this from interpreting earlier movements with the same sound and copying their actions.We couldn't actually describe what the words "BAM" means.
All of these Theorists have really opened my mind as to wether we need to interoperate all that we know into words. As we can use our vision, hearing and gut feelings to learn from other beings. "Practitioners know more than they can say"(Schön 1983). Yet the importance of being able to describe ones ideas and feelings to others and be able to put them on paper seems crucial.
Practitioners can continue to learn, grow and develop in and through their practice. (Jarvis 1992)
Critical reflection I believe is extremely useful ,as how can we use an experience and then truly learn something from it with out breaking it down and understanding every part of it.It requires communication sometimes beyond our reach and as the world is expanding with new tools and with more experience's that are open to us ,we need to be able to understand and take part in them while being fully engaged with our Professional Practice.
References
Christopher Johns Guided Reflection: A Narrative Approach to advancing
Howard Gardner (1983) Frames of Mind the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Professional Practice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice#Gibbs_1988
Kolb ,D.A (1984) Experimental Learning
Kottcamp, R.B (1990). Means for Facilitating Reflection. Education anad Urban
Society.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953) Philosophical Investigations.
P.Jarvis (1992) Reflective Practice and Nursing, in Nurse Education today Vol 12
Private Practice:Schön and the missing dimension, Ben Kotzee
While being in the professional dance class you often hear teachers interoperate moves with sounds "whoosh", "BAM", "ahh". Those words are associated with a feeling that the choreographer wants you to capture in your movement. Everybody in the room will have a different interpretation of what the choreographer wants from these words and the choreographer themselves will not be able to describe to any one exactly what they want. Which brings me to a section in Reader 2 "Have you ever known something before you realise what it means to you". We know that if the choreographer shoots his right arm in the air with a "BAM" sound, he would like the movement to be sharp and dynamic. We only know this from interpreting earlier movements with the same sound and copying their actions.We couldn't actually describe what the words "BAM" means.
All of these Theorists have really opened my mind as to wether we need to interoperate all that we know into words. As we can use our vision, hearing and gut feelings to learn from other beings. "Practitioners know more than they can say"(Schön 1983). Yet the importance of being able to describe ones ideas and feelings to others and be able to put them on paper seems crucial.
Practitioners can continue to learn, grow and develop in and through their practice. (Jarvis 1992)
Critical reflection I believe is extremely useful ,as how can we use an experience and then truly learn something from it with out breaking it down and understanding every part of it.It requires communication sometimes beyond our reach and as the world is expanding with new tools and with more experience's that are open to us ,we need to be able to understand and take part in them while being fully engaged with our Professional Practice.
References
Christopher Johns Guided Reflection: A Narrative Approach to advancing
Howard Gardner (1983) Frames of Mind the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Professional Practice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice#Gibbs_1988
Kolb ,D.A (1984) Experimental Learning
Kottcamp, R.B (1990). Means for Facilitating Reflection. Education anad Urban
Society.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953) Philosophical Investigations.
P.Jarvis (1992) Reflective Practice and Nursing, in Nurse Education today Vol 12
Private Practice:Schön and the missing dimension, Ben Kotzee
Tufnell and Crickmay (2004) A widening Field: Journeys in Body andImagination.
http://www.lauracandler.com/free/misurvey (Garder Multiple Intelligence quiz)
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