My Critical reflection for the end of Module One.

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The link above is the link to my final draft of my critical reflection essay for the end of module 1. I feel I have overcome such a milestone in completing this part of the course and I definitely feel a lot better then when I started. I know its too late for helpful comments now but I thought it might be helpful for all the people starting in January or later.

3B Theories relating to network.

Being part of a professional network is something ,before reading Reader 3,I didn't know I was a part of. Also, I didn't know really how many professional networks I was a part of. When you follow a company or dancer on a social network, you then become a part of that network.

Cooperation in Professional Network.
What came to my mind when I read this section, after I read up upon 'Prisoner's Dilemma' was how ,when we had cardio lessons with Kevin Adam's at Bodywork, that if one individual gave up then we would all suffer and do another set of sit ups, squats etc. In the same way that if the prisoners decided to rat each other out or just prisoner A gave up prisoner B , Prisoner B would suffer while Prisoner A gets away with it. Just how say , Jane gives up on squats because it hurt , everybody else carries on but she gets a break, then Kevin catchers her then we all suffer another set because of Jane. It is always in our best interest's to cooperate with one another to get the end best result. Working within a professional practice, it is necessary as we are always working with someone else; wether you are dancing in a group having to cooperate with other dancers or doing a solo, then cooperating with the lighting and stage managers. It is easier in life in every one cooperate's , I personally believe that I get along with most people as I don't like to cause drama but I can think of some people who would benefit from learning how to cooperate as seeing them have conflicts from disagreeing with a higher dancer has cause them to be cut from choreography and they will not be working with them in the future. 


Affiliation in professional Network.
Affiliation is a social process that provides us with a 'network of support that will help us when we are in need' ( Reader 3, Crisp & Turner 2007) . O'conner & Rosenblood's theory of Homeostasis made more sense when I looked up what Homeostasis was. One example from the internet is that of when the human body regulates it's temperature on the inside because of the conditions on the outside, it balances. Thus referring to the need to affiliate with others differs with in each one of us yet affiliation and interaction to each persons desired level is the main goal for everyone.It is nice to realise this for myself as I do tend to become introvert when I first meet somebody but if everybody deep down really does just want to interact then there is nothing to be cautious about, as long as they are decent people.

I do think culture plays quite a big role in how we affiliate as people. I find that the British culture is very reserved and keep themselves to themselves, contrary to people brought up in the Caribbean , where you whole neighbour hood is your friend and I have found them to be very social and open people who love to be in peoples company 24/7. 

Referring to the question in the reader 'Is professional Networking an extension of our innate capacity and need to affiliate to develop our careers?' I believe the answer is yes. Now that the internet along with its social networks have been created, people of the word have become lazy and would rather interact with their friends online. This is still because of every human beings need for interaction. But for those of us who are using it to develop certain professional skills, I think that Dancer's in-particular are extremely social beings, it is to do with our need to affiliate and our ease with human contact. 


Connectivity
Connecting with each other. We understand things more through other people talking to us and interacting about the subject with us. Through our interactions, we make meanings and morals that we give to our networks.  Through interacting with our friends and family from young ages, there is where we made our very first morals and got our values from.I am using my networks for my career and social life yet I see some people using them for purely vein purposes, for their ego's and self esteem. Examples such as girls and guys posting nude picture online for the attention of men or women on their networks that is just their social and personal network , they're not glamour models , so its not for their job other wise that is the using it for their career.  


I tend to be very stubborn about my opinions but being able to read other peoples blogs and having the chance to see how everyone has they're own view on each task's is really mind opening for me. From doing this task I now understand that we all like to interact with each other, sometimes I doubt myself as to wether I should comment on someones work, will they think I'm being horrible, but it is just a chance for two new people to interact about a subject they have in common. And after all, that is a big part of this course also.







     

3A..Theories relating to networking

I use Facebook and twitter and a website called 'The Stage' to engage in professional work opportunities, I simply check on them each day to see if any new auditions or jobs are coming up. A choreographer that I know uses twitter and facebook to post everyday what time her classes are and if there are any special choreography requests for that class.   

Daily I use Instagram ,whatsapp and Facebook for general social networking, catching up with friends etc. I hopefully intend to send up a separate instagram just full of dance pictures to enhance my professional profile. I prefer to use  instagram to flickr just because I already have a vast network of people I know on there, therefor making it easier for people to see my work account. Using instagram , I will be able to upload pictures and video's of my work along with hashtags to be seen by a vast audience across the world and friends and colleges in my profession. 

Task 2D...Inquiry

Reflection in my practice is used world wide , Dancers are constantly reflecting because they thrive to improve.They want to be better than the person standing next to them; to get the job. I always come out of an audition and straight away think "I should of done this". Now from this course I think more in the lines of "why didn't I do this" , "what were the circumstances of why I could achieve what I wanted".

Everybody has question's about life. Wether its on a surface level of work promotions and social events or deeper things such as contentess and happiness within ones self. I personally like the ways of Buddha for the questions which I ask myself. "We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that will never leave". 
Professionally I question "Was this the right thing to do?", "Is this what I want from life?". Im always questioning my self, am I good enough? This probably comes from having trouble believing in myself. Am I skinny enough, am I not pretty enough? I think my profession does have an impact on the way we, especially females, view ourselves. Not getting a job simply because of hair colour or height. However, the panel never tell you why you didn't get that particular job so the mind starts to sway, was there more to it? 

However, I try to keep my thoughts and mind positive. I prefer to ask myself more pleasant questions. " I wonder when my next job will be?" , "I wonder if the choreography will be great in the next audition" etc.

I really admire Darcey Bussell,as she was told in earlier training that she would never be a ballerina..look at her now! She started training as a Ballerina at the Royal Ballet School at what is to be considered the late age of 13 and is still working now of shows such as 'Strictly Come Dancing". 
I had a Ballet teacher at Bodywork called Kasper Cornish who really inspired me. He was such a fun and bubbly spirit. He would come in to class after doing research in his own hours to show us videos of amazing dancers. We weren't just watching them for fun. We all know that every teacher has a different style. Most teachers say the you should releve onto a pirouette never rise. However, Kasper had come in to show us videos of people rising onto pirouettes and doing 30-40 of them. He inspired me to look at all these amazing artist's on YouTube and I learnt that there never really is a right or wrong way to do things , if the result is the same.

It frustrates me when people ask "Why haven't you got a dance job yet". People don't understand how hard this profession is. They do not understand how many people there are in the UK wanting to be professional dancers. I get angry when I am in an audition and there is no room what so ever and they expect you to still make an impression. The message board on www.MyFitnessPal.com also expresses some of these feelings when they go into a Zumba class for example.

I liked the question in the Handbook about physical contact with another professional the might seem inappropriate to somebody else, and why is that different? Because it is completely true that while your part of a company you have quick changes so theres bare skin every where, to cool down you just stand there in your underwear in the presence of men , of which I would never do in any other situation. Why? I think this is because when you are a dancer and dancing with somebody , you get to know them very well. They're misplaced hands and sweaty feet , there is no room for embarrassment or self consciousness if you are dancing with a partner. 
Yet with another non performing human being you never get that close that quickly so you have the rules and regulations that you have been set in , mostly from your parents growing up and the people around you. 

Task 2c. Reflective Theory

I as well as many others participating in this course are professionals in one art form or the next. Straight away Im sure most of us would assume that we are reflection-in-action people with no doubt in our mind. Coming from a dance background I have trained to change what I am doing ,if it is incorrect ,straight away. 

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.

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

Tufnell and Crickmay (2004) A widening Field: Journeys in Body andImagination.

http://www.lauracandler.com/free/misurvey (Garder Multiple Intelligence quiz)

My Journal

Im a bit unsure as how to start doing my journal. I've kept one before while I was at Bodywork and found it really easy. Writing in the corrections for that day, about the teachers we had and their different styles and what projects were coming up. 

However, my life seems utterly boring at the minute, there seems like nothing to write down. I haven't been able to get to london for a few weeks for any auditions, one because there isn't many going on and two, I go to New York next week so I'm saving all my pennies for then! Im just working in retail. I know everybody's journals are private but if any of you out their could maybe tell me how you started yours or maybe somethings that you talk about if you are in the same predicament as me?

Please and Thank you.

Amelia x

Task 1b. Professional communication technologies.

On completing Reader 1 , I now realise how much I have used Web 2.0 with out really knowing it was or understanding its full capacity. Reader 1 was quite explanatory with what Web 2.0 is and how it can be described.

I looked into MOOC's (Massive Open Online Course) after and realised how vastly used world wide they are. Doing an online course, which we are all doing, there are so many benefits. There are no boundaries from which we have to conform to, unlimited access to everybody's blog and respective knowledge from varied backgrounds. Although some of us may find it hard to come up with our own individual content and not all of us can put in 100% all of the time due to the fact of professional careers but thats the beauty of an online course isn't it? Being able to have that professional career while earning a degree. 

We do not have to sit in the classroom and copy from the board. We can use Web 2.0 tools as part of our inquiries and learning techniques. Having these tools enable's us to critique our own and others work and communicate to thousands of practitioners. It's incredible. No more libraries or struggling to find information. It's all there at the click of a button.

When i looked at the Social Media Statistics : January 27, 2013 , I looked down the list and counted that I use ten of those social media sites quite regularly and have never thought how each one of those could be used for my career before the start of this course. How many other people in this world use these sites and do not know how much they could benefit them. I had a comment from Emma Price that suggested schools teaching children about Web 2.0 form a younger age so they could fully understand all of its benefits and they could use all of these Social Media sites to their full ability. I thought it was a very valid question/point.

I then tried to look at "Is Connectivity a Human Right?" from Facebook but couldn't read the link as my mac doesn't open PDF files, I must sort that out! There was a brief introduction of what would be talked about in the file and how Facebook wants to help connect more people over the world, together. However, I did find a very interesting video on how Facebook (and I figure other social media) sites can help raise awareness of all types of things. This video for example is for Dalit Human Rights: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdtqxHUjHAE

It shows how Facebook is a cheap and rapid way of getting peoples attentsion on important matters and how companies can use such websites to promote their charities and other business prospects. Which reminds me of when the video of a cop in America shooting down a mans dog avoidably, went viral. I felt very strongly about this situation and I then proceed to post picture's and hash tags such as #Justiceformax  on my own instagram and twitter. I got comments from people across the world liking my pictures as I have the same breed of dog that got shot and commenting and asking me to sign petitions. This all happened within the space of less than a day. It's incredible what we can do with Web 2.0 

Amelia-Jay x