Ethics Task 5a

To help me think about what ethics are within my work place I brain stormed some ideas.

Please see pic below;

 

The key aspects that stood out working with children and working within an educational setting are;

·         Data Protection; contact details, photos.

·         Confidentiality for staff and pupils.

·         Safeguarding policies for pupils and staff.

·         School policies on behaviour, health and safety etc.

·         Job Contract agreement/ responsibilities.

·         Fair treatment for pupils and staff.

·         Always act in a professional manner e.g. language/behaviour.

·         Be politically correct; discourage discrimination/racism towards staff and pupils.

·         Parent consent and support.

·         Internet; social media, e-mail, google search, networks.

 

 

Campus Session 2 Positionality

It was great to feel like a proper University student at this campus session, as Alan gave us a proper lecture about ‘Positionality’. I kept some notes on the lecture so if anyone wants to know what we discussed during the session please see my notes below:

What is Positionality?

Positionality is thinking about yourself on where you are and the content. To source something it has to come from somewhere. Alan described positionality as;

 

‘How we come to make sense of things depends on where we are coming from.’

(Alan Durrant)

 

You can observe other people’s positionality, by doing this you discover that people’s position depends on their opinion and perspective.

 

Different accounts of knowledge

Metaphysics

·         Believe that existence can be explained through ideas separate from our everyday experiences so beyond our physical experiences e.g. religion.

 

Rationalism

·         Believe that knowledge can be derived from rational and logical thought based on deductive argument.

 

Empiricism

·         Believe that knowledge derives from processing our sensory experiences e.g. scientific method. Empiricism makes sense of the world through observations of the world and experiences.

 

Pragmatism

·         Believe that we can understand the features of the world by what things do, rather than an imposed meaning. E.g. what’s a cup? Think if you were an alien or explaining it to someone not from Earth. Knowledge is built on scientific method.

 

Embodied Knowledge

·         We understand the world in all the ways we experience it.

 

Why are the theories of philosophers important to us?

We can use the theories of philosophers in today’s society by adopting a position in what matters to you e.g. scientific point of view looking at sensory experiences of a situation e.g. teaching a dance class.

 

Alan emphasised about looking at your ‘practice’ and step out of your normal position to assess and get an idea and different perspective.

 

Didacticism – Constructivism

·         Can knowledge be ‘transmitted’? or is it ‘constructed’?

 

Knowledge Landscape

·         Theology (super natural)

·         Humanities (analytical, critical, speculative)

·         Natural Sciences (demonstrate qualities)



•    Social Sciences ( demonstrate qualities)

The Experiencing self and the remembering self

·         All of our experiences pass away forever only the memories that we make remain. Alan suggested looking at Daniel Kahneman’s research based on Experience V Memory.

·         We make our own sense of the world.

 

To finish off the lecture Alan explained ‘How does these theories relate to BAPP arts?’

·         Inquiry is the making sense of something from a particular position.

·         Ethics is the account we give of our interactions with other people shaped by our positionality.

·         Reflection is a process by which we make sense of our positionality.

 

Ethics links to positionality by revisting practice with theory. Think about what you do practically with theories.

 

Second part of the campus session we split up into module groups. Module 2 discussed Module 5 Ethics with Alan. We discussed steps to take in order to protect those people involved within our research. Alan emphasised we cannot conduct inquiry unless we have ethical approval from authority of setting/company/individual and the university.

 

We all took turns in discussing our ideas of questions of inquiry it was great to bounce ideas around and help each other to move forward with our inquiries.

 

We also run over the summary of assessment what we need to do for module 2 and what is expected of us.

 

I hope some of these notes have helped Alan said he would put his power point slides on moodle/blog so please visit for more details.

 

Learning Through Play Early Years.

If anyone's interested in early years development and how singing, dancing and acting is part of the early years curriculum here is a good link from the Northen Ireland Curriculum by Bernadette Duffy:

http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/docs/foundation_stage/learning_through_play_ey.pdf

Task 4b/c

I've recently been setting up my SIG group for my questions of inquiry.

As research I've discussed my questions with fellow work colleagues at school (Teachers). This was very helpful as it's given me lots of ideas where I could take my inquiry and develop my questions further.

As a useful tool we brain stormed ideas, below is what came out from the discussion:

 

 

Looking at the question:

 

'In what ways does singing and movement help with early years development?'

 

I discovered how much is used within the early years curriculum to encourage pupils learning. It's used across the spectrum from maths; counting songs to role play to literacy; story telling. From this discussion I would like to include drama/acting to the question as it involves all the aspects of performing, so I'm thinking of re-wording the question to:

 

'In what ways does singing, drama and movement help with early years development?'

 

Working within early years on a daily basis I know that singing, drama and movement is used within the early years curriculum so I feel my lines of inquiry need to discover the ways in which it is used? when it is used? why it is used? Maybe look at how it has encouraged pupil development?

 

I feel my next steps to develop my inquiry is to research what people have written about the effectiveness of singing/drama and movement in early years development? and why these areas are important within the early years curriculum?

 

From discussing with my fellow teachers they have suggested some theorists to research so this is my next step! 





Task 4A- Developing Questions for Professional Inquiry

After looking at Reader 4, I’ve spent some time thinking about areas of inquiry within my professional practice I want to explore more and develop to enhance my future career.

The difficulty I had whilst thinking of questions of inquiry is combining my singing teaching, my early years T.A. teaching and my experience of working as a professional Musical theatre performer together.  

My experience as a professional musical theatre performer has a great influence on my teaching style within the classroom setting and private setting, I feel it helps me look at teaching pupils from a different angle by bringing energy, enthusiasm and create ideas to the classroom.

It’s important for me to develop areas of inquiry that combine all my areas of professional practice that I participate in on a daily basis. By developing an inquiry that has this combination will give me confidence in applying for PGCE/QTS qualification after my degree, as this will give me an upper hand during interviews for future career opportunities discussing topics that are relevant to my daily professional practice.

Below are some possible questions of inquiry, please feel free to comment and suggest ways to improve and develop them:

·         How effective are the use of management signals/actions  to control behaviour within a classroom setting?

 

·         Does singing and movement help with early years development e.g. fine/gross motor skills, imagination, phonics, social skills etc.

 

·         Does learning phonetic sounds with actions and rhymes help pupils retain information and develop their pupil progress.

 

·         Having fun, energetic, fast paced lessons make learning more fun and enjoyable for pupils within a class setting e.g. singing lessons, Read, write, ink sessions?

 

·         Does a pupil gain from private singing lesson 1:1 than being taught within a group class?

 

·         Do ex performers make more creative, imaginative teachers?

 

·         How/Does my performing experience and professional training influence my singing teaching style and technique?

 

·         By planning and following a lesson plan for my singing teaching lessons are they more effective in developing pupil’s talent and progress?

 

When discussing ideas of inquiry with my SIG I also touched areas of the following;

·         Cognitive learning- Singing warm-up exercises tried out on older pupils compared to younger pupils.

·         Learning differences- speed of learning an exercise.

·         Competence of maintaining correction and ability.

 

Campus session Feb 13th

It was great to see old and new faces at the campus session on the 13th Feb.

Paula led the session by discussing how to research topics we're interested in, to benefit our studies.

She emphasised the use of  'KEY WORDS' to direct your search but also allow researching to discover new things and avenues you wouldn't think of.

Points to remember when researching are:

• What are the conventions around that idea?
• Time? Culture?
• Make sense of the idea.
• Use experts to define the idea.
• Look at different perspectives on the idea e.g. historical, feminist, modern?
• Map out ideas to come to an evaluation/conclusion to explore in more depth.
• Consider arguments FOR and AGAINST.

First part of the session we did an fun exercise in groups of 4 my group were; Amy D'Arcy, Geri Masucci, Phil Carroll and Me.

Paula gave us the topic 'LOVE'. We came up with various ideas, meanings, definitions etc. below is what our group brain stormed:

All the groups came up with various meanings and perceptions of 'LOVE' two that stood out for our group were:

• How do we define the image of love?
• How with age does love grow or weaken?

However, other groups came up with ideas about arranged marriages and dating? So it just shows how 1 word can have such a variety of topics.

Using key words based on our two questions; 'Loyalty', 'heart', 'holding hands', 'cuddle/comfort', 'security' we looked up information and sources of literature using the programme 'SUMMONS'. Paula showed us how helpful it is for looking for sources for our literature review and finding evidence to support our professional inquiry. 'SUMMONS' can be found on 'My library' section of My Uni Hub. You can find magazine articles, books, newspapers, online sources etc.

Second half of the lecture we broke up into Modules. Alan spoke to Module 2 about developing our questions of inquiry and how SIG groups can be very helpful in discussing your ideas and progressing them further. This discussion helped me think about my questions more and gave me the opportunity to discuss ideas with Geri and Amy as we all currently teach in a school setting.

The campus session left me thinking about possible professional inquiry routes my difficulty is do I look at my singing teaching? or look at my teaching within my reception class? I know I want to keep my Inquiry educational/teaching based as I want to complete a PGCE/QTS once I've achieved my degree and this style of inquiry will be a great topic to discuss within an interview for job/ training opportunities.
 

Its study time again!

After having a lovely break and the relief of submitting module 1. It's time to get focused and jump back into study mode.

I'm looking forward to see where my professional practice journey is going to take me and what I will discover and learn about my practice. There is going to be lots of challenges and obstacles to overcome but I'm sure with determination and the support of fellow students we'll get through it!

I'm currently working through Reader 4, and I feel it's going to take me a few reads to get my head around it.

Look forward to reading your blogs and seeing some of you at the next campus session!

Take care, see you soon!