Welcome back one and all! I have to say, I have had a wonderful summer off and now am ready to get back into the world of BAPP! Having had 6 weeks off work altogether (2 of which on a beautiful beach in Jamaica!) It has been a bit of a shock to the system to get back to full time work so I am glad I have had a few weeks settling back into my routine before module 2 has kicked into gear!
So back to the usual routine - download the latest reader and panic. Leave it a few days and come back to it feeling a little less alarmed. Go away again and find my brain starting to think about issues raised, stew on thoughts and come up with new ideas. Research some of my thoughts and then let the penny drop ready to get on with it!
I'm still not fully there however would like to share a few ideas in order to begin developing questions to go towards my professional inquiry.
As I work full time in a very creative school, a lot of my time is spent with children teaching dance, leading morning exercise sessions, creating routines for songs to go in many performances and running extra curricular clubs. For this reason, I would like to keep my inquiry around the topic of children and education. I have a few ideas for which angle to take and don't want to make my mind up yet - I will do a little more research before then.
I am particularly interested in encouraging and engaging boys in dance, helping them to understand how broad a subject it is and how many different benefits it can bring.
How can boys education be enhanced through dance?
How can I, as a dance teacher, engage boys in many styles of dance, throughout all ages?
On the other hand I would like to look into the influence dance can have upon young children - the ways it can impact on their development and approach to learning and life skills.
How can dance impact the initial stages of a child's education?
Why should young children be introduced to dance?
Maybe looking into the short term and long term benefits of dance - how it can impact their education and life skills both immediately and then in the long run. This could include the obstacles they may face and how they might be overcome through dance,
What impact can regular dance lessons have upon children within education?
How can dance aid children improve their learning, across the curriculum?
Please help me by commenting on this post. Am I on the right track or being to specific with my lines of inquiry? These are all areas that I am already very passionate on and so I am finding it quite difficult to get a balance between a good open question and one that is too vague!
Thank you, and happy thinking!
Hi Hannah
ReplyDeleteThis inquiry stuff is new to me so I can only give my opinion. I think you are on the right track, in the sense that the way to a good Inquiry is to ask the right questions. I have put up a few basic questions, but not sure if many are relevant to all my fellow students, as most are from a dance background.
Thanks for your input Joe. I will take a look at your questions! I think it's best to keep the questions open for now so we can keep our options and minds open before focussing on a more specific inquiry.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI like the questions that you've posted up here, very similar to mine, though rather than early education I have placed my focus on non-mainstream education and the importance of the arts within it. Can you take a look at my questions and comment your thoughts, still not sure if I'm doing this task right!
Also, if I add you on Facebook do you want to create a SIG? Our questions are similar and think we could be good at developing each others' inquires.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteSearched for you on Facebook but can't work out which one is you! Can you search for me? My profile photo is me wearing a flowery dress and my boyfriend in a wedding suit wearing a green tie.
Thanks for your comments, I have been to your profile and commented on your questions, really like the angle you're taking. I have copied the web address to my facebook profile, hope this works so e can set up the SIG. Please let me know!
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/hannah.rose.shepherd
Hi Hannah, I have added you as a friend, once you have accepted I will add you to the SIG. Hope you ok? xx
DeleteHannah, I think your inquiry may support elements of my inquiry, although our art fields are different. I am looking at creativity in primary schools, although I am not looking at dance primarily, as this is not my art specialism, I would like to include elements of dance as part of my inquiry. Your questions and inquiry are very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI do believe dance is important element of creativity in a primary school. Drama/acting can also be good for some high Function Autism children and develops social skills. Your school also seems very creative, and although we have different art genres, I am also a Teacher Assistant.so I could help with elements of your inquiry. I believe Dance is part of the PE Curriculum! At a previous school I worked at, they also included Dance as part of a Design & Technology Week. It may even be worth trying to get some male role models to see if that influences boys into dance! Dance can also help teach angles, direction and navigation.
I am looking to create a flexible SIG Group! To have a variety of view points and skills. I have been working in an Education environment as Teacher Assistant for seven years, have good art skills and can visualise things from different angles etc.. So can bring this to a SIG group. Happy to use Facebook
I like the idea of using different arts in a similar setting to help really get into different aspects of our inquiries. Dance is part of the PE curriculum, I have been teaching it in lessons for about 5 years now and am so impressed with the impact it has had upon the school. I wish all schools were as keen on giving up time for dance in order to reap the benefits to children's important learning skills.
DeleteAs with Anna above, I will give you the address to my facebook profile, let me know if this works and we can get the SIG into action! https://www.facebook.com/hannah.rose.shepherd
Thanks for your comments
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI hope you're well.
Just reading through this blog and the area that I would be interested to see develop with answers is on how to engage boys in dance.
I think that it's very strange when you go to a regular dance school and even a dance college to find that not even 20% of the class are boys, surely in this day and age that percentage should be increased so it's 50/50.
This to me makes me feel that dance is not being "sold" in its best form if it's not encouraging a wider male audience. Or is it that most boys still find dance to be a female hobby? With the number of dance programmes on TV today, all with females AND male dancers, it surprises me that even this doesn't seem to have worked to encourage boys into dance.
Just my thoughts about this and would love to see if you find any answers.
Carla x
Hi Hannah
ReplyDeleteI think this is enough of a direction for now - dance in the school system. You know the general area - now if you can trust what I am saying!!!!! you can let it stew - much like the process you described when you look at the Handbook and keep coming back/letting it stew. Now you need to move onto section five Ethics and then on to Research Tools. These sections are designed to add some spice to the stew, they SHOULD affect your questions - so no point in having it perfectly formed and then not wanting to change things. These sections and their tasks should make you look at the area of your question in different ways so that after you have finished going through all the tasks you and all the conversations you have about them you can come back to the question and fine tune it in terms of how you propose you will look into it - your research proposal. It might feel like you are moving away from your question area as you start section 5 but it is on the back burner. And in order to keep it stewing start to read published literature about the topic so you can become more in formed about your question area.
You are in a great place. have courage and move forward
Adesola
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI've added you on Facebook as I would like to join your SIG :)