As mentioned in my previous blog, i was still undecided in what direction i would be heading towards for my inquiry. Initially i was split between my future in teaching and running my business. It occurred to me that i didn't necessarily need to pick a side and would develop a set of questions which would benefit my future in teaching and also help evolve my business.
An interesting theory came to me the other day after a parent came and spoke to me at the end of one of my classes. Their child had only been attending my dance classes for a while but they were extremely complimentary towards my classes and mentioned that their child had been having a tough time at school with other children and since attending classes, their confidence had grown and they were now doing much better at school because of our school. This reminded me that in the past i have had numerous comments from parents along the same lines.
My further questions are:
1. Can dancing help improve a child's education?
2. What areas of my business can i improve to help develop a child's future?
3. Will children with learning difficulties benefit from dance classes?
4. Will exploring the history of dance help improve myself myself as an educator of dance? Will students benefit more from learning the history of the dance style they are learning?
An interesting theory came to me the other day after a parent came and spoke to me at the end of one of my classes. Their child had only been attending my dance classes for a while but they were extremely complimentary towards my classes and mentioned that their child had been having a tough time at school with other children and since attending classes, their confidence had grown and they were now doing much better at school because of our school. This reminded me that in the past i have had numerous comments from parents along the same lines.
My further questions are:
1. Can dancing help improve a child's education?
2. What areas of my business can i improve to help develop a child's future?
3. Will children with learning difficulties benefit from dance classes?
4. Will exploring the history of dance help improve myself myself as an educator of dance? Will students benefit more from learning the history of the dance style they are learning?
Hi Luke, I was just having a look at some of your questions and can see that you have some that are similar to mine.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in the benefits of dance education other than being able to jump higher and turn out more.
I actually work with adults with learning disabilities including some performing arts classes and am really interested in the social and emotional benefits. I know that the people I work with enjoy it but wonder if the classes could be tailored to get more far reaching benefits?
Do you think that this would be worth while knowledge for all dance teachers to have?
I think this is really interesting and valuable subject matter but I am not sure whether it would have wider implication for the whole of the dance education or not.
Any thoughts?
Danni.
Hi Danni,
DeleteYes i'm really interested in this topic. I've seen some vast improvements in different areas of the children i've been teaching. Social and emotional benefits is definitely a topic to took at.
I also want to explore the possibility of dance improving a child's concentration in school work? Are children that are doing dance out of school time improving academically?
Hi Luke,
ReplyDeleteFirstly great to hear you are recieving those comments from parents well done! I think you are right in thinking we do not have to choose a very selective path to go down as most of us are in stage of questioning where to go with our careers. However I worry that by opening my inquiry further will I be able to conduct sufficent research to answer it? What do you think?
In the campus session we disscussed how it is a good thing if our inquiry leads to more questions but does that mean we will never really find an answer? Just to go a bit deep :)
I am interested in how live theatre and workshops can reach out to a wider audience of young people. Are there any experiences with your school that you have had of this? Do many of your students get to experience live theatre or has their interest mainly come from tv and internet?
Thanks
Hollie
Hollie,
DeleteAt the moment that is also my main concern. I've found a topic that i might like to explore for my inquiry but not sure weather it will have enough questions to be answered.
With regards to live theatre and workshops. I'm not sure if my students get much access to live theatre but i usually run half term workshops and bring in various guest teachers to them something new and fresh, this seems to work extremely well.
However in this day and age, most of my students seem to get their inspiration from the internet and youtube.
Jo was looking at curriculum and the provision of dance as a business - or service. Just went to French relations for a birthday and talked to a couple who taught high school music in Black Heath London before moving to France - now they run a small business for community music lessons and performance - they talked about the need and how the business grew organically because French musicians do not like to work with amateurs. If that were my topic for example - I would pick some key concepts and go investigate what others knew about them - so French musicians attitudes to community based bands etc. So now you need to look into some of your topic areas to see which ones could be developed - this takes time so take the questions that have emerged- group them if needed - and spend some time looking and thinking - for example learning the history of dance - is it important when teaching? Jo is looking into this for tap...do you have a particular style you are thinking of here? Your business relates to children and parents - children's futures? providing integrated dance classes or not? Alison looked at this topic in her area http://alicejoynson.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteLook around - consider ethics as professional practice and as the ethical practice required by the university to carry out your practitioner research.
Others have commented Luke - so I will end my observances there - with the wider audience...
How are your inquiry questions getting on Luke? Bw
ReplyDeleteHi Paula,
ReplyDeleteI'm working towards these tonight and sunday. Getting a final idea of what my questions will be.