Finalist Presentations Tues Dec 18, Wed Dec 19...

FInalist Presentations...Tues Dec 18th and Wednesday Dec 19th

We have our Module Three MAPP finalists sharing their research inquiry journeys this week. It would be great if you can join us at all (via Skype) to be a part of their day and support each other.

I will set up a Skype Group Chat for the sessions Tues AM/PM and Wednesday AM Please comment below to say which day you would like to join (or both) and I will make the groups.

The schedules for the presentations are below, you are free of course to leave the call when you need to (we appreciate you may have other committments during the days).

Schedule of the day: Tuesday December 18^th 

Session One:

10.30-11.00 Garry Clarke (S) – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

11.00-11.30 Rebecca Sloan-Kirton  - Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

11.30-12.00  Elissavet Lintzerakou– Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

Session Two:

14.00-14.30 – George Kirkham – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

14.30-15.00 – Brandon Sears (S) – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

15.00-15.30 – Jane Syder – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

15.30-16.00 – Hannah Jackson (S)– Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

Schedule of the day: Wednesday December 19^th 

Session One:

10.00-10.30 Laura Dudman– Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

10.30-11.00 Chelsie Innes– Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

11.00-11.30 Joe Kenneday (S) – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

11.30-12.00 Katherine Bates(S) - Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

12.00-12.30 Sunita Bolton– Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

12.30-13.00 Emma Coutler - – Oral Presentation / Professional Artefact

Communication of ideas...

We had a good conversation at our 2nd Sunday discussion group. Centred around the notion of communicating ideas we had people across the three modules talking around language, connections, sharing and ways in which different contexts influence how we communicate our ideas.

A question that arose was around articulating what we mean by by 'academic language' and the broader need to unpick terms and assumptions.

We considered the 'i' in research...where you are within your practice, your research, your writing. 

The balance in considering who you are, what you value, what embodied knowledges shape your ideas and those you are communicating to and the forms that might take.

Please do add in the comments here further thoughts on this and links to your own blogs to continue to communicate and share our ideas.

A note on Drafts...

Drafts of work are in which is great! 

Drafts are intended to initiate a feedback dialogue (in person, skype, via email) with your supervisor, they are not usefully used to ask if things are 'right' or sent with an expectation of receiving corrections, by way of a pre-marking opportunity.

Please do receive feedback as an extended discussion of your work. 

Often feedback contains prompts for further reading, suggested texts/practitioners to look at, comments regarding the level of critical thinking/analysis in your writing over overly descriptive personal narrative approaches etc.. Feedback comments are not telling you to 'correct' something and re-submit, but more trying to help you to move your thinking and writing on as we see the process of your work developmentally.

With this in mind, when you have received feedback on a draft of work, please take time to read and consider comments made, come back to your supervisor asking to extend the conversation, arrange a skype is you have further thoughts and questions as a result of the feedback, but please try not to send a 2nd draft asking if the work is now correct.

At MA level we put our trust in you as professional people and see our role as supervisors as guding you, being a critical friend, promting, pushing your thoughts, challenging sometimes in order for you to develop further. We are not testing you getting things 'right' we are interested in your engagement and curiosity about your own work.

Making Connections...

In the 2nd of our discussion groups today we had some great conversations around notions of creativity, advocacy and leadership, social, economic and cultural implications of dance and dance training. Connections were made between themes of interest, across cultures and communities of practice, between theory and practice and through utilizing the comments thread on skype to share resources as we spoke. I heard a strong sense of community in the sharing of practices and noticed the different perspectives we all experience and how we are able to nurture a community of learning through revealing these connections.

Those that were a part of this disucssion please do add links to your blogs below in the comments!!



I thought I'd share as a reflection on the conversations on creativity in our teaching and learning some notes from my own early PhD research around the relationships between environments, creativity and rigor in dance improvisation...

Creativity is not a new concept and creative exploration is not necessarily about seeking or finding ‘newness’; it is about approaches to learning and living.  Creativity is about allowing, offering, inviting a clearing of mind/body/space through which to think/move/feel a little more freely, intuitively perhaps. Whilst not suggesting that creativity is exclusive only to dance and dancers, or indeed the arts, this is where my practice and understanding is formed.  For dancers to engage in a process of exploration (to be creative) is not uncommon, and yet the facilitation of environments conducive with, and the level of engagement and understanding from this engagement can vary considerably and should therefore not be taken as a given facet of dance. To be open to acknowledging and accepting alternatives through the challenging of existing assumptions is pivotal to my practice-as-research.  To be spontaneous whilst re-visiting, re-ordering, re-learning I believe is at the heart of creative exploration in the arts.

 An area I feel is problematic within dance improvisation as a practice of creative learning is its apparent lack of pedagogical structure and rigour, making it a little ambiguous as an educational experience when sitting alongside a curriculum of codified dance techniques with (through documentation at least) longer more hierarchic heritage.  There is an assumption following this line, that improvisation in dance is instinctively creative, as it is apparently without boundaries, open and free.  Context is critical here as we begin to unpeel the layers of the arts in society through to dance as an art, through to particular nuances within the dance experience.  In the context of mainstream Western society, the arts are generally perceived of as free, open, accepting, experimental and creative.  Dance as the most explicitly physical, sensory practice in the arts, attracts the same breadth of description in the context of the other arts.  Within dance, contemporary (modern, post modern) is generally regarded to be more 'creative' than classical ballet, and improvisation, with its perceived lack of form as 'the' creative dance.   

I wonder what your thoughts are around assumptions held with regard to technique, form, structure and pedagogical value in dance?

 

Ethics...

Those of you in Module Two you'll be starting to look at the ethical considerations of your research proposals and note that there are some ethical procedures for you to undertake as part of submitting your proposal at the end of this term.

We are using the MORE (Middlesex Online Research Ethics) programme - there is a link to this on your MAPP programme page. It would be good to take a look at this and begin to familiarise yourself with it. The Ethics application needs to be completed online for your Supervisor to review by November 23rd (this is when you will also send a draft of your inquiry proposal).

We will be running a skype session with you overviewing the whole Ethics process on SUNDAY NOV 4, 9PM (immediately after our group skype discussion group that evening) and a follow-up session to look at the MORE site and process in more detail on WEDNESDAY NOV 14, 8PM.

Please comment on Adesola's blog to 'sign-up' for these sessions...



 

Week 4...

As we start the fourth week of term there are a few check-in / reminders for you...

Module Ones - you should be formulating a list of your Area of Learning titles (AOLs) which will be the areas of your learning that you write short reflective essays on to make up your RPL claim (Recognised Prior Learning). This is a sustantial part of the first term of study and important to get moving on it now. We ask that you send your list of AOL titles to your Supervisor this week so that we can talk through these with you. We suggest that you then draft the first AOL, send this for feedback by November 5th (as indicated on your MAPP schedule). From the feedback discussion with your supervisor on the first AOL you can then move on and write the others. Be mindful of the connections you are making in your learning as you construct these AOLs, refer to the learning theories, ways of thinking that Module One is introducing you to and use these to understand the process of Reflection you are applying in order to look back and evaluate past learning experiences.

Module Twos - Reading. Mapping the field of your proposed area of research and getting into what it is to PLAN a research inquiry. Remember in this module your are PROPOSING an area of research for inquiry and seeking the University to approve this before undertaking it (in Module Three). Look at what a proposal needs. How can someone external to you be assured that your research inquriy has been considered ethically, has relevance to your field of professional practice and demonstrates an awareness of others already talking, doing, writing in this field? How do you PLAN a practice-based project?

Module Threes - Out in the field, gathering your data. What are you noticing? How are things taking shape, or throwing you off track? Are new doors opening that you may not have anticipated? Be open to the process of your research and journey through it keeping a sense of curiosity and wonder about the area you have chosen to explore rather than being on a mission to find answers to your questions. Share your process through your blogs, share what you are noticing...

We look forward to hearing your thoughts from all modules through your blogs!



Week 4 is also the time administratively when things need to be in place. You MUST now be enrolled for the correct module DAN4510 - Module One / DAN4630 - Module Two / DAN4760 - Module Three. Any problems here PLEASE contact our Admissions team immediately and let your Supervisor know.

Knowing and Learning - Sunday discussions...

This month's Sunday Discussion groups focused on the notions of Knowing and Learning. Discussions in the first group covered how we feel we (as dance teachers) prepare and respond to our student's needs for knowledge, how we facilitate learning and how we observe learning as developmental over time as we see student's progression. There was some discussion around how influenced we are in our learning from the teaching we experienced as students, but some gaps here perhaps between the experiences of us as learners and how we are positioning our students learning? Adesola is talking more about this through her blog from today.

The thoughts around learning as a process and knowing as fluid interested me most here.
How might we see knowing as transformational?
How might we use reflection in learning?

 What do you think?



The second discussion group veered more towards teaching/learning and assessment and the relationships between these in different contexts, different parts of the world. Something that struck me in these conversations was the sense of wanting to nurture and help students grow and develop autonomy in their learning through their dancing, while (as teachers) feeling the external pressures of the systems of the school, government, and a general lack of agency these may put on that learning. I wonder how we - as artists (teacher, learners, people) respond to this. I wonder how we might foster 'bettter', more creative relationships between the inner rhythms, our inner dance and the environment that shapes that. What might that look and feel like if we were to bring these conversations around teaching, learning and assesment back to the body and pause to listen...

Love to hear your thoughts and continue the conversations through your own blogs...