So I guess I need to tell myself off for not blogging enough! I have been getting a lot of work, research, analysis and general inquiry work done recently - wasn't feeling like it was hanging together in anyway but arranged a Skype conversation with Natalie and Kym which has really helped to talk things through - hopefully with a bit of refection time I will have a clearer idea of where I am heading with this stage of my work.
My recent thoughts towards approaching my inquiry of the impact of dance within primary education came from Adesola's comments on my inquiry basically being mapping children's learning of dance and how it impacts their general learning. This got me thinking about all the angles involved and my tools of research. I managed to put all information into 4 areas which, whilst being independent approaches, influence and impact upon each other. These are:
The children- how the children react to dance, how the children's grades compare to their dance ability.
The teachers- do they think dance is an important part of the curriculum? Do they think dance has any influence on the children's learning or school life?
The government- how do they class dance, how much emphasis is meant to be placed on dance? Who should teach dance?
Scientific research- What do we know about dance and it's impact on the brain and learning? Is it being researched? Do children need to enjoy dance?
I'm hoping to basically touch on all these areas and see how they link together within education.
Obviously this is brief and new and I hope to improve my ideas but I think so far this mapping approach seems to be helping me focus and avoid going off on a tangent!
Other than this, my data collection and research seems to be going to plan, observations and children's data has been collected, a few informal interviews have taken place and I have found some literature that seems to be fitting in well! Just got to get it down and analyse how it all fits together.
Hope I am on the right track!
Hi Hannah
ReplyDeleteGreat to read your blog. I am glad you arranged a group skype with Natalie and Kym. This sounds like things are making sense for you. Sounds like you are on the right track. I think how you are organising ‘mapping’ sounds really workable.
We missed you in the big Skype group call :( this week
Adesola
Hey Hannah,
ReplyDeleteJust reading what you said about grades reflecting ability... I think this is a really interesting topic of conversation. I can remember dance being taught at school and some of the more gifted dancers getting the similar marks to those who found dance didn't come as naturally. They were receiving a similar grade due to the 'ticking box' way of grading. For example the routine had to have certain elements, e.g. a jump, but how that jump wasn't always graded but rather the fact that they listened and out the jump in. Is this still the same now, or as it moved on? xxx