Progressing with Learning Styles starting with myself - VAK

I found a website which allowed me to complete a questionnaire and find out what type of learner I am. This has helped me to recognise what type of learner I am and it makes sense when looking back at my previous blog 'Literature - M. Gough' why I was engaged in the 'good' experience class as I realised after reading M.Gough's book that I needed to understand myself before understanding my students.

Here I scored;

Visually - 79%
Auditory - 60%
Kinaesthetic - 61%

http://teachertools.londongt.org/index.php?page=VAK

I am currently looking at other resources and specifically looking at debates of whether VAK works or not?

Literature - M.Gough

This book has so much information of how to become a great teacher and how to teach creatively. This will be great to tie in with my Inquiry as I really want to learn how to better my own practice as a teacher.

 

Student as a Learner

First of all Gough talks about the 'Student as a Learner' and how we need to know each student as an individual. We need to know;

Why are they there?

What do they hope to gain from the workshop/classes?

How do they see the workshop/class?

Who are they?

 

This will make me aware of how to deal with the student or any parents/guardians and how much you can push them in a class/workshop setting. For example you need to be aware if a child is there for a hobby and enjoys the socialisation whilst gaining confidence and qualifications in dance, or if a child is there as they may want  to peruse a career in dance so they will be focused and determined on that goal as well as loving attending class. As each child is there for different reasons it doesn't mean treating the children differently but if a child wants to take it up as a career you may approach them differently as they begin to grow and become more set on the idea of becoming a professional performer. This may mean that you could become harder on them if giving a correction especially if it is a reoccurring fault but you may push them a little harder which may challenge the whole group they are in as you wouldn't single them out but the main reason you are trying it out is for that specific student but the whole group benifits. This gives the whole group a challenge whilst having a bit of fun. Before doing this you would have to talk this through with the student and parents before carrying this procedure out.

It is necessary to be aware of the background and culture of the students. This will affect the form of the dance class and the choice of material, kinds of accompaniment, the method of presentation and strategies to be used. (M.Gough. pg. 8)

M.Gough went on to talk about how important it is to know what the background of each student.  This could effect how I may present my work or I may be more careful when choosing music.

Beginning with Ourselves

 

Further on I found it extremely interesting as she believes that we need to begin with ourselves and the way in which I am as a person and to recognise my own strengths and weaknesses. The way in which I speak, move and present myself will instantly have an effect on my students, this will automatically set you up for either a good class or a challenging one.

Effective teaching requires active participation and commitment by the teacher. (M.Gough, pg. 14)

I can relate to this a lot as I feel that when a teacher is 100% committed and dedicated in what they are teaching then the students will gain more from that subject. If a teacher joins in and gives everything and has gone away and done their own homework and research it provides the students a more exciting atmosphere and helps them to engage quicker and easier. When I was a student myself I gained more interest in the subject matter where the teacher was fully engaging us by their own enthusiasm of the subject rather than a teacher who would just read out of a text book.
When your engaged in a subject matter it is probably because the teacher has used their words creatively and their body movements match it. This also helps stimulate the students imagination and thought process making it a more colourful journey rather than a dull, dim one.

A teacher who uses language effectively and imaginatively, and who uses movement skilfully and expressively, can provoke, encourage and enthuse students to engage with the activity. (M.Gough, pg. 14)

As well as the way we portray ourselves in the class we need to make sure that the way we present the work and class is a way in which all students enjoy not making it too hard but not making it patronising. The involvement of all students must be kept fair and all students need to be kept engaged at all times. This will be easier if we, as teachers, have organised our classes, with the structure of the class set out in a way in which it will progress to make the students have a sense of achievement rather than getting bored and standing still. 

When trying to figure out what the best methods for teaching dance are, we need to look at ourselves and figure out where we gained interest from and how we learnt from our past teachers.

The more we understand about how we learn, the more effective we are likely to be as teachers. (M.Gough, pg. 14)

In the book it tells you to remember a good and bad learning experience and give reasons as to why they were. This reminded me of all the great points about the 'good' experience I had and also reminded me why by 'poor' learning experience was so bad. Here I have done a spider diagram to compare them both.

To the left is my spider diagrams and the right is the M.Gough book

Many points that I have already read about have appeared. The way in which they both came across right at the beginning of the classes were totally different as the 'Good experience class' teacher was very confident and kept herself as a teacher and didn't try to make friends with everyone where as the 'poor experience class' came across very unsure and tried to please everyone at the beginning of the class.
I will learn from this and keep in my head how I preferred my teachers to be and that I need to remember that as a dance teacher your not there to be their friend, you are there to teach and from being a great teacher it earns respect and a likability.

 

Framework

The 'dance as art' model - compose, perform, appreciate - provides a framework for planning and working.(M.Gough, pg. 5)

Reading this made me think of how this framework relates to my practice and how all three of these aspects are important for my own students to grow as performers.
Compose - the classes and rehearsals where the technique and hard work is produced.
Perform - this is where the hard work and classes pay off and the art of performance can be practiced whilst experiencing a fantastic opportunities.
Appreciate - is where the students are taught to look back and either think, be told or to see what they have achieved.
As a teacher I want all of my students to have the experience of doing all three of experiencing praise and a sense of achievement by learning to recognise their own achievements and to appreciate the hard work and effort they have put in.



Skype with Paula and Task 6A - Reviewing Reader 6

Skype with Paula

 

After contacting Paula on the 23rd March it all of a sudden made me realise how I needed to become more specific with my Inquiry and where I was to carry out the study into my Inquiry.

As I work in a variety of environments I came to the conclusion that I wanted to base it at my own Theatre School 'Step onto Stage' as I am my own Boss and can do Interventions with a variety of ages whilst being in control of forms and child protection at the same time.

As I spoke about what I wanted to achieve, Paula then reminded me that the VAK (Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic) learning investigation has already been done before, so instead I will need to find out how the VAK can help my own practice and how I would incorporate that in my place of work. As we spoke more and more I realised how much my Inquiry is about how I want to improve my own practice and how I want to gain more knowledge into catering to ever child's needs. I am enjoying how my Inquiry is helping my own business and myself which will also have a large impact on the teacher I hope to become.

 

Here is a Mind map of What I want to gain and have more knowledge in.

 

Above is my mind-map of all the different things that are going on in my mind that I want to be able to do so that I can become the best dance teacher and to get the most out of each student as possible whilst having fun by doing what they love to do.

 

I will now begin to look at other possibilities of titles however all the work I have looked into will be very useful and will enable me to look further and deeper into how I can incorporate the VAK rather than looking into what kind of learner are certain children etc. but to also look at other ways in which children benefit from learning.

 

Task 6A - Reviewing Reader 6

 

When researching further into our Inquiry we have four main research methods we can use;

- Observations

- Interviews

- Focus Groups and Surveys

- Looking at and analysing literature and documents

 

Observations

Due to me teaching whilst carrying out this investigation I will be able to observe what certain areas the majority of the group have responded to and what they haven't. This then can be recorded at the end of the class or during by jotting down and keeping a record on the record of interest over a certain amount of weeks. This can become time consuming as I would need to analyse my observations, to keep on top of this I could do an observation every other week rather than each week.

The observations can be done by taping/videoing however this would mean another consent form going out to parents and the keeping of confidentiality will become more difficult.

However much you can tell what your students have gained or not gained from a lesson this approach involves a non-verbal response from the students.

 

Interviews

I know that I will be wanting to interview certain people with a greater knowledge than my own within the areas in which I want to excel at as a teacher. By doing this I will approach people with my questions already thought out ready to question and discuss a certain issue but having the flexibility to delve into other areas that come up and have relevance to my inquiry.

I would prefer to do my interviews face to face whilst making notes.

The interview method involves questioning or discussing issues with people. There

are a number of different types of interview method (indebted to Bell, 2005).

• semi-structured interview which includes set questions or themes with

the flexibility of following interesting or useful emerging issues is often

most appropriate for the work-based researcher because of its

inherent flexibility.

• non-directive or open interviews that allow the interviewee to talk

about anything they like

• narrative inquiry (related to open) where the participants use a

storytelling format

• informal interviews which have an overall data gathering aim using an

extremely non-structured approach

• informal/guided interview which provides topic areas to cover but no

set questions. Interviews are time-consuming but they can allow the

collection of valuable data about motives, expectations and attitudes

that are very difficult to collect by any other means.(Reader 6, pg. 17) 

The two sections I have highlighted, which have been taken from the reader, will be the ways in which I would like carry out my interviews. I would like to do them in this style because if I have not got much knowledge in these areas, unlike the people I will be interviewing, I need to learn and take in what they are sharing as it may help me in my inquiry as it could link in with my inquiry which I may benefit from.

 

Questionnaires

As I will be working with a large group of children and a variety of ages I have decided that a questionnaire is the best idea by getting feedback off my students. To gain the best possible answers from them I feel that if the answers where numbers from 1 to 10, 1 being it didn't help at all and 10 being it helped me to really understand, then all age ranges will be able to answer clearly and effectively by circling the appropriate number to them. I am also contemplating on putting a small box under each question so any further comments can be written in more detail for those who are older.

Expect to receive approximately 20% response rate from a postal questionnaire and 50% from face to face delivery. (Reader 6, pg. 24)

Here I will make sure that my questionnaires will be given out 5minutes before the end of class guaranteeing that I will get most, if not all back.

When putting together my questionnaire I know it needs to be laid out carefully so the questions flow and to make sure I analyse it before it is sent out.  When reading and looking further into Peter Bryant's finding's it gave me a greater knowledge of how to word my questions and what to avoid;

Some key things to think about as you write your survey instrument…
1. What questions should be asked?
2. How should questions be phrased?
3. How to ask good questions
4. What is the best question sequence? (P. Bryant (17/3/10) )http://peterbryant.smegradio.com/?p=42

Bryant then goes on to talk about;

The clarity of a question. This target would be met by keeping the question clear, making it easy to read and by keeping the language simple. When answering Bryant also says a good idea is to put down a scale for the target audience.
 Embarrassing questions should be avoided unless necessary. Questions involving private or personal data should of been cleared through an ethics approval process.

Double-barrelled questions are sometimes confusing and may not get the most accurate reading as they will have two or more thoughts and can only give one answer.

Age questions are very useful so you can see if there is any connection to the answers and ages.

What Bryant has done is reminded me about many different faults that occur within a questionnaire but has also given me great methods of achieving the most accurate readings from a questionnaire.
I look forward to putting my questionnaire together and finding out more information ready to investigate further into my Inquiry.

 

 

 

Task 5D - Ethics relating to my Inquiry and SIG

Once looking at what others had found out and by looking at others ideas they also have come to the conclusion of referring to their students as Student 1,2,3 etc. However looking at another Task 5D, someone posted about referring to the place where it was carried out as Place A, B, C etc.

I know I have more to cover and to sort out other Ethical practices by creating forms for parents/careers of the children/young people I would like to carry out the investigation with.

I hope to further my study and gain more knowledge within this area.

5C - Reader 5 and Professional Ethics

I have found out some very interesting information from looking into Ethics however I have been very confused along the way. However after having people to turn to and having my own knowledge I realised what ''Ethics'' means.

 

Reader 5

There are 3 main contexts within ethics; Personal, Professional Ethics, Organisational Ethics. Ethics has a ripple effect and hits all three of these three main context but also has an effect on society.

Ethics invades our lives having an impact on society and culture as there are many incidents reported daily that appear all over the media. Within different country's and cultures Ethics and Morals are very different and what people believe but as well as that a country's perspective can change on a certain topic as society and culture change over the years.

Once an action is taken place we all know whether that action is good or bad, ethics isn't like that as it is a very grey area.

 

Professional Ethics

When looking into Professional Ethics I realised how much this related to the codes and regulations I have found out and already have in place.

 

Ethics enters all parts of our lives, whether that is professionally or personally which can either be public or private. Having social media it is very difficult to keep your personal and professional life away from each other. Personally I have to be careful with how my security settings are so I can keep as much privacy away from my profess sional work however having my own theatre school as well as auditioning myself I need to network and with social media being the most used and easiest way to keep in/get in contact I need to keep these pages and profiles so I can market my company.

 

When looking at the different peoples roles within society you instantly think of their attributes towards society. In Reader 5 it refers to a King, Warrior and Judge.

Here are their attributes to go with their Roles;

King - Authoritative

Warrior - Courageous

Judge - Just

 

Within all professions each person has their own attribute they bring to the company/organization. Within my company I have people which hold the attributes of;

Authoritative, Inspirational, Perfectionist, Trustworthy, Caring.

 

Ethics within My Inquiry

 

- I need to make sure I have letters and forms for parents/guardians to complete of children I am wanting to involve within my Inquiry and to make sure I include a section on whether I can either include them within my Inquiry or the web or both but to state that their names would not be included.

 

- I need to make sure that if it a NO that I respect their decision and do not include that child within my investigation. If a parent has allowed their child to be apart of my Inquiry or on the web or both that I am respectful and only refer to them as student 1/2/3 etc. This will make sure that no information including their gender will go any further than myself.

 

- I also need to make sure that to keep Child protection is in place that I do not relate to any workplace I am working at and where I have undertaken some of my investigation as I want all information of the children kept confidential.

 

- I will make sure that whatever the children/young people have learnt and their thoughts and opinions are kept as their words and I will not influence their opinions as I need to have a correct understanding and feedback for me to know what has worked and what hasn't.



Task 5A - The codes of practice / regulations which relate to my place of work

After looking and searching in many different places I came across two codes of professional practice for dance teachers within the Syllabi I hope to qualify in soon.

 

RAD and ISTD Codes of Professional Practice for teachers of Dance

 

This has been very helpful and has also shown me other codes and regulations, as well as all the child protection, of what is expected of a dance teacher and what these examination boards expect from there teachers.

 

It gives insight into;

- Fundamental Principles

- Integrity

- Objectivity

- Competency

- Due Skill and diligence

- Courtesy and consideration

- Confidentiality

- Publicity

- Teaching names

- Statutory Requirements

- Health and Saftey

- Data Protection

- The eight principles of the Data Protection Act 1998

- Conduct relating to students, parents and colleagues

- Personal and Professional Conduct

- Unacceptable professional conduct and misconduct

 

Here I have read through and have highlighted and annotated the information given which has helped me with what I have in place and need to look further into.

 

RAD - annotated sheet

I have taken a lot of information from both boards and they have agreed with each others codes and regulations. However the RAD is more in depth and gives more information where as the ISTD is one which can be read quickly but both of them hold information within the correct areas in either a short descriptive way or a very informative way.

 



Task 5A - My own thought on Ethics within my Workplace

There are many regulations and practices that have to be put in place when working with children/young adults. These regulations I already have in place for my theatre school and from previous jobs I have had when working in different schools.

 

Even though teaching dance, singing and acting to children and young adults is my favourite thing whilst seeing them grow as individuals in something they love doing. I have to make sure I have the correct teaching qualifications as well as up to date regulations and practices put in place for me to have the most fantastic but safe theatre/dance school within Coventry.

 

Off the top of my head the regulations I know I need put in place is that;

 

-Every Staff member from the age of 16 upwards needs to have a DBS check. This DBS now can be set up as direct debit every month (£13 a month). This allows the staff to use there DBS anywhere they need it by giving a number off the certificate so that organisation/company can check it there and then.

 

- Child Protection Policy of children needs to be put in place. The principles are;

1. Children and vulnerable people will be protected.

2. The welfare of the child is paramount.

3. All allegations of abuse will be taken seriously.

4. We will collaborate with statutory and voluntary agencies.

5. Staff/Volunteers will be trained and supported.

6. DBS for everyone working will be put in place.

7. Looking at specific safeguarding issues.

8. Mobile Phones are not to be used.

9. Cameras - pictures can be taken on a cameras however a form from all parents/careers needs to be filled in to say if the can/cannot have pictures/videos taken and if they can be used on any marketing or the internet website etc.

 

- Paediatric First Aid trained by at least 3 people. All other Staff need a basic training of First Aid.

 

- Being aware of each child's needs and medical information is kept a close eye on.

 

- Insurance (Public Liability) for your company/yourself if anything is to happen.

 

- Confidentiality of a child's information is extremely important however if anything arises that you are worried for the child or if they have told you or anyone else's safety you must pass it on to someone higher.

 

From working within a school and teaching dance for a while I have come across many different obstacles that I have learnt from or have watched colleges deal with whilst I have been working.

As many people know to get all of this in place is a long process but luckily I have got many people have and can help me, especially with the safeguarding and child protection policy.

 

I will look further into everything to make sure I have everything in place and everything is still up to date.

 

 

Task 4d - The start of looking at Literature for my Inquiry

Ways of Learning (Third edition) - Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom.

I have just began reading this book and already 22 pages in I have scribbled in the book of ideas and ways in which it links to the way  I already teach dance/singing/drama but it has also allowed me to see many other ideas where  I could incorporate different strategies to transform the theories out of a classroom setting and into a class that teaches children/young people the three disciplines of performing arts.

This book is fantastic as it covers many theories from great people which includes Kolb, Honey and Mumford, During Module 1 I had gained a huge interest in there theories and ideas on learning. The book speaks of a variety of ways of learning and covers a lot of areas I have been very interested in learning about;
- Learning
- Behaviourism and the beginnings of theory
- Cognitive, constructivist learning
- Multiple Intelligences
- Learning Styles
- Difficulties with learning. This covers; Dyslexia, Specific language impairment, Pragmatic language impairment, Autistic spectrum disorders, Asperger's syndrome, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Down's syndrome, Cerebral palsy, Conduct Disorder, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Attachment disorder, Fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome and Tourette's syndrome
(along with information, within the book they have websites for each individual difficulty which I can go to if I need more knowledge or understanding of one in particular)
- The impact of neuroeducational research
- Relating theory to practice: what can we learn from research?
- Comparing and contrasting Piaget and Vygotsky - in summary

At the moment I am having to read slow to make sure I am taking every bit of information in so I have a better knowledge of everything I am wanting to learn about this subject.

Cognitive, Constructivist Learning

Within the book I have just started to look at Cognitive, constructivist learning and have come across Jean Piaget (1896-1980) theory which is called; Stages of Development.
I believe that each age/age range has a development as they progress and get older and along the way as things click and are understood clearer in a variety of ways. Here Piaget has stated just that in his theory.
Here is part of the book with Piaget's table surrounded by my scribbling's of what sprung to my mind when reading it;
 

Piaget's stages of development

This has really got me thinking because as well as seeing what each individual's strengths for learning are I also need to take age into consideration and the developments each age range requires.
For example; the 2- 7 years old Imagination is beginning to develop and so here if placed in an acting/drama class you would do a lot of work that would enhance that area in the brain for it to progress and unlock more avenues to help them in the future.
To achieve this I would start by making them move around the space becoming animals or different people;
- Baby
- Toddler
- Themselves
- Adult
- Grandma/Grandad
This is usually interesting to see how there bodies change automatically at a young age.

To progress this as they begin to get older (5-7years) I would take them on a journey by telling them a descriptive story continuously whilst they went along that journey by acting out what I was saying with music to enhance imagination as well. At this point as a teacher my expression within my voice will also show how they need to be feeling which will start to improve facial expressions. To keep developing there own imagination I would start to not give as much information to allow them to decide their own journey. Example;
Before I may of said;
'As I began to get dressed, I decided on my favourite T-shirt, however I realised as I put on my jeans they were still damp and cold. Trying to forget about my cold, damp jeans I threw on my enormous, red jumper. I had never worn this jumper before as I didn't like it very much as it always made me itch but I had to as my nan was arriving and she had brought it for my birthday.'
Where as I may say a few months after this; (6-7years) 
'I began to get dressed as I knew my nan was arriving.' PAUSE FOR 30seconds ' Mum then shouted upstairs, ' Make sure you wear the jumper nanny bought you for your birthday!' I hated it but knew I would be in trouble if I didn't'.

This would eventually progress to working in two's/three's. It would start to become harder as you could not communicate during the story however both children would have there own ideas/interpretations on the story but they knew they would have to work together. This I would aim at the start of 7 - 9 years old as they are beginning to develop logic and by giving them this task they would have another person to work with rather than by themselves and would have to use there brains by either being the instigator of an idea which was verbally given by the teacher or by following the other person's idea.

Lastly I would work with 9 - 11 year olds to create the last task as it requires everyone listening and sitting in a group circle whilst being told a story with music in the background. As the teacher taps people to join the story as it progresses they will immediately take direction and use their imagination and logic in many different ways. This also makes them work and think quickly and effectively.
Example;
Tap someone 'It was a beautiful day and Tom went for a walk in the fields, he was so upset from the argument he had with his mum the night before. As he was thinking more and more about it he lost track of the time and before he knew it he was lost' Tap two others ' Tom kept walking and could see in the distance a large hill. Tom raced over and all of a sudden he arrived at the bottom of it' (Here the two which where tapped should of made a hill shape with there bodies by the first person)'Tom thought to himself, If I go to the top of the hill I will be able to see where I am. As Tom began to climb up the hill he began to get slower and slower whilst struggling for breath' (Here there was a lot of information for all 3. The 1st person who is playing 'Tom' should start to look as if he was climbing but getting slower and panting when instructed whilst the other two people got smaller and smaller as 'Tom' climbed the hill).

Here you can see the progression just for enhancing Imagination aimed at different ages but catching it as it is developing and not letting go but grasping on to knew learning developments that are occurring throughout the ages.

To progress further you would introduce;
- The students picking the place where they might be. (Act out by self in silence)
- The students picking a place where they might be in twos or three's. (Act out in Silence)
- The teacher gives them a place and a reason of why they are there. (Act out in Silence)
- The teacher gives them a place and a reason of why they are there. (Act out using limited speech)

etc.
This then leads on to Improvisation at a later stage. This process encourages them to experience and have freedom of different paths they can take and to think outside of the box.

Here I think Piaget does remind us of the different developments children have at a young age and how we need to grasp onto them straight away and keep developing them so they become the best and have a broader and stable knowledge to refer back to in the future when they are confronted by difficult and more challenging tasks.

I look forward to continue reading Ways of Learning and I hope to come back with more interesting facts I have found.

Task 4b and 4c - My special reference to my employer/professional associate

For my special reference I decided to have two people I work/have worked with that are specialists in the two areas I am looking into for my professional inquiry.

 

- My dance teacher since I was 7 years old has agreed to offer her guidance. This will offer me strong support whilst I look further into my inquiry which will help me in the future for my own dance/theatre school. This makes me feel very lucky as she has a very successful dance school which has been running for a long time.

 

- Another person who's guidance I have asked for is a Special Educational Needs Teaching assistant who I have known for a long time and worked with in the past. With her knowledge and expertise I will be able to understand different difficulties I may face and how to over come them.

 

I look forward to working with both of these people and I have also tried to look at others ideas of Professional Inquiry to create a SIG group. I hope that as others ideas come up I will have others on the BAPP course with similar ideas. I have already commented on one persons professional inquiry and I invite others to let me know so we can create a facebook page!

 

My idea for Professional Inquiry;

To find new and inventive ways to teach a variety of children/young adults some of which may be challenged with learning difficulties/special needs/disabilities and to help them understand and enhance them as performers in a kinaesthetic/visual/auditory way or a way which works with there specific need.