The beginning of Module 3

Whilst writing my final Inquiry plan for Module 2, I found it very difficult to really specify the title of my Inquiry. My 'titles' were too broad and therefore would of been too complicated for me to actually carry out an investigation that would give me outcomes of a specific task. With a little help from Alan Durrant, I managed to regain focus and become much more specific. ' Teachers views on teaching Drama: A case study from a girls' private school of students aged 14 to 16' was my decided Inquiry title.

When focusing on the 'Literature' section of my plan, I used google scholar to help me find several pieces of relevant literature. I searched for key words from my title and also from my research questions. This helped me to produce a substantial list of relevant literature to read and conduct reviews,
Cole, Robert W. (1995) 'Educating everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching strategies for Diverse Learners' was one of the first books I received through the post from the aforementioned list. Naturally, I began my literature challenge by Cole's book first. After I finished reading, I looked back at why I had chosen this piece of literature in the first place. Initially, I wanted to use Cole's information to compare the outcome of my Inquiry to. Also, with the use of the words 'Diverse learners' in the title, I thought it may also help to compare, when I am watching teachers who have 'diverse learners' in their classroom, what strategies they put into play for these students and what Cole suggests. I wanted this book to see if it would show any correlation between mine and Cole's inquiries. I still feel this is the correct way in which to use this literature, however, after reading I realized there were still more beneficial uses I could get out of it.

Cole's does not actually specify when talking 'strategies', I was expecting to gain a list of 'proven successful strategies' that would help me to compare my own ideas. However, he was much more general than I expected. By this I mean that he wrote about many different teachers that he had come across and wrote about how they taught and what the outcome was of that class. One particular teacher he described stood out to me. It was an investigation that had taken place in a mixed comprehensive school in North America (he does not give specifics). Learners at the school were from all different backgrounds, mostly 'diverse'. How Cole explained 'diverse learners' was learners who came from backgrounds that differed to traditional middle class, white american backgrounds. Cole said that this specific teacher seemed to favor the children who came from these 'traditional' families (a little old fashioned if you ask me), and seemed to only set tasks that were to benefit these types of pupils. Whilst the other 'diverse' learners in the class struggled to keep up, due to the language barriers and also issues that came from home. One day, this teacher set a very difficult piece of homework for all of her class members, expecting it in for the very next day. All students brought their completed homework back to school. Once marked, the teacher was outraged to see that some of her hispanic learners had had help, from what she could work out, older siblings. All of these pupils had a letter sent home to their parents, explaining the severity of what they had done and put into detention. Little did the teacher know, that all of these hispanic children are brought up to help each other with everything, including school work. When the children had brought their homework home and could not complete it on their own as it was too difficult, they had naturally asked their older siblings for help. Their parents attended the school and explained that this was accepted and highly encouraged in their culture. The teacher would not accept this fact. She believed that all children should learn in the same manner. Even after the Head of the school had apologized to these parents and ensured it would not happen again, the teacher refused to apologize or adapt to this new knowledge.

This is when I gained the most important word from this book, 'ADAPT'. Everybody grows older and may seem 'past it' by younger people, especially teachers by adolescents. Cole states that the best teachers with the best outcomes are the ones who can adapt to new pupils, new technology, just change in general. Every academic year, teachers will have new pupils to teach. Every few years there will be a new piece of technology out or the curriculum might be changed and updated. Students grow and become more aware of themselves, they develop habits and personalities, these are things that a teacher cannot control.. so why try to? Why not embrace the fact that every teaching day is different. Surely this makes the job description more exciting. Granted, it is going to make it a lot more difficult than just teaching the set curriculum but what child just wants to sit there listening to a teacher go on and on. On several occasions I have heard teachers moan 'it goes in one ear and out the other', even about myself, have none of these teachers stopped and thought, why? Why is the information I want these children to obtain going in one ear and out of the other? Is it because of my delivery of the information? Did I not make it clear enough? Did some pupils seem to understand and the others did not?

One of the teachers Cole writes about is a teacher, again from a North American school with similar learners. Cole describes this teacher as successful due to adapting to his pupils. He often splits his class into pairs or small groups and lets them discuss with each other the information he wants them to understand. On other occasions, he might stand in front of the class and deliver the curriculum using a projector for worksheets that the pupils can take notes from. He may use role plays or set them a project to work on. Sometimes, he will just stand at the front of the class talking and asking questions. This way all type of learners seemed to understand what he was teaching and therefore proving he is on his way to becoming a successful teacher.

Cole's reports that teachers who are able to adapt to new and changed circumstances are the most successful teachers. They appear to enjoy their job more than those who do not and pupils seem to understand and enjoy their lessons. Reading Cole's work has given me a very important idea to bare in mind when carrying out my Inquiry, do these teachers adapt to new circumstances that arise in their classrooms and how this may effect the pupils' learning.

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I have recently acquired a new piece of literature that isn't on my list, but was given to me by a friend to help with choosing my future career path in teaching. It mentions lots of different tactics to becoming a successful, professional teacher. It even includes many different ways of arranging pupils' desks and chairs in order to provoke better learning. I will explain more about this later on. 

Module 3

Hello everyone!

I am so behind right now as I am casting a show at school, been in America for 10 days and trying to resolve my loans situation, again!

I am going to start the module on Thursday.. Help! I hope I can catch up! Another issue is one of the teacher's I was going to base my inquiry has not been coming to school due to personal issues.

I'm hoping that besides all these things I can continue with the course and catch the hell up!!

Rebecca x

Module 2 completed!

My digital copy has been sent off! Yes! Hard copy has been bound.. Sending it off on Monday! Now I can forget about it and enjoy the rest of my holiday and sort out my work schedule and invoices! :)

Happy new year everyone and good luck!!

xxx

A Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

A Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

When choosing a subject for my investigation, I realised I needed to begin with my interests and proceed from there. When faced with the task of identifying a set of research questions, I began by asking questions about subjects I had an interest in (see Appendix 1).

When reviewing my initial questions, I could reflect on them and pinpoint the subjects I am most interested in; Drama and Drama Education. My questions had not yet been answered, but by posting those on my blog I obtained some helpful responses to these questions by the help of my peers (refer to Appendix 2).

This fellow peer developed my thoughts further about the relationship between Drama and child development (see response 5 Appendix 2). Meanwhile, I forwarded my initial set of research questions to a practitioner with years of experience (see answers in Appendix 3).

Reflecting back on my original questions, I realised that some of the questions were not actually relevant if I were to base my Inquiry on Drama’s effect on child development. These questions, such as ‘How can dance be used within a dramatic production?’ were eliminated. I adapted my first questions and formed some additional questions, aimed at experienced Teachers, to cohere with the chosen Inquiry (Appendix 4).

After exploring these questions further, I came up with an Inquiry title; ‘An exploration into teaching methodologies and styles in Drama and how they benefit the Students’. We were then challenged to write three Literature reviews on relevant texts to our Inquiries. Using Google Scholar, I founded some relevant literature. Cole’s book ‘Educating Everybody’s Children’ is full of teaching strategies for all type learners. Cole’s concept was that a good teacher is teacher who can adapt their styles to appropriate situations (see Appendix 6). This and the help of my adviser made me realise that I needed to hone in on my Inquiry title and edit it to become more specific and for it to primarily, benefit myself as a practitioner. This is when I formed my existing line of Inquiry.

‘The Panel members agreed that “good teaching”-teaching that is engaging, relevant, multicultural, and that appeals to a variety of learning styles-works well with all children, but that children from diverse backgrounds sometimes have educational needs that might not be shared by other students.’

Appendix 5: Extract from Cole’s book: ‘Educating everybody’s Children’.

I now needed to focus on the ethical considerations of my chosen Inquiry. Confidentiality is essential when dealing with participants. With this taken into consideration, all data will be presented fairly and will be kept anonymous. The intent and content of the Inquiry will be explained in detail to all participants before it is carried out.

Appendices 6, 7 and 8 show my development of ethical considerations during the planning of my Inquiry.

The main ethical issue that is sure to arise during this Inquiry is the use of Students under the age of 16. The researcher will have to be aware of sudden problems which may appear when Students are participating. I will need to explain the Inquiry process in detail in order to gain consent from all Parents, Students and Teachers, if not this could potentially result in Parents extracting their children mid inquiry. If a Student is self conscious, explaining the Inquiry fully may prevent them from feeling threatened or intimidated by the situation and may also prevent them from extracting themselves from the Inquiry. Health and Safety of participants must be thought of at all times of the Inquiry, ensuring all equipment is kept safely away from children. Another ethical problem is confidentiality which may surface if participants worry about who will see their responses to questions. This could limit data and could even result in self-exclusion of participants. To prevent broken ethics and restricted results, Surveys are the best solution as these can be kept completely confidential and the participants can fill these out individually, eliminating the fear of their thoughts being made public to Students and other Teachers. Surveys can be created online as well as in paper form and be e-mailed over to the Teachers’ school e-mail addresses, which will mean I am abiding by the Data Protection Act.

Appendix 8: Revised ethical considerations for my Inquiry.

My Evaluation of the proposed Inquiry tools is that use of focus groups and observation tools will not be necessary during my Inquiry. Refer to Appendix 9, my evaluation of a pilot focus group.

After piloting these tools, I felt interviewing was the most relevant tool to my Inquiry, although surveys are also helpful, see Appendix 10.

After further discussion with my adviser, I came to the conclusion that children may not always be able to articulate their thoughts; therefore, Student surveys may not actually provide reliable data. Surveys and Interviews with experienced Teachers are the most relevant tools to use and should result in useful data.

Sources

Appendix 1: Original Inquiry questions.

Source: Clarke, Rebecca. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/task-4a-research-questions.html

Appendix 2: Ahmet’s response to my original Inquiry questions.

Source: Ahmet, A. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/task-4a-research-questions.htm

Appendix 3: Inquiry question responses from Culmer, V. (an experienced Drama Teacher).

Source: Clarke, Rebecca. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/task-4c-completed.html

Appendix 4: Interview questions adapted from original Inquiry questions.

Source: Clarke, Rebecca. (2012). https://docs.google.com/document/d/18kECFHNwbOTt1rbRkhS9DkjRBrXARZxeJs6SjZPM6D0/edit

Appendix 5: Extract from Cole’s book: ‘Educating everybody’s Children’.

Source: Cole, Robert, W. (1995). Educating everybody’s Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners.

Appendix 6: Original basic code of conduct to be used within my workplace.

Source: Clarke, R. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/task-5a.html

Appendix 7: Original ethical considerations of my Inquiry.

Source: Clarke, R. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/task-5c.html

Appendix 8: (Please refer to Ethics form): Revised ethical considerations for my Inquiry.

Source: Clarke, R. (2012). BA Professional Practice- Professional Inquiry Forms (Ethics Form)

Appendix 9: An evaluation of a pilot focus group

Source: Clarke, R. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/task-6b.html

Appendix 10: An Evaluation of all selected Inquiry tools

Source: Clarke, R. (2012). http://rebeccaelizabethclarke.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/task-6b.html

Task 6b

Task 6b

 

A Pilot is done as an experiment before introducing something more widely. A Pilot should advise us on what worked well and what failed, so we know for the future.

 

I will begin with which tool I felt was the most successful. Piloting an interview meant that I got a broad range of responses and I could direct the conversation to concentrate on certain subjects. I could get the answers I wanted from the interviewee without having to completely change my whole interview, I just had to add some extra questions on the spot. The response I got from the interview was much more interesting, as my interviewee covered a lot more detail. The responses had much more depth, than say for example, data from a survey. This will be an important characteristic of interviews that I will use in my inquiry interviews. However, even though I felt this was the most successful tool, interviewing did have it's cons. As an interviewer, I sometimes felt a little awkward when asking questions about teaching, which involved the interviewee having to take a good look at their teaching and critically reflect on their work. I was worried the teacher may think badly of me for asking such personal questions. Luckily, this interviewee was absolutely fine and answered all my questions as honestly as they could. When performing an interview for my inquiry I may have to make sure I word my sentences so they are not too personal. As an insider-researcher, I should develop a sense of feeling for whether the interviewee will mind personal questions or will be put off as I don't want them to call off the interview. Next time, I understand I will need more questions, making the interview longer and more focused. I need to use the time for extra questions to my advantage as this time, I wanted to ask more questions but was limited due to feeling slightly awkward.

 

Surveys, are great for numeral results. SurveyMonkey.com made it easy to see my responses, it gave me percentages and numbers. The longer questions I asked had comment boxes so I could also see these responses clearly. I could use my professional networking and personal social networking to find participants for this survey. I posted the link on Facebook, LinkedIn, my Blog and Twitter. Performing Arts and Academic study teachers responded to my survey, creating a wide variety of  results. However, as participants were only filling in the survey quickly, answers were less detailed than the interview. Comments in the boxes weren't as focused and when looking at the numeral data, I realised that not a lot of it was actually relevant. As an insider-researcher for my inquiry, I understand I may have to do a survey for the students. SurveyMonkey is a great tool to use as it automatically protects participants identity, this then aids the survey to abide by the 'confidentiality' rule. When developing my questions for surveys and interviews, I need to hone in on each question and make sure they cover all areas of my inquiry without making questions too long winded.

 

Piloting an observation was one of the most difficult tools. I gained some good quality information from observing a drama class but found it difficult to watch and write notes at the same time. My observation template worked well, but there was so much information to record that I felt I constantly had my head down. Watching and taking notes on both student and teacher was also hard. When thinking of stratergies to work around these difficulties, I realised I may have to perform more than a few observations to get sufficient data. I may also need to have two seperate columns on my existing template, one for teacher notes and one for students notes. However, I got to see some fantastic examples of teaching and see how certain methods affected the children, which is fundamentally what my inquiry is about. As long as I keep my observation notes form simple to fill out and I conduct more observations, results will be much more sufficient.

 

The focus group was the pilot I was dreading the most. Although it wasn't as bad as I thought, it wasn't great. I sampled this tool on a group of five teachers, all of performing arts (dancing, drama, music, musical theatre etc). Performing artists are known for their big characters and loud mouths so when you put six in a room together, it is slightly hyper. There were a lot of disagreements and sometimes, a little tension. As head of the group, I found it difficult to focus and guide the group in the right direction as some of these people were so opinionated and dominating. Getting information in note form was near impossible as I had to attempt to guide the group with the questions. Saying this, I was very lucky, I understand some focus groups barely say a word so at least mine gave me a variety of answers. Confidentiality wasn't a problem, as I made teachers introduce themselves as Teacher A, B, C etc so I could identify their voices on the tape. As an insider-researcher for my inquiry, I may carry out a focus group on a group of students rather than teachers as I felt sometimes there was a clash of characters. Obviously, there are many more ethics to be considered when interviewing children so this will be something I have to address.

 

When taking these methods out of a University Course and putting them into the workplace, I realised employees are constantly being interviewed and surveyed, just in a different sense. Students question me on things all the time, putting me on the spot. It's just a case of knowing what to say and when to say it. A teacher can be called into the Head's office at any time, on any day. This may not be a formal interview but even if it is to discuss exam results or the upcoming production, questions will be asked.

 

The key principles of how an insider-researcher pilots these aforementioned tools are like ethics of questioning. Word personal questions in a manner that will not offend the interviewee and keeping confidentiality of the group etc, are all general principles for when a researcher is piloting tools but also when piloting ethics too.

Task 6d

Task 6d

 

 

Here is my Delicious Link, I have tagged some articles and websites that I found useful when researching into my Inquiry. Not all the websites are 'Drama' teaching related, however, I still felt these sites were relevant as they explain different teaching approaches and students responses to them.

 

Rebecca Clarke's Delicious tags

Task 6a iv)

Task 6a

 

iv) A Pilot Focus Group

 

Below, is my link to Google Docs- My Pilot Focus Group. I still feel like my questions are missing something. I am not sure why? Maybe you could help? Do you feel that anymore questions need to be added in order to cover the whole of my inquiry? Do you think I will need signed forms from participants for all interviews, surveys, focus groups & observations? Is anybody else using forms?

 

Rebecca Clarke's Pilot Focus Group

I realise that all my piloting tools are aimed at Teachers only and not students. I will be including students in my questioning as this will be a necessity to find answers for my inquiry. However, the ethics for interviewing children are much more complex. This is why I have kept my Pilots strictly for adults.