Task 2a: Reflective Practice

When I was on Holiday I read through the Reader 2 and was so interested about how each individual learns in different ways.

 

Reflection is used for jobs which involves a process of change, this includes nurses, teachers, architects and performers. This gives people different ways to help them as professionals to move on and forward in different ways.

 

When  reading reader 2 I made so many notes on each part which interested me, whilst asking myself the questions that arose.

 

I found it interesting when I read, that we should understand everything, from a definition and all of its different terms, to be able to understand something to its full capacity, as I am always one to think I know what something means but I should look it up if I am not 100% sure.

 

Have you ever known something before you realise what it means to you?

I struggled at first with this question but then thought back to when I was a child and how the value of money was unknown to me until you begin budgeting yourself.

Relationships is also another one as they are something we all begin at different times in our lives but they all have to start from somewhere. When entering a relationship you are so unaware with how much that person may mean to you in the future as they may become your husband/wife or your father/mother of your child etc.

 

Learning from our Experiences

Many times in the Reader it talks about your own experiences and how we should learn from them and fully engage in that process. This took me back to when teachers, and my parents use to say 'You need to learn from your mistakes!'. I think we start learning from our experiences from a very young age.

 

However big or small the experience, the more you aware of what is going on at that specific time the more you will take note and reflect back on what was wrong or good that you did in that situation. Therefore the more you will learn from that experience.

 

Kolbs then asks 'at what point do we start to learn something new or notice we have something missing from our knowledge set.'

 

I  am very aware that my geography, history and general knowledge is awful from trivia games we play at Christmas. However I knew that to become the best I wanted to be as a teacher and a performer I had to balance my knowledge with my training before coming onto the MDX course.

 

Kolb had 4 different ways people began to learn. These are;

Concrete Experience - (by doing something)

Reflective Observation - (by watching people around them)

Abstract Conceptualisation - (by working it out in there head first)

Active Experimentation - (start learning when they start trying it out)

 

I thought back to my blog to decide on what type I am when I am starting something.

 

When starting my blog I can remember looking at others to know what to do and to see how much others had done, this would make me a 'Reflective Observation' learner. However I like to get stuck in and use trial and error to begin if I am confident in what I am talking about, but I know that I am primarily a 'Reflective Observer'.

 

When I read on to Howard Gardner it took me back to the Induction question that arose of 'What does academic mean?' Howard introduces the idea of MULTIPULE INTELLIGENCES. These are the most common we use, Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic.  

This shows that everyone has there own way of thinking and learning but because others do it in a different way doesn't mean they are less able they just have different tools.

 

Donald Schon talks of reflection having in an action or by looking back on it.

reflection-in-action - (if something is not working the way you need t to, you will change it whilst you are in that motion/action)

reflection-on-action - (the person will go away and think about it and then will come back to it).

 

As dancers many of us relate to reflection-in-action as we have all been either in class, on stage, in an audition where you know you are doing something incorrect or you are on the wrong leg or your balance is off and you have to adapt in the moment and carry on.

Where as reflection-on-action is more commonly found in academics.

 

How will I take this on board as a Professional and Teacher in the future?

I know that in the future some professionals and children will learn and pick up dances in different ways so I need to be versatile in the way I go over dances or teach dancers to get the best out of that person/child.

 

As a teenager in Tap I knew that if someone gave me counts or a audible rhythm I would always get the timing correct however if someone claps me a rhythm without counts or just says the steps I know I would struggle and not pick the routine up as fast as I know I could because I would have to work out the counts as I went along.

 

My Reflective Journal

I have a lot of new experiences I have started since September 2014 and am excited for new things to unfold. I enjoy many different aspects of the industry and have many experiences I learn from on a daily basis. I am going to address experiences I have already had which have stuck with me as well as new experiences I face.

I have really taken an interest into how different people learn and I would love to look into this to expand my knowledge as a teacher to know how to cater for everyone.

The reflective journal is going to be a big help for my to come back to later on in life to see where I came from and how I have learnt from my experiences through the art of reflection.

 

To be continued .........