I proposed my inquiry question on my blog a long time ago, but just realised I have not updated it since I have changed and developed my ideas throughout the module, so here is the final product......
"What do dancers perceive to be the most effective preparation for auditions?"
It has taken me the whole module to deliberate my ideas, and I am now happy with the final outcome. I believe with this question I can explore and gain a lot of knowledge through using my inquiry tools and interviewing fellow dancers. I would also like to interview casting directors, to compare and contrast their thoughts on audition preparation with what dancers believe. I believe this inquiry will benefit me greatly as a performer and others in my industry.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry
Throughout this essay I will be reviewing the key aspects and stepping stones which have helped me along the way to develop my line of inquiry since starting module 2.
Our first task was to review reader 4 on Professional Inquiry and develop a set of questions that are relevant to our practice (Appendix 1). Looking back at my initial ideas for questions I can now see I was trying to cover far to broad an area. I had sent Alan an email regarding feedback for my questions and he helped me to understand that by trying to investigate such a vast area of ideas, I would only end up with the most superficial look at each (Appendix 2).
Taking Alans advice on board I decided to approach my fellow cast members with a set of questions (Appendix 3). Using the information gathered from these questions I narrowed down my ideas to focus on one specific line of inquiry I believed would be the most rewarding to myself and other professionals within my industry.
I now understand my investigation is not to prove something but to find out something new that could benefit others. Following this realisation I then got to investigating literature closely related to my questions (Appendix 4). After reading several articles it has filled me with more confidence in my line of inquiry and its importance.
Reader 5 then brought Ethics to my attention. Without realising it, I was always applying ethics in my day to day life, but after reading reader 5 I am now fully aware of the code of ethics within my professional practice and its importance (Appendix 5). It is extremely vital when undertaking my inquiry that I apply all that I have learned about ethics to guarantee it is ethically sound. (Appendix 6). Now that i have a greater knowledge of ethics it has allowed me to explore areas of my inquiry in a much safer manner, making sure to protect myself and to protect and support those participating.
To gain a better understanding of which inquiry tools would work best for me, I studied reader 6 and set aside time to conduct several pilots using a member of my SIG for feedback (Appendix 7). I then took the time to reflect upon each method deliberating the pros and cons of each. I also considered the quantitative and qualitative data that could be obtained, and came to my conclusion of which methods would work best for me (Appendix 8).
After completing module 2 I feel I am now confident enough to carry out my professional inquiry in an ethically sound way, using the tools i have chosen as most beneficial to me. I believe I have grown as a professional throughout this module, as it has continuously challenged me to think outside the box. It has developed my skills extensively and allowed me to develop and grow personally, taking me one more confident step closer to the final module.
Our first task was to review reader 4 on Professional Inquiry and develop a set of questions that are relevant to our practice (Appendix 1). Looking back at my initial ideas for questions I can now see I was trying to cover far to broad an area. I had sent Alan an email regarding feedback for my questions and he helped me to understand that by trying to investigate such a vast area of ideas, I would only end up with the most superficial look at each (Appendix 2).
Taking Alans advice on board I decided to approach my fellow cast members with a set of questions (Appendix 3). Using the information gathered from these questions I narrowed down my ideas to focus on one specific line of inquiry I believed would be the most rewarding to myself and other professionals within my industry.
I now understand my investigation is not to prove something but to find out something new that could benefit others. Following this realisation I then got to investigating literature closely related to my questions (Appendix 4). After reading several articles it has filled me with more confidence in my line of inquiry and its importance.
Reader 5 then brought Ethics to my attention. Without realising it, I was always applying ethics in my day to day life, but after reading reader 5 I am now fully aware of the code of ethics within my professional practice and its importance (Appendix 5). It is extremely vital when undertaking my inquiry that I apply all that I have learned about ethics to guarantee it is ethically sound. (Appendix 6). Now that i have a greater knowledge of ethics it has allowed me to explore areas of my inquiry in a much safer manner, making sure to protect myself and to protect and support those participating.
To gain a better understanding of which inquiry tools would work best for me, I studied reader 6 and set aside time to conduct several pilots using a member of my SIG for feedback (Appendix 7). I then took the time to reflect upon each method deliberating the pros and cons of each. I also considered the quantitative and qualitative data that could be obtained, and came to my conclusion of which methods would work best for me (Appendix 8).
After completing module 2 I feel I am now confident enough to carry out my professional inquiry in an ethically sound way, using the tools i have chosen as most beneficial to me. I believe I have grown as a professional throughout this module, as it has continuously challenged me to think outside the box. It has developed my skills extensively and allowed me to develop and grow personally, taking me one more confident step closer to the final module.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Task 6B Critical Reflection and The Planning of my Inquiry Tools
After Reading reader six i now have a greater knowledge of how important it is, to understand and plan my methods of gathering information, and to make sure it is all relevant to my line of inquiry.
The reader describes to us four different methods which can be used in research to collect information: Interview, Survey, Focus Groups and Observation. Each method having its benefits and limitations.
After a lot of thought and consideration I Believe the methods which i will use during my Inquiry will be Interview, Survey and perhaps Observation, if I am lucky enough to get the opportunity to observe an audition situation.
Interview
One great advantage to the Interviewing tool is that you "can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings" (Bell, 2005, p.157) I Believe an interview is a good way of obtaining information or data regarding someones personal thoughts or opinions, and asking open ended questions allows people to elaborate and speak more freely on a subject. Another great advantage to an interview in regards to my inquiry is that it can be conducted over the phone or even on skype. If you are not in the same country as the participant you can still gather your information. This is very important to me as I travel a lot within my career, this is Another reason why I Believe using this tool will benefit my inquiry.
The reader explains to us different interview methods which you could use:
Focus Groups
This is a tool I don't Believe I will use in my inquiry as I have never conducted a focus Group Before the thought is a Little daunting, although I can see its benefits. The major advantage to focus Groups is that it brings together a Group of people who may have similar characteristics or experience. It can allow more quite or shy participants to tell their story within a supportive Group context, it can also open up issues that individual participants may not have thought of on their own, in turn enhancing the information gathered.
A disadvantage to Focus Groups is that they can be hard to manage and hard to moderate the topic being discussed. As the facilitator you must try and channel the discussion in the correct direction to gather the relevant information. Also you must be aware of strong personalities which may be intimidating other members of the Group and making them feel reserved about sharing their opinion.
Survey
The main advantage to the survey is "the ability to gather data from a wide range of representative respondents." I believe the survey is a method I will use when gathering data for my inquiry. I have conducted surveys before therefor I have a good basic knowledge of how to construct them confidently, and I have come to learn that the importance of a survey lies within its construction.
I have deliberated over the pros and cons of web surveys verses paper surveys and personally i think I will be using paper surveys. Talking to my friend Hannah she told me of an article she found by Denscombe which looks at the differences between an online survey and a paper survey and I found it very interesting. Denscombe discusses that although online surveys are less time consuming, so more user friendly, they are not as reliable as people sometimes leave things out or miss questions.
Although paper surveys are much more time consuming for you the researcher, as you have to hand out and gather back your survey (or have them posted back) from your participants, i feel they are a much more personal approach. With a personal approach I feel people feel more obliged to take the time to fill it out especially if they have met you and spoke to you personally first.
I have conducted a pilot survey which I am going to hand out to several of my professional dancer friends.I have established that my survey must be user friendly so not too long and time consuming, but the appropriate length to provide me with the data I need. Due to the nature of my inquiry I will not be able to do a street or postal survey as i am only targeting a specific group of musical theatre performers, mostly dancers. I will hopefully be able to blog again soon with feedback from my pilot survey!
Observation
Due to the nature of my line of inquiry I don't believe observation is a method I will use very often in my research. However I do believe it is a great tool for gathering and analyzing information, and if I am perhaps lucky enough to be able to sit in and watch an audition taking place i believe i would learn a lot from being on the other side of the panel for a change!
One down fall to using observation as a method is it can be very time consuming because it involves attending the session being observed, and the time needed to analyse and interpret what you have recorded.
Observations can be recorded in many ways, taping or video recording, written notes, but you must always make sure consent forms are signed and confidentiality agreements have been formalised.
With observing, ethics plays a big part and you must make sure you are aware and respond sensitively and appropriately to any ethical issues which may arise.
I will not be conducting a pilot survey for my inquiry, but never say never as I would love to be able to sit in and observe and audition and quiz the casting directors on what exactly it is they are looking for in a dancer when they hold an audition!
The reader describes to us four different methods which can be used in research to collect information: Interview, Survey, Focus Groups and Observation. Each method having its benefits and limitations.
After a lot of thought and consideration I Believe the methods which i will use during my Inquiry will be Interview, Survey and perhaps Observation, if I am lucky enough to get the opportunity to observe an audition situation.
Interview
One great advantage to the Interviewing tool is that you "can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings" (Bell, 2005, p.157) I Believe an interview is a good way of obtaining information or data regarding someones personal thoughts or opinions, and asking open ended questions allows people to elaborate and speak more freely on a subject. Another great advantage to an interview in regards to my inquiry is that it can be conducted over the phone or even on skype. If you are not in the same country as the participant you can still gather your information. This is very important to me as I travel a lot within my career, this is Another reason why I Believe using this tool will benefit my inquiry.
The reader explains to us different interview methods which you could use:
- non directive or open interviews that allow the interviewee to talk about anythinh they like.
- 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.
Please see my previous blog which shows my questions for my semi structured pilot interview!
This is a tool I don't Believe I will use in my inquiry as I have never conducted a focus Group Before the thought is a Little daunting, although I can see its benefits. The major advantage to focus Groups is that it brings together a Group of people who may have similar characteristics or experience. It can allow more quite or shy participants to tell their story within a supportive Group context, it can also open up issues that individual participants may not have thought of on their own, in turn enhancing the information gathered.
A disadvantage to Focus Groups is that they can be hard to manage and hard to moderate the topic being discussed. As the facilitator you must try and channel the discussion in the correct direction to gather the relevant information. Also you must be aware of strong personalities which may be intimidating other members of the Group and making them feel reserved about sharing their opinion.
Survey
The main advantage to the survey is "the ability to gather data from a wide range of representative respondents." I believe the survey is a method I will use when gathering data for my inquiry. I have conducted surveys before therefor I have a good basic knowledge of how to construct them confidently, and I have come to learn that the importance of a survey lies within its construction.
I have deliberated over the pros and cons of web surveys verses paper surveys and personally i think I will be using paper surveys. Talking to my friend Hannah she told me of an article she found by Denscombe which looks at the differences between an online survey and a paper survey and I found it very interesting. Denscombe discusses that although online surveys are less time consuming, so more user friendly, they are not as reliable as people sometimes leave things out or miss questions.
Although paper surveys are much more time consuming for you the researcher, as you have to hand out and gather back your survey (or have them posted back) from your participants, i feel they are a much more personal approach. With a personal approach I feel people feel more obliged to take the time to fill it out especially if they have met you and spoke to you personally first.
I have conducted a pilot survey which I am going to hand out to several of my professional dancer friends.I have established that my survey must be user friendly so not too long and time consuming, but the appropriate length to provide me with the data I need. Due to the nature of my inquiry I will not be able to do a street or postal survey as i am only targeting a specific group of musical theatre performers, mostly dancers. I will hopefully be able to blog again soon with feedback from my pilot survey!
Observation
Due to the nature of my line of inquiry I don't believe observation is a method I will use very often in my research. However I do believe it is a great tool for gathering and analyzing information, and if I am perhaps lucky enough to be able to sit in and watch an audition taking place i believe i would learn a lot from being on the other side of the panel for a change!
One down fall to using observation as a method is it can be very time consuming because it involves attending the session being observed, and the time needed to analyse and interpret what you have recorded.
Observations can be recorded in many ways, taping or video recording, written notes, but you must always make sure consent forms are signed and confidentiality agreements have been formalised.
With observing, ethics plays a big part and you must make sure you are aware and respond sensitively and appropriately to any ethical issues which may arise.
I will not be conducting a pilot survey for my inquiry, but never say never as I would love to be able to sit in and observe and audition and quiz the casting directors on what exactly it is they are looking for in a dancer when they hold an audition!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
task 6a continued....my pilot interview
Here are the questions i used for my pilot interview which i conducted over skype with Hannah a member of my SIG. I decided to conduct a semi structured interview with a set of themed questions that also allowed flexibility for the participants answers, allowing them to elaborate or expand on their answers where they felt necessary. Before asking my questions at the start of my interview i explained to Hannah the basic outline of my research and what i aim to achieve. I also informed her that if at any time she feels uncomfortable with a question or the conversation she is free to stop. As it was a skype interview i was unable to record hannahs answers, so written notes were taken throughout.
- How long did you train as a dancer?
- How do you prepare for an audition?
- Do you Think what you wear is important? Why?
- What do you beleive you should wear according to what the casting director wants to see?
- Do you Think nutrition, eating properly the night Before or morning of the audition is important? Why?
- Have you ever felt a lack of energy at an audition? Do you feel this hindered your success in any way?
- Are there any important dos or donts you have been taught in regards to auditions?
- Do you feel your college set you up with enough information and training in regards to audition technique?
- Do you Think researching the Company\job you are auditioning for before hand is important? Why?
- Do you feel body image is important? Have you ever felt under pressure to be a certain weight or look a certain way?
- Have you ever throughout your career came in Contact with a fellow dancer with an eating disorder?
- Where yoou taught about Health and nutrition and the risks of eating disorders in college?
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Task 6c proposed award title...
After great thought I have proposed my award title: BA(Hons) Professional Practise (Dance)
The other options I considered for my title where: BA(Hons) Professional Practise (Musical Thetare) or (Performing Arts) as I was fully trained in musical theatre in college I thought this would be a good idea to reflect all my skills. However After great consideration I have decided that choosing (Dance) would be the best option for me as it is the strongest area I am trained in and reflects where I am right now in my career. Musical thetare would describe the study of three skills - dance, singing and acting. I want to narrow down my studies to dance alone, as since I have graduated I have worked as a professional dancer for five years. I feel within dance I have a great amount of knowledge and understanding, and that through this course I can really investigate and develope that knowledge further.
This proposed award title also coincides with my proposed enquiry - looking into audition success for professional dancers.
The other options I considered for my title where: BA(Hons) Professional Practise (Musical Thetare) or (Performing Arts) as I was fully trained in musical theatre in college I thought this would be a good idea to reflect all my skills. However After great consideration I have decided that choosing (Dance) would be the best option for me as it is the strongest area I am trained in and reflects where I am right now in my career. Musical thetare would describe the study of three skills - dance, singing and acting. I want to narrow down my studies to dance alone, as since I have graduated I have worked as a professional dancer for five years. I feel within dance I have a great amount of knowledge and understanding, and that through this course I can really investigate and develope that knowledge further.
This proposed award title also coincides with my proposed enquiry - looking into audition success for professional dancers.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Task 6A
I have decided to conduct an informal trial interview with Hannah stewart a member of my SIG. As we are in separate countries at the moment I have set a night aside this week for a Skype interview! Having never conducted an interview before the task is a little daunting and I am finding it difficult to decide on the best questions to ask that will hopefully provide me with the clearest results. I am currently in the process of designing my interview carefully taking into consideration ethics and everything I have learned from reader 5. I will take notes and record Hannah's answers so I can go back after and revue the interview, looking at the benefits and also the limitation of using an interview method.
I believe interviewing will be a good method to use in regards to my inquiry as I am hoping to interview both professional performers and casting directors giving me a look at either sides opinions.
I don't believe observation will be a method I use a lot in my enquiry unless I manage to get permission from a casting director to sit in and observe an audition being taken, so we will have to wait and see.
I look forward to reading others blogs to see how everyone is getting on using inquiry tools!
I believe interviewing will be a good method to use in regards to my inquiry as I am hoping to interview both professional performers and casting directors giving me a look at either sides opinions.
I don't believe observation will be a method I use a lot in my enquiry unless I manage to get permission from a casting director to sit in and observe an audition being taken, so we will have to wait and see.
I look forward to reading others blogs to see how everyone is getting on using inquiry tools!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Delicious
I have successfully managed to create a delicious account so I can share the website links I have found helpful and interesting with others on the course!
Click the link below to take you to my delicious account! :)
Lauren Sheridan Delicious account
Click the link below to take you to my delicious account! :)
Lauren Sheridan Delicious account
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