Friends

My inquiry is focused on learning styles of the performer - something that can be used for auditions to make us stronger and more confident in front of a panel. 

When looking at Hannah’s blog, and seeing her great points of what needs to be in a critical reflection, it confirmed to me my passion for my inquiry. 

Teaching children this term has benefited me as I can clearly see everyone is different in their learning styles. Some children need confirmation they are doing it well (by constantly asking you if they are doing it right!) whilst others like to watch and just try it when the music comes on. 

The results of my inquiry will benefit those who find choreography difficult to pick up.

I had a conversation with a friend, who froze in an audition last week. We spoke openly about how she felt auditions normally go, especially as she has been living in Paris for over 6 months, not attending any auditions she feels out of practice in picking up routines. When I positioned to her my inquiry she was interested in knowing her own style, but we spoke about how you can implement it it in an audition and the difficulty of this. This is something I aim to make part of my artefact, after knowing your style, how to use it. I was thinking of creating a video, does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it best to produce a guide? Chapters on each style (VARK), success stories? 

Long Time

Hi all,

It's been a long time. I have been so busy - moving house, new job, complications with moving house!
Not to mention THE CLOSING CEREMONY with Darcey Bussell!

I feel like I'm only just sorted.

I am teaching ballet, tap and jazz on a weekly basis now and this has influenced my enquiry.

I am looking into learning styles of choreography (mainly in an audition) and after trying out the VARK technique's in normal class it is clear people have different ways of learning.
Incorporating these learns would have been great in module 2, but something I can hopefully use now.

I aim to update my blog every 4 days. Let's see if I can keep this up!

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

My line of inquiry focuses on learning styles in the performing arts industry. I began this journey by asking myself some questions for ideas to undertake my inquiry, which I posted on my blog.

It was clear to me I wanted to understand knowledge, confidence and the performer, which when I wrote a mind map (Appendix B) focused on learning styles. I spent some time discussing with people in my professional network what they would find useful, and came to the conclusion knowing about their own learning style in order to help them with audition technique. On reflection, at this point I would have liked to have created a SIG with those I had discussed my inquiry questions with, instead of joining other peoples’ as I feel I would have had more to discuss. 

I really enjoyed researching theories that I could use for my study. I looked back at module 1 and found Kolb’s learning cycle. I also found on my blog VAK learning which Hannah had recommended to me. After researching the two theories I decided these were the theories I would like to concentrate on as I felt I could relate these to industry.

Going to the campus session at Trent Park and discussing with Rosemary and other students about research really made it clear which methods I would like to use. (Appendix D) I hadn’t thought of all the disadvantages each method could have, which our SIG explored. 

We also touched on ethics where I listed my perceived ideas of it on my blog. I then used the module handbook to relate key items mentioned to my enquiry. This was really helpful as I hadn’t considered topics such as protecting my data before. 

After taking this all into consideration I chose to pilot a questionnaire asking participants which were their preferred learning styles, but quickly realised after speaking to another student that without experiencing each style, how could the participants know which style worked best for them? Therefore I decided as part of my study I would like to compare the perception each participant thought their style was with what actually worked for them in an audition style observation. 

I therefore conducted a small scale observation looking into Fleming’s VARK theory and also asked each participant to take the official VARK questionnaire a week before, and at the start of our session.I asked them to do this twice to validate their preferred learning style. I took this idea from Cunliffe (2011) who I analysed as part of my inquiry plan.  I asked my participants for feedback of how the afternoon could have been improved. It was interesting to hear their ideas as I hadn’t realised how powerful a brief to participants can be. I researched how to give a high quality brief and found a helpful checklist which I used to rework my own brief. 

I am looking forward to continuing with this inquiry process, and hope to create a valid study that other performers can use to improve themselves. 

Appendix B:

Observation feedback

After undertaking a smaller group pilot observation I asked the 5 participants to give me feedback:
I will pick out helpful sentences.

Did you enjoy yourselves?
'Yes, the music was great.'
'I liked how there was no pressure when we were dancing in 2's to get it right.'

Did you understand what I was asking you to do?
'Mostly, I was a bit confused transitioning between each routine.'
'It was really different to anything I've done, so I was a bit pessimistic'

'Is there anything that you didn't understand or want to do?'
'Why we did the questionnaire twice...'

Was the length of time ok?

'No need to do a cool down for 15mins - maybe just let each individual do a cool down'

'Was challenging learning 3 counts of 8 in 5 minutes when the learning style is difficult but it made it fun'

From this I can see I need to clarify some actions to my participants - like why I am asking them to fill in the questionnaire twice.  Maybe shorten the cool down to 10mins.

I will keep my music choices as people liked them. I feel I got a good balance between current songs and some older hits. For the cool down I put on some calming music and possibly let the participants lead it themselves. 

Briefing participants

When researching how to brief I found a very helpful checklist on the Pearson Education website.

Briefing checklist

I have written a brief using this checklist:

I shall say this to my participants before I undertake my observation.

Good morning, my name is Emma and I am a student at Middlesex University studying BA Hons in Professional Practice (Musical Theatre). I am currently looking into methods of learning in our industry and would like you to be open to the different ways I shall be teaching you today.

I shall teach you 4 lots of 3 counts of 8, each taught in a different way. My expectation of you is to embrace each way, even if you get completely lost! The aim is to find an optimum way of learning for you.

The session will last about an hour and 15.  Firstly I shall ask you to retake the questionnaire I sent you last week. Then we shall do a 15 minute warm up, then you will get 5 minutes to learn each routine and then I shall ask you to dance it in groups of 3. I shall also give you 15 minutes to cool down, to save injury. Can I ask if anyone has any injuries I should be aware of?

Don't worry, all of my findings will be kept confidential but if you do however wish to not have your data published in my study that is absolutely ok, just let me know. Likewise, if you feel uncomfortable today you are not obliged to do everything.

Cool, lets get started!



I have made sure I introduce myself and why I am doing my study. I have also stated what I expect of each individual and what I will do with my data. This falls inline with ethical guidelines.

Observation

I would like 20 participants in my observation to test VARK learning styles.

I shall collect quantitative data by finding how many people champion each of the V.A.R.K styles when learning 4 different pieces of choreography.

I shall do this by working out how many steps are in each piece of choreography I will teach. I shall then observe and count how many moves each participant gets and work out a percentage. 

         100                  x     moves picked up

possible moves

For example:

Possible moves in routine = 26

Moves participant 1 picked up = 17

100/26 x 17 = 65% 

I shall then compare these results to the participant's questionnaire results. In my pilot observation, the questionnaire and my findings matched 100%. 

Survey Monkey

So I have questionnaires that I have been writing out, however transferring this onto survey monkey is taking forever!

Survey Monkey is a great way to get more people involved in your inquiry as you don't have to hand them a piece of paper, they can partake when they would like. It will undoubtably make my number of participants increase therefore I will stick by it, but as I have never had to create an online survey before I am finding it quite challenging!

Is anyone else using survey monkey? Or any other survey site that they can recommend?