BAPP Task 2d Inquiry

The task 2d of the Module 1 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of considering the most important questions that are emerging from me from my training to date to initiate ideas about bigger lines of inquiry that I might want to explore later in the programme.

In my case I have been always passionate mainly about Dance & Ballet and the relation between Art & Science. Therefore my answers will be through those lines to explore them further through this BAPP course, especially I want to keep exploring the Art & Science relationship because I don´t get as much opportunities to explore it as a dancer because it is not related with anything within the job at my company.

In order to help us to create our lines of inquiry we need to consider and answer the following questions:

- What in your daily practice gets you really enthusiastic to find out more about? Who do you admire who also works with what makes you enthusiastic?

There are many things in my daily basis that get me enthusiastic, like learn new repertoire or try new tricks and jumps on out daily ballet class, for example today I learn a full length ballet for children in less than 40 minutes, including a semi solo role, that I will premiere on Sunday. Also when I ´m writing a new article or an interview to someone, I´m really enthusiastic about it, which point of view I will use or what do I want to transmit to the reader. In my life I admire many people, such as ballet dancers, friends or family members, they give me inspiration to pursue my dreams, they give “imaginary power” to keep going, to keep pushing myself every day.

- What gets you angry or makes you sad? Who do you admire who shares your feelings or has found away to work around the sadness or anger?

Especially for me: Failure, it makes me sad and very angry to myself, especially when I have put a goal to myself and I didn´t achieved it, when I was younger I had difficulties to get over them and it made me really sad, however after years have passed I learnt how to deal with it and how to turn failure into success, therefore I am always happy with what I have achieved, it was the best that I could do. Definitely my family, they have worked against sadness and anger many times and I admire them a lot for that and many other things, they are my biggest inspiration.

- What do you love about what you do? Who do you admire who also seems to love this or is an example of what you love?

I love what I do because of many different reasons, of course because it makes me happy, but also and this is the most important, to bring happiness, joy and hope to other people, I dance for the audience to bring them feelings, to make them think or just to enjoy to forget about the issues, same when I do other projects, all of them is for the people, I believe that all in a certain way, small or big, we can change the world. Definitely the people that I admire have those qualities, they don´t succeed and make a career in a selfish way, they use their career and success in order to have a voice and change the world in their possibilities.

- What do you feel you don’t understand? Who do you admire who does seem to understand it or who has found a way of making not understanding it interesting or beautiful, or has asked the same questions as you?

I don´t understand many things in my life, such as daily things: Why this pirouette didn´t work or how is it better to use my arms to dance in this specific dance, but also in more general and worldwide issues, such as why don´t we finish all the wars and poverty? Or why are we so selfish between each other? In my opinion we cannot understand everything, therefore we have to accept reality as it is and try to make it better with our possibilities, and again the people that I admire have those qualities, they accept reality as it, they are not always complaining about issues without make any effort to change it, they try to make the world a better place.

- How do you decide the appropriate ethical response in a given situation? To what extent are disciplinary responses different to that you might expect more generally in society? For example, what level of physical contact would you deem appropriate (and not) from another professional that you would find unacceptable more generally? Why?

For me I decide the appropriate ethical response in a situation according to common sense, and about what it is fair for everyone (not only for me), “Don´t do to others what you wouldn´t like to be done to you” Therefore I try to follow that path, and always try to be fair with other (Not putting myself first and then the rest of the world).

In terms of physical contact, it is a very important and different issue to treat, because in every profession is different, for example in dance, your teacher is allowed and expected to touch different parts of your body in order to correct your positions, but this wouldn´t be see strange in any other profession that doesn´t require that much physical contact. Therefore I think that it really depends on the profession in order to find what it is acceptable and what not.

ENBS Dissertation Cover, June 2014

Answering those questions has been quite a fascinating process for myself, questioning myself all of those questions and discovering what the answers were. I will use them in order the lines of inquiry that I want to explore further through this BAPP course, especially the relation between Art & Science, due to I would love to continue to study and develop what my Dissertation Topic was in ENBS 2 years ago for my final project in Module 3 of this course: “How has Wayne McGregor used Science to develop his choreography in the 21^st century dance?” You can above a photo of the cover of the dissertation, and if you go to my Academia.edu Profile you will find my whole dissertation.

Finally I would like to recommend you to try and answer all of the questions above and discover your answers you will find them fascinating and you will learn so much about yourself!

Gonzalo

BAPP Task 2c Reflective Theory

The task 2c of the Module 1 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of after reading the Course Reader 2, we need to write a critical reflection on Reflective Practice exploring, questioning an if possible applying the theories of Dewey, Schön, Kolb and Moon.

Reflection is the process from learning from experience; it is a process of turning information into knowledge. In this course, experience is essential because it supposes that the experience of doing something has and will give you knowledge. Before, I started with the task and reading the Reader 2, I knew how important is reflection and the process of it for our lives, and for many years I have been doing it with my family and friends, however after reading Reader 2, I realised that it is essential for our lives, in my opinion I think like Dewey that the process of reflection, education and learning is they key, we are always in these processes since we are children and we start to develop this skills, and after that we continue for the rest of our lives: “Life itself is a process of learning”.

There have been many thinkers that have looked, studied and deeply thought about Reflective Practice, some of the most relevant are Dewey, Schön, Kolb and Moon, and however there have been many others such as McFee, Gardner or Kottcamp. Below you are going to see the theories of the most relevant of those thinkers. But first have a look at the quote (Photo below) of our first thinker that we are going to explore, John Dewey, I find it fascinating and truly inspirational, not only for thinkers, but for every person to be inspired to enjoy and get the maximum of your life.

http://www.relatably.com/q/john-dewey-quotes

Theories of John Dewey

Our first thinker is the American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, John Dewey. For him there were different levels of experience, as the thought that education as n experiential action as we can see from the quotes above and below. He defined education as a "continual reorganization, reconstruction and transformation of experience" (Dewey, 1916). Also the interaction with the Arts was a unique and valuable experience. He introduced us the term “Reflective thought” to refer about the awareness of having an experience. For him this process was:

“Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey, 1933)

https://pypatpwe.wordpress.com/

Theories of Donald Schön

Our next thinker is the American philosopher and professor, Donald Schön. He is best known for introducing the idea of reflection-in-action, and reflection-on- action through his two major works: The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action (1983) and Educating the Reflective Practitioner (1987).  For him the term of reflective practice is defined as:

“Reflective practice is a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful.”

(http://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/donald-schon/)

According to those two terms introduced by Donald Schön, Reflection-in-action is often related with artists because they respond to what is happening as it happens, it is and immediate answer, and Reflection-on-action is often related with academics because they respond to what is happening by going away to conceptualise it and look back at it, there is a reflective process behind those actions.

http://rajasreeweb.blogspot.com/2014/09/reflective-practice-modes-and-means.html

Theories of David Kolb

Our next thinker is the American educational theorist, David Kolb. His contribution to Reflective is essential because of this Learning cycle (As you can see in the photograph below). It was first introduced in his book Experiential Learning (1984).  Below you can see one of his most famous quotes about the learning process.

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it.”

(http://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/david-kolb)

The Kolb´s learning cycle is used as on-going process with one point in the learning cycle leading to the next and so on. The point that you start to learn on it and find meaning is your entry point also, where you enter the cycle is sometimes called your learning style. Kolb’s learning cycle is an essential tool for Reflection on how you learn and a fantastic tool to approach experience.

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/kolbcycle.htm

Jennifer Moon Theories

And our final thinker is Jennifer Moon, she is best known for her contribution to journal writing through her major work Learning Journals (2006), that you can see a photo of the cover below. Journal writing has been used a lot for many different kinds of adult education. Particularly I found this process very enriching for me, it has helped me to understand my thinking process and how to improve it, as you can see in the previous tasks of Part 2.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Journals-Jennifer-Moon/dp/0415403758

After studying and discovering those fascinating thinkers, as well as all that is related with the Reflective Practice, I feel very inspired to continue to study and learn more about after this BAPP has finished and surely I will apply those ideas to my everyday life from now on, and I highly recommend to everyone to do the same, it is a really enriching process

Gonzalo

Bibliography

- Middlesex University (2012) BAPP (Arts) Reader 2, Institute of Work Based Learning, London: Middlesex University

- Van Vliet, V, 2013, . David Kolb, ToolsHero. (Online). Available from: http://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/david-kolb (accessed 04.11.16)

- Van Vliet, V, 2012), Donald Schon (Schön), ToolsHero, (Online).  Available from: http://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/donald-schon/ (accessed 04.11.16)

- Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall

BAPP Task 2b Journal Writing Experience

The task 2b of the Module 1 of the BA (Hons) in Professional Practice at the Middlesex University consists of based upon the Reid and Moon framework we need to critically reflect upon a specific day of the last weeks using our own journals that we been doing since then. For this task is very important to anonymise if needed and also before this post has been published I have checked it all so I don´t speak to some confidential matters, as we have previously read and study in Reader 1.

Those are the different ways to write and different methods to create journal writing according to the Reid and Moon Framework:

- Description

- Initial Reflection

- List

- Evaluation

- Graphs, diagrams and drawings

- What if?

- Another view

In my case when I am writing my journal I use mostly Description, Initial Reflection, List and sometimes Evaluation. I think that it is mainly because of how my thoughts are working at the end of the day, especially because for me the journal gives me the opportunity to reflect and to evaluate each day, what I have achieved, what were my feelings about important issues, and also sometimes to reflect, how I deal with some problems or mistakes for example on a performance, when I have done a mistake, how I have to quickly react to it and don´t let the audience know that I have failed on that step, they will even think that the choreography was supposed to be like that.

On the other hand I haven´t used Graphs, diagrams and drawings, What if? And Another View because it doesn´t come natural to me to reflect on my thoughts through those paths, however, this task has opened my mind to encourage myself to open my mind to new ways to reflect to gradually introduce those ones into my thinking process.

Here you can see an extract of my journal from last Wednesday, (Please note that due to confidential there are some parts that have been omitted from this post), because I considered a really exciting and important day, mainly because I was really excited to perform our first dress rehearsal in Riga with audience of the ballet “Peer Gynt” by Edward Clug (Photo below), as well as my first to the impressive National Library of Latvia (Photo below):

“Another, incredibly busy day, not only because of this new premiere, Pers Gints, but also because I went for the fist time to the National Library here in Riga…. What an incredibly building it is, with 11 floors and more than 6 million printed works as they have told me, it makes it the biggest in Baltics, and surely a great one too in Europe, I visited there the exposition Open Fields by the Riga Art Science Festival, and I was astonished too by it, and it gave great ideas for my future projects…. “

Writing a journal, it is such a passionate and helpful experience, if you haven´t tried it yet, I highly recommend you to do it, and you will love it!

Gonzalo