Reflective Theory Task

I think reflective practise is not so much something you learn but something you develop over time. There are definitely ways to train our mind to make sure we are getting the most out of our experiences and reflecting on them.

David Kolb’s cycle explains the different stages of experience we have. ‘Active Experimentation’, ‘Concrete Experience’, ‘Reflective Observation’ and ‘Abstract Conceptualisation’. Everyone will enter the cycle at a different stage when experiencing something new, but once we enter the cycle we will continue going round the cycle. When reading about Kolb’s cycle and Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s ‘stages’ it got me thinking about how much I do this in my life and career.

Everyone reflects after an experience, if someone asked you if you had a good or a bad day you would be able to tell them the answer without really thinking about it based on how you’re feeling after the days actions. This is a more subconscious form of reflecting though. ‘Reflective Observation’ as Kolb refers to it or Honey and Mumford’s ‘concluding from the experience’ I think requires more conscious reflection. Looking at the experience and seeing what went well what went wrong, what could be done to improve? At this point I start to question if too much reflection is counter-productive. I think it is innate in us to be the best we can and be perfectionists. No one can say they were truly happy to loose a race; you enter a race with the intent on winning it. For this reason I do think there’s a point when we stop reflecting in a constructive manner and it starts becoming destructive to us in other ways. To point out all our flaws time and time again is not a healthy way to be.

I realise this is an extreme view of reflective practise but I felt when reading about reflective practise not enough emphasis was put on the potential negative side, if any at all. I know that when promoting the merits you would not mention the negatives but I think in the industry we’re in it is important to recognise the fact that too much reflection can turn into self criticism. I have friends who have reflected on every class and every performance they do in such minute detail that the strive for perfection takes over their lives. Image is important in this profession, whether it is politically correct or not, a casting director will be looking for a certain type and look eg. brown hair or blue eyes. I have seen a few people become ill through constant self-criticism and thinking if they make themselves skinnier they would be more fitting into the stereotype needed.

This being said I do think there is more merits to reflection than there are negatives and I think continual reflection is imperative to a dancer. Continual reflection of course is important in any career, you need to see what is working and what isn’t and adjust what you do accordingly. It is very true what was suggested in Reader 2 that dancers automatically reflect in what Donald Schon refers to as ‘reflection-in-action’. When you are dancing you are constantly self-correcting as you move to make sure you maintain balance and your posture is correct etc. However since I have started teaching I find that what I do is almost a combination of ‘in-action’ and ‘on-action’ reflection simultaneously. Whilst a student is dancing I will be telling them corrections to help them – ‘ reflection-in-action’. I also correct after the student has finished dancing and work with the student to work out what exactly went wrong and what they can do to make the movement work for them – ‘reflection-on-action’.

In conclusion I found all the information about ‘reflective practice’ very interesting and somewhat thought provoking. Do I do as much as I could to get the most out of every experience? Whilst I try during my time to get the most out of it, I don’t necessarily get all that I can afterwards in term of ‘reflective observation’. I have discussed the negative and positive aspects that I see of reflection but I do on a whole think it is an invaluable tool that most of us don’t use to the best of our ability and is often under-rated in how crucial it can be to our us and our career development. 

Journal Writing Experience

Tuesday is never my favorite day. I know this sounds like a negative way to start the day but when my alarm goes off on a Tuesday morning there is a definite unenthusiastic sigh as I start my day. I love my job, I feel very fortunate to love my job but my Tuesday is a very long day with lots of driving that I always dread.

I start my day in downtown Dubai at a nursery. I teach from 2 year olds to 4 years olds. Aerobics and yoga. The kids are very sweet but as you can imagine getting 20, 3 year olds to sit down crossed legged and say ‘namaste’ is never going to happen, so I always find it somewhat stressful. I then drive to the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi to teach right in the heart of the country’s capital city.

So last Tuesday as I walk into the nursery I decide to have a new tact with the children. It was relatively simple, tire them out with more aerobics than usual so when I come to practice breathing exercises they will be too tired to try and rebel.  It worked like a dream. I found myself driving to Abu Dhabi in a good mood.

I felt awful! I had always blamed my begrudging attitude towards my Tuesday’s on the amount of driving I have to do, but here I am not worried about the drive, just grateful to spend the morning not tearing my hair out!

I then went on to have really good lessons with my classes in Abu Dhabi. Is all this because the children this morning weren’t as hyper?

I worried about how I felt about this day until the next Tuesday came around. As soon as the children came running into the classroom at the nursery they were all asking ‘can we do the copying game’ or ‘can we practice our leaps?’.  I realized the reason I was so happy after my last class with them was because of how responsive they were and how much they enjoyed the lesson.

I realized when reflecting on the whole day that I was so happy after my classes in the nursery as I felt I had made a break through with the children and they were now looking forward to classes and remembering exercises.

Likewise my classes in Abu Dhabi, again they went well and I just assumed it was because I was in a good mood. As a teacher you should never let your mood or anything going on outside of the studio effect your work. That goes without say for all professions, so I have been beating myself up that I am being unprofessional and have been devastated with myself.

After looking at my nursery class I looked back to the lessons I teach later that day. There was a completely different atmosphere in the classes as I had had to have words with them the week before. Both classes are for teenagers with a couple doing both the classes. They have the typical teenage attitude that young teenagers have, but I was used to this from the classes I used to teach back in England.

However the classes I was teaching these children is for ‘vocational’ exams so require a lot of dedication and commitment from the student’s part. I spoke to the classes explaining all that is needed from them and that whilst the potential is there, there is only so much I can do if they don’t put everything into their work.

So last week when I went to my class their attitude was completely different. They were ready and willing to learn. Taking on corrections I gave them rather than just rolling their eyes or taking personal offence. I enjoyed the classes so much as I felt like I was making a difference. I hate having to talk to students to tell them to work harder as I believe dancing above all else is to be enjoyable, but the difference in them was amazing and seeing the improvement in just one lesson was inspiring.

I still dread the driving on a Tuesday but I no longer wake up begrudgingly. I look forward to both my locations I teach at as I feel I make a difference. I love my job and everyday I smile in my lessons as I see the enjoyment and happiness I bring to the children I teach as I am giving them the chance to dance, something I love most in the world.

Reflecting back on last Tuesday however has made me realize. I was so quick to blame my driving for my bad mood when actually it was because I didn’t feel like I was getting all that I could from my classes. It is only a couple of weeks into the term and it does take children a while to connect with their teacher and feel comfortable around them. This was all that I needed; to pass the barrier so I can really help the children and push them to be the best of their ability. 

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Personal Profile

I started my professional training at the relatively young age of ten at Tring Park, after begging my parents for two years after doing their first Easter course. I was not disappointed and loved every second of it and knew that the world of dance was where I wanted to be!

After only a year I left and went to Elmhurst, both in Camberley and Birmingham and from there moved to The Hammond in Chester.

During my time at vocational school I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work as part of a community outreach programme where we worked with children with learning and physical disabilities. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve done and was so rewarding seeing how much joy they got out of it that I knew community dance was something I definitely wanted to be involved with later on in my career.

Throughout my training I was itching to leave and just perform on stage, the schools annual production was the highlight of the academic calendar, however was never enough for me. I wanted to be on stage all the time as opposed to technique lessons. Of course when you actually graduate the dance world isn’t as glamorous as it seems from the outside. After countless auditions with hundreds of other girls - equally all as passionate about performing as myself, and with little income being earned from my skills the idea of living in London seemed unrealistic. So begrudgingly moved back home from Chester to my quiet Kent village. However, I wanted to be in London with all my other friends living there but only being an hour train ride away there was little point.

This happened to be the best thing I could have ever done!

When I moved back in the September I found out through the grapevine that a local dance school was looking for a teaching assistant. This was the most perfect job for me as it gave me a unique opportunity to watch a teacher with over 20 years experience teaching. By Christmas I was working as a free-lance teacher for a few schools in the area and attending R.A.D teachers courses and had been asked to dance for local charity events and been a dancer in an advert.

As much as I loved my job I was still in my quiet Kent village so in an attempt to spread my wings I started looking for teaching jobs abroad, initially it was just to do over the summer period but then I saw one advertised for teaching in Dubai. So here I am living in Dubai, I have been here for 6 weeks and loving it. It’s hard teaching 6 days a week but it’s an amazing experience. It has been a massive learning curve. When I arrived I knew no one and had nowhere to live just a hotel booked for 2 nights. Driving is an experience too, my car was just dropped off by the company and off I had to go in a left hand drive automatic in a foreign country where I had no idea where I was going. I have got lost my fair share of times with Dubai’s ever changing roads, where sat-navs are as confused as you are, but already moving out here has been one of the best things I have ever done!

First Post

Hi All,

Well I’m so sorry to be joining this so late! I tried uploading my first blog over a week ago but for some reasons it was coming up as squares and not letters so I figured I would try again later, foolish mistake as I have only just got the internet back!

So I’m Eloise, I trained at the Hammond along with a few others on the course! I graduated in July 2010 with a National Diploma in Professional Dance. I then moved back home to Kent, a big shock to the system, I found adapting back to the quiet Kentish village life quite hard! I was very lucky though as when I was back home I was working as a freelance teacher teaching 5 days a week at 3 different schools. I absolutely loved it! I had always had the train of thought, like many in their training, that I might teach later on when I’m older but not fussed about it now. How wrong I was!

Although I loved my job in Kent I was aware that I was only 20 and there is a big world out there so I started looking into what else I could do. Then I found the perfect course for me, it’s the Post-graduate diploma in Community Dance at Laban. I auditioned for the course and got accepted but my place has been deferred for a year as I was already enrolled on this course.

After my auditions and knowing what I was doing for the next few years I saw a job advertised for a dance teacher in Dubai. I applied thinking I might as well and got the job! So a month ago I moved out to Dubai and it has been a very crazy month! It is very different out here, lots of rules. It is illegal to run out of petrol out here, but at the equivalent of 30p a litre I suppose there’s no excuse! So Dubai’s awful internet is why I haven’t been able to post anything yet but I now have internet again after 10 long days!

I’ll be on tomorrow to post task 1A but I just wanted to say hello and get something posted as soon as possible.