Saturday Skype with Jennifer and Lauren

Last Saturday I had a Skype with Jen and Lauren who are also undertaking Module Three.

We had a really honest, in-depth discussion about our findings so far and what stages we were at. 

We discussed literature that had really helped us look deeper into the analysis of our practice and seeing as we were all teaching in a creative field, it was useful for us to share our findings in a truly 'Special Interest Group.'

We also ended up discussing teaching the Creative Arts, as Lauren wanted to run a few questions past us about the importance of the arts, something that I had included within my own survey questions.

This led us to talk about performing and how the Creative Arts can be an escape for someone and an outlet for somebody to learn. We discussed a video that I had shared to the group before on the Facebook group, where Irish actor, John Connors, had been saved literally by acting and performing (below.) 

However, Jen also shared a story about a performer she knew of who became someone completely different when they appeared on stage, but who would rush to escape being greeted by people at the stage door, because in the real world they would shy away. It made us questions whether the Arts is always beneficial, or whether it sometimes helps people to not confront how they really feel.

This was a great chat encouraging us to look at both sides of the Arts, which is what we should be doing with our literature. Weighing up the pros and cons with each other enables us all to have a deeper understanding of what our practice entails. I think it was beneficial that we were considering both points of view, despite us all naturally being biased because we are all from a creative background. These are skills that I am developing throughout this process, seeing all different viewpoints and weighing up everything.

Data Collection Methods - What am I using and what am I planning to use?

Questionnaires

I have already sent out my survey to teachers within my practice in order to establish their views on Creativity and what it means to them. When undertaking the formation process of my survey, I decided to use both open and closed questions to do this. From my research, it appeared that a balance of these types of questions was a much more productive way of approaching the survey, mainly due to the fact that if every answer is closed, the answers may not mean as much as a teacher's opinion and if all the questions are open there may be a point where teachers feel slightly intimidates by blank boxes and my research will then not be very specific.

There was also a lot of thought that I had to put into creating the questions, because the whole way through I was thinking 'am I putting my bias into the questions?' 'Does this sound neutral?' Just like we mentioned in the Skype chat, you have to be creative and open even in a data collection process!

Observations

At this moment, I am planning to research and then collate an observation sheet so I can note down specifically what I see within lessons that I observe. I have realised that one of my main points of interest is the creative methods that teachers use within their lessons and I want to find this out through surveys, noting down on my observation sheet each time I observe a creative element and also use teacher's lesson plans to analyse so I can highlight the times in which they have scheduled in a creative task. 

Interviews and Focus Groups 

I also want to interview particular teachers that have a Creative Arts background or specialism (eg. Drama Club Assistant, Art Teacher etc) compared to teachers that may not have have a Creative or Theatre Arts specialism (Eg. Geography Teacher) and see what their views are on creativity within the classroom and their creative teaching methods. I am still deciding whether to do this all through individual interviews or whether to look at using a focus group to gather viewpoints so that I gather a variety of viewpoints through discussion rather than just simply one viewpoint from one person at a time. 

Reflective Journal and Blogging

I always write in my reflective journal whenever I can to write down things that I haven't before realised and to reflect on what skills I am developing. This is a great way to track progress. I will continue to write in this throughout the process. 

"Don't Look for the Answers, look for the Meaning."

Write as you see it...

On this Snowy day, I decided to look back through my Literature Review and start researching books to note down interesting quotes and ideas that might shed some more light on my inquiry. 

I really enjoyed this quoting exercise, because it consolidated all other people's thoughts about teaching in a broken-down and selective manner, which meant I could then reflect on the main points of a particular book.

This helped me edit my Literature Review so that I could really pinpoint the points of interest within my practice.

My Pen and Notebook. Highlighting the word 'connection.'

I then decided to look back at Sir Ken Robinson's definition of Creativity so I could compare it to what other literary scholars have been saying, as well as the definitions that teachers have been giving me within their surveys. 

 

As a result of this, I came up with a quote to summarise my inquiry process so far:

"Don't look for the answers, look for the meaning."

Tuesday 27th February Skype Session Module 3 at 12:30pm

Today was a Skype session that was very beneficial to the attendees in Module Three. 

We began by sharing what stage we were all at and I found myself discussing the fact that the Literature Review had helped me incredibly. This was extremely useful particularly for Emily to hear, as as she had many questions about how to progress with her inquiry. 

I talked about how literature had opened new doors for me and that I had already began creating and distributing a survey that current teaching and educational professionals could fill in. I explained that after receiving feedback from Adesola, I was thinking more about how I could 'reach out' more in terms of finding out about my topic in the world and what it shows for us within the UK. 

As a result, I feel as if I'm climbing over a hurdle that has been stopping me recently from progressing. I have found the literature freeing in the fact that I'm now wondering about things as a result of things that I have read and am now not trying to predict or preempt answers to questions. I have to remind myself to explore and not try to answer any questions. But to instead have the mindset that I want to look at everything and see what this could potentially say about my practice. 

I used an example of a book I had read about the Arts culturally within Greater China, sharing the fact that we are actually very lucky to have the Creative Arts that we have within the UK, because there are some rural areas in China who do not even teach Art. Adesola, elaborated on this, explaining that we should not just take this as 'fact' but instead use pieces of information like this to ask questions about our practice and see what they might inform us of.

Eleanor extended this conversation to talk about how she herself had looked at literature and in particular historical literature in order to inform her of attitudes and opinions of appearance within the acting industry. Henry also mentioned that he has done the same in order to give context to his inquiry. Eleanor made it clear that she wasn't trying to find literature that was just about her specific practice or topic of inquiry, but that it was more about finding what RELATES to her practice and to see if their were common themes or ideas coming through that could help her assess her practice. 

I then discussed things that I had noticed from my surveys already and how I had made sure that there were opportunities to answer freely in open boxes, rather than just 'tick the box' answers. I discussed how the open answers told me much more about my practice than the closed questions and answers did and this was interesting for the likes of Emily and Henry to hear, because they had reservations about analysing both quantitative and quantitative data. Jess mentioned that she had been looking into data techniques within inquiry making and these are things I want to look more into myself.

Just from looking at Henry's blog from the previous Skype session which I could not attend, I can see that they had discussed this type of data already together and had noted that qualitative data provided more of a deeper understanding about practices, which I can see very clearly from my own research already. It's almost as if I care about qualitative data more? Because the opinions of experienced professionals can assist me in practice methods!

Adesola said something along the lines of, "If you don't care about the data, then what's the point of it within your inquiry?!"

Helen also talked about this and the importance of trying to make things as open as possible. This led me to encourage Eleanor to go even further with being an absent interviewer where she only lets interviewees read the questions that she sets, answering them to a camera in a self-type style. I told her that instead of questions, she could think about writing open statements instead, like "Tell me your thoughts on Appearance in the Acting Industry."

This would leave the person open to discuss whatever they wanted to without 'questioning' with Eleanor not asking for specifics which could make the answers more closed. I guess it's seeing how far you can push the openness of the entire process?

Data methods are something that I haven't looked into as much as I would like to yet, so I am going to keep on researching the best ways to gather evidence that enables me to understand my practice.

Helen and I even talked about how allowing answers to be open gives you more of an insight and is incredibly creative in itself! I keep asking questions like 'how can I be more open?' and 'how can I let people have more of a say?' This means I'm being creative myself with survey making. 

Henry also asked about the Artefact and there was a clear response from the course leaders that this is not something we should be thinking about just yet! The Artefact is something that comes after you have made your inquiry and is influenced by your findings. In an essence, reflecting what you've found from your inquiry. Therefore, we should not be reflecting on this yet, because we have not yet explored all of our practice!

All in all, this was a very useful Skype. People could share and consolidate thoughts and make decisions of the next actions to take the inquiry forward. 

Successful Skype!

Literature Review Reflection and Beginning Data Collection

Today was the day in which Eleanor added me to the Special Interest Group that is the BAPP Arts Facebook Group. People had already begun sharing their thoughts about their inquires, as well as sharing the start of their data collection processes. I saw that Jess had created a survey that she started handing out, so I thought that I would begin questioning various teachers on their thoughts about the Creative Arts within mainstream Education.

I have recently been writing my Literature Review and I cannot believe how much this has helped me and enabled me to discover more about this field. I strongly believe that the reviewing process has actually enabled me to realise the questions I want to ask and find out exactly what I would really like to know. It amazes me how just reading other people's thoughts can open you up to more questions about your own practice!

As a result, I have used the questions that cropped up in my thought process to create a survey that teaching staff, whether in mainstream Education or in Performing Arts Education outside of the school setting can share their thoughts on Creativity and also share some Creative methods that I have not used before.

I am incredibly intrigued and excited to find out what teachers across the country and the world believe about Creative teaching!

The survey can be accessed here:

https://surveyhero.com/c/1487a33c

Inquiry Areas of Creative Interest - what are the things I am already curious about? What creative opportunities exist?

Following from our recent Skype I decided to simplify things (as there is so much you can explore!) I decided to start by coming up with 5 areas I want to look at within my school that are all opportunities for the use of Creativity. You talked about exploring what 'already exists' in mainstream Education, so I thought today, 'when are the moments that there are profound creative opportunities in school at the moment?'

These are all moments that I haven't yet analysed, particularly the creativity within teacher planning! (This would be a topic that would help me massively in developing as a teacher!) Maybe I could use some lesson plans as evidence and data to analyse?

Title: An exploration of the Creative Arts in mainstream Education

Main Areas to look at in my Inquiry that already exist

Creativity in English Lessons

·         When are the arts used in lessons?

·         How often are the creative arts used within lessons?

·         What dramatic and artistic techniques to teachers use in their lessons?

·         What effect does it have?

Using Creativity in Teacher Planning

·         Why do primary teachers feel the need to schedule in drama within their lessons?

·         Are creative techniques used sufficiently in teacher planning?

·         How do teachers create their lesson plans together in their teaching planning meetings? What works? How do they create something they all agree on?

Creativity Opportunities in Wider Curriculum Subjects

·         What are the opportunities for creative development within wider curriculum?

·         What are teacher’s viewpoints on the wider curriculum?

·         How do various teachers teach wider curriculum subjects? Such as Art? PE? Science? History?

Creativity in Assemblies

·         What different artistic stimuli are included within assemblies by teachers?

·         How do leaders and teachers of assemblies use the arts to their advantage throughout assemblies?

·         How do external educational companies, such as The Family Trust use dramatic and performance techniques effectively?

Creativity in Religious Education

·         How have I been using the arts in my religious education lessons?

·         How are the children responding to the use of arts in my lessons?

·         What are the ways I haven’t used the arts in my lessons yet?

·         In what ways have the children been able to be creative within religious education lessons so far?

·         How can I be more creative in my teaching methods? 


I sent these ideas to Adesola and she told me that these looked like some good ideas, however it's important to remember that I try not to tie ideas down. It is all a reflective process, not necessarily a structured one. She advised me to look into literature that follows up these questions and then collect the data from what I read. This looks like a good starting point - reading up on all current ideas and working out for myself what this tells me about my school, the UK, my practice, my topic etc. This is my next plan...better get reading!  

Skype Chat with Adesola - Refining and Looking into what already exists

I've just come off a Skype call with Adesola and there were some interesting points we discussed.

General thoughts and how I will explore what I do not already know...

After working out the things I would like to know, we discussed the fact that as much as it would be interesting to find these things out within a lesson, it's important to remember that the school is not there to accommodate my BA course.

I of course can use creative elements within my lessons, but to go as far as letting the children decide what they learn is not something that I will be able to do, due to the fact that I have to stick to the school curriculum structure and ethos. I myself know that the same form of work, although differentiated, still needs to be shown in their books as evidence. 

Adesola did, however, encourage me to look at other teachers and practitioners who had already attempted these inquires and have asked the same questions that I have recently asked and encouraged me to look at the things that are already happening around me. 

I also talked about my idea of getting the children writing and commenting on their learning throughout the process but wasn't sure what the point of it was. Adesola was of the opinion that what it would show me what the children thought they knew about their learning and what they would think I would perhaps want them to write or respond with, so it is now making me question whether or not this would be of much use.

Religious Education - the new topic I am teaching

I discussed with Adesola my new role from teaching music to teaching Religious Education and how the switch from the two topics itself is incredibly vast! 

I started off by talking about my idea of a lesson on a story such as The Good Samaritan, splitting the children into groups and getting them to create their own freeze frames of the story. 

However, Adesola mentioned the possibility of looking at some Religious dances, paintings and even portrayals of God through various artwork. 

This made me reflect on the current lesson I undertook with the Year 5 classes creating Islamic prayer mats and how the entire class worked as a team to produce their own Islamic Artwork, using Google images in order to assist them and inspire them with their creations. At the time, we made this a competition, which Adesola advised maybe isn't an element I should continue with, seeing as everyone's interpretation is creatively different and should be respected for what it is, but the ethos of these types of lessons can enable me to see how the creative arts is used within lessons to educate pupils. 

Organising my Thoughts...

There have been some useful points of discussion from this Skype and now it is set for me to start organising my thoughts and putting together what I feel will be of interest and use. I have created a draft schedule which I have sent to Adesola to look at, but after this Skype it's now making me ask questions like:

What is it I really want to know? What already exists that I can learn more about? What are people currently doing out there?