Rosemary McGuinness

Campus Session 1: Module 2

2012-02-07T10:46:00.002Z

Everyone attending had a starting point for the future inquiry. Inquiry topics can be driven by various forces including:

Place of work
Career Aspirations
Interest / Passion / Curiousity about topic

Some might find drawing out a mind map of all that is known / unknown about topic useful. With a map, connections and links can be made. What is could be tried out is to consider what would the impact be if one node on the map was removed – what impact would this have on the topic and the angle of it.

One topic that was suggested was about the preparation that vocational schools give to students for finding employment in the performing arts industry – e.g. preparing for auditions. This topic raises a whole lot of other questions such as…

Do vocational courses include preparation for work?
How do producers / directors select performers?
Is there a reputation attached to various schools? (For instance, the graduates of certain colleges tend to find work more than others?)
What if anything is included in these curricula?
Are there any broad similarities between those who find work easily after graduation and those who do not?
Who would know the answer to these?
Do vocational schools gather data / information on the destinations of graduates?
If so, does this data reveal anything?

Asking a range of questions and drilling further down into a topic can be revealing and suggest the focus of the inquiry. Another topic of interest yesterday was on Community Dance organizations. Again this raises a whole raft of deeper questions and should be reflected on to give shape to an inquiry.

Who are the range groups /individuals in a Community Dance organization?
Does one have priority?
Are all groups being catered for equitably / appropriately?
How is this known?
Is there a best model of practice / provision for a Community Dance organization?

These questions can be explored with peers and professional contacts (SIG) in order to help shape the inquiry. This then leads onto the inquiry tools which can be used and how ethical principles will be implemented.

Key points made were:

This module is a huge step up from Module 1
There are 3 readers to support each strand of the module
Networks, both peer and professional are essential to progress on this module
Subject interest groups will help with shaping the inquiry and can be useful in piloting inquiry tools
Reading about topics which may be pursued in an inquiry is essential

Review of Assessment Activity

2012-02-01T14:05:00.007Z

I am coming towards the end of the marking process and assessing final projects from Module 3 on the BAPP (Arts) programme. My colleagues and I have been fascinated by the findings and the range of professional artefacts that were produced. The artefacts are varied and include a poster, blurb book publications, lesson plans, a business plan, slideshare presentations and a website. The better artefacts were those which emerged as a result of doing the inquiry rather than merely replicating the inquiry process and directed at particular audiences. Already some artefacts, we discovered, have been adopted / accepted in professional contexts. Informing and transforming professional practice is something that is an actual benefit from the programme

The presentations I viewed were as varied as the inquiries and certainly helped to illuminate the work that was done. One presenter made the point that she had gone through the modules, doing the tasks without really knowing why. “I just blogged because I had to”, she said. But, she declared that at the end of the process, she now understood that it was more than just a process - it was about learning. She added that the distinction between single loop and double loop learning was understood.

“What did you learn about learning?” is a question we asked a few of the presenters. What we were looking for here was not so much the answers to inquiries but, a recognition that the questions themselves are more important. If all our finalists have learned is that questions do not always have black or white answers and that more questions have to be asked, then we have done a good job. Critical questioning is what is expected in the final year of a BA (Hons) and evaluating and assessing the contribution of what is found out, to the topic of inquiries.

Going through the modules and completing the tasks and assignments may probably get you through the programme successfully. But how well you want to do in the programme will relate to your ability to critically engage in issues. This is the difference between surface and deep learning. We can teach someone how to use a computer programme or a camera but what we teach them will soon be out of date as technology develops. What will never date, and should take you through your professional life is the skill of critical inquiry.

Information Literacy

2011-11-25T11:59:00.001Z

I spent a few days in Limerick this week at an EU funded project to promote and deliver information literacy modules to undergraduates in universities in the Western Balkans. There are four EU partners leading on the project and one of these is Middlesex University. Other EU partners are Greece, Ireland & Romania and the universities we are working with are in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.

The American Library Association define Information Literacy as the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” . The skills and competencies required for information literacy are the same as those which are necessary for work on literature review.

We have been evaluating a useful resource developed in Ireland – it’s a self managed tutorial taking you through various stages of information literacy. Please have a look – there is much that is useful for your purposes at the moment. In particular look at Unit 2.5 and see how you can apply this to your own literature review.

Communicating with SIG(s)

2011-11-16T12:54:00.000Z

One philosophy of the BAPP Arts Programme is the use of Social Media for learning and communication. Be that as it may we are not always in control of Web 2.0 technology. You will find that the Reviews and Discussions tabs from Facebook have been removed.

The following extract is an explanation from Facebook:

“What happened to the Reviews and Discussions tabs on my Facebook Page?
We've found that the best way to encourage conversation and feedback is through posts and comments on your Wall, so we're removing the Reviews and Discussions tabs for now. We're working on tools to help you moderate, filter and manage content in one powerful place. Stay tuned.

You won't be able to access your reviews and discussions once they're removed, so please save this content if you'd like to keep it for future reference.

On place pages with a location, fans can still write a recommendation for their friends or others from the right-column that says Recommendations”.

In view of the removal of the Discussions Forum from Facebook – the following is our advice on how approach evidencing your engagement with your SIG(s)

For discussions that you already have had on Facebook we advise that you give an account (written paragraph) of these discussions and how they moved your thinking along in relation to your inquiry topic and questions

The purpose of the SIG is to engage you with a wider professional community to explore questions further – this can be with class colleagues or in the workplace or professional community. As you continue to have these discussions we recommend that you use methods / tools which are most suitable and relevant to you. In view of what has just happened with Facebook we recommend that you continuously document important elements from the SIG discussions. Any future discussions you have about your inquiry can be documented and this documentation be used as evidence of engagement with the SIG(s)

Discussions can happen in a variety of ways such as:

Face to face
E-mail
Setting up groups on your own Facebook
WIKIS

Reviewing Literature

2011-11-14T11:34:00.002Z

For Module 2 you are expected to review at least three pieces of literature. The reason for this is to find out what contributions others have made to the topic of you inquiry. If you were planning a holiday you would want to know what others had said about your intended destination. Likewise, finding out what others have had to say about your topic will inform you more and give you greater knowledge about your topic. Once you have located the literature – see Paula’s slideshow on her recent blog about how to get find it – the point is to work out what the key point of the piece of literature is and what contribution it’s making to your topic. The review should go beyond mere regurgitation of the piece and here your voice comes in. Bringing in your voice should relate the piece you are reviewing to your topic. For instance, what angle does it take? Are there any questions which arise from it? Are there any obvious flaws in it? Can you make a judgement about the author’s point of view? Is it clear how they came to this point of view? In bringing in your voice you should avoid the word “Interesting”. This word is in danger of becoming meaningless from overuse.

It’s rare to find a truly objective piece of literature in the social sciences. Authors’ opinions are formed from personal / political beliefs and it’s a skill that comes from practice to identify their particular standpoint. While standpoints are inevitable it’s a useful skill to be able to recognize their point of view. Similarly, authors may have been commissioned to carry out an evaluation / research. Who pays for this research can also influence their stance. Newspapers in the UK can be viewed as a stark example of this. Taking a news item it’s illuminating to see how the same event is reported in different newspapers.

Years ago, I heard an amusing analysis of UK newspapers which has a grain of truth in it.

• The Times is read by the people who run the country.
• The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country.
• The Guardian is read by people who wished they ran the country.
• The Daily Telegraph is read by people who used to run the country and believe they still do.
• The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country … and so on.

Finding the literature is fun and requires your best detective skills, thinking around the topic and identifying search terms and thinking of alternative words and key terms which can help in the search. One useful way of doing this is to draw out a mind map with your topic in the centre. What other questions emanate from the centre of your mind map – and hence what other terms should you be looking for? When you have located the relevant literature, you should scan and then read more deeply the piece, making notes if this helps. Then, try to sum up in one sentence what the key point of the piece is. The more literature you gather, there could be similarities or themes emerging, or there could be divergences and differences to note.

The Literature Review is an important part of the journey of discovery in your topic questions and what is learned from it will add weight and substance to your work.

SIGs & Inquiry Tools

2011-11-11T11:15:00.000Z

The Campus Session on 9th October was a chance to pick up some helpful points towards the completion of Module 2. We opened with looking at questions that could be asked about inquiry topics and looked at tools such as a mind map to generate questions. Some find this a useful tool and it’s useful to consider issues and the wider context of considered topics. Questions can seek to uncover linkages between different concepts around the topic. What if? Why? Finding a variety of questions to ask comes out of thinking wider that the topic and reflection on causes, effects and impact.

Questions should be explored by starting a SIG or joining in conversations which have been started on Facebook. Building up links with your SIG is of paramount importance as you will need to trial and test tools of inquiry. It is of course possible to move outside a class SIG to carry out such a pilot. You can use your own professional network, organization to trial these tools. Testing these tools is a pilot at this stage and you should use it to review and develop these tools for your actual inquiry in the final module (3). You need to reflect on how useful the tools are in answering the questions you need answered for your inquiry. For instance you need to weigh up the kind of information you can gather. For instance how could an interview and an observation give you different kinds of data. Can you be sure that respondents in an interview are not merely just giving you the responses that they think are “right” or what they think you want to say. While on the other hand an observation could produce a different finding. For instance, if your topic was about the protection of data in the workplace you might pose such a question in an interview – “How do you ensure that the information on your computer is secure?”. Their reply might be “I put passwords on all sensitive documents and if I have to leave my desk then I ensure that I log off so that another person cannot access my files”. Observing the same person in a work situation could present a different picture. For instance you might note that they frequently leave their desk in the course a day and do not log off every time they go. You might also note that you heard them onto the computer onto the helpdesk and you actually heard them give their password to the technician. The two kinds of information paint two very different pictures.

You have the opportunity in this module to test the different tools and think about what kind of information each of them will give. Your inquiry plan will then include a review of the tools you have tested and enable you to give an account which tool(s) you intend to use in the actual inquiry. This will call upon you to provide sound reasoning and judgement in coming to your decision.

Campus Session – Module 2

2011-10-18T18:58:00.000+01:00

Today’s session started out by a discussion on where everyone was with their big questions which could lead into an inquiry. There was, as expected, some questions which were more formulated than others which is perfectly natural at this time. Adesola was on hand with useful advice on asking how questions could be linked to professional practice and emergent questions from college days. Inevitably, some people have shifted in their professional practice from the subject pursued in college. Nonetheless this could be a starting point. The importance of engaging in SIG(s) was recalled and we reminded people how useful Facebook was in supporting this the last time.

We then went to look at the issue of Professional Ethics and attention was drawn to the Reader where the history of Ethics and the various theoretical standpoints are explained. We discussed the potential conflicts between personal, professional and organisational ethics. We asked people to draw up a Code of Practice for their profession and then compare it with an actual code in their professional practice. The tasks in this part of the module (Part 5 – Ethics) should be attempted about this time and blogs updated.

Government Reports

2011-10-18T13:06:00.002+01:00

Sometimes useful material can be gleaned from the above and I insert a link to one such which could be of interest to those involved in dance education. You will see on this page links to other reports which may be of interest ....

Campus Session 4th October – Module 2

2011-10-05T15:53:00.002+01:00

There was a small group in attendance and at the outset of the session we looked at the Module Handbook and what people are required to submit for the Module. These requirements are set out on p6-7 therein. The substantive piece that is required is a Professional Inquiry Plan accompanied by a Critical Reflection Portfolio. In addition, there are 3 other important things to submit. These are:

Employer Professional Support
Ethics Form
Proposed award title and rationale

We all agreed that there is much to do in this module and in many senses can be viewed as a serious step up from Module 1 in terms of work required.

Clearly, what needs to be focused on is the topic of the inquiry and not everyone present had arrived at this yet. We did an exercise as a stimulant to settling on a topic. Firstly, we considered the Eraut article which has been sent out to everyone doing Module 2. If you have not already read this, please do, as it provides useful context to knowledge in professional practice. A point raised in the article is competency and capability and the distinction between these two. The first, it is suggested, can provide a straightforward yes/no answer. Capability is a quality that has an element of grading about it.

Novice
Advanced Beginner
Competent
Proficient
Expert

We engaged in a spot of reflective practice and evaluated ourselves in our professional practice. No-one in the room claimed to have professional knowledge at “expert” level, indicating that we all have something to learn. This gap in our knowledge / skills could suggest a topic for inquiry.

We then moved on to mapping out our Professional Knowledge and trying to organize it diagrammatically in a meaningful way. To get things started I drew out a table of Professional Knowledge necessary for a University Lecturer. In doing this we could see that there were certain things a lecturer would need to know, to be able to do which is peculiar to the job as well other more generic skills. These are set out on the table below

Professional Knowledge of a Lecturer

Knowing What: Theories of Learning; Subject knowledge; Pedagogy
Knowing How: Curriculum Design; Setting learning outcomes; Assessment

Hence one way into deciding on a topic could be to attempt the above and ask yourself what in particular do you need to know (Knowing what) to be a professional practitioner in your area. Then, what do you need to be able to do (Knowing how) in order to be part of this profession. Focusing on these two areas and doing a self assessment on capability could suggest a topic. So for instance, in the lecturer’s case, it could be that they feel they could learn and develop greater expertise in say, “Assessment of and for Learning”. Hence, doing a professional inquiry on this would deepen their knowledge. That is what we are hoping you will do in this module.

A few there had some ideas about inquiry topics. One suggested she was interested in “Open Mic’s”. This immediately set off a train of questions – what about them, who participates in them, are they used by talent scouts or as “practice opportunities” for aspiring professionals. One simple question could be the start of a spidergram or mind map of ideas.

One way to hone and shape these questions is to be involved in a Special Interest Group and ask them questions. Getting started as early as possible is recommended on this module – there is much to do.

Welcome Back

2011-09-29T18:01:00.003+01:00

By now, those of you are starting Module 3, the Inquiry project will surely have looked at the Module Handbook and seen in there what is required in the Assessment. One of the things we are asking for is a Professional Artefact which emerges from your inquiry. For instance, if you are doing your inquiry on expanding your Arts Business as Nicole Geddes hope to do then she might produce a strategic plan for expansion of her business. This will be a direct by-product of her inquiry and will be a guide to her own business expansion. Someone else may do an inquiry on inclusiveness in dance teaching e.g Nikki McGowan and an outcome of that could possibly be a model lesson plan to address inclusiveness / differentiation. These suggestions are only suggestions ... but it's worthwhile to think at this early stage of the end game of your inquiry ... a standalone artefact which demonstrates the expansion of your knowledge and contribution to professional practice.

Professional Artefact

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness

2011-06-30T14:55:00.000+01:00

Teaching Styles in Physical Education

2011-04-11T14:52:00.005+01:00

I know some students are exploring dance teaching in their line of inquiry and I came across this today which might be helpful if considering teaching styles as a part of that. Although it's origin is the discipline of physical education, some of the learning intentions as set out in Mosston's Spectrum may prove useful in the professional practice of dance education. Have a look ...

The career path survey is now closed

2011-04-01T16:01:00.001+01:00

Many thanks to those who took the time to complete it, it’s very much appreciated. Thinking about it now I suppose the question I wanted to answer was whether there was a life changing moment when those in the performing / creative arts just know that that was what they wanted to do. Hence I constructed this survey and immediately I can see on reflection that two questions are redundant and added nothing to my big question. These questions are about current age and gender. This means that in future I would think very carefully about why a question in a survey is important – each question should add something to the survey.

Summary of the findings.

On career influences – 78% were as a result of personally known influences whereas 4 out of the 18 were attributed to media, famed practising artiste or no-one.

In terms of a life event influencing a career choice only 40% confirmed that this was the case. Of those events 50% (2) were as a result of seeing a performance while 25% (1) was down to the buzz from performing and the other 25% (1) down to work related illness in the family. These are small numbers from which to draw firm conclusions.

In terms of age, career choices were made before 16 by 80% and in terms of the family influences 90% received positive support whereas school was much lower in this regard at 30%.

When asked about good moments from career respondents recorded this in writing. These answers are coded into types and of the answers 60% describe performance as a career highlight while 20% of replies mention getting a paid job and the other 20% relating to learning and completion of educational course / learning.

Evaluating the survey tool

In reviewing these responses I would have to say that the tool was rather limited in trying to answer my question. The best responses were those which demanded a written response from the participant. The information was just so much richer than that collected in the quantitative part of the survey. On the other hand, the good thing about the survey was that it allowed me to gather a lot of data relatively quickly and inexpensively and it suggests areas to dig deeper in if I was to carry on with this inquiry. To get more from this inquiry I would want to gather more stories from people – therefore I would consider interviews or perhaps a focus group.

Career Path Survey

2011-03-24T12:25:00.002Z

I would be very grateful if you could find the time to answer the above short survey from Survey Monkey. Thanks

Design Business & Ethics

2011-03-09T15:03:00.002Z

AIGA a professional association for designers have a produced a Guide for the above. Please follow the link:

Ethics in Dance

2011-02-24T11:27:00.001Z

A debate yet to be had - click on this link to this short article and assess how it colours your view / knowledge on Ethics in the Dance Profession

A world without Ethics...

2011-02-23T12:55:00.005Z

This was the big question I did not ask at the campus session on Monday 21st

How would it impact on us personally?
How would our profession conduct itself?
What would the effect be on our students/clients/audience?
How would our organisation operate?
What would the impact on society be?

We started the session by drafting up personal ethical principles and then looking at professional ethical principles. In comparing the two there was general agreement that considering the professional ethical principles was more difficult. There was an awareness that ethics has something to do with morals and with rules – and we acknowledged that ethics is comparative both over time and culture. We looked at three theoretical approaches to ethical analysis which are explained in Reader 5 as well as by Joanna - and used these to analyse the described scene from Billy Elliot (comes from Ethics Dance resource).

We then went on to establish some ethical issues in three short case studies – which was a prelude to drawing up a professional code of practice for three professional groups – Performers, Teachers & Arts Managers. These have been reported upon by two Js – Joanna (Dance Teachers) and Jo(Performers).

The discussions during the session brought up a range of ethical issues from professional practice:

Healthy eating in the profession see ARTICLE from Ethics Dance
Teaching the person v teaching the body
Inclusivity & Equity

Wrestling with ideas for an inquiry

2011-02-22T14:22:00.005Z

Someone at the campus session mentioned they were having difficulty coming to a topic for inquiry. The ensuing discussion showed that this was quite normal at this stage in the module. Inquiry questions can take quite a while to arrive at and inspiration can come from engaging and collaborating with others on the module via SIGs, blogs, facebook, wikis etc. Professional networks - teachers, mentors, places of employment can be muses as well. Some questions are quite naturally driven by personal purposes which is the motivation for an inquiry. A trick here is to consider de-personalising your inquiry and refocus on it from that deeply personal imperative to one that would have wider professional resonance / meaning.

Personal	De-personalise
How can I change my career path?	What are the challenges to shifting career from performing to teaching. Are existing skills transferable?
How can I expand my business?	What are effective marketing strategies? What are models of franchising? What are the statutory requirements/obligations on arts managers?
How can I overcome injury and stay in the profession?	How is injury dealt with in the profession? Are dance masters / teachers too pushy? How important is a knowledge of physiology and anatomy?
How can I deal with a physically disabled pupil in my class?	How can dance teachers ensure inclusivity? How can dance teachers ensure equity in learning for all?

The literature can shape your inquiry and reading texts and professional journals can help formulate and hone the inquiry.

Every question you ask has, in all likelihood, been asked (and maybe answered) before. But not by you. And not in your professional context, at this time. In considering your inquiry a good question to ask is who will benefit? Clearly you all want to benefit on the one level by using the inquiry towards your degree as well as learning and finding out things for yourself. But is there a wider audience who can benefit? Can your inquiry add anything to the profession? Could it change your professional practice? Could it change the practice of others in the profession? Could it confirm your existing practice? Can you bring the findings and deductions from your inquiry to a perspective employer and say – look – this is what I found out through engaging with a process of inquiry?

In wrestling with your topic for inquiry you should adhere to the following principles:

Make it personally relevant

This is important to as it’s your own idea and question and therefore you will be motivated to sustain momentum throughout the entire process.

Make it doable

Will you be able to access people / resources in conducting the inquiry? Moving onto the final section of the module should clarify this for you. But you should also be talking as early as possible to employers / professional mentors.

Is it ethically beneficial?

How will the world of your professional practice be a better place as a result of completing the inquiry?

Debateable

Is your inquiry capable of being argued both for and against? Is there are range of opinion / evidence for your to build up an argument from? This could be answered from the existing literature on the topic.

BAPP thus far is leading you towards an inquiry based learning project in the context of your professional practice and this module sees settling on the inquiry topic and establishing what will be the best way to conduct it taking on board an ethical perspective.

Thinking Through Dance: The Philosophy of Dance Performance and Practices

2011-02-15T11:17:00.002Z

26 February 2011 - Froebel College, Roehampton University, London

This conference explores the philosophical questions raised by and in dance. Relatively under-theorised as it has been in the history of aesthetics, dance presents fertile ground for philosophical enquiry.

The conference will enable dialogue about dance between different philosophical traditions, and will examine a range of themes.

Keynote speakers: Graham McFee and Nöel Carroll (tbc) Supported by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Society for Dance Research.

Emerging questions on the blogs

2011-02-14T14:23:00.003Z

The diagram above shows the range of questions being posed by you about your professional practice on the blogs. This is not a comprehensive selection of professional questions but the diagram illustrates the range of questions being posed and they all suggest further and deeper questions. What is also noteworthy is that some of the questions are in the same zone and these are identified by the same colours. This is one way of getting a SIG going ..... Some people have already started wikis as I discovered - this is another technological tool to support a SIG which you can use.

PS: Click on the diagram to enlarge it.

Special Intertest Groups (SIGs) and Facebook: you talked - we listened

2011-02-11T09:42:00.003Z

SIGs are a vital component to learning in this module and augment the analysis which was carried out in the previous module (3002) on Professional Networking. There are tasks indicated in the Module Handbook where you are asked to work with your SIG, so, it’s a good idea to pay attention to how SIGs should function / develop and be used. SIGs are of course a two way street – not only do you expect feedback and help from your SIG(s) but you should also provide support and feedback. There are responsibilities as well as opportunities. At the campus session people discussed in teams the following questions and reported back to the group as a whole.

How should SIGs form in BAPP?
How many SIGs should we be a member of?
How can we decide membership of SIG?
Should they limited or open?
How much participation is expected?
What responsibilities should we have to the SIG?
What technologies can we use to support communication?
Any other points?

There was broad agreement that SIGs should not be limited (at this time) by size nor should there be a limit to the number of SIGs we can join. SIGs should be self forming and managing and can be limited by purpose / time. In terms of participation there was a discussion on whether people should be excluded for not contributing. But Etienne Wenger’s ideas on Communities of Practice came into the discussion regarding peripheral and core participation and that while someone may not be active all the time in a SIG they may get involved usefully at an appropriate time. Jo suggested that SIGs should be checked at least once a fortnight and this seems fair enough considering the length of the module – but policing this could be challenging and time consuming.

The favoured technology to support SIGs was Facebook. It was suggested that initially the discussion tool could be used to start of threads in these discussions. Depending on SIG activity, it was proposed that dedicated blogs on the subject matter could be started, if that proved necessary. Mention was also made of google docs / wikis and using the blogs as well for posting more considered thoughts. Whatever technology is used, (e.g. e-mail, facebook, blogs, skype, wikis) as ever, it is recommended that copies of relevant communications are retained – these may prove useful for portfolios and as evidence of development of ideas.

Paula and I agreed to set up a BA Professional Practice page on the Facebook platform as the SIG incubator. It was set up from my newly created Facebook page – so hook up to the BAPP page and get threading those discussions.

Student reports on Campus Session 1

2011-02-10T13:33:00.003Z

I have spotted three accounts which provide useful perspectives on what happened and if you were not there please check these out. Firstly Mark Iles volunteered to report back the views of his group on carrying out an inquiry as an insider. What was asked for were 3 opportunities and 3 challenges in carrying out an inquiry in the workplace or in an arena of professional practice and how these would be dealt with. While some of these points may resonate with you may well have some of your own and you should think this through for yourself and check the last few pages 19-21 of Reader 4 on the BAPP blogs.

Nicole Lousie Geddes provided the report back on this from her group, as well as giving a longer review of what occurred at the campus session – many thanks, Nicole - it was good to meet you. Finally, Natalie Less has had her thinking shifted as a result of attending the campus session. The activities made her original question appear less important now as she suspects she already knows the answer. This is a point worth noting and people could reflect back on Adesola’s hand drawn graph at the end of my last blog as well as reflecting on the competent / capability tension which is discussed in Eraut’s article.

Exercise: Mapping the Knowledge of Professional Practice

2011-02-10T08:22:00.016Z

The previous entry on my blog shows the activities we undertook at the Campus Session. This blog is looking at the first activity - indeed the one which we spent the greatest time on. In order to get started we had a general discussion about our understanding of professional practice - what do we need to know in order to be a professional practitioner. Paula had already e-mailed everyone a reading by Eraut which was a useful platform for this discussion and I had passed around an aide memoir of the key points in the article.

We recognised that there is discrete knowledge which is unique to our respective professions and we acknowledged the difference between "Knowing that" (hard knowledge) and "Knowing how" (skill). Some of our knowledge and skills in absolutely bound up in our profession and other knowledge is generic and transferable.

We then considered the distinction between competency and capability - Eraut's article suggests that the first is yes/no outcome (you either can or cannot ride a bicycle). Capability, on the other hand can be graded into various levels of competency. Self reflection can indicate gaps in our knowledge in order that we are professionally proficient and suggest topics that we would like to do an inquiry on in order to enhance our professional knowledge.

After this discussion there were four groups of professional practitioners identified:

Performers
Arts Managers
Graphic Designers
Dance Teachers

Each group thought carefully about what they needed to know and represented this graphically. Looking at them can suggest areas for development in your own professional practice or should inspire you to do the exercise yourself.

The Arts Managers drawing above used building blocks with generic skills / knowledge on the base line building up to professional specific knowledge at the top. The knowledge in the top block which is "specialised" does fit in with Schon's proposal of the four facets of professional knowledge - for instance, this knowledge would not necessarily be useful to the Graphic Designers.

The Graphic Designers chose to represent their professional knowledge on a ladder with five key stages indicated. This diagram indicates overwhelmingly that a process is being described. A good question to ask of this representation is that if graphic design was not written on the page would we know what professional knowledge is being represented here?

The Performers representation explosively demonstrates the strands and areas of knowledge required for the profession. Some of the entries invite links to be drawn between entities which could suggest inquiry topics or questions to investigate further. For instance there is a line between technical ability and castability which could suggest an inquiry topic.

The Dance Teachers went beyond the generic and profession specific and introduced transdisciplinary knowledge from other subject domains e.g. Psychology, Business and Finance.

While we all recognised the "knowing that" and "Knowing how" as alluded to by Eraut, Mark Iles introduced the notion of "knowing who" .....

While all this work was being produced, Adesola worked quietly on a graph which she presented at the end of the exercise.
The Y axis (vertictal) shows knowledge while the X axis (horizontal) indicates the practitioner. She explained that as a beginner we set out with a what we beleive is a great deal of knowledge and skill and as our knowledge develops towards an advanced stage we regcognise that there is more unknown than known. This is when we get to the point of where we "just know" or could we call this enlightenment.

This exercise was useful in that it got us thinking about our professional practice - the "discipline" of it, what we need to know both "that" and "how" and what we have yet to know. Reflecting on this activity should stimulate a question in your mind. Which should lead to another question and so on. You are asked to blog about these questions as you can see from the first task set out in the Module Handbook.

Campus Session Activities 8th Feb 2011 3835

2011-02-09T09:42:00.002Z

Mapping the Knowledge of Professional Practice

Work on your own and list the things you need to know in order to be a professional practitioner what do you need to know in your sector?

Join a group and share what you have produced so far and then work together on the graphical representation and present this to the whole group and discuss.

Triggering questions you would like to do an extended inquiry on.

Reflect on these and use them as a stimulus to suggest questions worthy of an inquiry.
Identify any gaps between your competency and capability

Establishing question(s) of inquiry

Find a partner and tell them your big professional question and why it’s important to you. Then listen to their question and why it’s important to them
Move on to new partner and tell them what your previous partner told you and listen to what their previous partner told them.
Repeat
The report back to the group what their last partner told them.
Listen for your own question reported back – have you changed the question in any way? Make a note of this and use for future reference

Insider Inquiry

In groups – identify 3 opportunities and 3 challenges in carrying out an inquiry in the workplace or in an arena of professional practice. How would you deal with these and report back.

The groups agreed to blog their findings – so look out for these among the blogs

Networking and Special Interest Groups (SIG)

In teams work on the following points and report back to the main group where we will receive the thinking

How should SIGs form in BAPP?
How many SIGs should we be a member of?
How can we decide membership of SIG?
Should they limited or open?
How much participation is expected?
What responsibilities should we have to the SIG?
What technologies can we use to support communication?
Any other points?

Digital CV

2011-01-17T09:06:00.004Z

Follow through this link to a BBC article on new ways of selling yourself and check out the You tube video of an interactive CV. I think it's engaging and it obviously worked as he got a job ...

Critical Reflection Part 2

2010-12-07T14:11:00.003Z

The purpose of the critical reflection is to demonstrate how practice has been transformed in any way, as a result of learning achieved on the module. This learning may have come from any of the following:

tasks you have completed
discussions either real or virtual with peers/classmates/colleagues
reading published texts
viewing blog posts
self reflection
practice
learning log/diary/journal

There were three broad themes covered in the module:

Communications Technologies
Reflection
Networking

You might ask yourself about how deeper engagement with these themes have impacted on both your learning and practice. What knowledge have you acquired as a result? One draft I have read mentioned that networking was taken to a more advanced stage with the establishment of a community of practice where knowledge is shared. It could be the case that your learning log shows how your perceptions have changed over time or in response to some new stimuli eg peers, published knowledge, practice.

The act of reflection can result in profound changes such as moving from:

Lacking self awareness ......Self Aware
Accepting ...... Questioning
Descriptive ..... Analytical
Reserved ..... Open
Unassertive ......Assertive
Doing ......Thinking

When presenting your critical reflection it would be good to tell us how you have learned. What do you do differently as a result of the learning and knowledge? For instance, instead of telling us that you have applied Gardner’s theories on multiple intelligences to your practice you should demonstrate how. Illustrate the change with an explanation. If it’s a complicated entity that has changed you might refer us to an appropriate appendix. Appendices are a tool which are useful in providing a back story. They provide the opportunity to enhance the main body of text.

You need to consider your appendices carefully. Position yourself at the centre of a myriad of evidence – e.g. Blog comments, learning diary entries, flickr photos etc, blog posts and sift through this evidence and choose the ones which best tell the story of your critical reflection. Some of the tasks you did may have been incidental. You may have posted a long blog on professional networking but perhaps the learning and transformation to you came about from a comment which someone made. Other academic advisors such as Alan and Adesola have written guidance on this topic which you could consult. After you have drafted up your portfolio for assessment it would be useful to re-read these blogs and self assess and come to a judgement about whether you have addressed the points they have made.

You have worked so hard on the tasks and the readings related to module. It’s now time to hone this mass of evidence into shape.

Some lines on lines of inquiry

2010-12-01T11:40:00.009Z

I came across a funny greetings card at the weekend. It was a photo of a rather dashing woman and written beside her imposing image was the line, “My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance”. So while I am not dashing in any way, I decided to sweep the blogs with more than a glance in the last few days and was thrilled to see that some fascinating ideas are already emerging, touching on topics worthy of further inquiry. What’s also pleasing to note is that these topics of interest have stimulated much comment in our blogosphere.

From this activity we are beginning to see embryonic professional networks which could in the future form the basis of Subject Interest Groups. Stacey Wilson’s enthusiasm and inspiring curiosity on the topic of how professional practitioners cope with resting periods resonated with others. The use of celebrity, including the reality shows, in the promotion of dance theatre is both timely and relevant as presented by Sandy Moffat. The worthiness of investigating vocal qualities in singing was highlighted effectively by Alana Shirley while Ross Dunning’s blog on the back and spine in dance is clearly of deep personal interest to him. What is of deep personal interest to one professional practitioner would clearly be of interest to other practitioners. Stephanie Montgomery’s suggested topic, which is novel to me personally – the unexpected use of material such as making a dress out of raw meat is certainly pushing the boundaries. What all of these have in common is that they all are of deep personal interest and finding the answers will enhance professional practice. My sweep of the blogs was very rewarding and I look forward to reading more from everyone.

Thinking about Critical Reflection

2010-11-25T14:08:00.006Z

Looking at Kolb’s learning cycle (see p7 of the Reflective Practices Reader) you can see that all the tasks you have been doing and have yet to complete as part of the module are about having a concrete experience. For instance you may have made a 45sec movie clip about what you expect from BAPP, blogged an inquiry task or identified your five most important sources of information. These tasks, at first glance, may appear random and unconnected but towards the end of the module as you approach the assessment task of writing a critical reflection on your professional practice, you will move on to the next stage of Kolb’s cycle and review and reflect on the experience. What impact did these tasks have on your professional practice? What was learned as a result of completing them?

Reviewing all the tasks involves sitting back and making mental or actual notes on each of them. In Dewey’s view reflective thought involves “active, persistent and careful consideration” (see p6 of Reflective Practices Reader for full quote). You may see that there are patterns. For instance, certain tasks engaged you with technologies, while others were designed to actively engage you with peers. But the question to ask is what effect have they had on your professional practice? From all the tasks, certain themes may emerge and you need to identify these through another point on Kolb’s cycle – concluding from the experience (task). This process should provide you with the material you need for your critical reflection.

Another point on Kolb’s cycle is trying out what you have learned as a result of the reflection and identifying what was actually learned. You should be looking for deeper learning in constructing your critical reflection. While you might have learned how to embed a link to a flickr site from your blog, the question to ask is whether this actual activity had any impact on your actual professional practice and if so how? You may find, perhaps, that the process of learning was more about the content of the images of you posted on flickr. You may have noticed through engaging with other blogs that some of your colleagues were more selective in images they provided links to and thus used the opportunity to demonstrate their different skills / aptitudes, while on reflection you posted images which were all slightly different shots of the same event / show. Therefore in constructing a visual CV, on reflection, you may choose to revise what you include on a flickr link in the future.

Key issues to cover in your critical reflection on professional practice are to consider how your professional practice has been changed and this will be the subject of my next blog.

Catching up with Module

2010-10-21T12:07:00.006+01:00

It’s early days yet on the programme and some are further on with the tasks than others. There are a lot of good reasons for that but it’s important right now to try and catch up, if you are behind, before you feel overwhelmed. It’s worth recalling that there are 3 strands/themes to the module. The first is Professional Communication Technologies, the next is Reflective Practitioner (which is where we are right now) and finally there is the Networked Professional. Each one of these has the following elements:

Reader
Campus Session
Tasks to do

All the readers are located under the module tab on libguides. The campus sessions have been reported upon on many of the blogs and indeed the blogs also contain many of the tasks. The tasks to do for Part 1 – on Page 8 of the Module Handbook. Tasks for Part 2 – are on Page 14 of the Handbook. It’s good to remember that each theme is underpinned with a reader which introduces the topic to you at greater depth and contains suggestions for further readings for you.

The campus sessions have been reported upon on many of the blogs and indeed the blogs also contain many of the tasks.The First Campus session is well described by Mark & Anthony. Paula has posted the student work produced in that session as well as my blog. Joanna's account of Professional Communications Technologies drew in a range of comments from colleagues and is well worth a look as are the comments. The tasks, in particular, the video clip produced some real creative and entertaining gems. In the realm of photos, Melissa provided a professional overview of her professional practice as did Ross. The videos gave opportunity to fulfil those cinematic urges. Stacey’s video clip is a mixture of the scarily imaginative at the outset transferring to a straight to camera piece. Other clips which cleverly conveyed the message were Joanna’s (who also provides technical advice, Hayley’s & Alana’s .

My earlier post provides an overview of the exercises we did with short video clips for those who were not there. Natalieprovides a good account of Campus Session 2 (Reflective Practice) while Mark’s follow up piece in Reflection in and Reflection on Action is well worth reading.

The sources of learning are becoming evident and they are building up into resources. There are examples of all stages in Kolb’s Learning Cycle (see Reader) contained within these blogs.

Refelction - theme of Campus Session 2

2010-10-20T14:28:00.003+01:00

This was meticulously planned by Adesola – and the theme of the session was Reflection which is in the reader for this section of the module. It was a pity that at the last moment, Adesola had urgent family business and so it fell to Paula and I to run the session on her behalf. One of the exercises we did was to imagine another professional practice as follows:

Professional Partners

Partner with someone who does not do what you do - think of ‘what you do’ choose one thing! And put it as a title on your notebook (i.e. choreographer), then swap with partner and list all the things they experience / do. Swap back and read what is said. In the discussion afterwards there was more reporting on the content of what people thought their partner did rather than on the process.

Scary story

The next exercise involved telling a scary story as follows: Scary story – with a partner, tell story then do it with different partner…talk about the experience
In the feedback this time which was more about the process than the content of the story points were made that you had to react quite quickly with little time to think.

Moving with sticks

Using Sticks, in threes (or four) the class had to move from one side of the room to the other and turn inside out. The feedback on this was that teamwork, communication and co-ordination were necessary. The groups merged naturally to try another level of difficulty unprompted.

We then asked participants to jot down one thing from this morning’s activity they could identify with in Kolb’s Learning Cycle which is the Reflection Reader which is part of the module.

Silent Tour

Everyone was asked to plan their own, including three things using three pieces of card. They could include sound, smell etc…. In groups of four everyone to both lead a tour and go on one. In the feedback afterwards, everyone said how much they enjoyed this and the main difference was that they had time to plan this.

The discussion turned to journal writing which is the nature of the next set of tasks – as on Page 14 of the Module Handbook. We asked people to revisit the points they had identified as having experienced in Kolb’s Learning Cycle and after a few days to revisit this and see if anything new could be recorded as a way of stimulating reflective practice.

During the campus session, everyone was asked to make a contribution to the graffiti wall as thoughts occurred to them

Music on the web

2010-10-15T10:54:00.002+01:00

As it's the weekend you might wish to chill with some music - here's a link to a search engine called MUNDU on the web I discovered - you can find

Documents
Lyrics
Sound Files
Videos

I've tried it and it's pretty fast...

Technologies in Professional Practice

2010-10-04T07:37:00.006+01:00

The opportunities and threats in relation to the above formed the theme of the campus session on 1st October. Teams were formed and asked to consider the issues and prepare a group presentation toward the end of the session. I hovered around the edge of a four person team made up of :

Anthony
Colleen
Nikki
Sandy

I observed them develop and prepare their presentation. They started out by talking around the topic – working to achieve a common understanding of what was meant by both professional practice and technologies. They added theoretical underpinning to their ideas as each of them spent 20 mins scanning and digesting one article from lib guides which they brought back to the group discussion. They developed their original thoughts as a result of this activity and drawing upon the literature they added weight to their argument. Two of the papers, they looked at were:

Lorenzo et al, (2006)

Ullrich et al (2008)

The other papers are all available on the Specific Links tab for the Module

At the end of this process they worked on their story board for the presentation and agreed a structure. In designing their presentation they agreed to frame their ideas in a metaphor of the sea. This dimension brought the presentation into sharper focus and contributed to the professionalism of the team. In the 2 hours 20 minutes available, the four of them traded experiences and knowledge, read and made notes from four articles, constructed a coherent presentation and here is the result - a very good morning’s work indeed.

Team31

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Lessons learned from the process

Spend time clarifying the issue/scoping the problem(s), settling on definitions
Team working is more effective than working individually
Digesting other ideas (peers & literature) is worthwhile
Backing up ideas from published work is essential
Deeper learning occurs when ideas are discussed, iterated, explored in texts and applied
Time spent editing and shaping work is necessary

The team made a short video summarising their points (apologies for the dodgy voice sync)

Other teams made very good presentations as well, but I do not have their material to post. A very enjoyable morning indeed - well done everyone!

CV

2010-09-24T14:31:00.008+01:00

One of the best tips I ever got was from a book called “What colour is your parachute” many moons ago. And it was this. In telling your story through your CV you should relate your achievements in particular posts as opposed to merely describing your duties. So instead of saying,

“Taught a range of post-graduate modules”,

I would say,

“Developed two new modules in consultation with employers and amended the assessment on another in order to make it more relevant to students’ intended career path”.

The second statement demonstrates a more active approach to work and therefore is more appealing to an employer. Crafting a CV is a vitally important task. It’s getting your foot in the door and it demands that you spend a great deal of time working on it.

Showing instead of telling

While I have not got a CV to hand at the moment, the details of my employment history and education are there for all to see on the LinkedIn site. The LinkedIn site does offer some insight into my career. It provides links to both my tweets and to slideshare where my slides are on public view. Showing my slides could be considered as part of my portfolio. This shows what I can actually do as opposed to merely stating it on a CV.

If you have the opportunity to present a CV digitally, you should consider embedding digital examples of your work as a showcase of what you can do. Nigel Boyce is an actor who has appeared in a range of productions. He has produced a video clip which clearly demonstrates his range of work.

Patrick O'Kane is another actor who has put his CV on his agent's site with a an example of his voice. There is a long list of productions he has appeared in. The two modes of presentation are in sharp contrast. It would be interesting to hear which you think more effectively showcases their professionalism to the greater effect?

Reflection & CV

Producing a CV should encourage self reflection. What is the message you want to convey about yourself? Critically review your own CV and consider how a potential employer might view you. For instance, I am aware that my own CV shows a higher than average number of employers. Anyone reading it might assume that I have itchy feet. Or that I am not very committed. Or even, maybe, that I had to move on. I am aware of these so in telling the story of my work history I try to convey a sense of achievement. And this is actually true. In the process of self-reflection , I conclude that I like starting new things, I thrive on a challenge and I love learning. When I have mastered something new I have tended to move on and start afresh.

The experience of working in a variety of organisations, with different cultures has been very useful as I can bring to a new organisation things I have learned elsewhere as well as the confidence to deal purposefully with a wide range of abilities. It has been a privilege to have been a part of so many great organisations and to have seen how they operate from the inside. Not only did all this experience benefit me in moving from job to job (and usually to a better one), it solidified my academic interest in organisational culture. I was curious to learn more about what makes organisations tick? This led me into my first academic role, teaching Management at Post graduate level. After some time I changed tack again and became interested in the notion of Leadership. This led me into thinking about the difference between Management and Leadership. And this has led to my current interest which is biographical data and uncovering the language (or discourse) of leaders. Carrying out a series of biographical interviews has then led me into evaluating this as a methodology for inquiry.

Hedgehog or Fox?

Isaiah Berlin was a philosopher who wrote a famous essay called the Hedgehog and the Fox about the pursuit of knowledge. The hedgehog knows a lot about one big thing while the fox knows many small things. I believe my work history shows that I have leanings towards the fox.

Photos on Flickr

2010-09-16T13:58:00.009+01:00

When I got my digital camera a few years ago I began to store the pictures on my computer and decided to build up an image bank. A few months ago I uploaded some of my photos to the flickr resource. Here is a sample of my photos. I found it useful to organise them into themes; hence I have this set which I have entitled "Adult Learning" and I have one on "Transport" and so on. I have used my images in my professional practice in slide shows which I have developed as learning tools. Another good use I put my images to is the creation of my unique calling cards through Moo - which is relatively inexpensive. Doing this has made me realise how valuable the digital camera is and I make sure I have it with me as much as possible. When I am taking a close up photo of people I ask the subject if they mind if I take their photo. Mostly, people are ok about it but occasionally, they refuse. This I fully respect. Thinking about an image bank has made me look around me a lot more when I am out and about. It has also made me more aware of the everyday events close at hand. A camera is not just for holidays: it's for life!

Those times I do not have my camera I use my mobile phone. In fact, I was so pleased with this image I took on my i-phone that I used it for my calling / business card. I like the fact that it's the confluence of three textures / structural materials. It's taken in my hotel room in Barcelona when I was at a conference there last year. I am sure I was influenced by my god-daughter who had just completed architecture and listening to her talk with enthusiasm about building materials made me look at structures and buildings with a better informed eye.

Learning Resources Quiz

2010-09-14T09:00:00.002+01:00

This is open to all students on the BA Professional Practice programme in the School of Arts & Education, in Middlesex University. Please e-mail your answers to r.mcguinness@mdx.ac.uk before 12.00 on 30th September. The winner will be drawn and announced at the Campus Session on 1st October, in MODA at the Cat Hill campus. When you e-mail your entry please put Chocolate in the subject line. The prize is a large bar of Green & Black chocolate and a copy of Getting Started with University Level Work Based Learning edited by Alan Durrant et. al. The best responses to the last question will be posted on the blog and a special prize will be awarded. Enjoy discovering the Learning Resources at Middlesex.

1. What year was the most recent book by Alan Durrant in the library published?

2. What shelf mark is Performance Art at?

3. What do you need in order to log on to the Middlesex University Web Help Desk?

4. What year did the design and arts index begin?

5. How many titles are in the essential bibliography on the theme “Reflective & Experiential Learning”?

6. The key to electronic resources shares its name with a European capital. What is it called?

7. In the DVD/Video section of the Dance Subject Guide how many minutes does the DVD “Dance Salsa with Sanchez Puerto Rican style” last?

8. Complete the following sentence in no more than 15 words – Learning resources are ....

There will be a special prize for the best response to the last question with a selection posted on the blog. Enjoy discovering our learning resources.

Free Guide to Punctation

2010-09-13T09:44:00.007+01:00

A good day's work for Beckett, allegedly, was to place a comma in his text. His next day's work would be to remove it; carefully.

If he were around today, he may have found the free 184 page book called, "Improve your punctuation", included with today's Times newspaper of help. All those squiggles and lines which interrupt our words in the page are de-constructed with explanation. The necessity for the practice of punctuation is clear from the following example in the introduction:

I hate habitual liars; like you, I find them detestable.

I hate habitual liars like you; I find them detestable.

Same words, different punctuation, different meaning. Get it, if you can, today. Glancing through it, it's entertaining, useful and breezily written. It comes from the Collins stable of publishers.

Chartership from CILIP and earning a degree through working...

2010-07-22T13:47:00.019+01:00

Work Based Learning as a mode of learning has a long history and on page 9 of the current edition of CILIP's gazette, (21 July - 11 August 2010) an article suggests that "Work Based Learning gives more options for Chartership". The central plank of Work Based Learning comes from recognising the development of knowledge in the workplace and that this knowledge is comparable with university level courses and the National Qualifications Framework. The model is totally flexible and works extremely well in any professional context. The model comprises a three way partnership. Firstly, there is the individual professional / learner wishing to develop their career and bring added value to their profession and the workplace. Secondly, there is the employing organisation, leveraging advances in the workplace through the project approach afforded by Work Based Learning. Thirdly, there is the university, recognising and accrediting learning in the workplace, as well as forging valuable links with employers and the profession.

The university maps existing workplace knowledge against criteria matching the various levels of awards once individuals have told the university what they know and how they apply it. From then on, individuals negotiate their own pathway to an award in conjunction with their employer. There are three main advantages to this approach in working towards a higher education award. The first is that participants in such a programme are totally based in their workplace with no requirement to attend weekly lectures or seminars. The programme uses a range of Web based technologies to provide academic support and guidance. Secondly, participants only need to learn what is wholly relevant to their professional practice. Thirdly, there is the time and cost factor. Earning a degree through Work Based Learning can be both shorter and cheaper than the traditional route. This is totally dependent on what is already known and can be accredited. The maximum number of credits that can be earned in this way is 240 of the 360 required for an honours degree. The programme offers many exit points and the concept and range of award opporunities are explained in an earlier blog's slideshow.

The advantage of work based projects is that they are applied within the context of professional practice. While some seek to change practice as in Action Research, others want to conduct an inquiry with a view to finding answers about professional practice. Examples of projects in the domain of Information & Libraries Management which might be used towards earning a degree are:

Design and delivery of a user education programme
Exploiting Web 2.0 technologies to disseminate information services
Incorporating E-books
Service innovation in an age of austerity
Ensuring copyright compliance

Middlesex University has a wealth of experience in Work Based Learning and has been a Centre of Excellence in this area.

Leading Information Management Professional resonates with Work Based Learning & Professional Practice

2010-07-13T15:46:00.004+01:00

Sue Westcott is a leading figure in the Information & Knowledge Management profession. She recently gave a presentation to the NETIKX network. Sue kindly agreed to allow me to include this presentation alongside my own on slideshare and to embed it here. It has a great deal of resonance with the approach taken here in Work Based Learning Programmes in Middlesex University and in the new Information & Libraries undergraduate programme in Professional Practice. Many thanks, Sue.

What Skills Do You Really Have Lim (2)

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Check this out...

2010-07-10T21:59:00.005+01:00

Destino a contemporary dance story Date: 12th July. Location: London

Panel Discussion on Ethics in Business in Middlesex University

2010-07-08T08:28:00.001+01:00

HUMAN RIGHTS AND BUSINESS: TOWARDS ETHICAL GLOBALISATION?
Wednesday 14 July
Time: 6-9pm
Venue: The Sir Raymond Ricketts Quadrangle, Hendon Campus, The Burroughs, London, NW4 4BT
Programme:
6pm – Drinks Reception
An information stall will be available for those interested in studying Law and the MA Human Rights and Business at Middlesex.
6.30pm – Panel discussion and Q&A
7.30pm – Refreshments
Spaces are limited, if you would like to attend RSVP to Sharon Procter, email humanrights@mdx.ac.uk or phone 020 8411 5555.
For travel directions to Hendon Campus, please see www.mdx.ac.uk/hendon.
For information on the MA Human Rights and Business, and our other suite of Law courses, please see www.mdx.ac.uk/pglaw

BA for Information & Library Staff

2010-06-24T12:43:00.002+01:00

Information & Library Management

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Work Based Learning in Libraries and Information Management

2010-06-10T16:19:00.003+01:00

The following slideshow provides an overview of a BA (Hons) in Professional Practice on offer from September 2010 - a collaboration between the Work Based Learning in Arts & Education in Middlesex University and Information Management in Thames Valley. Other parties in the development are Chartered Institute of Library & INformation Professionals (CILIP) and Foundation Degree Forward (FDF)

Professional Practice in Library & Information Management

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Practice of Leadership in Children's Centres

2010-05-27T16:13:00.005+01:00

Just back from meeting with a group of very dynamic Children's Centre leaders - a clearly committed group who are seeking accreditation and recognition of their workplace learning. Their Action Learning Set is very well developed and advanced and it would be very rewarding to work with this cohort. The group are keen to develop their knowledge, particularly in leadership. While theories of leadership can be gleaned from texts, it is the practice of leadership which enables the creation and acquisition of knowledge. This is exactly what this group have in abundance.

Failing to adhere to ethics ends professional career

2010-05-26T20:09:00.004+01:00

The guardian article reveals the story ...

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor at the centre of the MMR row, has been struck off for serious professional misconduct. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA He was not at the General Medical Council (GMC) hearing to receive the verdict on his role in a public health debacle which saw vaccination of young children against measles, mumps and rubella plummet.

The GMC said he acted in a way that was dishonest, misleading and irresponsible while carrying out research into a possible link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, bowel disease and autism.

He had "abused his position of trust" and "brought the medical profession into disrepute" in studies he carried out on children.

The GMC said there had been "multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct".

One of Wakefield's colleagues at the time at the Royal Free hospital in London, John Walker-Smith, 73 and now retired, was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and struck off. Another, Simon Murch, was found not guilty. Wakefield had already been discredited after a series of research projects failed to find any link between the triple MMR vaccine and autism, although a number of families continue to support him, even claiming to have been victimised for working with him.

He said today in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme before the verdict that he and colleagues had listened and responded to "concerns of parents about their very sick children" and had acted "appropriately in the children's best interests to determine what the nature of their problem was".

Months after his research was published, the government withdrew single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, which parents could have opted for instead of the triple jab.

"When I made the recommendation to single vaccines they were available in the UK," he said from New York. "It is the government that is to blame for the resurgence of measles."

Wakefield said he had never opposed vaccination or claimed to have proof that MMR was linked to autism.

"I never made the claim at the time, nor do I still make the claim that MMR is a cause of autism," he said.

"You are conflating the two things. You are conflating the link with autism with the overall review of the vaccine."

In a statement after the verdict, he claimed that efforts to "discredit and silence me through the GMC process" had provided a screen to shield the government from exposure over the the MMR vaccine "scandal".

Wakefield had been found guilty in January of acting dishonestly and irresponsibly for carrying out unnecessarily invasive tests on children. He was said to have abused his position of trust, although his dishonesty had not led to personal financial gain.

He and the other doctors published a paper in the Lancet medical journal in February 1998 suggesting the measles virus might be linked to inflammatory bowel disease and play a role in autism.

The paper, based on just eight case studies, conceded that no definite link had been found but Wakefield, at a press conference, said he believed that instead of the triple MMR, children should be given doses in single jabs, preferably a year apart.

The GMC panel in January found Wakefield had conducted the trial unethically, including subjecting 11 children to invasive tests, such as lumbar punctures and colonoscopies they did not need, and without proper approval.

In February 1998, the same month the Lancet paper was published, he applied for ethical permission to run a trial of a new potential measles vaccine and set up a company called Immunospecifics Biotechnologies which would produce and sell it. The father of one of the children he had seen with developmental problems and bowel disease would be the managing director.

Wakefield tried the new vaccine on the child without mentioning it in medical notes or telling the child's GP. He was also found to have unethically arranged for his son's friends to have blood samples taken from them during his birthday party – for which he paid them £5 each.

The GMC panel chairman, Surendra Kumar, said: "In causing blood samples to be taken from children at a birthday party, he callously disregarded the pain and distress young children might suffer and behaved in a way which brought the profession into disrepute."

Wakefield hit on his theory after seeing children with bowel disease who had developmental problems. The third step in the hypothesis was the timing of the MMR vaccine: the first shot is given at around 13 months, about the age when autistic spectrum disorders start to be noticed.

In February, the 53-year-old left his role at a Texan clinic, The Thoughtful House Centre for Children, which he founded to study developmental disorders.

Kumar said Murch's involvement was more limited than that of Wakefield and Walker-Smith. He should have ensured there was appropriate ethical approval for research on the children, but ended the lumbar punctures after being unable to draw any clear inference that the children were suffering from a serious neurological disorder.

"The panel concluded Prof Murch acted in good faith, albeit it has found he was in error," said Kumar. "His actions, although comparable to professional misconduct in respect of undertaking procedures which were not clinically indicated, were mitigated by the fact he was under a false impression that they were clinically indicated."

Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: "Measles, mumps and rubella vaccines have all been shown to be safe and UK families are fortunate to have free access to these which is not true of many parts of the world. The false suggestion of a link between autism and the MMR vaccine has done untold damage to the UK vaccination programme."

The Department of Health said: "The safety of MMR has been endorsed through numerous studies in many countries.

"Thankfully, more parents are having their children vaccinated with MMR and they see it as being as safe as other childhood vaccines."

Isabella Thomas, 53, from Somerset, insisted that her two sons Michael, 18, and Terry, 16, received "fantastic" treatment at the Royal Free hospital under Wakefield.

"They were normal, then they started to deteriorate neurologically and medically. They were in the most horrendous pain you could think of. I went from doctor to doctor trying to find out what was wrong. I was only too pleased to be part of the study because we needed to find out what was wrong with the boys."

Thomas said that, as controversy erupted surrounding the research, the family was blacklisted.

"When I went to my doctor he said: 'I don't want politics being brought into this surgery'. I said: 'My son is ill, it's not about politics.'"

Allison Edwards, chairwoman of the campaign group Cry Shame which supported Wakefield, said: "This is to issue a warning to doctors not to dissent. No children were harmed in the clinical tests, they were trying to look at the problems and treat them, and the children improved. How do you get charged with doing your job?"

Two Men and some Tweets

2010-05-23T12:25:00.009+01:00

Two men in a meeting. Having a discussion. One has his Blueberry in hand and takes it up from time to use it. The other notices but presumes his actions are ok. It later traspires that the account of the meeting as deduced by the first man is actually being braodcast on Twitter.

These two men are in the news at the moment. The man with the Blackberry is Derek Simpson leader of UNITE union who are in dispute with BA (The world's favourite airline). The other is Willie Walsh, CEO of the airline.

"I was shocked and angry when I found out that Derek was doing that. Sending out his version of events to the wider audience, that really did undermine my confidence in his desire to resolve this situation. It is a really serious issue," Walsh said.

Simpson reported, "I am not afraid of saying what is really going on .....".

How clear cut are the ethics?

Was there full and informed consent to tweet? Well clearly not, or else Mr Walsh would not have been so annoyed. But is that unethical? Have BA dealt ethically with their employees? Do the employees have a right to know what top management are communicating to their union leader. On the other hand, should information be released during the course of negotiations as opposed to at the end? This is a fine example of how ethics can be unclear unless the full information and knowledge is to hand. And the entire process of negotiation does involve withholding of information / knowledge as a bargaining tool. Other aspects to consider ethically are ....

Was any harm done to participants at the meeting?
Was any harm done to parties outside the meeting?
Shareholders?
Workers?

Idenities, multimodality and knowledge

2010-05-19T13:53:00.006+01:00

Identities was a recurrent theme at the one day conference on the Ph.D in the multimodal age yesterday in the British Library yesterday. Katherine Hayles' work on the posthuman condition was alluded to by Lesley Gourlay.

This is expressed as the cognosphere which hosts a dispersed sense of self (Hayles 1999) and where distributed identities co-exist. Another theme explored was the continuing existence of the artefact of the Ph.D as a collation of linear text following a conventional format. The evolution of the modal approach is starkly illustrated when two BBC sites are compared. Gunter Kress Professor of Semiotics at the Institute of Education showed how modal the BBC children's site is compared to the more linear structure of the main site.

The discussion suggested that change is in the air with professional practice at doctoral level deserving of consideration of acceptance of alternative formats as a key notion. Resistance will be challenging in that examiners in following a rigorous convention, submitted their Ph.Ds in that format. Ergo, so should everyone else. The social shift from citizen to consumer could, however, counter academic intransigence. Individual self interest is stronger now and this development is in parallel with the deep social changes where pillars in other spheres have been weakened if not yet quite crumbled as has happened in the Church and Parliament. Surely this affront on the academy's pillars will be afforded new weight from the Tory / Liberal alliance. A new format Ph.D would see the individual telling the academy "I can choose" in a world where user generated content as facilitated by Web 2.0 technology is the norm. Is the brave new world on its way? Academics are able to accommodate the change, but are they willing?

Forging identity and learning in Professional Practice

2010-05-14T10:35:00.004+01:00

Knowledge acquisition and learning have shifted from the explorations in Artificial Intelligence and neural networks to how technology has adapted to living in the world, asking who we are, how we learn and construct knowledge. Etienne Wenger (he who coined the phrase – Communities of Practice with Lave) had some big questions to ask at the Mediating Boundaries conference organsied by Jisc Advance on 12th May in London. His big question is how technology interacts in the social world. As a snail on garden path leaves a silver trail indicating his presence so our meanderings in the digital habitat reveals something of our identity. The issue of our identity or multiple identities in reconfiguring the landscape we inhabit is another idea which preoccupies him. There are four facets to our occupation of the digital habitat:

Fabric of connectivity which encapsulates our virtual presence
Modes of engagement which mirrors self expression
Active Medium indicates social/informational computing
Redefined geography opens the possibilities of multi-membership

We place ourselves at the centre of the digital landscape and we manage these connections with a multiplicity of thick (closer) and thin (less close) relationships. Wenger posed the question of social learning spaces. Where do we come to know both a practice and identity? Is it on a technologically facilitated network or at a real workshop? Where is there a genuine social learning space?

Accountability and responsibility are two certainties for individuals in organizations. And Wenger identifies two discourses which are at odds here. The vertical line which reflects grade and scale and is expressed in Policy. The horizontal line embraces tacit peer contact and is not always positive.

The implications of this for professional practice are profound. From an identity perspective we have to consider the various relationships we have and how where we visit impacts on and shapes our identity. Presumed in this identity is what we know and how we learned what we know. In promoting a learning citizenship Wenger advocates moving from curriculum oriented view to an identity oriented view. This means shifting our practice from what we are going to teach to managing who we are. Becoming good at something is preferable to not succeeding and the production of portfolios and establishing areas of excellence is central to placing individuals at the centre of a learning landscape as opposed to standing alongside it. The digital habitat is a series of nodes and network links and as connected professionals we have to both locate ourselves on the landscape and forge an identity.

Submission Guidance

2010-05-04T14:00:00.003+01:00

The following should all be submitted as your whole assignment. This is taken from the Guidance Notes for the Module which you were sent back in February. The suggested word counts are included. Make sure that your assignment is professionally presented with a clear and helpful layout / structure e.g. Title Page & Table of Contents

SECTION 1

Learning Diary (Blog entries 5 x 200 words) 1000 words
Critical Commentary on learning in this module (Blog) 500 words

SECTION 2

Glossary

Influences on Worker / Researcher

Critique of Research Tool (e.g. Questionnaire)

SECTION 3

3 Project Proposal 2500 words
3 Ethical Issues relating to Project Proposal 500 words
3 Ethics Release Form Form completed by you

SECTION 4

4 Proposal & Rationale for your Award Title 500 words
4 Learning Agreement Cover Sheet Form completed and countersigned (Ignore Parts 1,2,3,4)

Separately Module Feedback Questionnaire (send to Avni) Form to complete

Creative Arts on the Election Agenda.

2010-04-28T15:51:00.002+01:00

The 6th May is probably indelibly marked on your hearts as it’s hand in day. It is also of course Election Day. As you are all working frantically on your assignments and may not have the time to see what the parties are including in their manifestos I thought I would give you a brief overview of what the three parties have to say about the Arts.

The Labour Party manifesto runs to over 70 pages and is divided into 10 chapters covering topics such as education, health and crime. One of the chapters which is most closely aligned with the Creative Arts is “Communities and Creative Britain”. There are five pages in this section and there is a lot in there about Sport and the Olympics in particular. In relation to the arts Labour wants to promote what it calls creative partnerships which will ensure that people in most deprived parts of the country are able to fulfill their artistic talents by working with local arts and cultural organizations. They intend building on the success of free theatre to young people and looking towards providing reduced rate tickets for theatrical productions around Britain. And promisingly they mention the prospering of national cultural life by developing young artistic talent. Creative Bursaries are being proposed to support artistically gifted young people early in their careers. This chapter of the manifesto is wide ranging and covers issues such as community post offices and public libraries. The only mention of dance in their manifesto is that they are going to give local authorities greater powers to reject applications for lap-dancing clubs. The claim is within the manifesto that creative industries now account for 10% of the economy and they aspire to strengthen this by encouraging the film industry, the independence of the BBC and encouraging plurality of provision of broadcasting via the other television networks – Channel 4, ITV & Channel 5.

The Conservative manifesto has a small section on Culture, Arts and the Media. It’s much briefer than the Labour party’s chapter running to just under 350 words as opposed to 900 in theirs. The themes it briefly skims over are the lottery, the Olympics. The focus of their manifesto is chiefly on ICT provision with an infrastructure proposed to allow the expansion/ diversification of organizations as it addresses, commercial television, broadband and telephony infrastructure and services. There is nothing in there about the individual participation in the arts either as performer or in the audience in contrast to the Labour manifesto.

The Liberal Democratic Manifesto is the longest of them all and runs to over 100 pages. It’s structure is in sharp contrast to the other two in that it moves away from 10-12 areas of interest roughly mirroring government departments to putting the citizen at the centre of its manifesto. Hence there are four sections You and – Money; Job; Life; Family. This layout made it less obvious what their view on the creative arts are. Thankfully, there is a useful subject index at the back of the manifesto and this will direct you to the relevant part of the manifesto (pages 44-46). Like the other two parties there is mention of the Olympics and a sweeping statement about wishing to foster an environment in which all forms of creativity are able to flourish. Specifically this manifesto promises to maintain free entry to museums and galleries and to establish a creative enterprise fund offering training, mentoring and small grants to help creative industries get off the ground. One of its specific promises concerns live music performance in that they want to cut the red tape in relation to the entertainment licence. If this manifesto becomes government policy then unamplified music with no more than two musicians can be played in any licensed premises. Venues which cater for up to 200 people will not need such a licence

Professional Practice - a camera operator's view

2010-04-27T16:21:00.003+01:00

Contacts and networking are at the heart of professional practice. This was a key theme in the interview with Anna Valdez Hanks in Middlesex University’s School of Arts & Education today. Anna Valdez Hanks’ path into camerawork began in Medical School when she started studying Ethics as part of her course. As a result of this she changed her mind about becoming a doctor and graduated in Medical Ethics instead. She desperately wanted to make a film about to communicate as idea but did not have the technical know how. So Anna went off to college and did a BTec in Film Making.

Her career started at the bottom when a BBC crew went to her college and she offered to help them out. She got talking to a producer and subsequently e-mailed him. This led to more unpaid roles but very useful experience which was a valuable learning opportunity. Eventually, Anna found herself an unofficial mentor who helped develop her skills as well as her paid work. She is now working freelance as a camera assistant and has built up a wealth of experience since that. She has won a short film competition in the Straight 8 competition,(Looking for Marilyn)(see below) worked on Endgame for Channel 4, as well as ad shoots.

The topics covered in the interview were wide ranging with some of the focus on the technical aspects of filmmaking with the move from film to digital as a recording tool. Anna also discussed the relationship between cinematographer and director which can be challenging at times when interpretations over style and voice are at a variance.

Other parts of her interview clearly showed that in order to be a Professional Practitioner she needs skills, technical knowledge as well as negotiating skills. She has used competitions as a way of developing her knowledge in addition to her career.

As a freelancer Anna talked of the difficulties of time management in between jobs but with experience and more resources she now uses her downtime to develop her own projects and collaborates on scripts with peers. She stressed the importance of maintaining contacts with various professional networks. The interview was punctuated with clips of her actual work. One of these was her show reel which she is a work in progress. She wants to do more work on it before she sends it out to agents. This is her potential calling card and Anna pointed out that she can she can see a development in her work and how it has improved.

Tutor Guidance on Blogs

2010-04-01T10:07:00.004+01:00

There’s a wealth of advice on the above to help you progress on the module. Here is a flavor of what you will find there:

For guidance on the Project Plan for the Assignment check Paula’s blog entry called Campus Session 4. My blog has a slideshow called Research Overview which has a slide on a project timeline which could be a model for you. Paula’s Activities 1,2,& 7 entry is helpful in focusing on actions you should be completing for inclusion in the assignment. Ethics is a requirement for your assignment and the principles are covered here on this blog.

Peter’s Evaluating your Topic is a thoughtful piece and should be read in conjunction with Paula’s Basic Theory entry.

The Interview Method as a research tool is well covered by Paula. If you are interested in preparing a survey you should look at Preparing your Research Survey on Peter’s Blog as well as the Surveys slideshow on my blog. Observations may be an option for data gathering you are considering and again, this blog provides information as well as an exercise.

There’s lots more on these blogs as well as your class colleagues. A list of blog addresses is being prepared to be sent to you in the near future. Best regards and Happy Easter!

Surveys

2010-03-23T15:23:00.003Z

Surveys

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Observation Exercise Follow Up

2010-03-17T13:10:00.003Z

At the campus session yesterday we observed the short clip and in the discussion afterwards people started to interpret the data without actually defining the criteria / phenomena to be observed. That's why it would be useful to watch the clip again and define what the observation should document and then devise a grid to enable data to be gathered. The main lesson learned yesterday from this exercise was that a pilot would be more than helpful in designing a grid. Check Slide 9 on the Observations slide show for a sample gird.

Observation Exercise

2010-03-16T10:31:00.005Z

Having read around the topic of observations it should be clear that conducting a pilot would be useful in order to decide on criteria that you are actually going to observe. Have a look at this 3 minute clip of a dancing lesson and establish which phenomena you are going to observe. In other words define what is to be documented to enable you to produce an observation grid.

PS. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Observations in Research

2010-03-16T10:28:00.002Z

Observation

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Research Overview

2010-03-16T10:17:00.003Z

The following slides form part of the Campus Session on 16th March

Research overview

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Campus Session 2 - 3rd March

2010-03-03T21:17:00.006Z

Peter and Paula covered a lot of material in this session. Please check their blogs for the slides they developed and talked to. We also enjoyed a game of definitions where participants had to define various research terms. This was to highlight the need to start compiling the Glossary of Terms which is Activity 1 in the assignment and will be submitted with the rest of the work on 6th May. Check out this short clip from today's session and we look forward to seeing you at Campus Session 3 on 16th March.

Evening Lecture - Making Public Histories Thursday 18th March 7-8.30pm, at Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Cat Hill

2010-03-03T17:02:00.001Z

Free Event for Students

David Heathcote is a design historian, writer, curator and broadcaster.
In this lecture he will discuss the ways in which the requirements of different media – whether exhibitions, television programmes or publications – shape the ways that history can be told.

History is almost invariably something that we gain understanding of through its articulation in the public domain. Most historians, however, are woefully unprepared for the work necessary to convert their research into something that the public can read, listen to or view.

Historians rarely suspect, when venturing from the quiet world of the University into the realm of public history, that what awaits them are a vast array of good reasons as to why what they want to state cannot be conveyed as they propose. From the length of lines and legal constraints on seemingly innocent material to the necessity for the historian to appear naked before the audience to tell the story, the public realm has much in common with the gladiatorial arena.

Booking form: http://www.moda.mdx.ac.uk/docs/flyers/makepublichistory.pdf

Comparing biographical sources

2010-03-02T09:40:00.005Z

Here are two contrasting sources of the same subject, Bob Fosse, to reflect upon. Each of them tell us something. It would be good to decide for yourself what question is each source trying to answer. The first is Bob Fosse's Obituary in the New York times. The second is an interview (and commentary). This data source has an added dimension in that visual data is available for us to interpret alongside non-verbal data.

Biographical Data

2010-03-01T15:21:00.005Z

Some research may draw on biographical data for evidence. One source of biographical data is the obituary column. Certain facts can be gleaned from such a source. On the other hand it has its limits. It must be considered who wrote the obituary and in the case of the obituary linked to this blog, the author predeceased the subject by eleven years! Obituaries, by their nature tend to take a positive angle of the subject. Here is an example of the recent obituary from the Guardian of Wendy Toye - dancer turned choreographer and director. After you have read it, reflect upon what is missing from it. Answers in the comments column ....

Inspire Topic

2010-02-26T17:06:00.003Z

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Inspire Topic

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Still trying to find a research topic?

2010-02-25T17:42:00.005Z

Paula and Peter have posted more helpful advice on this topic recently in advance of the next Campus Session (March 3rd). I came across this journal which is available from our library. The topics that are covered by the journal are as follows:

Studies of Dancers
Ballet
Choreography
Dance and Movement
Dance and Music
Dance History and Social History
Folk Dance
Injuries, Fitness and Nutrition Studies
Performance Technique
The Sociology of Dance
The Anthropology of Dance

Perhaps looking at these categories could help you focus on a topic you would like to investigate. For instance under the topic - "Sociology of Dance" is there a relation between type of dance e.g. ballet or hip-hop and social class? Or in relation to dance and music - which came first the music or the dance? Or indeed is there a link between nutrition and dance performance?

PS. I found this journal from the Society for Dance Research web page.

The Literature Review

2010-02-22T13:33:00.001Z

The literature is an important part of learning about your research topic.
Up to now you have had lots of advice on the above. There was Paula Nottingham’s talk at Campus Session 1 on 16th Feb. Her presentation is available from her blog and gives lots of advice on how to find the literature from the resources in Middlesex.
The Middlesex library subject guides list is extensive and you may find yourself consulting more than one of the 43 subject guides. For instance if you are in the discipline of Dance Performance, then clearly you will need to consult the Dance subject guide. However if you wanted to explore setting up a dance school then you would want to consult the Business and Management subject guide as well. Or if you wanted to explore the teaching of dance then you would need to consult the Education guide. Have a look at the list of subject guides from this link and see which you may need to look at. Looking at the list may also help you to think laterally about topics for your research project.
Secondly there is a link to Internet Detective which is an online tutorial to guide you into accessing quality materials on the Web. Thirdly, there is the video clip from Alan Durrant on this blog earlier today.
When you actually find the literature the following points might prove helpful.
1. Skim read by checking the index (if it’s a book), the table of contents, headings and subheadings throughout the piece. The introduction and conclusion would also be helpful to read and then focus in on the heart of the piece.
2. Take notes as you skim read to aid your understanding. Later you can come back to these notes and decide what the article is really about.
3. Read and quickly come to the point where you can you can sum up the kernel of the piece in one sentence – this takes practice.
4. Note the bibliographic citation (Author, Title, Where Published, Date of Publication). Check this following link to guidance on referencing,
5. Decide what contribution it’s making to your topic. What angle is it taking?
6. Then you need to construct a narrative about the literature – check this link from the University of Toronto on how to approach a Literature Review
I heard a former colleague of mine at Queen’s University Belfast (Caitlin Donnelly) describe the literature review very well. She suggested thinking of it as having authors around for a dinner party and in the discussion (about your topic) they each offered an opinion or threw some light upon it. Some were in agreement but others were not. When the dinner party is over you recount the discussion for a friend and that account is the basis for your written literature review.

Alan speaks about the Literature .....

2010-02-22T12:07:00.002Z

Campus Session 1 - 16th Feb 2010

2010-02-16T12:17:00.002Z

The guidance notes I used at this session are viewable ....

Learning Diary

View more documents from Rosemary McGuinness.

Campus Session 1 - 16th Feb 2010

2010-02-16T11:31:00.002Z

I facilitated a short session on "Choosing a Research Topic". Here are the slides I used in this session

Choosing A Topic

View more presentations from Rosemary McGuinness.

Greta Garbo came to Donegal

2010-02-16T10:42:00.001Z

What a great title for a play! So of course I had to go to see it at the Tricycle in Kilburn last night. Frank McGuinness is the playwright and earlier plays of his that I really enjoyed are the "Factory Girls", "Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme" and "Someone to Watch over me". But back to Garbo. The arrival of the great actress in 1967 to a house in Donegal signals much drama. Many themes are brought up in the play (too many?) – such as the oppressor and the oppressed, queer desire and love, sibling loyalty and loss, parental loss, and the ache to escape from the daughter in the piece. There are poignant moments in the play with many relationships explored. The two most aching are the female ones – the mother - daughter relationship and the actress - housekeeper one. Greta Garbo had some great lines delivered in a gloomy Swedish deadpan kind of way. The play constantly takes the audience in unexpected directions and while it’s flawed in that it attempts to take on too much, it is nonetheless a great night in the theatre. The humour and the poignancy were well delivered by the excellent cast.

Paula on the Research Topic

2010-02-15T17:29:00.002Z

Thinking about a research topic

2010-02-15T10:11:00.002Z

On the shoulders of giants...

2010-02-12T18:09:00.003Z

Reading around your research topic can be helpful in helping you decide on the focus of your project. The internet is an obvious place to start your search. There is a wealth of information but you should be cautious about the quality of the information you find. Internet detective is a useful online tutorial which will provide you guidance on authority of sources found on the internet. So take some time out to work through this tutorial.

Making a living

2010-02-10T09:58:00.002Z

How performers and artists get by between performances and commissions .... a recent article in the Guardian

Research topic ideas

2010-02-09T18:52:00.002Z

This short slide show might unlock topic ideas ....

Creativity

View more presentations from wirebook11.

Imagining a research project

2010-02-08T18:17:00.002Z

All projects have a situation. This is located in the workplace / professional practice. One such I came across recently was in a high school in Minnesota. It started with two teachers being curious about the disconnection that students had between what they learned in the studio and their ability to transfer that into performance. The teachers observed that there was greater student voice in dance composition than in dance performance and that feedback was lacking in performance practice. They had a hunch that structuring practice time and encouraging independent learning might help the students. The researchers read what experts had to say about peer learning in order to deepen their own understanding and to enable rigour in their research design as well as providing focus on their research objective. The research question they settled upon was what effect would peer coaching have on performance. The research design led them to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. The methods were:

Initial and final student surveys
Pre & post intervention assessments
Teachers’ journals
Field notes from educators
Student Reflection Sheets

All this data was triangulated and analysed and the findings were that “using peer coaching positively affects final performances, classroom community and the revision process ..”

The research article is easy to read and is the final outcome of what required a great deal of thought and application in planning. It’s available from the Middlesex Library to registered students from the e-journals collection. Here is the reference if you wish to have a look at it.

Harding, M.; Haven, B. (2009) “The effects of peer coaching in the secondary arts classroom: intentional watching in the dance studio”. Journal of Dance Education. Vol. 9 Issue 2, p41-51

Setting up a Dance Company?

2010-02-03T15:04:00.001Z

Selling a creation?

Then read on....

Middlesex University Business Education Centre (MUBEC) is organising a series of “Business Plan Competitions”. This will be a perfect chance for you to get those brilliant, revolutionary or even those crazy ideas evaluated. The club is currently working on the first and the biggest Middlesex University Business Plan Competition in association with sponsors, and will give away exciting awards including up to £5000!!!
WHERE AND WHEN
The competition is on 11th of February 2010 in room C211 (Hendon), at 6pm.
HOW TO JOIN US
Fill in and return the membership form and give it to MUBEC team members in the Rickett’s quadrangle along with the joining fee. Or send your name, student number and email address to:
mdx.businessandenterprise@googlemail.com

The Virtual Revolution

2010-02-02T12:55:00.001Z

This has been mentioned on Paula Nottingham's blog as well as the Professional Practice blog of Alan Durrant. Here is a LINK to the resources of the programme itself which includes its own blog.

Modes of Knowledge?

2010-02-02T12:02:00.001Z

Universities have been accused of being elitist and over protective of knowledge and learning. However, the recognition and validation of work based learning has been more than welcome. Outside the ivory towers of the university, every day, in small and big ways, in work places and professional practice, discoveries and new knowledge are being unearthed and the university has now shifted into a position where this is formally accredited. This brings into play the distinction between Mode 1 and Mode 2 knowledge as proposed by Michael Gibbons – see link to short slide show for a brief explanation of the features of both these modes. Which of these two modes do you consider yourself working in? Why? What are the advantages? What are the challenges?

The New Learning Period ...

2010-02-01T13:03:00.001Z

I have just completed reading and assessing a range of research projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and it’s clear that the range of topics is as diverse as the individuals we work with. They covered many subjects including learning and teaching, curriculum design, health and nutrition, choreography and method acting. Research design was varied as well and included interviews, experimental design, observation and surveys. Projects necessarily engage with the key literature of the topic and with the research method literature. I look forward to the next Learning Period with my colleagues Paula Nottingham and Peter Bryant with our BA in Professional Practice as you start the module Project Planning and Development (Research Methods) which prepares you for the project itself. I am also looking forward to working with a group of teachers in a particular school in Essex in the coming weeks on the same module.

Old men

2009-11-11T16:36:00.000Z

Memory of My Father

Every old man I see
Reminds me of my father
When he had fallen in love with death
One time when sheaves were gathered.

That man I saw in Gardiner Street
Stumble on the kerb was one,
He stared at me half-eyed,
I might have been his son.

And I remember the musician
Faltering over his fiddle
In Bayswater, London.
He too set me the riddle.

Every old man I see
In October-coloured weather
Seems to say to me
"I was once your father."

-Patrick Kavanagh

Two artists from different disciplines, Patrick Kavanagh the poet and Paul Cezanne, the artist wish to represent the old men. What are the skills / knowledge they each need? How do you as an audience respond to each piece? How does your own experience influence your response?

Defining the artist 2

2009-11-11T16:12:00.002Z

Defining the artist is not a precise activity and is open to many interpretations. In addition there are many genres covered by “the artist”. Many different skills are required for each branch of artistry. Peter Bryant – check his blog for a quote from Steptoe - gave us a description of the temperament of the artist which could be described as stereotypical. And stereotypes are more readily assigned to some professions more than others. For instance, we can easily summon to our mind’s eye an image of librarians or accountants. We can imagine what they wear and where they buy their clothes. However, bear in mind the apt quote from Alexandre Dumas Pere that “all generalisations are dangerous, even this one”.

In preparation for the transformation from artist to professional artist it would be useful to consider three aspects you in your personal development.

Knowledge
Skills
Aptitude

Starting with Knowledge. What knowledge do you need to be an artist? What knowledge do you need to be a professional artist? How are you going to get this knowledge?

Then do the same for Skills and Aptitude.

This exercise should engage you in the activity of reflection.

Defining the artist 1

2009-11-11T11:21:00.001Z

We had a discussion with a group of arts students doing the BA in Professional Practice the other day about this as we tried to identify our understanding of the role. Some of the words that were suggested were “Creativity”, “Imagination”, “Experimentation”, “Performance”, and “Exhibition”. The first three words encapsulate some process involving the brain and the cognitive process while the last two suggest a form of dissemination activity. If this was in the context of a business organisation we might be looking at implementation and the first three as Research and Development in Production of goods or services.

Those words suggested by the group Creativity, Imagination and Experimentation rely on some pre-existing knowledge however this was gained. And in engaging in these actions – creating, imagining and experimenting more knowledge is being gained. However, some of this knowledge may be cast aside as not relevant for the oeuvre being developed. It may however be retrieved at a later date for development of another work.

These three activities do not come from nothing. They are born from an idea, a message, a political theory or possibly an emotion. While nothing comes nothing originated in the Greek philosophical tradition it is wise to reflect on the source of artistic endeavour. Does the medium which is used to convey the product of artistic endeavour influence the artist and its development. Then there is the question of the audience. They may also have to engage with their creative part of their brain in order to connect with the piece. Take the Lion King which is performed in the West End. In order to convey the stampede of the animals across the savannahs of the African landscape the creative production team used people and costumes to achieve this. They drew their inspiration from Africa in the design of the costumes. Through experimentation they would have worked out the movements of the actors in order to create the illusion of the movement of vast amounts of zebra, giraffes, wildebeest. However, most importantly, they needed something more. They needed the imagination of the audience.

How does the audience impact on the work of the professional artist?

What is the inspiration for this performance?

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Who is this blog for?

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Those who value knowledge, its production, dissemination and application viz., academic colleagues, students in Higher Education and in particular, those students who are based in the School of Arts and Education at Middlesex University. So feel free to leave your comments and share knowledge with us all ...

Interpretive stance

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"A story that is told is never the same story that is heard". (Denzin 1989 p 72)

About Me

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I am a Senior Lecturer in Work Based Learning with students coming from Creative Arts disciplines.

My interests are in Knowledge Management, Theories of Learning, Communities of Practice, Organsiational Learning and Leadership and I want to see how these can be applied to the Creative Arts.