Critical Reflection

Critical Reflection

Exploring my inquiry and its components provided me with a depth of understanding and enhanced my confidence in carrying it out. At the start of the module, we were asked to develop questions and this came relatively easy to me, as I've always been intrigued by this subject and was keen to investigate the way the two teaching styles work. I blogged my first set of questions and, after a comment from a fellow student, http://natalieamartin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/task-4a-developing-questions-for.html#comment-form and upon reflection with a fellow professional, I realised they were broad and non-specific. Therefore, the data I may receive could be too general to work with. After pin-pointing more specifically, one subject in each question, I felt they were of a better standard. Please see this process through my blogs, http://www.ashleighacres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/4c-developing-my-questions-has-provided.html
Building up my SIG group from my fellow students has proved most difficult. Over the past few months, my communications have been through professionals outside of the course. The reason is, my professional work has built up as the coursework has increased and my time is managed between the two. However, I was able to contact a fellow student and the SIG group touched base on Facebook as much as possible. On reflection, I feel I must comment more than I am on student blogs, giving them encouragement and feedback, because creating an atmosphere where ideas are shared freely will benefit me as much as others.

Finding the appropriate tools to use in my inquiry took some time because the interview was my only one. Thinking more about the possible outcomes and connotations of this approach, I decided it would be helpful to collect thoughts from more teachers to compare ideas. Firstly, I trial ran the semi-structured interview, http://ashleighacres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/6a-informal-trial-i-have-carried-out.html. After the trial, I explored other tools http://ashleighacres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/6b-after-reading-through-reader-6-i.html.

Ethical considerations took a different meaning at this point, because now I was not only considering myself, but the interviewee too. My blog on ethical consideration explains some of the human interests I researched and how I came to realise that ethics are there to help everyone at every level. http://www.ashleighacres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/task-5b-as-dance-teachers-work-is.html

Looking through my process, I have come to understand the useful research sources at my disposal. I've learnt there is much planning and structuring that needs to be done before completing research, as there are others involved. As explained in my proposal, I have drawn up a schedule to enable me to use my time wisely and create a well organised plan. This way I will be able to efficiently collect the necessary data and commit my findings to paper.