4d
After looking at different types of literature to support my topic the first book I came across was A Guide To Teaching Practice which has great knowledge and understanding included. The main interest that caught my eye was how helpful the language it uses, "It is important that teachers resist the temptation to label children as particular kinds of learners and instead try to their teaching so that children have the opportunity to learn in different ways." The use of language gives the reader a sense of support by giving them something to think about and to encourage them to try effective ways to boost their teaching skills. The most helpful part resides later on in the book in part 3 headed, Practising teaching. The chapters have a clear outline of what is going to be spoken about and gives relative theory and researched answers to support the authors thinking.

The second book that I have decided to review was Dance as Education, Peter Brinson. Its a book I've become to find very interesting as it provides an insight into the way dance has formed to be part of the education syllabus and how important it is to education. The argument is clearly outlines as to why dance in education is essential, as it enables to improve on students self-esteem, creativity, communication. "Arts education extends the intellectual development of young people helping them to widen the range of their intellectual capabilities and to make sense of the different qualities of their experiences"( Brinson, 1991, p. 69) I feel all young minds have different ways in which they digest information and learn, having dance part of the education helps those creative minds to strive towards their goals, and understand the learning process in a comfortable setting. This a backed up by Peter saying, "The arts offer direct ways of exploring values, of raising questions of personal, moral and aesthetic value of discussing the ideas and perception to which they relate" ( Brinson, 1991, p. 69).


The third and final book I wanted to use is The theory and practice of teaching, 2nd edition, Peter Jarvis. The first thing that hit me was the way he described the influence of a teachers style, "The teachers style can influence the form of learning that takes place as much, if not more, than the teaching method being eomployed" (Jarvis, 2006, p.29) My inquiry will include talking to professional teachers about their day to day teaching skills, techniques and methods that they use. I'm intrigued to find out if they have the same outlook as Jarvis, or even more interesting each other. The book goes on to explain the differences between teaching methods and styles, Jarvis(1991) explains that even two teachers being evaluated who are using the same techniques will do it in entirely different ways to each other, this points to the significance of the teaching styles. After reading thorough this I feel that out of the other two books this is one I will keep coming back to, as of yet it is the closest book to my inquiry topic.

4c

Developing my questions has provided me with some interesting facts I could include in my inquiry. Working with a fellow dance teacher I have discussed my questions and incorporated pointers that could help enhance my findings, something I briefly touched upon in task 4A.

The first lot of questions I started off with would help achieve interesting feedback and collect helpful data in the interview process, however, after going over them a second time the overall topic was too vague. After seeking the help of a fellow dance teacher we decided our first aim was to discuss how the questions can be pin pointed to a specific technique or method used in the classroom, this is to desirably collect important data to start off my inquiry. After adding words and changing the set up of the questions we felt that if the language was assessed and revamped the answers would ideally be more specific. 

Our second lot of questions looked like this-

Questions

1. What techniques do you use to tackle a disruptive pupil?

2. Do you find your energy levels affect the classroom?

3. How does your style of teaching change with different age groups?

4. Do you find it difficult to plan motivating yet useful tasks for the pupils?

5. What are your techniques to keep the pupils attention spam?

6. How much of pupils participation is useful to you? I.E reading an extract, demonstrating a move.

7.  What methods do you use when the students levels of learning are different in the class?

As I have explored, with trial interviews my questions may change slightly, some questions may get added due to the data being helpful and the possibility of new topics arising in the interviews is likely. 

With the questions becoming more complex we felt it was time to think at how to gain data from our participants on how the techniques and methods could be used in different working environments. As I will be doing more than one interview with the teachers I felt it a good idea to prepare some more questions for the second one. Although these will indefinitely change due to the data collected from the first interview, they can act a base for whats to come-

1. Do you find it hard to experiment with new techniques?

2. How do your teaching methods develop ?

3. Do you learn new possible styles to use from observing different teachers?

4. Does communication with other colleagues aid you to learning new techniques and methods?

Task 6c

After looking at my questions and exploring more into my inquiry I've decided id like my award title to eventually be-
BA Hons Professional Practice: Dance Teaching

I have a vast amount of knowledge  in dance and have gained insight into the art, however my passion and love has always been in teaching. Since I have enrolled on this course I have been able to broaden my mind to opportunities outside my comfort zone and have learnt to explore more in depth, whenever I am learning I feel the need to pass on that knowledge to the young minds.

As I want my future to progress in teaching I'm looking to do a PGCE and gain the necessary qualifications to teach in schools. I feel this award will help me move forward effectively and achieve a long lasting career in teaching.

Task 5b

As a dance teacher's work is flexible, it can sometimes mean I am not contracted to just one dance school but work for a number of companies offering a variety of classes to the public. The regulations and code of conduct spans over a variety of environments for me, yet remains the same. I researched a general code of conduct for teachers and this is what I found-

• behave with integrity in all professional and business relationships. Integrity implies not only honesty, but fair dealing, courtesy and consideration.
• strive for objectivity in all professional and business judgements.

• uphold and enhance the good standard and reputation of the profession.

• ensure that students are not discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, colour, religion, age, disability, national or social origin or other status. 

• always act in such a manner as to promote and safeguard the interests and well-being of students.
• justify student trust and confidence 

• ensure that classes are of a size appropriate to the levels and techniques being taught and the space being used. Students in each class should be of compatible age and/or standard. • be aware of developments in Child Protection legislation and undertake Criminal Records Bureau enhanced disclosure as required.
• ensure that teaching facilities are adequately maintained and provided


These are only a few regulations that I found, however a few more spring to mind. In the previous task, I concentrated on my first thoughts related to the student, not even considering the ethics a teacher should employ to their actions. I assumed the codes and regulations that are put in place are there for the protection of the people you work with, colleagues and clients. However, after looking at these regulations, a strong emphasis is on how you, as an employee, carry out your day to day activities. It can help mould a business and a person into becoming a successful professional. In these codes of conduct, it is clear to see these ethics will help any teacher to shape and consider their actions whilst teaching. It gives self employed teachers that work in various locations a ground knowledge of the do's and dont's. 

Task 5a

When working as a teacher, there are always ethical guidelines to comply with. These are the few I instantly think of; Parental consent, data protection, use of photography, appropriate language, health and safety, appropriate correcting.

Having ethics ingrained in my process enables me to gain the trust of my students and their parents, making the learning environment more comfortable and ultimately, fruitful.

As a teacher in any working environment, there's always a strong emphasis on correct contact with a student. For example, as a dance teacher, you always want to help the student to put their arm in the correct position or help them find the right line in their body. There is always a moment when you have to help the student physically and this is when you have to think of the appropriate way to carry this out, in order for the trust between student and parent to remain.

Another policy I always try to keep in the back of my mind whilst working with children is safeguarding policies. As a teacher you always have to be aware of any changes and issues you may see in a child's life. It's very difficult to determine whether there are problems
at home, in the classroom or outside of school and to make sure this is to be handled as professionally and as efficiently as possible.

I feel having policies and rules shapes a professional and adds to their responsibilities. It is essential to have rules in a working environment to strive towards achieving goals as an individual or team.

Task 4b

Building my SIG group....Slowly but surely

I've begun to read fellow students task 4a posts and was happy to find more students blogging questions similar to my own. Slowly but surely, I'm hoping the more I comment on the blogs of others, the more SIG groups I can find myself in and will be able to relate with them.

I've got to keep telling myself......

Module 2

Task 4a

So after a lovely break and a well deserved rest for us all, it's back to the endless evenings of exercising our brains and moving forward in our BAPP journey.

After reading the handbook and task 4 components, I thought it should be about time to blog task 4a. I had different ideas swimming around and after a big brainstorm session I found more of a direct route into my inquiry. My interest and ideas seemed to sway towards teaching. After using my personal teaching experiences in module 1, I figured this would be a subject I would enjoy exploring and want to learn more about.

After my first brainstorm I decided to do another, concentrating on points surrounding teaching. I found it generated more ideas about the different styles used by a classroom teacher and a dance teacher. I feel I'd be really interested at comparing the differences and possibly similarities of the techniques and styles used between the two, and it will be useful for my future as I'm looking to pursue a career as a teacher and gaining my PGCE after this course.

The questions I came up with will hopefully give me insight to the day to day tasks, challenges, routines, overall styles of both types of teacher. I've kept the questions the same for both teachers, as I feel this will show me more of a comparison between the two. If you have any ideas or think separate questions would benefit my inquiry more do let me know.


Questions


1. How do you cope with a disruptive pupil?
2. Do you find your energy levels affect the classroom?
3. How does your style of teaching change with different age groups?
4. Do you find it difficult to plan motivating yet useful tasks for the pupils?
5. What are your techniques to keep the pupils attention span?
6. How much of pupils participation is useful to you? I.E reading an extract, demonstrating a move.
7.  How do you cope with the pupils at different skill levels?

After I spoke with a fellow dance teacher, her thoughts were that the questions were quite vague. There also seemed to be an obvious topic behind the questions.We decided together that they could have used refining a little. Using these as a base she said that to, help me determine the differences and similarities in techniques and methods each teacher has, I should ask what and how they use their techniques in the classroom.Therefore with a few of the questions we decided to change the language of to see if this had an impact.