First Skype meeting 

In the first Skype meeting  on October 1st we discussed several important theoretical questions. Firstly, there was a short discussion for the difficulty to explain what we know to a fellow dancer. This led to important questions : how do we prove something we know? is there a need to prove something? These questions rely upon the positivist theory.
Positivism: The belief that objective accounts of the world can be given, and that the function of science is to develop explanations in the form of universal laws, that is, to develop nomothetic knowledge. (Punch and Oancea, 2014)
However, dance is a subject that requires multiple approaches and inquiry rather than  research that proves something. As a result, we concluded that this MA has a non-positivist stance and generally we are more prompt to use this stance in our forthcoming inquiry and during our reflection moments.
In the last part of the conversation, we discussed about frameworks. We analyzed a little the MA's framework. This put forward a different question for each one of us: what is my framework? how do I frame my perception and how do I engage the world around me? 
Personally, I was more interested in listening to others' perspectives and way of thinking, as there were people from different modules. I believe that this conversation was the first approach to the notion of this module and generally this MA. It posed a lot of different questions for me regarding the various theories and perspectives as well as the wish to search and find my own framework.

References:
Punch, K.F.and Oancea, A. (2014) Introduction to Research Methods in Education. 2nd edn. L.A., London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC : Sage, p.18

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday skype meeting   On Sunday I participated in both skype meetings am and pm. On the first skype meeting, it was only Hannah, Katya and me who participated. This gave us extra time to talk about our inquiries (Hannah and me) and AOL's (for Katya). It was all about communicating our ideas and thoughts. Personally, I found it very difficult. I think that I rambled a lot. Plus the comments I received from Adesola and Maria indicated that this rambling was not for good and certainly there was a lot of incomprehension, as I did not explain my inquiry theme well. It is true that I come from a different country and my mother tongue is Greek but right now  I have come to a point in my life that I speak three languages (Greek, English and French) at the same time (due to my seasonal work). However, it was difficult for me to speak English fluently and coherently at that moment.  And then I realised that the problem was not that I was not able to structure a sentence in English (daah!)
Read more
1st Skype meeting of the month Yesterday morning we had a very enlightening discussion about four main subjects: Multiple professional identities in dance, mental health and psychology for those who work in the dance field, flavor-technique and discipline inside the classroom. The multiple professional identities in dance are the subject that I brought up. I was really amazed to see that some of the participants had the experience of transition from one identity to another (dancer to teacher). During the discussion, one said that being a dancer is "all abouτ you", correcting your own body and learning; on the other hand, the teacher pays attention to others, does not receive any feedback and sometimes he/she maybe feel lonely through this reflective process of transfering knowledge to others. Concluding, being a dancer is a self-center identity while being a teacher is put into the center the others and what the other need. From all the subjects that we analyzed yesterda
Read more
Knowledge and Learning Today I participated in a skype meeting that was very interesting. The theme was "knoweldge and learning". We talked about our experiences as former-students and now as teachers. Firstly, the conversation was based on knowledge and learning concerning this MA program. However, later I said that learning is the result of self-reflection and knowledge is certainly a result of this process. The induction of "self-reflection" changed the flow of the conversation. Do we reflect as teachers? Do we help/ give the stimulus our students to reflect during the lesson or afterwards? Do they learn through reflection? Maria mentioned that there is a difference between reflection and achieving critical thinking. I was really intrigued by all these questions and this conversation. I truly believe that even though we teach something practical (like ballet or contemporary dance)- something that involves movement, reflection plays a great role in the learnin
Read more