Professional Artefact

In line with making my work in my inquiry available to fellow Musical Theatre practitioners I have attached a link to my professional artefact below.

https://www.flipsnack.com/ChloeWest/chloe-west-final-bapp-professional-artefact.html

I chose to create a digital guidebook and enjoyed creating it. It's the first time I have created anything like this and I liked the artistic and technological challenge. I would appreciate any feedback for any future similar work I may carry out.

Looking back ... a crazy few weeks!

So this is the start of a new week ... and it's a week without deadlines!! I had my oral presentation last Thursday and now it's the waiting game until we get our results. I presented via Skype due to my current work contract in Spain. I really enjoyed the experience, despite a power cut in the place I was using for wifi right before the session was meant to start!

For any future students who are yet to carry out their presentation I thought I would talk through the process I carried out to prepare, in case it is of any help. With the final deadline for the critical review and professional artefact, the oral presentation can quickly creep up on you. It's important to consider the ten minute time limit early on to save you more work later on trying to cut lots out. I printed out a fresh copy of my review and highlighted what I though were the key points I definitely had to include. I found this useful in making sure the presentation still followed the correct structure despite selecting specific pieces of information.

Next, I spent time looking at examples of presentations and found TED Talks very interesting. They have lots of examples of varying lengths and it was very informative on choices of style and structure to get all your points across whilst keeping the interest of your audience. A common trend I found was the use of light humour, especially at the beginning of the presentation. I found this had the ability to relax an audience and make then interested in who the speaker was and more responsive throughout. A link to the site is below.

https://www.ted.com/talks

To create my presentation I used power point. I chose to create my slides first before wiring my notes to use to present. I found this made the presentation clearer to me and the notes easier to write as a result. Power point was fairly easy to use, anything I wasn't of how to create was quickly sorted by an internet source.

I planned in time to run my presentation several times beforehand. This was useful for feeling the flow of work as well as checking the time. The first time I ran the presentation I was more than 5 minutes over so some trimming was needed! I ran the presentation for a couple of willing volunteers and it was helpful to receive feedback to make sure the content made sense and that my style kept their interest. I did struggle with being slightly wordy, but there was a lot to cover in a short time!

On the day of the presentation I was looking forward to seeing fellow students hard work and getting time to personally explain my own work. I was the only one in my group who presented via Skype. It did feel slightly strange but I had no major connection problems (once the power cut was solved!) and overall enjoyed the experience.

In my next post I plan to attach a link to my artefact so people can see what my work was all about.

A time for collaboration and reflection

It has been a busy few weeks, drawing together all the work I have done so far to produce my critical reflection. Within this time it has been so important to communicate with my peers and tutor. It was initially daunting to produce a piece of writing of that size. Keeping in touch with other students on the course through our blogs, Facebook group and private messages provided great reassurance and confidence. To be able to ask quick questions on structure, direction or complications made the writing process smoother. I have now handed in my draft of the critical reflection and received feedback from my tutor. I was able to arrange a tutorial for the end of last week that proved very useful. As well clearing up a few queries, talking through what I had learnt brought greater clarity to my ideas. I journalled the session and I think this will provide useful in my preparations for the oral presentation.

I am now putting together my professional artefact. This is a process that I am enjoying due to its creative side. I have worked and re-worked my ideas several times and have finalised on producing a digital handbook. I believe this format has the right balance between concept and content. I will be able to include all the relevant information and it will be easily accessible and recognisable to other practitioners in my field of work.

I began by producing a storyboard to create a visual representation of my ideas. This has made producing the handbook more efficient as I have been able to refer back to it at every stage. The storyboard is shown below. My next goal is to send my finished artefact to my tutor and peers for feedback. I will then work on this before the final hand in date next week.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! It has been a busy weekend, I have been part of a premier of a new Musical Theatre Show with my company as well as lots of work on my critical review and artefact. A focus of my inquiry is teamwork and the importance of building relationships in order to carry out productive rehearsals to produce  a successful performance. A reoccurring aspect of this that has appeared in my literature and several of my interviews has been rewarding hard work and bonding outside of the rehearsal environment.

I took this on board as the Easter weekend approached and purchased Easter eggs for the cast. They were presented with them the morning of their first opening night with the company. It worked well in creating a more relaxed atmosphere, the first night nerves were forgotten for a moment whilst they were presented with their egg! For a short while conversation went from steps and songs to what people's favourite chocolate was. It was a good reliever and the cast went into the next run through in a positive mood ... it also helped that later in the day when sugar levels and energy dropped there was chocolate to snack!

Everyone happily posed with their eggs to share with their family and friends back home .. and of course my BAPP peers!

Critical Thinking

While my work on my inquiry continues I have spent some time focusing on critical thinking so that I am able to present my work in an appropriate manner. Critical thinking involves being active in your approach to learning. You must not just except things as they are given but analyse the information. You must question in order to evaluate and present your findings and ideas.

'Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information ... A critical thinker is able to deduce consequence from what they know, they know how to make use of information to solve problems and to seek relevant sources of information to inform themselves' (Joe Law Jonathan Chan, 2004-2017, What is Critcal Thinking?) 

It is important to question the literature you are working with as well as piecing together what is important. A critical thinker must 'understand the logical connections between ideas' and 'identify the relevance and importance of ideas' (Law and Chan).

You must not except that ideas and theories already presented are correct. A critical thinker must be 'looking for possible flaws in the reasoning of evidence, or the way in which the conclusions were drawn'  as well as 'comparing the same issue from the point of view of other theorists and writers' whilst 'checking for hidden assumptions' (Stella Cottrell, 2008, The Study Skills Handbook 3rd ed)

I found some more useful information on www.skillsyouneed.com such as:

Someone with critical thinking skills can:
·         Understand the links between ideas.
·         Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
·         Recognise, build and appraise arguments.
·         Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.
·         Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.
·         Reflect on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values.

The Skills We Need for Critical Thinking

The skills that we need in order to be able to think critically are varied and include observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making. Specifically we need to be able to:

• ·         Think about a topic or issue in an objective and critical way.
• ·         Identify the different arguments there are in relation to a particular issue.
• ·         Evaluate a point of view to determine how strong or valid it is.
• ·         Recognise any weaknesses or negative points that there are in the evidence or argument.
• ·         Notice what implications there might be behind a statement or argument.
• ·         Provide structured reasoning and support for an argument that we wish to make.

As I continue with my critical review my aim is to not be a passive learner but apply these ideas to constantly question and analyse the literature and data I am working with. I hope this will alow me to present my work in depth, with clear reasoning and without bias.

Appropriate terminology

As I am writing up my review I have been doing some extra research to ensure I am using the correct terminology for every aspect of my inquiry. I have come across a website that I have found informative on terms to use when working with data. It is from the ODI, which stands for the open data institute. A company set up to help with all things data. I wanted to share in case it is of use to anyone else. The link is below.

https://theodi.org/blog/closed-shared-open-data-whats-in-a-name

Chat with Megan 09/04/17

So this morning I was able to catch up with Megan and discuss where we are at with our work. This was reassuring for me as I had to miss the group session this week due to my rehearsal schedule so it was great to touch base and share ideas and feelings on our work.

We started our conversation discussing where we are at with our critical review. Megan is in a similar position as myself in that we have lots of information but are struggling to get it down on paper. The struggle is how to organise our thoughts so that they make sense and cover all that they need to. Megan said that it is important to remember that we know everything about our inquiries because we are the ones carrying it out however the person reading our review needs to understand the basis of the inquiry and also where every idea has come from in order for it to all link together and make sense. She mentioned that she has started to organise her work by writing down the headings of the review and writing notes underneath. I think this is a great idea to enable a well structured piece of writing.

We also touched on the session I missed and the discussions that took place about the professional artefact. We have both taken time to look at previous examples of artefacts on blogs and YouTube and are both considering a video for our own work. I need to brainstorm on the style and structure so that it directly relates to my workplace and review so that it is beneficial to my fellow practitioners. Megan spoke about comments Adesola had made that the artefact is not about displaying what you have found but taking people through the steps of your inquiry. I am struggling with this concept slightly as I feel that by covering the steps of the inquiry I will be displaying the information I have found. Any help or ideas from others will be greatly appreciated!

Megan and I have common ground in our inquiries as I am looking at the rehearsal process for Musical Theatre work and Megan interdisciplinary skills in Musical Theatre production. From this we have both been looking at team work. It was great to share ideas and thoughts and since the chat I have looked over Megan's blogs on team work which were very interesting.

It was a great start to my Sunday's day of work and am looking forward to the progress in my work from the discussions we had.

Literature Review

At the beginning of this module and even in the previous module the idea of completing a literature review was daunting. Having never completed a similar task before it was very much a case of finding a system that worked for me. To begin with I read the module handbook and reader 7 for advice and ideas. I then went on to read the literature section in 'Doing Your Research Project: A Guide For First Time Researchers' (Bell, Waters, 2005). Within the chapter there were tips on choosing literature including:

• consider the worth of the research 
• looking for bias
• considering more than just your own point of view
• if it is your point of view - you must still consider that the writer may be bias 

Practitioner Brendan Duffy explained that writers won't declare their bias so it is the job of the researcher to expose it.

There were also tips on how to find the literature including:

• giving yourself plenty of time
• using search engines to the best of their potential - search limiters, not losing literature ect.
• avoiding spam
• being patient and persistent

These tips are things I can relate to reflecting on my work so far. At first I struggled with finding appropriate literature using the search engine, Summon. I was finding lots of literature but not specific enough to the research I was doing. As a result I used different search engines such as google and purchased my own books that I found online like 'Directing Musical Theatre an essential guide' (Deer, 2014) and 'Creating Musical Theatre' (Cramer, 2013). These books proved very useful but I felt I needed more variety in my sources. As practitioners Haywood and Wragg state a literature review needs depth and must not be 'a furniture catalogue'. I found a useful collection of videos created by the Royal Academy of Music London on YouTube that document their rehearsal period for Musical Theatre Productions like Sweeney Todd. After encouragement and tips from Paula and fellow BAPP students I went back to using Summon. This time round I had been able to establish more key words from the work I had done on the literature I had already. This allowed me to be more specific with my search and as a result I had a more successful outcome. From these searches I have found many more articles and short sections of literature to review.

In terms of actually carrying out the review I found the chapter written by Bell useful yet again. The chapter explained that within an inquiry you must show what is already known about a subject and how the ideas have been applied. It is important to ask questions to avoid the inquiry being one-sided. To look at all sides it is important to establish relationships between facts. It explains that a good way to do this is to identify THEMES across your literature selections. You can then group all of your literature together under headings and from this you can create a THEORY. This way of organising my work really made sense to me and I have found it successful it giving my work shape and direction.

An example of how I have used this can be shown in my review of an article written by music education professor June Countryman called ' Getting the most for the least time: Ideas on planning, preparing and conducting efficient, stimulating and productive rehearsals'. I initially considered the fact that the article is not specifically based on Musical Theatre work, however it is looking at preparing repertoire for a Music performance which is a discipline that directly relates to Musical Theatre. 

Within my work I have established three main themes and given them the headings:

Creativity VS Organisation

The process of rehearsal looking at balance and flow

Teamwork

Looking at these headings I was then able to pinpoint information in the article. For example the articles very first tip for preparing a rehearsal is 'Be organised' it also states that a choreographer or director should identify the 'tricky' parts of the repertoire they are rehearsing so that they know what to spend more time on. Overall the article suggests that being organised when you are on a limited timescale gives the choreographer or director more freedom. When I compare this to other literature I have examined an opposing opinion I can identify is that of Broadway director Marc Platt. During at interview for the London Theatre guide website londontheatre.co.uk in January 2015 he discusses that he is working on a high budget production that means they have no set time scale as he is not willing to sacrifice his creative visions to fit in with a time scale. These contrasting experiences give me the basis of a theme that creativity and organisation within a rehearsal period are governed by factors like budget and timescale and not just the personal preference of the person in charge. If you are taking a rehearsal it is important that you consider all of these factors in order to get the most out of the time scale you have.

Overall I will continue to use these system to present my literature review in my final submission.

Using Social Media

I am coming to the stage in my inquiry where I am piecing together all areas of investigation in order to analyse and produce my findings. In this time of reflection I am looking back on how I used social media throughout the course and how it has affected my work.

What Social Media Have I used?

I think the obvious form to point out straight away is this blog. Before starting this course I had never blogged, I think like many of us. I can think back to starting Module One and writing my first blog post and staring at the screen not knowing what to write. As I have progressed through the course I have learnt just how valuable blogging can be. It is a great way to document your learning and to communicate with others on the course. It is great to be able to gain ideas and inspiration from others as well as receive feedback on my own work. I have found my blogs essential when it comes to producing my final written work at the end of each module. To be able to look back at my entire learning journey and reference the posts in my evaluation is extremely helpful. I have definitely increased the amount I have blogged in each module as I have realised how helpful it can be. I hope that my blogging for this module is helpful in producing my final work. To ensure it is I have tried to blog about every aspect of my inquiry. Considering this it is my aim this week to blog more about my work with my literature.

Facebook has also played a major role within the course. Although there are many ethical implications to consider when using Facebook there are great positives. My fellow students set up a private group page where we can share ideas, ask questions and gain feedback. This is a great addition to our blogs as it is way that everyone can be notified when a discussion is taking place. I have also used Facebook privately for interaction with my SIG's. Considering the ethics of this, all of my interactions have been done privately and not on public pages.

My other social media pages such as Instagram can also be a place of inspiration and reflection. On my social media pages I tend to follow a lot of people within the Musical Theatre industry and occasionally images and messages pop up that I can relate to my work on the course. For instance part of my inquiry is looking at teamwork within a Musical Theatre rehearsal environment. Whilst on one of my social media pages the following image came up - 

 

It was interesting for me to consider this opinion on teamwork and relating it to the opinions that have already come up in my inquiry. Social media allows access to many opinions and ideas very quickly. It is always important to consider the bias and ethics of what you seeing but overall I have found it a useful tool.

My skills 

This course has forced me out of my comfort zone in terms of social media and technology in general. I was someone that had always used social media as a sideline for interaction with friends and sourcing performance work. My work in Module One highlighted the power social media can have and this made me more conscious of what I post online, it's purpose and who is going to see it. For example I am in the process of setting up a secondary Facebook page. I have made this decision as I am aware of how much I am using sites such as Facebook to look for work as well as interacting with fellow practitioners and customers for my teaching work. Creating two pages will help me to separate my work life and private life.

Committing to a blog has been positive for me as I have seen the benefits that having a journal of a learning process is in terms of reflecting and progressing as a practitioner. The benefits of web 2.0, having people comment and improve your work is great. I wish to carry on blogging my work as a Musical Theatre practitioner so I can continue to use it to develop in my work.

Overall this course has pushed me to try things I have never done or used before. For instance during Module Three I have been carrying out interviews over Skype. I was able to record my initial interviews easily using my mobile. However a change in location to a public setting for my recent interview meant that using my mobile would not be sufficient. Therefore I researched a programme that would allow me to record the interview directly from Skype onto my laptop. I then was able to download the software and use it successfully. This is something I would have not felt comfortable with in the past but this course has given me confidence to try and experiment with technology.

Interviews and thoughts about my presentation

So I have just completed one of my final interviews and it was quite frustrating. I am currently living and performing in Spain and have learnt not to take internet connection for granted! Last week I lost internet in my housing and will not be able to get it back before the end of the course. Luckily I had completed most of my interviews before this happened. This meant I was able to conduct them when I knew the internet connection would be strong and the environment quiet and comfortable. Today I went to a local cafe which is know for its strong internet connection and where I have carried out Skype calls successfully in the past. However today that was not the case. I lost connection a few times and the sound was terrible. Adding to that the cafe was also very busy which did not help my already poor sound. My interview was great and patiently waited whilst I solved the problems as best I could and we did manage to complete the interview. I have one interview left taking place tomorrow and will be looking for a new location quick!

Today's experience has also made me look towards the oral presentation we must do. I recently had a tutorial with Paula and we discussed my poor internet connection. I will not be England for the presentations so will be giving mine via Skype. Paula suggested that I ask a friend that has internet in their house if I can carry out my presentation there. After today's experience I think this will be vital. I will also try to go there beforehand to try out the connection so as to avoid anymore problems! Has anyone else had similar experiences with technology? I would love to know how people are dealing with any obstacles with this part of the course.

Looking ahead with more work on the Professional Artefact

This week has been a busy week in terms of my inquiry. I have completed three interviews, I did have a couple more scheduled but unfortunately they have had to be re-arranged for the beginning of next week due to busy schedules. I have been continuing to read literature and have had discussions with my peers about analysis. Although I feel I have made progress I still feel a little insecure about how I will bring all of my findings and work together. However reading through the slides Paula posted about the session yesterday and other participants blogs I feel a little better. Paula mentioned that when looking at the five stages of an inquiry you may be covering two or more stages at once. I relate to this as I have been implementing my tools of inquiry which has resulted in producing some themes in my work which I now want to look into with more literature. I am also beginning to think about analysis as it is approaching the time in the module when these ideas must start to come together. I am conscious that I need to keep my themes clear through all of these stages to make sure my work connects well together.

Looking ahead to the rest of the module, yesterday I spent the afternoon looking through blogs of previous students who have completed the course in order to assess if I am heading in the right direction. The professional artefact is something I have mentioned in previous blogs and looking at other students blogs has really got me thinking about this creative aspect of my work. I had already considered a visual professional artefact after discussions with other performers of my SIG's had proved this would be a popular choice. However I hadn't realised just how creative we could be. When looking at Jess Boswell's blog a quote from Adesola really stood out to me.

'If the artefact has anything to do with paper and writing then it won't be as strong as it could be. Think of the artefact as a piece of art.'  

Jess then went on to discuss that as money was a running theme in her inquiry she was going to try and create a papermache wallet in which to store the information she wanted to share on giant bank cards. Although I don't think this would be appropriate for my inquiry or target audience, it really opened my eyes to how creative we can and must be with the professional artefact. Another blog and artefact idea that stood out to me was that of Bethany Huckle. For her professional artefact she created an audio scrapbook. I did a little research into what an audio scrapbook is and how to make one. I've posted a link to one blog I found helpful below.

http://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/2011/01/an-audio-scrapbook-and-a-download-to-share.html

This idea stood out to me as I wish to combine my ideas into a form that uses both visual imagery and sound, so as to appeal to performers that are used to working in an environment that relies on visuals and sound. Although a audio scrapbook combines these two elements, after looking into it more I don't think it would me to incorporate as much moving imagery as I would like. I think my artefact will work better if it is more video based. 

I found looking through previous students blogs very helpful as it has continued to stimulate my ideas surrounding my professional artefact. I have posted the links to both Bethany's and Jess's blogs below.

  http://jessboswell.blogspot.com.es/2016/12/artefact.html

http://hucklebethany.blogspot.com.es/

An update on my planning

So I have mentioned in a few of my earlier posts about a gannt chart I have created to help me organise my work this module. I wanted to post it earlier but it has taken me a bit longer that expected to work out how to get it on here! In the end I have decided to take a photo of the chart on the software I created it on.

I used a software called ganntproject and it was quite straight forward. I'm finding it useful to have a visual timescale of the course that I can access easily on my computer. I would recommend the software if anyone else is looking to create a chart.

Session with Adesola 07/03/17

This week was the monthly group sessions between all modules with Adesola. I attended the evening session that consisted of a mix of module one and three students. To begin the session we all introduced ourselves and stated a topic we would like to discuss. This gave us three main topics that we discussed within the session - Reflective practice/analysis, interviews and module three's professional artefact.

Refelective Practice

Lauren, a module one student, brought up the topic as she had begun reading on reflective practice within her work for the module. Module three students commented on how they had used reflective practice within their first module and how it had progressed through out the course. One of the key points that emerged was how important it is to reflect on your work as at times it might not seem important, however at the end of each module when you must create a body of work it is your anaylsis that forms the basis. Everything links together through reflection, a good example of this was when Adesola pointed out later on in discussions about interviews that when you take an interview you are asking the participants to reflect and analyse on their own personal experiences.

 Interviews

A couple of module three students brought up the point of interviews as they are at the point in their inquiries when they are carrying them out. I am also carrying out interviews this week and some interesting points came up that I had not yet considered. An example of this was the environment of the interview. Lois mentioned that she wanted to make sure that all her interviewees where in a comfortable environment without distractions so that they are able to answer questions freely. I have taken this into account when arranging the time of my meetings, leaving it largely up to my participants when the interviews are so that it is convenient for them and hopefully without distraction. Lawrence, another module three student, had already carried out one interview and said that when the interview started the interviewee they apologised as they were having a bad day. He said this was something he had not planned for. It is important to remember that you dealing with different people and many different factors can effect this. It was brought up that a semi-structured interview can help with this. That when taking an interview you should have your main points prepared that you definitely want to cover but then be prepared for the interview to take a different direction while maintaining it is helpful to your inquiry.

Professional Artefact

Within the session I chose to bring up a subject I had discussed with Lizzie earlier in the week. I asked the group how, as performers, they would like to be presented information regarding rehearsals and how to carry them out. Some similar points that Lizzie brought up emerged again, such as something visual where they can see explanations through imagery. Lawrence brought up a point that I hadn't yet thought of. He said that if he was to watch something about a rehearsal process that he would like the opportunity to interact with whoever made it. This has made me think that maybe I could incorporate an element into my artefact where other practitioners could comment on it if they so wish, this may allow the work to develop further after completion.

Overall the session was very helpful to discuss with my peers elements of the course. I am continuing to carry out my inquiry and look forward to the next session.

  

Chat with Lizzie

So today I have been able to catch up with Lizzie and how she feels the module is going and to share questions and any concerns with each other. I find these chats really helpful as its reassuring to know that others are going through the same process and have similar feelings. We both agreed that there is a lot of work ahead of us but that we are excited to see the end product.

We talked through how the inquiry is going. This was helpful to me as I am carrying out my interviews this week and Lizzie has already done some of hers. I was able to check a few technical questions such as was she able to get a clear recording and how the reception was. She said that so far she felt they had gone well which gives me confidence for my tasks this week.

The main topic we discussed was our professional artefact. We both agreed that we are struggling to decide on a way to present our information, but would like to decide quicky as we don't want to be unprepared when the time to submit them comes. As a perfomer I decided to ask Lizzie how she would like to be presented material on a rehearsal process. She mentioned diagrams and visual images but also having music alongside. These are creative things that performers are used to working with so I think they will have to play a major part in my end artefact.

Overall it was very useful to catch up and we have agreed to another chat soon.

Progress and Literature

So its been a busy few weeks to the start of term. I have been making steady progress with the work for the Module, reviewing my feedback, reading and understanding the handbook and reader, continuing my literature review and organising my inquiry activities. However I have neglected my blog. I know from the previous two modules how important the blogging process is to develop my ideas and to look back on for my critical reflection. Therefore I know aim to pick up my blogging activity once again! I'm glad I have identified the problem know so that I can progress and improve before I continue further with my inquiry.

So last week I unfortunately had to miss the module session with Paula. It was on an evening where I have an earlier show time so no possibility of re-arranging. I was frustrated as after my feedback last term it is a priority of mine to make as many sessions as possible. However reviewing the blog posts of people that attended the session was really helpful. Everyone was asked to identify where they are in the five stage process of an inquiry that can be found in the module handbook. I believe I am currently covering both stages two and three. I am continuing to carry out my literature review and am ready to carry out my inquiry activities. I have also focused on the comments people have made about the professional artefact from the session. I still feel slightly lost regarding my professional artefact. I understand that it should be a creative way to present our inquiry to other practitioners in our field of work, but I am at a loss as to what this should be! My next step is to look at previous artefacts that past students have produced to gain more understanding and inspiration.

My literature review started as a slow process, I have never done a literature review before and although I understood the end goal of the activity I felt slightly at a loss as to the correct and most efficient way to carry out the process. Module two helped a lot with this, however as I began Module three I felt I would be more comfortable and productive if I did some further reading on carrying out literature reviews. One source of knowledge on the topic I had identified in Module two was the book 'Doing Your Research Project: A Guide For First Time Researchers' Bell and Waters, 2014. There is a whole chapter dedicated to literature review and I have been able to gain some further understanding and organise my thoughts. The chapter covers:

• The purpose of a literature review
• How to organise and present a review
• The ethical considerations when carrying out a review

Purpose

The purpose of a review is to show what learning has already happened regarding the topic of your inquiry and how this has been applied in your community of practice. You must gain a further understanding of your topic and look at all sides of arguments made. The chapter contains opinions of practitioners that explain what they believe the purpose of a literature review is. One example is shown below:

“without it you will not acquire an understanding of your topic, of what has already been done on it, how it has been researched, and what the key issues are. In your written project you will be expected to show that you understand previous research on your topic. This amounts to showing that you have understood the main theories in the subject area and how they have been applied and developed, as well as the main criticisms that have been made of work on the topic. " (Hart 2001: 1)

Presentation

I have found the chapter very useful as it gives examples of previous literature reviews so I have been able to see ways of presenting the information. I am considering grouping my literature choices together using headings containing key words on my inquiry area. It is an organised approach to make sure I cover all the areas I need using as many sources as possible. In doing so I will be creating a relationship between the literature and be able to create an overall theory for my inquiry.

Ethical considerations

Throughout my entire review I must consider the ethical implications. When choosing and anaylsing sources I must consider the bias a writer may hold. I must question all information given, looking at arguments form both sides. As practitioner Duffy covers, a writer won't declare their bias so as a researcher it is your job to look for it.

After re-establishing my understanding of a literature review I have continued to locate and analyse sources. My feedback from Module two included that I should increase my range of sources. I have established 7-8 sources but need to increase this to improve my knowledge for the inquiry. This is time consuming but I have tried to plan accordingly so that I have the information on time to get my drafts in. Looking at the blogs of other students I can see they feel the same. Lizzie and Megan have discussed that if they could give their module two selves feedback it would be to focus more on literature. I agree, however at the start this is difficult as the whole idea is foreign and as first you must gain an understanding before you can begin to carry out the activity.

My goal now is to keep my blog updated! Starting with my gannt chart that I mentioned in a previous blog.

The beginnings of Module Three

So here I am at the beginning of Module Three. The whole process so far has passed very quickly and it seems like in a blink of an eye I have gone from attempting my first blog post in Module One to now. However I am excited to start to carry out my inquiry and to see what new knowledge I will acquire in the process.

This week we started with our first group discussion on Skype held by Adelsola on 07/02/17. There was a fairly large group of us with a mixture of Module Two and Three students. In preparation for the session we were asked to think of a topic we would like to discuss with our fellow students. I reflected back on my work within Module Two and decided I would like to talk about scheduling. In the beginning of Module Two I struggled with finding an idea for an inquiry and as a result saw a lack of momentum in my work. Towards the end of the module I found that I felt slightly overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to complete. I wish to avoid this in Module Three as I don't want any element of my inquiry to be rushed or overlooked.

It was extremely helpful to discuss scheduling with the rest of the group, in particular with Module Three student Lawrence. Lawrence and another fellow Module Three student, Ben, are using a Gantt chart to organise their work schedule. When Lawrence mentioned this in the session I was not fully aware of what this meant so I have since researched. I found the Gantt website with a useful expanation on what it is and how to use it. I have posted the link below.

http://www.gantt.com/index1.htm?utm_expid=11664174-46.EjGD5xWgTOia25IJzkiv2w.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F

I plan on preparing a Gantt chart as I think having a visual organisation of my tasks and goals will help focus my work and mind. I will post a picture if the results are successful! 

I learnt a lot from the session through the discussion of other peoples topics. Literature was mentioned by a few people, in particular where to source the literature and what forms to use. The literature I used in Module Two were mainly articles of interviews with Musical Theatre Practitioners. However I wish to expand my use of sources and will look at using Summon to do so. Paula has posted blog about using summon so take a look.

Overall I feel the most important thing I have taken away from the session is my thoughts on the learning process. Adesola made a very important point. She said to not use the course to just look for an answer but instead look at it as journey. I think that it is important to remember that my inquiry is a journey I am taking in order to improve myself as a practitioner and to not look for a 'correct' answer. I must remain open and explore all avenues without prejudice.

My role within MHE

The focus of this module is choosing an inquiry topic within your professional practice that you can then use to better your work within your practice in some way. This approach to my work has made me reflect on my journey as a Musical Theatre performer so far and what I hope to achieve in the future.

I graduated from Bodywork Company in the summer of 2013. That winter I performed in a pantomime and by the summer of 2014 had accepted a job offer to work for an entertainment company in Spain. My role would be a dancer and singer performing at one hotel. There was a total of ten one hour shows with a wide range of music and dance styles to be performed by a cast of ten performers. It was my first long term contract outside of college and overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot. Firstly the rehearsal period was very intense as we had just six weeks to learn all ten shows. At five shows in it felt like my brain would explode but I found that the easiest way to remember everything was to compartmentalise each show. After one show was premiered I would have to start a fresh and focus on the next. When it came to the next performance of each show I was pleasantly surprised by how much I had remembered. It was also a great learning experience for me in terms of expanding my skills. The company expects a team to work together to achieve all elements of the show. This includes costuming, lights and sound. As a result I improved my knowledge in these areas as it was my responsibility to ensure everything that I would need was properly prepared.

The next summer I was offered a contract to return and work for the company. This included an increase in my wage to take control of all aspects of costuming and the position of dance captain. What this meant was that the main choreographer would take most rehearsals but when she was unavailable I would be in charge. During rehearsals it was also my responsibility to take small groups to run and clean pieces of choreography. This experience was when I first leaned that taking part in a rehearsal can be a very different experience to being in charge of one. 

Since 2015 I have continued to work for the company as my role, responsibilities and therefore learning have steadily increased. During the summer of 2016 our choreographer was suddenly taken very ill. This meant that for four months I was completely in charge. This involved the running of all rehearsals, ensuring all technical aspects of each show were correct and the casting of a new show. At the beginning I felt truly 'thrown in at the deep end'. However it came at a great time in my career and my journey within the BAPP course. I was able to use methods I had leaned in Module One to reflect on my experience. Through this reflection I established that teaching is a real passion of mine. It is very rewarding and satisfying to work towards a piece, teaching the choreography and cleaning it to then see the finished result on stage.

Although I have learned a lot through my journey so far I decided this inquiry would be a great opportunity to increase my knowledge on the rehearsal process. I hope to improve my current work withing my company but also learn things that I can then incorporate into my future work where I plan and hope to work as a Musical Theatre and dance teacher.