Conversations

Two things:

1. Our next group skype chat is November 1^st 2015

London clocks go back on Sunday 25^th October so be aware of that if you are outside UK and yours don’t change !!

We will have:

AM chat at 10am (time in London)

PM chat at 5pm (time in London)

Please comment below to indicate which one you will join.

(Make sure I have your skype address before the chat starts!!)

2. I have been having conversations with people about AoLs

Please read and comment on some of their posts on this:

http://lisanorris76.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/getting-started.html#comment-form

http://dancetara.blogspot.com/2015/10/aols-1st-conversation-with-adesola.html

Also see Alanna’s blog

After making your AoL list. Making a little summary for each AoL is helpful before you dive into one.

Example of a small summary

Notes to self:

AoL Supporting creative processes – Mentoring

Significant experiences and/or experiences that embodied the learning for me:

• When I mentored Sally Burne in 2001 (drawing and writing experience)
• When I was part of the MDX mentoring programme in 2012 (talking as a mode of reflection)
• Etc

Elements, for me its something about

• Communication
• Listening
• Being quiet
• Being accessible
• Being outside my own comfort zone
• Etc…

Theory and texts that might link to:

• Martin (2003) book on communication and other communication theory (will look at his bibliography)
• Theory on Threshold Knowledge
• Scully (1998) book on feedback and other theory on feedback (will look at her bibliography)
• Theory on listening as a practice
• Susan Cain (2013) “Quiet: The power of Introverts in the a World that can’t stop talking”
• Points from the handbook on learning (Kolb) in terms of how I 'realized' my own learning in this but also in terms for how I facilitate learning as Mentor (what I think about facilitating not teaching as a mentor etc..)
• Etc...

What do you think, find, feel….

Please comment

Adesola

Courage

We had two chats yesterday.

In the morning we talked about the AOLs 

We talked a lot about how the AOLs are capturing your experiences. The experiences that you feel are learning (responsibility) at MA level. Because of this one persons AOL might be a completely different topic from another persons. In fact it is not the topic that makes it at MA level it is the depth of analysis, understanding sensitivity that you have of the topic that makes it MA.

Across the years I have heard people say they don’t understand (don’t want to bother with) all the theory (particularly introduced in Module Two).  We talked about this in the evening chat. But we are not working with theory as something different from practice. The reason your AOL is at MA level because of what you make it not because of the topic itself is because this whole course has a non-positivist approach. In other words there is not a secret cave of MA level AOLs that you can discover and mine. There is no existing AOL that is at MA level. It is what you do with the AOL that makes it.

I feel as people finish Module One they have this but Module One is not a closed event. Thinking about what you did and why- how things worked out for you is thinking about the theory that you meet in Module Two.

Sometimes we doubt ourselves even when we are in the middle of something but I feel that to some extent one has to be brave enough to not waste too much time on this.  We talked about this in the evening session also. Rilke writes so well about this in ‘Letters to a Young Poet.’

‘…I want to beg you, as much as I can dear sir, to be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers , which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything.’ p. 35

They ‘cannot be given’ you is not that they cannot be given because someone has them and will not hand them over. They ‘cannot be given’ because you already have them – they are already in you.

‘…Think, dear sir, of the world you carry within you, and call this thinking what you will; whether it be remembering your own childhood or yearning toward your own future – only be attentive to that which rises up in you and set it above everything that you observe about you. What goes on in your innermost being is worthy of your whole love; you must somehow keep working at it and not lose too much time and too much courage in clarifying your attitude toward people.’ p.46

It is a kind of love that allows you to both not spend too much time considering yourself and doubting but also not too much time assuming you have a full grasp of everything.

As always we are not static in one defined thing we are in movement. We are not the AOL we are how we do the AOL - Going back to the ‘theory’ the perspective here is one is not looking for certainty because that impossible task has no grounding in lived experience , which is about change.

‘…consider yourself and your feeling right every time with regard to every such argumentation , discussion or introduction; if you are wrong after all, the natural growth of your inner life will lead you slowly and with time to other insights.’ p.29

The grace in this is when you consider your self ‘right’ do not consider yourself better. Just as you do not indulge in feeling less when someone does something that leads to a realisation and growth in you.  If we spend too much time on organising ourselves and others into being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ we are stealing the movement of growth from the situation and statically switching from this (right) to that (wrong) instead of finding the artistry of change.

The dance is in the inbetweeness.

What do you think?

Adesola

Rubric

I found this rubric as I was looking though some work. It is a good example of expectations for writing, might be especially useful for those writing their area's of learning although I think it is interesting reading for writing in the context of MAPP and BAPP in general. What do you think?

Example MAPP for blog Assessment Rubric (from 3/12/2008)

	Beginner fail (below level three) 17-2O	Expected pass 9- 16	Developed merit 5-8	Progressing distinction 1-4	Notes
External sources of Knowledge: Aware academic / professional ideas of other and seeing how they fit into your work.	Cite one or no external ideas.	Cite others work  two- three	Cite others work appropriately (examples) four or five Aware of others doing similar work as you	Cite others work effectively – (developed ideas on) more than five
Internal conception of knowledge: Recognising own practise as a source of knowledge.	Telling the story of something that happened that helped you	Realisation: Articulating an event or incident when self practise developed, (without the aid a teacher).	Trust: Articulate a time when you acted on your practice (self knowledge / things you have learnt) without confirmation or direction of someone else.	Giving / Risk: being able to articulate a through-line (show us how it manifests) of your practice in life outside of the arts or work.
Selection and Justification of approaches to tasks	Wrote the work	Work has a number of drafts, final draft could track the development of the drafts (work went through development stages)	Work reflects other forms of thinking used in the process of composing the essay.	Work is a vehicle that summarises a whole process of learning. Almost like a report on the learning that has been done (persons went through development stages)
Ethical Understanding	Know external frameworks.	Work articulates how student can see the impact of themselves and their practice on others. Aware of external frameworks (rules) and apply them.	Articulate how practice is informed by awareness of particular views and experiences, aware of the effect they have on others.  Know external ethical frameworks and incorporate them into this knowledge of their actions.	Articulate a clear understanding of responsibilities: Practice is informed by student’s perceived place in society – student shows a range of ways to engage with others because of the impact research / study might have. Analyse external frameworks and develop them for themselves.
Analysis and synthesis	Ideas are evident.	Can track where ideas have developed and how they have been influenced by experiences.	Show how ideas have linked in the past and the range of ways ideas emerge. Show the different ways in which ideas can be used. (concepts, principles, systems, models)	Articulate the personal process for developing and applying ideas, shows awareness of other peoples’ processes as well.
Self appraisal / reflection on practise	Explain how a teacher has helped their develop	Explain how a past experience has informed the way the student does things now. The Student explains how their impression of their work has differed from a teacher’s.	Explain how past experience has been used to inform a wide range of elements of practice.	Shows how the student has developed their practice through intentional use of self reflection (not instigated by someone or something else). Instances of this.
Action Planning leading to effective and appropriate action (B3)	Table or schedule of events	Evidence of how they plan, including prioritising and setting of aims and objectives.	Showing evidence of having planned for themselves and others. Plan would accommodate a number of people and schedules &/or use existing action planning tool/s.	Shows understanding of ethical implications and the impact of their work has on others. Their work theorises or cites other planning methods.
Evaluation of information (B4)	Student describes information that they think is relevant.	Presents ways that have been used to access information and identify what is important to their personal practice.	Present a range of existing evaluation tools/ formulas that they have found valuable.	Show personally devised ways and systems that are used to evaluate information.
Application of learning in number of contexts	Shows that student learnt stuff.	Learnt something and show how student used it in a different circumstance.	Learnt something and used it in two other contexts (home-life, teaching, technique class, relationships).	Learnt something and used it in more than two contexts, or at a very deep level.
Use of resources will be effective and wide ranging	Has put aside some time each week to study.	Shows understanding of relevant resources and how they would be useful.	Gathered a number of resources (such as people, things, ideas, funding) in support of their work.	Sees impact of their work on others. Can describe the strategic implications of their work as a resource for others.
Effective Communication	Good at story telling.	Uses the standard methods of written and oral presentation for academia. (sentence construction, argumentation and citation)	Articulation of the use of a range of approaches to communication / presentation and some are used.	Successful and clearly decided approaches to support impact of ideas and concepts in their work. Articulation of why this approach was used.
Working and learning autonomously and with others	Evidence of being organised and punctual.	Organised work, with a method of working developed from past experience. Can identify the people they work with ‘best’	Shows strategies for working autonomously and with others. Is willing to take a number of roles within a group (challenge, reflect, support).	Shows knowledge of when to engage with others, is aware of their responses to different group settings. Shows awareness of when and how to challenge and support others. Can articulate personal perspectives in relation to working autonomously and with others.

Thoughts at Easter Break

This week people are working on their RoL. This is like an onion peeling at the layers of actions we take for granted. This is a case of looking at knowledge that can become tacit because we get so used to just doing.

It is also Easter Break sometimes a break gives you a space to think and sometimes it gives you the space to become absorbed in the MAPP work because you have less work obligations, both can be really enjoyable.

Adesola

RoL: Area of Learning

Here is a great 'metaphor' (allegory) Alan shared with me for thinking about the RoL exercise of Module One:

The whole of what you hand in for your RoL all of your areas of learning make up the territory of your Professional Practice (your Job Description, what your knowledge covers as it were).
Think of each area of learning as a town in that territory.
Within the description of that town you will go into the details of the specific qualities and neighbourhoods in that town. You will also give examples of these qualities or neighbourhoods as evidence. So for instance:

The overall territory of being a Director of a Dance School is my whole portfolio.

Within that one of the areas (towns), RoL is Teaching Ballet Dance Technique

Within this RoL title are particular qualities (neighbourhoods) would be:
1) Understanding warm-up procedure and class structures in order to prevent injury -  I would explain this and evidence might be a lesson plan as approved by the school I work for or a curriculum I have written that is in use or has been used.

2) Understanding the principles of ballet training including notions of pull-up, gender specific movements such as point-work and turn-out -  I would explain this and evidence might be a lesson plan as approved by the school I work for or a curriculum I have written that is in use or has been used.

3) Knowing the history of ballet including the different influences of a variety of countries  - I would explain this and I would explain this and evidence might be within the text giving a brief overview of history and how I use this to influence the dynamic or focus of how I teach particular steps etc...

4) Knowing (and tracing) my own genealogy in terms of my ballet training and understanding how this influences my teaching of technique - I would explain this and evidence might be a part of my CV showing where I have studied, and published texts about those people I have studied with.

5) Knowing how to assess the level of a student's technique and what is appropriate to progress their training and knowledge - I would explain this and evidence might be a curriculum I wrote

What do you think of the allegory?