Delicious account

Here is my delicious account, I have bookmarked all pages on the web I will be using for my research to develop my Inquiry.

http://www.delicious.com/staceywilson

PILOT METHODS

I have found the ‘pilot’ methods both interesting and enjoyable. The process of conducting the pilots were quite difficult, as there was so many questions I needed to ask and I intended to find an answer that would provoke thoughts and ideas for my inquiry.

Experimenting with my survey tools has encouraged me to prepare for my inquiry plan, I understand what pilots work best for me and what tools will enhance my research.

I prepared a survey using the on-line source “Survey monkey.” This tool was very easy to use and the answers most defiantly gave me an insight into other people’s opinions. I composed questions which were very personal, as all answers were confidential, which again inspired deeper viewpoints. After my survey was conducted I was able to see my responses as numerical data, meaning my answers were easy to review and it was in a very direct format. For example I asked “If you had the choice (at present) to change your career would you?” the choices I gave were ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I didn’t want reasons; I only wanted a straight answer. My response was 77% said no, 22% said yes. This format is very easy to analyze as I don’t need to explore their answers, this is their response comeback, and that’s that! When working with a questionnaire format, the respondents are limited somewhat by the parameters set. Surveys give you a limited answer and the respondents can’t jump out of the box and go into detail about their reply. I have analyzed my results and yes some of my answers I want to find out more, however I like the bluntness and it is easy to browse and filter my responses; I don’t need to solve anything. I understand that I will get quantitative and not so much qualitative results however I do feel as an evident research approach a questionnaire should be tick boxes and maybe a few explanations for the respondent’s choice. I feel this tool will be a very helpful when investigating my inquiry further as it achieves a wide-range of data in a simple format that is easy to evaluate.

I organized an interview with a friend of mine that is in the performing industry who I knew would give me broad answers. The time consuming aspect of this tool was actually finding the time to get together to conduct the interview, which I found to be demanding. My interview was structured; however I was able to probe responses encouraging more of a discussion, enabling a deeper outcome. I achieved inclusive results however this is only the view from one person. Yes I achieved quality results as the participant had freedom however I do feel on the purpose of analyses I am only reflecting on the answers of one person, my conclusion will be very limited. When I use this tool again I will intend to interview five people so I can compare the data, this will encourage rounder results. I didn’t record the interview which I might try next time, this way I can analyze quotes they have said.

My focus group has been my favorite pilot. The dynamics of a focus group means members have a similar interest or understand the topic involved; this encourages interaction between the participants. My focus group is easily reachable on Facebook; anybody can join or add which is a major positive aspect of a Focus group. I understand some people can go off on a ‘tangent’ however this persuades my inquiry to be taken on a larger scale.  The atmosphere found in my Focus group is both electric and self-motivating.  It has opened up issues and questions I would never have thought about, this has taken my inquiry on a completely different level.

Literature Sources

I managed to find an in depth extract from Tom Ortega on the web. This was found on his blog and therefore has a very personal aspect to it. This literature focuses purely on the topic at hand “jack of all trades or master of none.” The reason for choosing this is because Tom goes very deep explaining his thoughts and I found this literature interesting and I liked the fact that I didn’t agree with most of the points made. Tom was extremely direct and the extract had a very depressing feeling, however I still enjoyed the piece.

The piece is very honest so I was gripped by his passion ”Here’s the thing though. I’ve lived what…35 years of my life in misery, literally, misery and agony trying to find that *one* thing I’m supposed to be master of.” Tom has experienced this confusion, my inquiry that I want to make sense of. Tom is constantly questioning himself throughout the extract, why, what, when and how. “Why can’t I figure this out? What’s wrong me?” Every other day, I find myself alone somewhere.” This has encouraged me to ask myself these questions, which is something I didn’t even think about doing before.

In my inquiry I am only concentrating on “The performing Arts” concept, whereas in his literature he is very much generalising all different kinds of areas. Tom talks about famous people including Mozart, Shakespeare and Frank Lloyd Wright, again this has motivated me to learn about successful people working in my industry and what path they took in order to achieve triumph. I do feel everyone has a different definition of success, mine is to reach my goals that I set myself, not to be famous. The feeling I got from Tom was that he believes you have only reached mastery when you are famous, so maybe we are coming from two different angles.

In the middle of the literature Tom states “I think that’s why many “greats” and “masters” have horrible personal lives. If you have one focus, one overriding passion, everything else fades. It’s like a drug” I can comprehend where Tom is coming from here. As I do believe that if you desperately want to achieve a certain amount of success sacrifices do need to be made. I feel very few people who have great success have a normal home life, and friends and family could easily be forgotten.

I really liked the way Tom concluded his blog, he left me thinking about what he had written and this concept is what I want to create when writing my inquiry. I want my audience to finish reading but not stop thinking about what I have written. 

My next literature source is an article from the letters of dance produced by Lady Cailtidh nicFhionnlaigh bean Cato. The reason for choosing this piece of literature is because I wanted to find a dancers view on “teaching dance” and what makes a good teacher. Cailtidh’s views again are quite different to mine, however, the article has encouraged me to think outside my box. The article persuades me to look at dance more in a fun manner, which I struggle with as I feel dance is my job and I like to remain the best I can be. Don’t get me wrong I have a lot of fun with my clients that I teach, and my classes always have a lively atmosphere however my concern is about ‘me” and what I can do. I always worry that I am not trained enough; do I know what I am talking about? I start to distress when I am not feeling confident in a class, and to me this is a weakness as a dance teacher.

Cailtidh states “I can do some very intricate dances, and though I have been dancing in and out of the SCA for over eleven years, I still do not know the names of some of the steps or dance sequences. This "lack of knowledge" has not stopped me yet from learning (and teaching) the dances to others.” I do partly agree with Caltidh, in terms of being a good teacher no you are not required to know everything, however I think a certain amount of expertise is needed to call yourself a teacher.

Again a fairly agree with Cailtidhs statement of “In order to teach dance one should know dance. I am not saying that one should have formal training in classical ballet, but just a knowledge of how a dance is danced.” I sacrificed a lot to be where I am today. Learning to be a dancer is costly, takes time and a lot of determination and strength within. If everybody went to a few dance classes and then thought they were an expert then the whole ‘dance industry” would be a joke, and yes there are dance teachers out there who really haven’t got a clue. I feel Caitidhs is suggesting that you don’t need to be an expert, if you can teach in an appropriate way and the clients are happy then you have done a good job, this concept I do agree with.

The impression I get from this article is a positive and vibrant outlook on “the teaching of dance.” It is written quite well, easy to understand and Caitidhs understands what she is talking about. This article relates well to my inquiry and again I have more questions and ideas I want to look at.  

My next article is from SSCo Kim Spiller offering advice to primary teachers about delivering high-quality dance. She has produced the article partly in bullet points. I liked this as it was easy to read and she put her points across very forthright. Other people have commented on this article, which I found interesting as everybody had very different opinions. The article is based on non-specialist primary teachers delivering high quality dance in their schools. The word quality to me means experience, excellence and the very best. So how can non-specialist and quality be in the same sentence?

I found the whole article to be very annoying and completely degrades the profession that some people have committed their life to. Dance teachers need to be qualified to teach in schools, you wouldn’t go to a doctor who wasn’t qualified, would you? Don’t worry about having to demonstrate moves. You don’t have to be an expert dancer yourself to teach dance.” I feel as dance teachers you must show them the moves, if you can’t do them, how do you expect a child to?

This again relates to my inquiry as this article focuses very much on “you don’t need to be a master or to even be a Jack to be able to teach dance.”

 

http://lordbron.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none/

 
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lod/vol1/teach.html

 

http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/delivering-dance-in-primary-schools-2436

An employee won’t go to prison for being late for work!

I have been teaching on and off since I was 16, so I am very aware of the expectations required and my professionalism as a whole. However as my career develops I am faced with more challenges and moral situations.

A well-established dance school that I am currently working for has had a major predicament and this has prepared me to have a wider outlook on professional conduct. A dance teacher at the school has been asked to leave (for good reasons), her work involved private tuition to many students for their festival work. Students have paid out a lot of money for their lessons; however she has demanded that nobody can use their dances (including the music) for their festivals. Automatically I’m on the defence, I feel the principle of the school paid her to teach those lessons and now the children can’t even show what they have learnt, not forgetting all the money their parents have spent. I realised I found the whole situation more infuriating than my principle and she explained that this happens all the time. I have not been confronted with many problems in my professional career, so when I touched on codes of practice the first time round I left it very basic as I was drawing form experience.

This experience has motivated me to develop and explore further, questioning my codes of practice that I already apply in my work.

I opened a company called Performing Sports in 2009 and it flourished very early on. As it got busier my lack of communication with my employees was becoming restricted, meaning no real affiliation and soon they forgot my rules. After researching more in-depth about this topic I decided to put in order a code of conduct that each employee can follow. I have realised we need to adhere to a set of rules as it’s for everyone’s interest, completely a mutual benefit.

The outcome

A code of conduct goes beyond the law as there are a set of principles that an organization wish to put in place. An employee won’t go to prison for being late for work! I feel more organised and at ease knowing that my employees have a set of rules which are necessary to enable my company for long-term success. I feel that one piece of paper has inspired communication and honestly, that’s the way I want my business to operate.

I have researched some policies and regulations that are current in the place of work/professional community.

Firstly I wanted to differentiate the difference between work ethics and a code of practice.

A code of practice is adopted by a profession or by a governmental or non-governmental organization to regulate that profession. A code of practice may be styled as a code of professional responsibility, which will discuss difficult issues, difficult decisions that will often need to be made, and provide a clear account of what behavior is considered "ethical" or "correct" or "right" in the circumstances.

A code of ethics often focuses on social issues. It may set out general principles about an organization's beliefs on matters such as mission, quality, privacy or the environment. It may delineate proper procedures to determine whether a violation of the code of ethics has occurred and, if so, what remedies should be imposed. The effectiveness of such codes of ethics depends on the extent to which management supports them with sanctions and rewards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_code

I have learnt that the two concepts relate so closely that for my line of work I can mix the two together. They both involve the behavior expected of employees and encourage a set of rules outlining the responsibilities in the workplace.

I wanted to compare my findings to my present work ethics.

I found the following extract in a booklet called Developing a Code

of Business Ethics

"Apart from legal requirements, business in general has no recognised code or

standard which provides a benchmark for its conduct. Individual corporations

have therefore to formulate their own values and the way they do business. An

ethics policy helps companies to understand and develop policies on issues of

business and employee conduct."

I found this extract which I found very fascinating. Each business will have completely different set of ethics; these ethics are produced with influence from individual characters. I do business completely different to my next door neighbour so we would more than likely have different values and expectations.

"Having a code is not enough to ensure ethical behaviour. The code needs

to be understood, used, taught, monitored and regularly re-evaluated and

revised."

I completely agree with this statement as of course companies develop and revolutionize so revising the code would be imperative. Understanding the code thoroughly of what was expected of me would be very important so I could move forward within the company.

FreeSteppin dance have a code of conduct that their children must apply by- This is something I have never considered before. I don’t agree with plastering this on a website. Children are not grown-up enough to read this and understand it fully. I feel talking to them face to face will encourage a good code of practice.

"Unacceptable behavior may result in the pupil's exclusion from the school."

"Unacceptable behavior includes - swearing, spitting, fighting and derogatory comments towards others"

http://www.freesteppin.com/code-of-conduct.html

 

I found this code of conduct which is within a dance company. So you are working with individuals like yourself who are professional dancers. Here was one rule-

"Respects other’s ideas and opinions"-In the dance world most people are very creative, which for me entails opinions. I always feel I have a lot to give when taking about chorography or dance costumes, so yes I would be respectful but I would be absolutely be voicing my opinions. Not sure if its relevant to put in a dance companies code of conduct.

http://www.dancewestballet.com/school/Code_Conduct_07_08.pdf

I wanted to find a more official code of conduct and my favourite one was “Approved pole dancing instructor’s code of Conduct” 

I liked this code of conduct. It is from a pole dancing community so people can register and gain PDC approval.Straight to the point, no messing around and everybody within the company will be very clear.

PDC Approved instructors will provide the PDC with copies of public liability, professional indemnity and first aid qualifications.  PDC Approved schools may be asked to provide a copy of a CV for each pole dancing instructor. All instructors must have a minimum of 3 years pole dancing experience.- This whole code is very important and I know company’s who let their employees teach without a first aid qualification- automatically I think this company is shambolic as obviously they don’t have code of conduct!

http://www.poledancecommunity.co.uk/codes-of-conduct/code-of-conduct-and-rules/danceschoolscofc.html

Reading the course reader I read about how arenas of professional practice are closely interlinked and sometimes how tensions can occur.

I do believe that ethical principles overlap, especially in a personal and professional format. Each individual has their own set of beliefs, morals and customs that add to a person’s character. If a child in my class fell over (in my code of conduct it states) I am not allowed to touch the children but my personal values take over and of course I am going hug that child. In the Performing arts industry I do feel there is a merge between professional and personal beliefs how do we as a society divide the two? Maybe we could say “you can’t touch children in less they are crying” I guess it’s easier said than done to split the two.

My professional and personal ethics

My profession requires my character in so many different ways. In my job I am bubbly, exciting and fun to work with, automatically this increases chances of success. This isn’t fake I am generally a bright person! Certain careers you are working on your own projects and at a desk, so you can keep yourself to yourself. I have to communicate with adults and children on a daily basis and of course I am basically being myself. My core personal values are honesty, reliability, ambition and kindness and these are shown in my professional working life. The two concepts absolutely sometimes conflict; it can be difficult to make the right decision. From experience I do normally choose my personal ethic as this comes from within, like a virtue.

After exploring many different codes of conducts I have come to the conclusion it is best to have one as it creates peace and harmony within a company and everyone knows what is expected. I do feel the most accurate code of practice for a work environment is the formal, straight to the point ones so there is no misunderstanding.

 

Researching!

I have started to do some indepth research on my inquiry. Please check out my Wiki! There is a table of contents to your left.

http://jackofalltradesmasterofnone.wikispaces.com/Jack+of+all+trades%2Cmaster+of+none-my+thoughts

My website

I have decided to create my own website that I will post all my work onto. It won't include my thoughts and opinions as this will be on my blog. This website will include all my essays and formal work.

The website company I used was webs.com. Its completely free and very easy to set up.