Task 7.A Summary of Plan

Inquiry Title:

How can using a real life experience as a stimulus influence or support the choreographic process for section 4B of the G.C.S.E Dance specification.

My research/ Inquiry questions and ideas

As I will be starting my training in September I felt it was important that my inquiry would be beneficial to my future practice as a dance teacher in a secondary school. I thought about the role of a dance teacher and decided the best way to find an area to explore would be to talk to my peers and students about the challenges of teaching G.C.S.E dance.

One area in particular stood out to me, Section 4B. This is an independent part of the study were students have to create their own dance piece. Many students and teachers struggle with this section in regards to motivation and progress.

After talking to several students who are using their own personal life experiences as a stimulus I began to notice they were progressing more rapidly. It seems that these students were finding inspiration for movement more naturally than students using a stimulus chosen at random. I wanted to investigate this fully to see if this is a better way of approaching this topic. Any information I gather will only be helpful to my future as a dance teacher.

·         Does using a stimulus help you to create?

·         What type of stimulus do you find inspires you the most?

·         Is the choreographic process made easier by using a stimulus personal to you? For example, a real life experience?

·         Do you feel using something personal supports or influences your choreography and choreographic process?

·         Do you ever struggle to create movement? What do you do if this happens?

·         What methods have you chosen to help create your piece?

·         Why did you choose to do this type of performance piece?

Ethical Issues

I will be unable to hand out consent forms and brief students until I see who turns up to the intervention session. Here I will brief the students on my inquiry and ask for volunteers. Consent forms will be handed out in this session and those students who agree to be part of my inquiry will also receive a letter explaining the inquiry in detail for both their parents and the students involved.

As the starting point for some students is emotional content, I am hoping the removal of the log books will mean the need for additional counselling will not be necessary. The aim of this inquiry is not to disrupt the student learning but to learn from the students. I do not wish to expose students to anything they would not have been experiencing or feeling without the inquiry. I still have the school counselor leasing with students who need additional support and have the dance teacher and head of dance present to assist in any intervention that may be needed.

Changes to My Plan 

Removing Log Books: I have decided to remove using student logs books as a tool for my inquiry as students are already overwhelmed with log books and revision for other subjects. I feel students would not be as committed as I would need in order to gather informative information for this inquiry.

Observations Added to my Inquiry: There have been some changes to the dance scheme of work this term which means students are no longer working independently on their choreography pieces during lessons time but working on their group performance piece.

Students will now be working on their individual pieces during G.C.S.E intervention which has been put in place after schools on Wednesdays. This means not every student will be present every session which makes consistency and issue. The intervention sessions are open to all year 11 students working on choreography pieces. This means observations will be easier to conduct having students from both classes.

The only issue that may arise would be due to the nature of these classes. As they are drop in session and not compulsory, I may not have all students, every week. The deadline for student’s choreography piece is in 4 weeks time, which means realistically I should have most students if not all present for at least the last 2 sessions.

Interviews: Scheduling appointments for one on one interview will be the only way to ensure I get the information needed from any students observed. This means I will need to do the observations first, then schedule appointments for any students used. Interviews can take place once their choreography deadline is over and the student’s have more free time. This will still fall under the 12 week period so I will have enough time to collate information and create my artifact.

I still intend to use a general survey as a starting point to gather information about the individual pieces and stimulus used. The students will be volunteers from year 11 so I am hoping to have a mixed group of students using personal and random stimulus to compare the difference in their progress and choreographic processes. I feel one on one interview and lesson observations will be sufficient to retrieve all the information needed. 

Ideas for Artifact

After reading the handbook for module 3 and viewing many archived blogs I have decided I would like to do a video for my professional artifact. I can use footage from observations along with one on one interview recordings.