Half Way!

Hi Module 3'ers,

So we are half way through our 12 week study period so I thought it was a good time to asses what I have achieved so far, and difficulties there has been, findings I have made and what I have left to do.

At the beginning of the term, I separated the weeks into thirds with a plan of what I wish to achieve in those weeks.

Week 1-4

• Write feedback response
• Use these weeks for literature research
• Start literature review
• Plan and organise interviews
• Create interview consent form
• Write my initial reflection/thoughts on inquiry topic

Week 5-8

• Conduct interviews
• Analyse data collected
• Write "Introduction" and "Evaluation" of Critical Review (first draft)
• Continue literature review 
• Brainstorm "Artefact" ideas

Week 9-12

• Further Analysis
• Decide Artefact
• Complete Critical Review
• Complete Artefact
• Final proof read (May 11th 2015)

As we are now in Week 7 here is what I have achieved:

• Feedback response written and sent
• Literature research is continuing, have so far found useful Books, Articles, Podcasts, Films and Blogs.
• Literature Review is ongoing (I have been delayed in literature due to the vast change in my inquiry topic at the beginning of this module.)
• Initial thoughts about my inquiry topic have been logged in my journal.
• Consent form has been created and signed by the interviewee's so far.
• 4/5 interviews have been conducted, the final interview is arranged for week 8 (This is due to the interviewee's busy work schedule.)
• I have not yet begun analysis of the interviews.
• Introduction and Evaluation first draft will be done in week 7 and 8.
• I have not yet brainstormed my artefact as I still have data to collect.

I am relatively pleased with what I have achieved in my inquiry so far, and I am finding out new things about my topic constantly which has taken it into different directions, very much away from food which I wanted. I have been delayed slightly because of being able to arrange the time to conduct the interviews (Dancers and mothers are very hard to get hold of with an hour of their time to spare) and I am glad I have nearly finished them. Although I am behind I did not want to rush them as I would probably miss out on some of the interesting responses I have had so far.

My SIG group (fellow Module 3 students on a Facebook Messenger group) have been a great help in terms of keeping me on track and giving me advise about where I am in my work.

Here's to the next half! 

Your Last Meal?

I am currently going through the interview process of my data collection and have been left so inspired by a particular part of this evenings that I feel I must share it with you.

Tonight I interviewed a chef in order to get their perspective on the aspects and definition of nutrition. During the conversation I asked about peoples possible emotional involvment with food to which they gave a most marvelous and interesting aneccdote:

The interviewee had been a part of a group discussion where they were asked what their chosen last meal would consist of. A question that I believe many of us have adressed rather casually. As expected, many of the others in the discussion group answerd with the most luxurious and expensive food items i.e lobster, caviar and steak but my interviewee did not. They replied that their perfect final meal if given the choice would consist of a ham sandwich, packet of crisps and a "White's" lemonade. I found this absolutely fascinating as it was an answer I had ever heard before and never expected of a chef who has worked with the most pretigious of companys, creating the most lavish of meals. The reasoning, however, was very heart warming. The interviewee said this was because as a child they would run home from school every wednesday to be met with this meal waiting for them, made by their parents. In further discription of the amount of overwhelming condiments used it sounded the most awful of meals, but to them it was perfect. Because tthis meal was more than just food, a source of survival, it was a memory. And forever loccked within this meal would be that memory.

A lot of my research so far has brought me to how negative emotion can effect our eating habits and therefore circle back to our emotions but this response was a completley differrent perspective. The sheer fact that the most simple of gestures (looking further than food) can have such a massive effect on a persons emotions and attitudes is remarkable. This is a power that can greatly benefit a persons well being if we are able to channel such positivity so easily. For this outlook I am very grateful to my interviewee and look forward to anaylsing their responses further.

I would love to hear what other people "last meal" would be and why? I am going to have a very serious think about mine...

Hungry for Change - Must Watch!

"Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life" - (Robbins, Hungry for Change, 2012)

Upon the recommendation of Adesola I decided to watch the documentary "Hungry for Change". My inquiry research has intended to explore what is necessary for a dancers well being, away from the scientific nutritional ingredients in the food we eat. The main aim of this documentary is to highlight the importance of eating less processed sugar, fat and carbohydrates however they do also address other aspects of a persons life that will affect their mood, attitude, food intake and overall health. This is what I was most interested in for my research.

"From the moment we are born, we equate love with safety." (Hungry for Change, 2012)

This documentary has opened my eyes to the importance of love for a persons well being. It discusses the fact that without love and care from our parents when we are born, we can not possibly survive and so this attitude is forever present in our mindset as we mature. In terms of a dancers needs, love would not be something I would have ever considered and yet this film seem to make it very obvious. I would argue that in the dancing world, positive encouragement and care isn't very well promoted or stressed within a dancers education and it occurred to me that somewhere along the lines of my training and starting my career, I had forgotten about the importance of loving and caring for others and the importance of loving and caring for myself. 

"I accept myself unconditionally right now" (Hungry for Change, 2012)

The documentary suggested an exercise that everyone should practice daily for their emotional well being. The exercise was to look at yourself in the mirror and say the above quote. Repeating the phrase every time your own negative thoughts about yourself began to attack. This exercise is known as "Self Affirmation" and is possibly one of the most powerful phrases I have come across in my research. I have always been aware of the importance of having confidence in my dancing (as many things go wrong if I don't) however my training only seemed to teach my how to fake confidence when it is necessary. And I am sure I am not alone about this. Self affirming encourages a person to recognise their achievements, their goals, their positive attributes and channels the mind to release the negative weight that many of us carry into our day. Since discovering self affirmation I have been able to approach my work with a much more peaceful attitude. Before if I was having a bad day it would follow me into class and usually I would not perform so well. In a recent class I realised that now when I am dancing, it is all I think about. My focus is directly on my work. Only time will tell the true affects of self affirmation in my work but it has so far been enlightening to both my practice and my inquiry research.

Had you heard of "Self Affirmation?

Do you practice it?

I would love to know your thoughts! And if you have netflix I highly recommend this documentary to everyone!

All Module Discussion 1- 3rd March 2015

Taking part in an "All Module Discussion" with Adesola was a new experience for me and one that I needed to ease into. The aim of the discussion is to communicate with others taking the course on a much more personal level in order to help each other with the process of work based learning. The previous discussion I have taken part in have been more factual and about learning about the module I am taking part in and so I expected the same from this. After a tentative start and a brief explanation of the aims from Adesola, the other students and I started to feel a little more comfortable with each other. I believe this will improve with every discussion I am able to join.

Each of us involved have decided to blog about different topics we discussed throughout the skype session. I have decided to blog about the problems that may occur with using interviews as a research tool and how I intend to approach avoiding these issues.

The main issues we felt that would be in interviews is the difficulty in creating interview questions that will ensure you get the best answers from the interviewee. The scariest thing I believe to be in an interview is to have nothing more than simple "yes" and "no" responses, particularly as my inquiry research is solely dependant on qualitative information. It is important that my interviewee's give their complete opinions but how do I achieve this? How can you control an interview without affecting the interviewee's answers? Another problem is knowing how it is possible to know that you are getting truthful answers from the interviewee. This is of course being an almost impossible problem to solve.

I have had to consider these factors when planning my interview questions, interviewee's, interview time, setting and ideal atmosphere:

Questions

I've found it can be difficult to decide upon what questions would be best. I began by referring back to my original mind map that I created at the beginning of my inquiry research. With this I was able to remind myself what the different possible aspects of nutrition were that I wished to ask about. I drafted my questions into sections. This will hopefully help with the flow of my interview as the better the flow of conversation, the more likely the interviewee are to feel at ease. I also believe that it is important not to be closed minded with the questions. It is my intention to approach each interview with the confidence to change, add and remove questions where I feel it would benefit the interview. I wish my interview to be more like a discussion so that the interviewee's opinions can be developed where appropriate. I think it would be wrong to expect anyone to answer a question I would not be willing to answer myself and so I have made sure that I haven't included questions that I feel are too personal. I have, however, written open ended questions that made lead to more personal answers if they interviewee wishes, this is of course completely up to them. As I am wishing to compare all of the interviewee's opinions, despite their minor or major differences in career and lifestyle, much of the interview questions will remain along the same theme although may not refer to dance in particular. Relating the conjoined opinions to the needs of professional dancers will be something I will process in the analysis part of my inquiry.

Time

It is difficult having to limit yourself to a time as you worry that you may not retrieve enough information within that limit. I do believe, however, that it is important to create a time limit so that the interviewee is aware before hand of the possible amount of time I am asking of them. I have chosen to limit each interview to an hour. I believe this will give me enough time to discuss everything I have planned and leave room for any extra discussion that may arise during the interview. I also believe that one hour would the maximum amount of time necessary for the interview in terms of keeping the interviewee's interest, avoiding repetitious answers, not taking too much of their time which my deter them from wanting to take part and avoiding having too much dialogue to analyse afterwards.

Atmosphere/ Setting

I am of the impression that the more comfortable the person is, the more likely they are to be honest and open in their responses. Because of this I want all of my interviews to be in a setting that is decided by them. I preferably would have all of them face-to-face but I am aware that this is not always possible with conflicting schedules. Interviewing via skype has been my chosen alternative to face to face interviews as I believe it is more beneficial to get immediate answers from the interviewee rather than practiced or pre determined answers that may not be as honest. From what I have experienced from being an interviewee, it is very unnerving when you do not fully understand a question. This could make the interview more stilted. To avoid this I will give the interviewee my response to the question in order to give them a better understanding of what I am asking. Although I am weary of determining their opinion with my answer so I will need to be light a vague in my response. I may also give a variety of possible conflicting responses for them to pick and develop as their own.

Interviewee's 

I have been quite lucky with my chosen interviewee's in that I have worked, been taught or spoken to them before. This will give me an advantage of an already quite comfortable rapport with the interviewee. I am, however, approaching each interview as though I do not know them. I do not want to make any assumptions about how they may answer and so it is important not to miss out questions that I believe I already know the answers to.

Later on in the inquiry process, when all my research has been acquired and analysed, I am going to organise a debrief with the interviewee, according to their agreement and availability. This will help with how I have perceived their answered as it is important to make sure you have used their words in the most honest form rather than altering to suit my needs. I also believe that it is respectful to those involved to show them my final work to make sure they comfortable with their involvement and included in the final parts of my inquiry.

If any one else has any opinions or advice that they believe would benefit an interview I would love to know as the discussion process we has via skype proved that although we may agree on a lot, each person learning, writing and researching approach can be very different. 

At the end of the discussion Adesola asked us all to come up with a time management tip for present and future students on this course. I completely agreed with Adeola's tip of writing "to do" lists to help you identify what you need to do. Unfortunately for me, Adesola got there first on that one so here is another:

Managing Time tip:

My tip for time management is to always carry a notepad/notebook with you for every day. The mind can not always be convinced to come with ideas on the spot or when you wish it to so being able to note down any thought processes at any moment can be very helpful. I have always found that my mind wanders when I am travelling to/ from work which then meant I was able to maximise the limited amount of time I had in front of a computer.

First Skype Session- 24th February 2015

After having my first group skype session with Paula, I feel so much more confidence about Module 3 and what it entails. As I was very rarely able to be a part of the campus sessions and skype sessions in previous Modules I understand how helpful it is to blog about to discussion and notes I have made during the session.

The session began by clarifying what the final results of my  Module 3 work will consist of:

Critical Review

Described as a formal written explanation about what my professional inquiry is it about, the research I have made and what I have discovered. Consisting of around 6,000 words and estimated to make up 50% of my final submissions, the Critical Review will be separated into 4 sections.

Introduction
Within this section we describe the beginnings of our professional inquiry. 

Evaluation- Literature Review 
The evaluation section is where we will put our literature review. The literature review will be a summary of the main points, arguments and debates raised within the literature. Describing what the individual sources of literature give me as an overview. Paula stressed the importance of keeping up a bibliography throughout the inquiry process to avoid problems later on in the term. We were also told that as the word count limit is quite tight, A longer literature review can be attached as an appendix if I feel it would be necessary.

Analysis
The analysis section is my opportunity to triangulate the information I have collected within my chosen research tools. Identifying and using what similarities and differences there are that seem the most beneficial. It is at this point in the critical review I will be considering what audience I will be creating my professional artefact for, as well as what it may be.

Critical Reflection 
The critical reflection is of the same format as those we have done in previous Modules. Using appendices from the sources I have used in order to explain the process I have been through throughout my inquiry and reflecting upon any trials and success I have come across.

Paula recommended  that we start writing these sections as soon as we feel ready so that it can be improved upon throughout the process. As I have broken the study period into 3 thirds so that I keep on track with my research and inquiry development I intend to begin writing my Critical Review at the end of the 4th study week. 

Professional Artefact
The second part of the inquiry is the professional artefact. The artefact is a way of explaining my professional inquiry topic and discoveries in a form specifically aimed at my chosen audience. The form that it take is open to what I feel to be the most beneficial for my aim. The examples we were given included a website, pample, video or even a choreography if it is appropriate to my topic. The word count for this part is approximately 3,000 words although if written words aren't used it easier to be described as making up 25% of my final inquiry. 

Oral Presentation
The final 25% of my inquiry will be an oral presentation. This will take place after the 12 week term and submission of the aboves pieces. The proal presentation is my opportunity to voice my inquiry topic, researching, findings and experience to a peer group. It was suggested that we can also design and create a powerpoint presentation to coincide if it would be helpful.

Keeping On Track 

We also discussed ways in which we can see if we are on track with our work. Much like the helpful weekly targets given to us in the previous modules. The diagram of the 5 steps of creating our professional inquiry is a very helpful to reference throughout the study period.

"The five stages and corresponding steps in the professional inquiry"

Middlesex University - WBS 3760 Module 3 Handbook BAPP Arts, Institute for Work Based Learning 2014-2015 page 13

Looking at this diagram I now consider myself to be between stages 2 and 3 of my inquiry. Already well into my literature review, I have also begun interviews which is my main inquiry tool. Continually identifying where I am in the diagram will help me to keep on track throughout the term.

Useful Sources

Below is a list of useful sources we discussed in the skype session that will be helpful with inquiry research as sometimes finding literature can become difficult.

• Schonol - Can use other university libraries to search for books, this is the format used to do this through Middlesex University.
• Online Library Site
• Libguides
• My Unihub > Library > Summon 
• b.o.b reading list module 3

We were also recommended to use "citethemright" website in order to create the correct harvard referencing for all written work.