Thoughts on Feedback.

I have just been talking to people about their feedback to our feedback for Module Two !!! It sounds back and forth. But I see feedback as a two-way street. It is not about us telling you what to do in the disguise of feedback. For me feedback is about giving someone more ideas to think about or another way to look at the same thing. Therefore feedback on my feedback is just a response saying what it made you think of, it’s a discussion. It is not a about defending something but about walking together through an idea. Often in the past you may have been given ‘corrections’ as ‘feedback’ but I think they are different things. Corrections are one-way, feedback is two-way.

Here is something I recently wrote with a colleague about feedback in the dance classes.

What do you think? Feedback in the comments below!!

“At the beginning of our inquiry we were interested in exploring how students received ‘feedback’. We thought this would involve discovering more about the forms and ways feedback can be communicated to students, particularly how a climate of negative feedback can be avoided in the classroom.

However, as we carried out the research we realized that merely looking at how feedback is communicated constructs feedback as one directional.

We questioned whether we had been placing enough importance on the notion that feedback can be transactional.  Following John Dewey, we take the term transactional to indicate dynamic, co-created relationships and environments (Dewey 2008).

We realized that how feedback is communicated is significant, of course, but the means by which it is recognized as feedback by students, and how it is responded to is of equal bearing. This led us to consider the importance of students’ (and teachers’) critical thinking in our classrooms, as we felt student responses to feedback is as important as the action of giving it. By critical thinking we are suggesting skills of evaluation that allow for synthesis of ideas and support the ability to have shifts in perception. Particularly, for our students to develop the analytical skills to let go of an essentialist approach to their perception of themselves as dancers, and instead critically challenge their habitual movements and notions of what dance can be. Thus we see critical thinking as supporting the co-construction and permeability of a transactional approach to feedback.”

(You can read the Whole thing in the MDX on-line library, here is the citation  Akinleye, Adesola & Rose Payne (2016) “Transactional Space: Feedback, critical thinking, and learning dance technique”, Journal of Dance Education, Vol.16 Iss: 4, pp.144-148, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15290824.2016.1165821

DOI: 10.1080/15290824.2016.1165821?

Feedback you Module Two submissions

Just a note to think about: You are asked to start Module Three by sending a response to your feedback from Module Two. You need to send your Advisor, your inquiry plan with where you have changed or developed things as a response to your feedback highlighted (maybe in red type). Then the paragraph that is your response to feedback would be at the beginning and indicate the pages where you had made changes that demonstrated your thinking about and developing-on from the feedback . 

The paragraph is not just so you say you know you were ‘wrong’ or something like that!!! It is about what the feedback has made you think and where you are developing the inquiry process in response. This is part of the inquiry already because it is about how you think more deeply about the inquiry and therefore the topic. 

The goal is getting to know the questions, finding the depth in them not having something perfect. There is no 'perfect' in a moving interactive approach to the lived experience. 

Adesola

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Discussion, literature and getting started

Monday 13th  is the start of our 12 week term at BAPP. Last week we had some discussion group skype chats and generally got back into our Inquiring Selves. We had two Coffee shop Discussion Group chats.

On Monday 6^th in the morning we discussed connecting ideas and mapping how things fit into a bigger picture .

On Tuesday 7^th in the afternoon we discussed getting started, scheduling and library access.

Across both discussion the idea of Literature Reviews came up again and again.

I have noticed in the past that people start talking about the start of the module as if it was the start of a treasure hunt. As if  you are looking for clues for things you have to find to be told what to write so you can pass. People have talked about the module as if they were on their own having to invent or forage for any information they can get to know what the key is to passing.

For instance often people reflect by saying “I came across an article by Gill Jones that said…” = this gives the impression you happen to find something.

Instead this should read “Gill Jones (2009) suggests that…” = you did the research and you know what you are talking about.

You don’t need to invent answers or hunt for someone who can tell you what to think so you can write it down and pass. Many people before you have thought about similar subjects. They have thought about things, raised questions, explored ways to look at the subject and mapped how their thinking fits with other people who have done the same thing. It is not about the luck of ‘coming across’ something it is about looking up key words and seeing what people have said or choreographed or created in order to better understand your own experiences. So not looking for articles that say what you think already BUT looking at what people have said about a topic that is new to you that expands your understanding of it. In other words it’s not a treasure hunt for evidence you are right about something. It is an inquiry into how what you have thought and experienced fits with other people’s thoughts and experiences.  That is a literature review.

A literature review gives context to an idea because you look at many peoples ‘take’ on the idea.

It can help you connect ideas in new ways seeing how other people have made connections. It can give you structure helping you find out the areas within a topic that other people have noticed or organised into.

It can help you challenge your assumptions.

 It gives you a range of perspectives, so it is not just the loudest voice is right. Or the highest hit on Google is the authority on something.

It is about you having considered knowledge about things because you have thought about a lot of other people’s ideas in relation to your own.

Also think about this: just because it is the first time you have heard something does not mean it is the first time it has been told to you. Someone with the answer is not always someone amazingly wise, often it is someone who told you something at the right moment for you to hear it. So it is not just about what people say it is about how meaningful you allow it to be.

Getting started back into things, connecting with people, and many of the other points we discussed we talked about all seemed to be about looking beyond your panic for the loudest voice to tell you what to do to get 100%. Instead this is about respectfully listening and contributing to debate. Start looking at the MDX library on-line where you can use Summon to explore journals and books. Visit each others blog and start discussions there. Not “can anyone tell me how to start Module Two?” but “I just finished reading Jenny Gladsons’s book (Maths in the Magic of Dance, 2017)  about dancers in North Carolina who have used dance to develop a math curriculum for Kindergarteners, I had not thought about how closely dance and maths are linked. I am interested in other people’s experiences with arts in school?...”

Other people have posts about our discussions on Monday and Tuesday. Have a look at their  links. Have a look at what they say and please leave comments on the post you read. Please comment here too.

Please leave a message on these comments with a book or choreography that you have found interesting as you are studing and say why.

http://meganlouch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/monday-6th-february.html

https://alyshiawaite.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/first-coffee-shop-chat-of-2017.html

http://lizziebell92.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/back-to-business-first-coffee-shop-chat.html?m=1

http://lawrencemassie.blogspot.com.ee

http://oneillhannah25.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

http://charlieormerod.blogspot.com

https://bensbappblog.blogspot.com

Starting back: Skype Discussion Group meeting

We are getting ready to start back February 13th.
If you are about to start Module two or Three you will be receiving feedback on the Module you just completed that week also.

Meanwhile we are having our first 'Tuesday' of the month Coffee shop discussion group skype meetings this week. Just to be different our 'First Tuesday' meetings will be on the first MONDAY of the month!!! at 11am (time in London) and first TUESDAY of the month at 7pm (time in London) this year.
So:

Monday 6th we have a meeting at 11am

and

Tuesday 7th we have a meeting at 7pm

Please let us know which one you will be attending by commenting below. In order to prepare for the meeting think about something you would like to discuss or share. 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on getting started and what you have been up-to in your study over the winter break..

Adesola