First Tuesday Skype chats... 'the' question, ethics and reflection

Yesterday we had our first Tuesday Skype chats.  Only a couple of people had signed up for the (am) chat and then had train issues so they joined the (pm) chat. It was strange that a couple of people who had sign-up in comments on my blog were not on-line. I was worried they had not yet connected with me on skype. Make sure when you plan to do a skype chat that we have connected before so you show-up on my skype when you are on-line. Also if you ever want to join a chat last minute or can’t join last minute you can send me an email I try to check them just before the chat starts.

Our conversation was really good. We talked about reflection, ethics and questions/inquiry.

We talked about how the reflective practice in Module one carries on through the modules. Most importantly the reflective practice is about having a conversation with yourself. Writing in your diary and other reflective activities are only seen by you don’t get caught up in the quality of your reflective notes. The more you do it (practice by doing) the better able you will be at capturing your inner thoughts and looking at them on the page (the better quality the reflections will be). Don’t worry about getting it ‘wrong’. Its your thoughts the only ‘wrong’ thing you can do is not to do it!!! Lily is going to post further on this. http://lilygrundy95.blogspot.co.uk/

We talked about the question in Module two –

We agreed to stop trying to get a perfect question and start planning an inquiry project. It is no good having a fantastic question but no plan for how to look into it. You can not pass the module with just a great question. Also consider that the ‘question’ as such will change as you look into it. Really all you need is a general area. Then it will be refined as you plan your inquiry. It will be refined by the planning you do:

Limits of time (it has to fit into one school term start to finish)

Limits of ethics how you can best consider the lives of the people around you and how you can avoid impacting on them unasked for.

Limited by the inquiry tools you decide to use and why you decide to use them.

Jodie is going to post further on ‘stop worrying about the question and make a plan’.!! http://Jodieholley.blogspot.co.uk

Continuing with thoughts about ethics Lisa http://lisameiklejohn.blogspot.co.uk is going to post on the part of the conversation where we talked about the affect our research could have on the people around us. We talked about working with our own students if we are teachers. We noted that the relationship you have with your students will have an impact on what they say. But even if you feel you have the kind of relationships with students where they will ‘say what they think’, the ethics in this situation is also about how by involving them you are drawing them into your BA, which is your stuff not theirs. Even if they said what they thought, they might still go home and think about the impact what they said had on your relationship with them, they might worry, or they might feel they now have a special relationship with you that was not their before. If they are a student that was not asked they might wonder why someone else was asked and they were not. (This might be just because they were not in the class when you spoke to students but those left-out might think it is something about them.) I advise that you do not interview or talk to people under 18 and also not to people who are your students. It is much better to look towards people in your professional practice who you admire or think have experience you have not had. The opportunity of having an excuse to talk to people in your profession by explaining your are doing a BA and you are interested in their work and experiences is a great networking opportunity. It is way to make contacts with people that expands your network (see Module One) rather than just talking to the people already in your network.

Continuing this idea James http://jamesbapp.blogspot.co.uk/  is going to post on the idea that your ‘question’ (inquiry) could be on what other people think of some of the questions you have been mulling over. In other words, the ‘question’ is not something to be answered it is something to find out more about. Overall Module Two is about making a plan to do some inquiry, it is about how you find out more about your own practice and how you look at where you are today and practice ways to keep your professional development going beyond being in training or at college.

I enjoyed a definition we created for reflection – that it is a way to clarify your thoughts and organize them. It is a way to start to see things newly.

What do you think of all this?

What definitions do you have for reflection?

Please comment below

Adesola