Tuesday PM chat: The shift and the jigsaw

PM Tuesday chat

On Tuesday April 5th  we had our First Tuesday PM chat. We talked about something we called the ‘shift’. This is the movement between what you start something thinking and where it takes you by the end. It is the shift in each Module that we are asking you to identify for yourself and write about to hand-in.

In Module One you started the course and did a number of tasks to get situated and by doing them and thinking about the reader information there should be a shift in your thinking. It is this shift that we then ask you to reflect on and write about as your reflective essay. If you just do all the tasks and can not talk about what changed for you there is no point. We are not training you to follow tasks like a small cuddly animal!! We are suggesting things that might stimulate your thinking and asking you to articulate what your thinking is and how it developed.

In Module Two the shift is more clear you start the module with no plan and end with a plan… but again although the plan its self is important explaining why you made the choices you made – why you are doing it that way and not another way is the important part. The answer to why you are doing it the way you are doing it is all to do with your own understanding of what you want to do. You can inquire any number of ways but the way you come at it affects what what happens and what you find. That is the point…

In Module Three: this is almost exactly the same as Module One but instead of us giving you tasks you have given yourself tasks (i.e. the plan you created in Module Two). You start the module with some ideas (your questions) you do the activity of data collection and reading the literature and reflecting (inquiry tasks) and at the end you think about all this and notice what has shifted for you. What has been the shift in your thinking now when you think about the original question. This is not about some massive world discovery. It is just that now when you think about this topic other things manifest – that is what you write-up / that is your analysis why those new things appear now when you think about the topic. It might be the question it self has changed for you. Maybe the words of the question have changed. Danielle talked about how her original question was about Dancer retirement but now she feels it is not about retirement it is about transition. That’s a big shift in her thinking about what a dancer’s career is…

We talked about how people within an industry have a kind of knowledge that people outside can not have. “nobody outside the industry quite understands how passionate artists are”. Martha Graham said a dancer dies twice (referring to not being able to dance, then not breathing!). But we never think of Martha Graham as ever not a dancer. We talked about what a professional career is. For people in Module One thinking about your Professional career for the first time in this course might make you ask what it is. We said it might not be what you are doing to make money (your not a professional waitress just because you wait tables), it is what you are working towards, training for and thinking about … We talked about how sometimes a doctor in another country has to work as something else but she is still trained as a doctor her profession is still doctor. We thought it was important to respect what people are professionally as well as what they are doing at the time you meet them. So in Module One you are thinking about your own professional direction and ideas and training.

All of this led us to say the answer is in you and your experience – the answer is the shift in your thinking/doing. Lauren is writing about this further http://laurenhoskins92.blogspot.co.uk/

You are not trying to discover a new undiscovered thing you are thinking about how things have shifted for you, and you are unique so your thoughts are interesting and relevant to others. Danielle will post more on this http://danniausten.blogspot.co.uk

Look to yourself and your experience and make it relevant to your practice. Jessica will post on this  http://jessicaplant.blogspot.co.uk

Remember the shift – is a cycle of things making sense – then making no sense – then making sense again, then no-sense, then sense…. There has to be periods of no-sense because if you are truly adding to your understanding before you learn something new you have to become aware you don’t know it. Suddenly being aware of something missing affects everything else you know and changes that too – so things seem confused. But then as you become aware of what you didn’t know as space is made for it – like realising a jigsaw piece is missing and having to rearrange the pieces to make a space for it. But once you have done that the picture is clearer.

Be brave – do not just accept things because they are offered to you, question think critically, find the connections to the bigger picture.

What do you think?

Adesola