Module One - thoughts for all

We talked about how Module One asks you to re-think and re-feel the assumptions you have about yourself and what you do as a way to better position and recognise what your own practice is.

For instance, thinking about

modesty ‘v’ showing off

and

modesty ‘v’ generosity

When you write a cover letter to an interview modesty ‘v’ showing-off makes you feel the thing to do is ‘I would really like to work with your company’ so you don’t ‘show-off’. But thinking in terms of modesty ‘v’ generosity means you write ‘I am a trained actress … giving your credentials…’ because you are giving the people short-listing for the interview all the information they need about you. Thinking like this you might give different information then ‘showing-off’ but more information than your perception of modesty would have let you.

This stepping back and critically reflecting on your actions in terms of your practice is what Module One is asking you to do. NOT the change what you are doing but to use the tasks to look at what your practice is today.

Cycle Module One!! As ever do not think about only doing the tasks once through. Do them all and then do them again and again. Each time you engage with a deeper or different layer of your practice and task. Module one you are looking at what you already do and applying critical thinking/reflection to what it is you are doing.

The thoughts of people in the session:

Nicole is partly going to use the Module to explore her goals and better understand these goals mean to her:

‘To really get myself out there and thinking of yourself as a professional rather than a student. 

Finding my purpose in what I am doing and making myself an asset to the company.

See how I can adapt myself to communicate with different people of different ages.’

Matthew D. suggests Module One has 3 lens - communication of how you position yourself in the world, what you think you need to do and why you need to do it?

Reflection: reflect on what you do and why you do it, how what you do works and how it can be improved, how could you use that process in the future

Networking: the give and take of relationships within the aspects of your life/professional life.

To not overthink what you are doing Module one is about growing as a person and developing and then looking back on where you started from.

Arghierenia says Module 1 is about your practice, you are not being asked to do something new necessarily but to look at what you do through a different perspective by using critical thinking. There are three different lenses through which we will look at our professional practices; communication, reflection and networking. It’s useful to do the tasks a few times, as the module progresses as the way you do them will change and that will help your learning and understanding of them.

We also talked about criticism ‘v’ reflection. Reflection should not start from a deficit stand point. That is, it not about what you ‘can do better’. It is about if you can see different or varied perspectives.

We about doing the tasks as a cycle also you do not have to stick to the week suggested.

The course is like the seasoning to you the meal of your life, it is not about cooking a whole new meal!

The course is about how you pull information to you meaningfully. This is difficult at first because we are often used to ‘educational’ experiences where information is pushed at you and you have to receive and memorise it! However, we are suggesting in professional settings you have to have the confidence and independence to be proactive not sit and wait for someone to tell you what to do.

What do you think-feel comment below...

Discussion group

On Monday morning and Tuesday Afternoon we had our monthly discussion groups. We talked about how we create the critical narrative (reflective essays and reviews) for what we are doing. In Module One you are looking at your practice through three lenses – web 2.0, reflection and networks. These themes run through the whole course. At the end of Module One you need to write a critical reflection on what you have done. This is the same as Module three where you have done (the inquiry) and now you have to organise that into a critical narrative to let people know what it was you did and how you did it and what you learnt from it. So basically at the end of each Module you are doing the same thing: critically reflecting and tell the narrative of your learning and linking that to the literature on the topics you have encountered.

With that in mind the context is important: explaining the context in which you have been doing things is important. We talked bout how explaining the context helps the reader understand the thoughts and conclusions you have come to. If one person goes outside the building they can reflect

 ‘if you go outside the building you get wet’

and other person can reflect

‘if you go outside the building you hear a patter sound.’

The Reader needs to know the context to really understand the reflection. The first person was out in the rain the second person was too but they had an umbrella. So their reflections are more informative and understandable when you know the method they used to go outside the building (ie the ‘method’ of going out with an umbrella, or going out without an umbrrella).

This led us to talk about the importance of starting to be aware of you in your practice/study/research: being aware of your own opinions and feelings.  In turn we then talked about the use of reflection throughout the course and how it becomes more meaningful as a practice when you think of it as a way to better identify your own perceptions and the impact they have on your understanding of situations.

Lastly, we talked about how the Module Three artefact therefore also needs to give context and explain the inquiry process NOT JUST BE an antidote to something you found during the Module Three inquiry.

Please read and comment on the posts of other people in the discussion.

Kirsty

Lizzie

Ben

Lawrence

Jessica

Lois-May

Vicki

What do you think?

Adesola

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