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
