After reading reader 2 it has occurred to me how much I already incorporated reflective practice into my day to day routine, being quite blissfully unaware of the benefits it has gained for me.
Firstly I came across to look at Boud's (1995) theory of "What tools do you need to be engaged in 'turning experience into learning'?". For myself since starting this course I have been keeping a journal documenting my journey on how this course is going for me and skills I am acquiring to use in my daily life but also there are many other tools I have used for a long time through studying at performing arts college to entering the professional world of musical theatre that have helped benefit me in order to turn experience into learning.
- Dictaphone/ Voice Recording: Whilst I was studying at college and also since I have left the use of recording equipment such as a dictaphone or voice recording which I have on my iPhone is incredibly useful for recording harmonies to practice outside of the rehearsal space but also to record full experts of songs or an expectation required as a final outcome. Through the use of sound; giving myself a clear aim of what I am practicing and working towards I find greatly beneficial towards the development of my art.
- Video recording: whether this be recording myself dancing or singing or choreography in general through rehearsal time it is very important as a performer to be able to watch oneself and be self analytical of one's performance. I personally have always been critical of myself and have recorded myself so I can see where needs improvement but by recording myself I can also see progress from one video to the next and not only does that help improve my skill but also confidence levels which hopefully reflect in my performances.
Through this use of documenting and recording my experience in the rehearsal room to then be reflected onto a stage space has not only developed me as a performer but from every show I have taken part in it has helped me learn from the experience and be able to gain a successful strategy that I continue to use in my day to day life preparing for performances.
I find the section in the reader about John Dewney and his opinion on reflective thought incredibly interesting. Being an educationalist he considered education an experimental action and considered the level of engagement and consciousness of the experience from a learning perspective. He defined the process as a "continual reorganisation, reconstruction and transformation of experience" (Dewney 1916) which personally I couldn't agree with more. Being a performer and relating his educational method to theatre; the level of performance from day one in a rehearsal room to a finished product on stage goes through many different cycles of reorganisations and reconstructions of the material from the directing/ choreographing methods to transform the experience of the final product from a a script or a piece of music to the greatest experience in the world for an audience to see. Without the journey the performers initially go through the final result would not be a success without.
This then follows to the learning cycle created by David Kolb in 1984, who's theory was greatly influenced that ideas of John Dewney.
Firstly I came across to look at Boud's (1995) theory of "What tools do you need to be engaged in 'turning experience into learning'?". For myself since starting this course I have been keeping a journal documenting my journey on how this course is going for me and skills I am acquiring to use in my daily life but also there are many other tools I have used for a long time through studying at performing arts college to entering the professional world of musical theatre that have helped benefit me in order to turn experience into learning.
- Dictaphone/ Voice Recording: Whilst I was studying at college and also since I have left the use of recording equipment such as a dictaphone or voice recording which I have on my iPhone is incredibly useful for recording harmonies to practice outside of the rehearsal space but also to record full experts of songs or an expectation required as a final outcome. Through the use of sound; giving myself a clear aim of what I am practicing and working towards I find greatly beneficial towards the development of my art.
- Video recording: whether this be recording myself dancing or singing or choreography in general through rehearsal time it is very important as a performer to be able to watch oneself and be self analytical of one's performance. I personally have always been critical of myself and have recorded myself so I can see where needs improvement but by recording myself I can also see progress from one video to the next and not only does that help improve my skill but also confidence levels which hopefully reflect in my performances.
Through this use of documenting and recording my experience in the rehearsal room to then be reflected onto a stage space has not only developed me as a performer but from every show I have taken part in it has helped me learn from the experience and be able to gain a successful strategy that I continue to use in my day to day life preparing for performances.
I find the section in the reader about John Dewney and his opinion on reflective thought incredibly interesting. Being an educationalist he considered education an experimental action and considered the level of engagement and consciousness of the experience from a learning perspective. He defined the process as a "continual reorganisation, reconstruction and transformation of experience" (Dewney 1916) which personally I couldn't agree with more. Being a performer and relating his educational method to theatre; the level of performance from day one in a rehearsal room to a finished product on stage goes through many different cycles of reorganisations and reconstructions of the material from the directing/ choreographing methods to transform the experience of the final product from a a script or a piece of music to the greatest experience in the world for an audience to see. Without the journey the performers initially go through the final result would not be a success without.
This then follows to the learning cycle created by David Kolb in 1984, who's theory was greatly influenced that ideas of John Dewney.
 |
This learning cycle identifies that everyone through any stage of learning will go this cycle in the same way but all consequently at different points of the cycle depending on what type of learner you are. We have the concrete experience (the actual doing or experience of the event), we observe others (reflection of the experience), we think about it (work it out in our heads first) and then we actively experiment as we try out the ideas. For me I have never really even considered a cycle to my learning but this all does make a lot of sense. Each and every individual learns in there own way but ultimately whether we're all studying for the same exam or rehearsing for the same show we end up being involved in the same result. For myself I believe I start at the Abstract Conceptualisation stage, I have to think a lot about something before ideas start to flow. It is then once I have worked out what is needed be it the harmony line for example I will then do it, feel it and then finally reflect on it from the recording I will have made to analyse and think about it again. When seen in a diagram it is all very self explanatory and extraordinary how it already related to my life without even noticing.
Other practitioners such as Garner looked further into the way people learn and identified that people had multiple intelligences and didn't only learn or reflect in one way. Creating awareness of different intelligences of tools we use to learn. These categorised down to:
- Spatial
- Verbal- linguistic
- Logical- mathmatical
- Bodily - Kinaesthetic
- Musical
- Interpersonal - understanding people and relationships.
- Intrapersoanal - relates to one's emotional life as a means to understand oneself and others.
- Naturalistic - relates to nature and natural world to find meaning.
Personally, again I have never really evaluated my learning strategies however what I do know is I have always been a lot more physical, verbal and musical within my learning strategies. Even as a child I would record myself singing songs to remember spellings for my English test or a story I had to recite in French. Through constant repetition and sound I found information to enter my head a lot easier. Furthermore, I would always move around whilst processing this information whether that be walking around the block with my dog or coming to choreography through the use of music to remember information or dance moves I had learnt that day. I believe each and every one of us has there own individual way of learning and for me the use of music in my every day life has always been very important. However it would be interesting to see whether I could adapt a new way of learning such as a mathematical or interpersonal approach to learning a script of a song and see whether that does make a difference in the development of my career.
