Thinking Time

Here I am, back in the blogging world. I took two days "off" from blogging, to go over my findings so far and to re-read some of my literautre.

I was playing the interviews and dicussion groups I've concucted so far, over and over again ... my dictaphone is basically my best friend at the moment. Can't live without it ;)!

But at one point, suddenly one thing jumped at me. It was something one of the students had mentioned.
One of my questions I asked the participants was "What is the most important thing to you in a dance class, in order to learn the most?" And one of the students answered, "I need a feeling of to togetherness:"

This was when it struck me ... I was looking at my inquiry from a completely wrong angle. Instead of treating the students and teachers as two seperate groups and assessing the differences they have, I have to look at them as one union and find the similarities they share. At the end of the day, both teachers and students share the same goal. Teachers want to pass on their professional knowledge to their students in a way that the students gain the best technical ability from it. And students try to absorb as much of it as possible because they aim to achieve the best possible technical standard.

As soon as I started to read through my notes again, with that thought in my mind, I found many similarities between my two inquiry groups.
By the end of the week, I'll definitely update you on what I have find out from my findings so far and I'll fill you in on one of my books from my literature list. It's called 'Teaching Dance - The Spectrum of Styles' by Elizabeth Gibbons. This book has helped so much, not only for my inquiry but a teacher in general. If you ever get your hands on it read it. But more about it later this week.