Inquiry Question- any thoughts?

I am still trying to word my inquiry question, I have an area or topic of interest but need to focus the questions I have previously proposed, as to not make the topic too broad. I have a few drafts below.

• How do Dancers feel there physical body is involved in experiences, that they feel they have gained knowledge from? 

• How do dancers students describe the knowledge they gain from doing a dance class? 

I have spoken to Adesola with regards to including the physical body in my question.

'I think that you should look into this because you need to be clear about whether you are starting from the idea that the body AND the mind can generate knowledge or whether you think the body IS the mind generating knowledge.' (Akinleye, 2011)

I feel I was unsure as to what I was suggesting when talking about the physical body but the reason for including the physical body stems much from my earlier thoughts and from listening to Sir Ken Robinson- about value being placed on the mind? 

According to Robinson (2001), “(The) education system has become obsessed with particular forms of academic ability…many people leave education never realizing their intellectual capacities”. It could be argued that a focus on ‘the mind’ alone marginalizes many pupils and ignores vital senses and aspects of the physical body which are also essential to learning. Government strategies, such as All Our Futures, Building Schools for the Future and The Children’s Plan, highlight the on-going debate around relationship between physical knowledge, environment and learning. Although the moving body has “warranted relatively little attention in academia” (Thomas 2003), there remains an ongoing debate within sociology (Connell 2005) and physical education /dance (McFee 1994) about the role of the body in engagement with learning.' (Akinleye, 2011)

In order to clear my thoughts, I looked at literature around the body - 'The Body Social'  Symbolism, Self and Society, A . Synnott.

The first chapter is entitled 

'Body, Tomb, Temple, Machine and self' it quotes

'The Body is the Tomb of the soul' Plato

'Your body is the temple of the holy spirit'  Saint Paul

'The Human body may be considered as a machine' Descartes

'The body is what I immediately am...I am my body'  Sartre

So it is important I understand what I mean by the body because ' how the body is defined both physically and socially, vary widely from person to person, and have changed dramatically over time. ( A. Synnott, The Body Social, 1993)

Taking all this into consideration I feel I should not include physical body in my title as looking into how particular people, literature and myself describe knowledge gained from participation in a dance class, will probably cover areas of the body but not focus the inquiry around it. I am hoping this will prevent my inquiry from becoming too broad.

Changing Education Paradigms

Talk from Sir Ken Robinson with added animation, really cleaver. 

Link to YouTube video 

Pilot Focus Group

I chose to conduct my pilot focus group with three other friends who teach dance, ideally I would have completed a focus group with one of my dance classes but I did not have sufficient amount of time to conduct the focus group in the correct ethical manner and gain consent from all parents. The group of participants had similar experiences in terms of training and varied opinions and were at different levels in their teaching careers, so I believed it to be a good choice of diverse individuals.

Bell states personalities ‘also, influence, and in some cases actually take over, a group and make it difficult for less assertive members to speak.’ (Bell,2005,p.163)

This was the main problem I had with my focus group. Two of the participants were very strong minded and liked to voice their opinions, the other participant was slightly more reserved. I felt this left me with slightly misleading data- as one participant might have sided and agreed with something she may not have entirely agreed with and for this reason I found the focus group difficult to manage. I left the questions fairly open in the fact that I just introduced a topic and asked opinions on how they each viewed knowledge and what they feel they gain from participating in dance. I also had a problem listening to the recording as the stronger participants would often shout over each other- I think because I am a friend it felt quite normal to behave in an overly natural way and this also revealed difficulties as to not let the focus group become a friendly debate. I started to become too involved and voice my opinions. This could potentially have an effect on others opinions and in turn the truthfulness of my data.

Had I time to conduct  a focus group with my class, I would have most definitely insisted on students saying their names first before speaking and to raise a hand in order to speak to avoid the chaos my recording presented.  I do see focus groups as a useful inquiry tool, listening to varied opinions and arguments can aid a researcher in seeing things from other angles and this can lead to an avenue of discovery. Although the pilot focus group encountered many potential problems and so I deem this an effective inquiry tool to use during my research. Interviews will allow the slightly quieter participants to voice their true opinions avoiding the data being somewhat dishonest.

Pilot Survey

I decided to pilot a survey using survey monkey, I think the benefits of conducting a survey is the sheer amount of people you can reach, this allows for a range of views on a topic which is important when conducting research.

I decided to use Survey Monkey to consider how I would source the survey to the right applicants. The question I found difficult was where to go to publish a survey requiring students participation, taking into account correct moral conduct. Posting my survey on Facebook did not increase the response either. I think gaining consent from a school is the most productive way in conducting a survey as face to face has more of an impact.

I found wording the survey questions difficult in the attempt to make them clear they became wordy essays. I chose to have short questions and multiple choice answers. Stephanie made a comment on my blog about including an open question. We both agreed that this often throws you; personally I think surveys should be quick multiple choice and interviews should be conducted to have open discussions on a subject. Although I felt it was important to allow the participant to define the word as it affected the way in which they answered the next question. It allowed me to analyse the data of the two questions, to see if there were any comparisons in the way the word was defined and the next question. Ideally I want to avoid open questions but sometimes it is necessary when considering analysing the data. I like the idea that ‘attitudes can...be ascertained by presenting a list of statements and asking respondents to rate them in terms of agreement and disagreement’ (black 1999, p.227) If I conduct an interview using this method, I will follow up with interviews to investigate further providing density to my research.

I think you have to take into consideration what you want to find out when planning a survey, as they are unlike interviews and observations where you can have topics or vague ideas. Surveys require more preparation before and I assume less when analysing as it is clearly shown in the gathering of data. Stephanie made a good point about including a financial question in her survey; I completed the survey not having questioned giving away such personal information as I could do so anonymously. This is something to consider when conducting a survey, had it been an interview situation I would have felt uncomfortable in sharing this information.

I consider surveys a significant inquiry tool as you are able to reach a wider audience, offering statements will be an effective way in gaining attitudes without making the survey full of open questions, insuring correct preparation and being clear on what I what to discover from the questions will aid in surveys being an effective research tool for my inquiry. 

Pilot Observation

I chose to keep my observation relatively open, as I wanted to look at how my students participated in class and how they communicate between one another when devising their own work. I chose to be an active participate, as I did not have the time to observe a class, so also for convenience, which I guess is something I will need to consider when researching for my inquiry. I found it hard to maintain a positive position as a teacher, with so many things to consider during a class and to then have to split yourself into two is extremely difficult. Insuring you capture data and take notes is virtually impossible without disrupting the natural flow of a class. Reflecting back on the observation I now consider videoing the most efficient and precise way to record data with the least amount of disruption. Being an observer and a participate was  a conscious decision as I did not want the students to behave differently which I presumed may have have happened had I sat, observed and took notes, I think the balance is to keep it as near to a normal situation as possible in order to observe natural behaviour.

I asked the principle of the school if I could observe the class as well as teach. I explained it was just to investigate the usefulness of the inquiry tool in researching into my own inquiry. Reading the British Education Research Association guidelines has aided me in understanding the ethical issues involved in observing.

I wanted to look at the Kinesics, which is the science that describes bodily movement. Kinesics has given a name to something I just saw as the interpretation of bodily language. My inquiry will look at how people communicate and how their body engages in learning.  Even though I only managed to notate a few  things down about the observations I found it difficult to later start dividing behaviour and events as I had no comparison and for that reason alone I do not think just one observation is going to be beneficial when undergoing research for my inquiry. However I am concerned that if I observe for a week and then analyse the data and repeat this process, I will then be looking for a particular type of behaviour, so this is something I will need to consider.

I have also decided I want to look at different types of dancers so full time regular dance students and once a week students to see if they engage with learning dance differently.

My inquiry will involve both a quantitative and qualitative approach as I will be looking at how and why but also need to understand how much and when something occurs.

I think the most difficult thing about analysing observations is to remain objective about what you interpret something to be, instead of just seeing what you want it to be.

Inquirer as a participant observer

I believe the pros of being a participate observer is that you know how the community of practice works so you can look at areas of interest. It does however mean you can manipulate a situation and make it work or look how you want it to, so again it is not easy to remain objective.

As I have experienced it is difficult to find a balance between teacher and observer but although complicated with the right tools to notate the observations like video recording, you have a valuable position being actively involved in your own research. This type of research is less time consuming as it has little disruption to a normal day, however analysing the videos is where you find this tool time consuming, so time management again will be key. Overall observations are will be an effective and useful tool in aiding research into my inquiry, I will then follow up how I observe or view something, to interview a student and define how they interpret and understanding it.