Task 2c Reflective theory

I've added to and reposted the blog from just after campus session 2 as it is highly relevant for task 2c:

Looking at the first part of reader 2 we're seeing a lot of talk of 'Turning experience into learning' and the key tool put forward to do this is 'Reflection'. Reflections main 3 practices, is -comparing, -extending, and -new learning.

The suggestion is that learning a new term is different to learning a new idea. Learning a term when you do not know the meaning is pointless. However learning the term and the meaning, is equally as pointless unless you have an understanding of the words used for the definition. To get the 'idea' you need to have a full understanding and experience with the knowledge or lack there of.

For example, Graham McFee explains 'I don't know what bachelors are.If I am not to just take your word for it, I have to check up on whatever you tell me. For you might be mistaken and tell me that bachelors are married men. To know that you are wrong, I must know what bachelors are... One must understand what is being defined in order that one can judge for oneself the accuracy...the definition itself must be understood -- I must know what the words 'unmarried' and 'married' mean, if I am to understand what is being said...' (McFee, 1992: 18)

Using McFees example of the bachelor: It is through the experience of not knowing what a bachelor is that we realise that we have a hole in our knowledge. We have to combine our pre-existing ideas with the new terms to understand andd learn a new idea.

During my time in college, my peers and I had it suggested to us that we would learn far more in our first year of working professionally, than we could ever learn in college itself. Worrying, at first glance, but what they were suggesting is exactly what we are looking at now. That, through experiencing things and then reflecting on them we discover new ideas and learn new things.

'active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends', (Dewey 1933).

What????!!!

Basically, Dewey talked about experience as a tool for learning and explains that there are different levels of experience. Dewey said that the educational process is ‘a continual reorganization, reconstruction and transformation of experience’ (Dewey 1916). As in, to get the most from education you must be fully engaged and aware of the experience. To learn from an experience, you must realise that you are having one!

 For example, if I do a brilliant tripple pirouette without thinking about it, we would call it a 'fluke', because I have done the pirouette on a whim, and wasn't aware that I was about to have an 'experience'. I couldn't do the same thing again. I have not learnt how to do a tripple pirouette flawlessly, it was luck. I have not learnt from the experience. If I tried to assess and analyse what I had just done, I wouldn't get very far because I hadn't put any thought into it. It was sheerly surface value. (It would go under 'see' if we put it on the graffiti wall)

If, I realising the hole in my knowledge, I went back and tried again, 'noticing' what I'm doing and 'thinking' about my technique and actions, and then reflected on the outcome, employing a conscious 'trial and error' technique, each time I would be learning from the experience.

"Kurt Lewin divided 'experience' into a circle of idea, fact finding planning (research) action, evaluation, planning, action",Kurt Lewin, Bapp (Arts) Reader 2, The reflective Practitioner WBS 3730

The following is a diagram of 'A learning cycle' put together by David Kolb (with Roger Fry)

I volunteered to write a blog about Kolb's learning cycle so I will just pop it in here to explain it a bit further. Over the years, my studies in communication showed me that theorists put things in cycles when there is no clear beginning or end, or rather when they occasional adapt. Cycles allow them to show that the theory is constant and never ending.

Different people enter the cycle at different points. The point at which you enter the cycle is usually referred to as your learning style.

I chose to see where I entered the cycle by looking at the newest skills I've learnt. When I started this course I had noooooo idea what I was doing and that stressed me out. In reflection, I found that I entered the cycle at 'abstract conseptualisation'. I got off to a slow-ish start on the course because I dont function properly when I'm confused. I needed to understand and work out exactly what I needed to do and how I was going to enable msyelf to do it before I could start. I had to 'get my head around it'. I then found my self moving onto the the 'active experimentation' where I took what I had learnt (how to start a blog and upload things onto internet platforms) and tried it out. I did make mistakes, and I had to try again. For exaple organising the layout of my blog so It was reflective of myself as a professional, clear and easy to navigate and uploading photos and creating a slide show. I after a few trial and errors I now have 'concrete experience' with creating a blog, uploading photos and using these platforms (minor experience as it may be) and I am now able to use 'reflective observation' to review what I have done and compare it fairly to others' work. The cycle helped me to see clearly what I have learnt from it so I will be able to keep building on the knowledge and skills learnt. I'm quite glad that I entered the course with such little knowledge of Web 2.0 and enter that I entered the cycle where I did because I can see a much bigger learning curve.

Now that I have some concrete experience with using the tools, I am able to use reflective observation much more, to ensure that I am on track and to keep in touch with new ideas and thoughts from others on the course before I make any decisions and continue to move through the cycle. So here I can see that through experience I am entering the cycle at different points in different circumstances.

Honey and Mumford (Honey, 1982) and (Honey and Mumford, 1983) expand and adapt Kolbs idea into the 'Four Stages': Having an experience, reviewing an ecperience, concluding from the experience, planning the next steps.

Howard Gardner :

Gardner suggests that people can be intelligent in a number of ways : spatial, verbal inguistic, Logical- mathematical, Bodily- Kinetic, Musical, Interpersonal (understanding people and relationships), Intrapersonal (relates to ones emotional life as a means to understand onself and others) and naturalistic (relatees to nature and the natural world to find meaning).

I think straight away we can all slot ourselves in (at face value) to one of these, but when I really started to think about it, I found that though I fit strongly into Inter and intrapersonal I also fit into a few others aswell. Perhaps rather than looking at the list and finding an intelligence we have strongest, I suggest we use it to see that maybe there is just one that perhaps we are not so strong at. Make the glass half full rather than half empty. I know I am musical and spacial due to my background in dance and music, and though I think in an extremely logical way, I have never quite got my head around maths much past GCSE. In reflection, I have always been good at giving advice to people with problems in there life whether it be inter or intrapersonal for them and it is through that, I am able to see I have intelligence in that area. I'd just never categorised it before.

Gardner also discusses VAC: Visual, auditory and Kinaesthetic learners and later in 2005 'Multiple lenses' (multiple ways of looking at things). (Gardner 2005) He suggests that 'multiple lenses' are a way of looking through a key hole at different ways of learning and being a learner. It allows us to pin point our own and others strengths and weaknesses by breaking it down into these categories, though obviously there will be overlapping areas. Gardner's main objective is to help us understand about how we learn.

My relationship with reflective practice has always been strong, it’s just not always been conscious. Throughout my education at Italia Conti, at the end of each term we had to fill in evaluation forms, and of course being vocational students, we hated this. We just did not see the point in writing down what we’d gained from the term! Of course now it’s all clicked into place. Continual evaluation of the skills we were learning through the forms and the journal we had to keep throughout first and second year enabled me to reflect on the individual days experience and pick out key points or skills that had helped me to learn something new whether that be about myself or about the profession. I used my college journal to note when I was struggling with something in a class, and try to work out why that was, and what I could do to combat it. I considered different teaching styles as inevitably some teachers at the college did not work as well for me as others and I also found ways in which I could learn more from those that did work well for me. This was all through using reflection as a tool and now I realise just how useful that reflection was at the time. By Dewey’s standards the reflection must be conscious, but that is not to say that it has to be instant. I was lucky enough to have the sort of educational background which enabled me to realise the purpose of the journals and the evaluation forms at the time, however I have spoken to peers who now (having graduated and joined a world in which you must constantly be evaluating yourself) have realised why they were being made to do all that written work and the relevance of it. Their learning process was slow in reaction but occurred none the less due to their reflection on the completion of the 3 year course and all it entailed.

From this I suggest that using reflection as a tool for learning does not always have to be instant, it may come with further reflection upon the original reflection itself rather than the actual experience.

Another tool for reflection that I have noticed within the profession is note taking. Since I began auditioning whether it was for performing arts colleges or for jobs such as cruises or adverts, I’ve noticed that the audition panel use note taking to evaluate the candidates and keep a record of who and what they are seeing before them. On popular TV reality shows such as ‘Britain’s next top model’ and ‘X factor’, they take photos of each candidate and later use their notes and the photos to reflect on what each candidate did and could bring to the contest. I have also seen in auditions, candidates coming out who have been asked to change something and return whether it be the next day or in a couple of hours. This relates strongly to Dewey’s theory as these candidates need to have been fully aware of the experience that they were having at the time so that they can go away evaluate it and change the necessary in order to change what was asked of them. In this instance they must use Kolb’s learning cycle very rapidly in and enter probably at ‘Concrete experience’ in order to go on and review, conclude and try again  in not a lot of time. Kolb's learning cycle is particularly useful in the performing arts profession as we, as perfomers, must be constantly evaluating ourselves and are actions in order to improve. Espeially as it is a career that is becoming more and more accessible to different people and the jobs are becoming fewer and fewer. It is the case that every single audition I attend must either be successful or part of the learning process, if it is neither of the two then really it was a waste of time.  Some times I find myself going to smaller less important auditions just in 'active experimentation' preperation for a more important and relevant audition.