Feedback and Proceeding Forward

Hi, I hope everybody is well and has had a good summer.

I would like to share my feedback and thoughts after completing Module Two last term. Firstly, my inquiry is based on my teaching of student teachers participating on a 1-year pedagogy course here in Norway.

My feedback was extremely helpful and has led me to reflect further. I seem to forget at times that this course is about my practice and I need to keep that in the forefront continuing into Module Three. I have experienced that I get involved in the “academics” of the course (e.g. composing a literature list, how to write a proposal plan), that I forget the whole reason why I am enrolled on the course! I am still a bit reluctant to discover why I have the perspectives I have, but I know that to proceed, I need to question myself. I have never previously reflected on why I have the views I do. Are they really my views or was a seed planted and I’ve never had the need to think about them or reconsider them?

Receiving feedback about my literature review had me contemplating about what have I learnt in the past 30 something years I’ve been teaching.  Without a doubt, my practice has been traditional (in relationship to the culture I live and work in), and I have been, to a certain degree blind to developments within the dance world. I have been recommended to extend my reading as I tend to separate body and mind in learning. The theory of Dualism was something new to me and I have been advised to look into literature (i.e. Dewey) that bridges the dualist tradition. I too, need to expand my knowledge about teaching and learning that are not so obvious to me. Claxton and Atkinsons’ book The Intuitive Practitioner: On the Value of Not Always Knowing What One Is Doing has been recommended.

It was pointed out that I need to employ in a stronger engagement with the Skype discussions and blogs and this is a valid point. I find these modes of learning quite challenging. I do understand the value of these learning methods, and I am determined to be an active participant in the coming months. Overcoming certain obstacles in the Skype talks, (that may give the impression I am more of a listener than a contributor), is an element that I wish to improve.

Samantha