As a new student who has just stepped into the world of studying their professional practice, I have many questions involving my new course and my personal learning. This week I have been preparing my study by reading the Module Handbook, reading other students' and practitioners' blogs and I have started to work my way though the recommended reading list. Some of my questions have been answered throughout the week, however many of them have lead to more questions. I have also began to question myself professionally and personally. But I have been told to never stop questioning as this will encourage learning and personal growth. Bruce Lee had an excellent way of making sense of this;
"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."
After attending my first group discussion with my fellow BAPP learners, our conversations mainly surrounded questioning. I enjoyed listening to other students' thoughts about this topic. Being a dancer, I have always strived to know the exact choreography - if I ever had a question, then it would be answered and I could apply it to my performance. As I am embarking on this new journey, I am beginning to realise that that ‘asking questions’ and ‘questioning’ are two very diverse matters and questioning can open a door to a new assortment of questions.
This leads me to reflection. As I was navigating my way through the Module handbook, I came across the following terms:
- Reflection-in-action
- Reflection-on-action
Relating these to my own practice helped me develop my perception of these terms. For instance, whilst I was a production dancer on cruise ships, I engaged in a technical rehearsal before every show so that we could reflect on problems that occurred and solve them to ensure the actual performance was as good as it could be. This is reflection-on-action (reflecting after something happens). Whereas reflection-in-action requires you to think on your feet and possibly improvise - for instance when you are in the middle of a performance and you notice that your dance partner didn’t make their quick change, you may have to adapt the choreography in the moment to fool the audience into thinking that it was supposed to happen. When I thought of it like this, I started questioning whether reflection-in-action is a skill and requires practice.
I bounced this idea to my current job (teaching assistant) and I thought about how the children in my class benefit from reflection-on-action as we speak through problems with them and aim to resolve issues for the future, but I struggled to think of examples of when the children have had to think spontaneously. But then I found a fascinating segment in a book that I am reading 'The Reflective Practitioner'. An experiment was conducted where children were asked to balance un-even blocks on a metal bar. It cleverly demonstrated and helped me understand children's' process of delivery in which they pause to think/reflect before trying again. This suggests to me that maybe we do learn 'reflection-in-action' though trail and error?
Someone in my discussion group suggested to start a reflective journal, which is something that I look forward to pursing throughout my learning. Our supervisor Helen also reminded us that we are fortunate to have a beautiful resource in each other, so I feel that the perfect way to end this blog is with a question to myself - but I would love to hear how others feel about this too; Will questioning lead to reflection?
References
Book
- Donald A Schön, 1983. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action. Published 2016. Routledge. Abingdon Oxon. Basic Books.
Quote
- Bruce Lee.
Hi Alice, I really enjoyed reading your blog. Reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action are really interesting points to think about. I think questioning can lead to reflection of you are asking the right questions to yourself. I have done a post about my thoughts from the skype group here https://alysmay.blogspot.com/2020/09/all-module-skype-1-keep-questioning.html
ReplyDeleteplease feel free to have a look. Alys x
Hi Alys, thank you for your comment. You have an excellent point about asking the right questions. I also found your blog very insightful - I think we both agree on how important it is to keep questioning and reflecting. x
DeleteHi Alice, I love reading your blog as you write so well and because I relate so much to you both as a dancer and in the way we think! I love how you have distinguished 'asking questions' from 'questioning' - to expand on what you said, I think of it as asking questions is looking for an answer to close the door on a topic, whereas questioning tries to open more and more doors and explore all around.
ReplyDeleteI think that questioning inevitably leads to reflection as you begin to discover new things, are exposed to different ideas, and you come across different points of interest that resonate with you. We are all influenced by the people and the methods that teach us initially - we ask them questions and they give us answers - but when we start questioning for ourselves we begin to reflect on these primary sources and on ourselves.
I think questioning and reflection work hand in hand as we explore new things, reflect on what we find, question more, reflect again, etc.
I'd love to look more into this! Roanne x
Hi Roanne, thank you for your comment. I also feel that I can relate to you, it's great that we can find these connections during this journey. I love how you have expanded on my idea of questioning and using the analogy of the door is very helpful. I have realised how important that we try keep this door open during our learning. And as for reflection, like you have said, we are introduced to new things everyday, even when they are un-expected. Maybe these things are there to challenge our questions? As long as we keep questioning and reflecting, then we're on the right road to learning! x
DeleteI loved reading your blog and your example of a tech run on the ships is the most perfect example! What company do you work for normally ? :) Also I need to get onto reading this book as its seems like its given you lots of inspiration!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, thank you for your comment. My last couple of contracts were with Costa. I felt like they helped me grew as a performer and I loved the opportunities that were given to me. What about you? Yes, the book is very helpful in understanding reflection, however there are moments I feel are slightly off topic with our learning (as performers), but it is also great to read and learn about other practices' as I feel it ultimately will help us :) x
DeleteThat's amazing!! I absolutely adore cruising and my fiance is a dancer too :) we work for Royal Caribbean at the moment but have worked for Princess for many years too :)
ReplyDeleteYes I totally agree there!! That's going to be my job today to start reading!!
That is so lovely! I agree, cruising has been the best experience for me to grow as well as discovering the world! And how amazing that you got to share your adventures with your fiance. Hope the reading went well! x
DeleteGreat post Alice. Really inspired me for my next blog post. Interesting comparison about tech rehearsals being a sort of reflection. I never thought of it that way before.
ReplyDeleteThank you Harry. Little did we know that those 'Cinemagique' Tech Runs would be so beneficial to our learning right now! I also loved your recent blog. Learning and reflection are really intriguing me at the moment and am excited to learn more!
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