Journal Writing experience Task 2b and Reflective Theory Task 2c

Journal writing experience  Task 2b and  Reflective Theory Task 2c

I have combined Tasks 2b and 2c as I felt they were linked.  I’m not comfortable with writing the Reflective Theory task and post this to a public Wiki.  I’ve learnt that I’m terrified of the thought of academic writing.

For six weeks I have been teaching the ‘Jive’ dance to two year six classes, (ages ten and eleven years) I  have been given ‘carte blanche’ at this school as to what topic or style of dance I choose to teach and have written my own lesson plans for the term.  I generally opt to enhance the children’s topic and work cross curricular. Their topic was World War II and the ‘Jive’ dance was the obvious choice along with recognised music of the Glenn Miller Band.

I introduced the learning objective and success criteria and explained clearly what they are working towards plus I demonstrated the dance. 

My objective was for the children to learn the dance in couples and to experience social dancing in a formal manner.  I was aware that there would be some objection from the boys and girls dancing together but I couldn’t understand why there were so many objections..

I asked the children to partner up in couples and I didn’t expect that only 10% were happy to do this.  Some were repulsed at the thought of holding hands with one another.  I also realised that there could have been cultural reasons for this behaviour.

Their behaviour changed, they were becoming noisy, loud, boisterous and unruly.

I become concerned and unsure of my management behaviour ability as well as feeling anxious at the thought of  loosing control of 30 children in a room the size of a classroom. 

I set myself to find the solutions to resolve these issues.

 At that time I had read about Gibbs model for reflection and also Kolb’s learning cycle and learnt that I had used a mix of both but models instinctively.  I realised I became unaware at what point and what stages they came into play or merged with one another.  This was a complex mix. Is this Multiple Intelligences working?  But through the reflective model and learning cycle I eliminated the fact that the size of the class and the number of students were not a contributing factor of their disruptive behaviour.  Half my dance classes in a week are conducted in the school hall and half are in a Cabin (classroom size) and it is only one class out of the ten that I teach that is so disruptive.  This class happen to be held in the Cabin. So why wasn’t my reflection and learning cycle theory working with this class?  This was baffling me.  With this particular class, the theories alone wasn't working for me. Did it mean that I hadn't grasped the theories therefore unable to correct the practise's?

Further research showed me that according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive maturity,   it was to do with the ability to think, for this particular classes age.  I concluded that this class had a large percentage of socially immature children.  I started talking talk to them about formal dancing and in particular ballroom dancing with children of the same age.  Intuitively I asked for a couple to volunteer to demonstrate the Jive dance with one another.  There were a few giggles and jeers to start with but seeing the demonstration, the children began to accept that it was OK to dance with one another.  This was such a break through! I was feeling elated that by a number of trials around the Gibbs cycle of reflection plus an understanding of Piaget's theory
I recognised what wasn't working and why.

Piaget’s theory states that from age 11 years upwards children become aware that they don’t  just have a sense of self, they have become aware that to move forward and get what they want, they have to accept and recognise other people’s needs.  This is known as ‘formal operations’ stage

The results showed a conclusive break through in the children’s understanding of formality and etiquette of social dance.  I went onto introduce Kolb's learning cycle to the class unbeknown to them.

At the same time, I divide the children into smaller groups to perform their steps, the children watching were asked to, analyse and critique the lesson. I also set a written task for the children not taking part in the class to write down what they observed about the children learning to dance in the class as well as taking notes on the class content and objectives.

I concluded from the written tasks and observations how much the children were enjoying the experience, they were smiling, were happy, they had learnt to communicate with one another about dance steps, they were dancing in time with the music.  I read these observations to the class. This encouraged the children to remain on task, engaged, very enthusiastic and less inhibited, and more dancing in couples.

I also learnt that each and every event and the facts available to you changes your judgement and perspective on how to apply the theories to gain resolve and solutions.

I look forward to your comments