Further thoughts.
I found the reflective journal illuminating after a period of confusion. My learning curve is profoundly steep. I was writing down anything and everything and at times was going off track and had to pull myself back in line. I have discussed reflection with some of the teaching staff at the school to gain insight as to how they would write plus reading fellow learners blogs from previous year and examples of reflective writing from the web. I realised that I have been stuck in a 'culturally conditioned' climate and I require re-calibration. I am a practical person and find theory difficult to absorb but have found analogies very helpful. I require more research and reading of theories before I can discover new theories of my own. I never thought of critically analysing myself or my work. I am experiencing an 'Evolutionary Awakening' in more ways than one because I closed the door to my dance teaching profession years ago.
I found that Gibbs model of Reflective Cycle a useful and preferred guide. It's a structured template and gives clear cues.
The Reflective Cycle
The Reflective Cycle
The Reflective Cycle
Moon mentions reflection as a ‘melting pot’ of ideas, feelings, information, etc., this is exactly as I see it. Easy to put in and off load, but challenging to analyse, evaluate and conclude. Moon also mentions ‘cognative housekeeping’. I understand this as I attended an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programme) introductory course on becoming a practitioner. NLP is about re-programming your current cognitive (brain) behaviour. This is similar to muscle programming for dance or physical moves. This tool enables you to take new steps to better any bad habit/pattern or behaviour. A useful tool for teaching Dance as a Therapy.
