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Sunday Open Discussion, My Reflection Points

My interpretation and key points/moments for reflection...

Reflection on how we as teachers are transactional with our lessons made me reflect on Kolb's cycle (Moon, pg 114). That idea that learning is cyclical in a sense:

My dance pedagogical practice embraces methodologies of learning passed on from my own mentors. Through our interpretation and embodiment of the information becomes knowledge, which we then, as teachers, observing our current situation and the bodies in front of us in the classroom, adapt these methodologies using our gained experiences along with new research and developed teaching modalities and attempt to pass this on to our students in a way that is usable and relatable to them. 

Depending on the student's frame of mind and emotional state, they will take, receive, or discard what we pass on. Depending on their lens, the same way we as learning bodies did, perhaps continue the cycle? Somehow all interconnected.

Each of our experiences shape the way we use or inhabit/embody that knowledge and how it becomes a part of our/my own teaching practice.

Reflect on my progression as a teacher and how the pieces of information, learning, and knowledge interact with my emotional and mental state in a given period and apply these three concepts as I develop as a dance teacher and dance educator.

Comments

  1. Ben WarbisFebruary 24, 2021 at 3:36 PM

    Hi Sheahan,

    I agree with your comment above about turning experiences into a form which can be passed on. This isn't always easy, but I relish trying! ..making things relatable hardly ever feels the same way twice..

    I find your comment about the cycle of our lenses interesting too. Was I that way when I was a 'student'? Am I still like that now when in the role of the learner? Do/did I also dispose of a lot depending on my emotional state? It's easy to be fixated on the student taking everything with them, but we know they won't and, indeed, they shouldn't. I think it's exciting that not everybody listens all of the time - and I think you agree?

    Ben x

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  2. Lorraine BennettFebruary 28, 2021 at 2:49 AM

    Thank you Sheahan, I enjoyed reading on your reflections. I appreciate the understanding and acceptance of people entering Kolb’s cycle at any point.

    Regarding methodologies of our own educators, I have difficulty with moving forward with past knowledge as the original intent was often flawed, unachievable or affected. This, for classical ballet, created an ‘impossibility’ and I seem to have spent my teaching life turning the impossible into possible. Imparting a practical and relatable understanding onto students has, I hope, allowed my students’ lenses to quantify the task at hand, rather than search for an idea rather than a reality.

    But perhaps that was my educator's original intention, and I was simply not able to connect with the abstract ideas at the time, nor perhaps ever. Perhaps my teaching style is actually a disservice to my students. Thank you for opening my mind to this point.

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