Theory and Frameworks

Wednesday Oct 13th  

 Topic: Critical Thinking

For me, thinking critically is listening or reading a concept of XYZ and thinking about my interpretation of it. There are many ways to digest any information we receive everyday - in a dance environment or in life. Often we face conflict because we understand one thing differently to another. Receiving information, processing it and having my own understanding of what I've just seen/read or heard will allow me to think further. Once I've developed my own understanding around it, I'd be able to apply other theories or concepts to it. I'll be able to welcome different perspectives by others who's been exposed to the same. 

This can lead to discussions, debates and/or mutual agreements and collaborations. But first, one must be ready to receive information, process and develop their own understanding of it. 

In dance, I learn about numerous things all the time. Everyone's understanding of my teaching is different. Their speed in which they process what I teach differ from one person to another. I constantly come up with different methods to ensure I am able to cater to different abilities of students. 

And in life, just the same. I walk into rooms with different individuals who are from numerous backgrounds and expertise. 

We never stop learning. 

Some reading from this week: 

Developing critical thinking since the educational revolution gave rise to flourishing movements toward embedding critical thinking (CT henceforth) stimulating classroom activities in educational settings. Nevertheless the process faced with complications such as teachability potentiality, lack of practical frameworks concerning actualization of CT tasks, and transferability obstacles, as well as lack of a homogeneous model of conceptualization of CT among educators. The present study made an effort to represent a comprehensive model of CT for educators drawn on the contemporary literaturein order to indicate a uniform delineation of the construct and to offer a comprehensive model of CT for the intention of making boosting learners’ capability of CT possible.

Full Article: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1076013.pdf

Until Next Time, 

Dils The Kandyan Dancer!

 

Research Terms

Wednesday Oct 2nd  - Module 3 Focus

 Topic: What are you doing? 

It is now Week 3 and according to my Gant Chart I created in Module 2, I should have made a start on: 

·     Literature research on Ritualistic Dances of Sri Lanka

·     Document research on dance diaspora 

·     Completed gathering Sinhala translated literature 

·     3rd week into making notes of key information used in Lit Review

·     3rd week into making notes of existing document research on dance identities being compared across diasporas 

NB: I am conducting my research on different practises of Kandyan dance beyond Sri Lanka by reaching out to dance practitioners through open-ended-questionnaire through the social media networking platform I created @KandyanDancers.

See below for reference...

Following on from feedback from Module 2, I've made a start on my data gathering and so I've been receiving feedback from research participants. I've also been in contact with the @KandyanDancers online community in order to maximise participant options from different backgrounds/ countries. 

     I've purchased 3 books for my literature review and completed reading 1/3 during my commutes and free times this term. There's a lot of information I've gathered that I plan on including in the lit review from this - some ritualistic history related to Kandyan dance that I didn't even know about! 

     In terms of gathering data, I've been reading into some of the responses and it's been interesting to read the journeys of Kandyan dance practitioners outside Sri Lanka (so far there's been 2 responses). I realise I need to expect the unexpected, having sent out an open-ended questionnaire to participants when receiving their responses. This could potentially lead to me finding out things that I didn't even know would be useful to me.

     This made me want to look into having to categorise information gathered from respondents and how - this was a thought I've exercised before but reading two responses already gave me an idea on how this might be best when it comes to analysis.

     If anyone feels like this might be useful to them at this stage in Module 3, have a read from '5 tips to get you started' and really does help getting things started! 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/open-response-question-types/ 

     Also watched this video to give myself a quick recap of what it is I'm actually doing...Reckon these moments should definitely be included in my reflective essay! 

Until Next Time, 

Dils The Kandyan Dancer!