Module 2 Skype Session with Adesola- 16.04.2016

Hello Everyone,

Today we had a skype session with Adesola about Part 6. We discussed about our inquiry plans and any questions that we had about it. We broadly discussed the structure of the inquiry plan. Adesola went on to describe that its like making a cake. For more information on this please refer to Zoe’s blog, she will be writing about the cake analogy for the inquiry plan.

For myself I will be writing about a particular section that we discussed quite thoroughly today. This section is- Approach to analysis. When we first started to talk about this section, I really wasn’t sure what it really meant, but as Adesola gave us examples, it became a lot clearer what this section is about.

Adesola described this section as ‘The heart of the essay’ because this is the part where you are mixing all the information relevant to the inquiry -

1.       Your inquiry

2.       Your previous experience

3.       The data that you will collect

This section is about showing how you will process the information, of how you approach and will understand the data you eventually gain, and how you will justify it.

We also discussed that this section might be the best section to write first so that you can plan out your avenues of inquiry, source the information relevant and how you will deal with it. Adesola suggested doing this first, as then you will have a solid outline of your inquiry process and then will be able to look back at the other parts for the inquiry plan and confirm they are all on the right track.

Thanks for reading.

Cassie Vercoe

Task 5a- Ethics

Hello Everyone,

After reading reader 5, I have come to the conclusion that ethics and a person’s moral values are similar. This dawned on me after completing one of the activities from reader 5.

The activity was to list the Virtues/Moral of yourself and then what is expected in your workplace. This is what I came up with!

Personal	Professional
Kindness	Commitment
Respect	Diligence
Patience	Discipline
Ambition	Excellence
Benevolence	Honesty
Caring	Persistence
Creativity	Respect
Empathy	Reliability
Reliability	Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness	Empathy
Honesty	Creativity
Commitment	Caring
	Kindness

As you can see above the adjectives highlighted in yellow are the ones that I have deemed for my virtues/morals personally and for the ones at work.

When thinking about the type of ethics that my work establishment hold, I think these would be a part of them. As I work in a school I think the ethics my work place holds, is both for yourself but also for the wellbeing of its pupils and the staff body.

1.       Confidentiality

2.       Create a caring and supportive learning environment for children

3.       Honesty

4.       Safeguarding

I am sure there are a lot more but these are the ones that come into my mind straight away.

Thanks for reading.

Cassie V.

Brainstorm

Hello Everyone,

I have been talking to my best friend Linda who is also doing the course and we were discussing how we were both getting along with Module 2 and how we both find that we are uncertain of where we are on the course in regards to how much we should have done by now. We discussed our topics further to each other, they are quite different however, I think we both found minor interlinks and helped each other out. After the talk with Linda, I brought up the topic with my dad to discuss how I was feeling a little lost and unsure of where I am on the course. It suddenly hit me as we were discussing one of my branch inquiries (Refer to earlier blog post- Module 2 Skype Session). The branch inquiry I am referring to is looking at different performing arts curriculum from different countries. As I work in an International school, my interest was sparked to find out if the curriculum on the performing arts was different in different country curriculums. While discussing this research I realised something.

The course – Bachelor of Arts for Professional Practise – Distance learning curriculum, is incredibly different to the type of curriculum I had in Primary and Secondary school! For the first 13 years of my schooling there was always a structure of

1.       Read this.

2.       Do Assignment

3.       Read this.

4.       Do Assignment

Etc.

I find that the professional practise course especially now, while looking into our own inquiries. Gives us the freedom to choose without a guideline of what to read and how to carry out our research, it can be a little daunting! I don’t think it’s a bad thing, because I love being able to research what I am interested in but I think it’s also made me a little more hesitant, as there is no list of what to research and how. Which looking back on it I always had when I was in primary and secondary school! The readers for each section of the module 2 are really useful as I have been looking back on them and each time I keep finding something new that helps me direct my research. But with no set research topic, you must decide what you like, you have the freedom to choose what you want! You have to have the confidence and the certainty to believe in what you research. Is anyone else finding it challenging?

Adding onto the idea of a set curriculum. A few weeks ago, I was talking to my colleague about the different types of curriculum/learning structure and she mentioned to me a type of curriculum that allows the children to decide what they want to learn about for that year. For example- When we were teaching how to halve something we used images of pizzas. We used pizzas because our overall topic for that period was ‘Food’, but the children didn’t choose it, the topic of ‘Food’ is in the set curriculum. The curriculum my friend was talking about was the ‘Montessori Theory’ here is the link if you would like to read a bit more about it - http://www.montessori.org.uk/what_is_montessori/the_philosophy

Through reading and researching through different curriculums it has given me more information for my branch inquiry.

 It does make me wonder that if I am finding the prospect of having a lot of freedom in my research daunting is because my prior research projects have always been set out clearly for me? Let me know what you think on this topic, I would love to hear if you have the same or different opinion on it.

Thanks for reading,

Cassie V.