After two campus sessions, lot of lists,"researching" and little typing..+Professional Artefact clarification

Trent Park, Mansion, Posh room... 5th October 2011.
It was great to find a room full of people with the same worried looks on their face...
We did a few group exercises discussing our inquiry title, aims/objectives,ethical issues,our literature and data collecting tools. Vocally expressing the project helped many of us clarify issues that we were subconsciously ignoring..
Paula Nottingham re-inforced the importance of clearly planning out what, how and when we were going to complete the work on our inquiry in time spam we have.
I left the campus session feeling ready to finish my introduction as I had a better understanding on the consistency of our critical reviews.
In the two weeks I had before the next session I..

• Printed out a calender and worked out exactly when I was going to do what.. with lots of colours to keep me entertained!
• Booked and carried out all of my interviews with a variety of participants.
• Read my literature and wrote down lots of reviewing notations...

Trent park,Mansion, Cold room...19th October 2011
Feeling a little bit more on top of things but still full of queries..
We sat with Adesola in a circle to discuss the 'Professional Artefact' Part of our final dissertation. Here are some points I made during the seminar.

• It's about finding the best way to explain what we found out.
• An embodiment of our questions, follow the thread to NATURAL CONCLUSION.
• It's not an add on its part of the whole process
• There are different types of formats to present findings. Like,documents in the style of eg. Doing if  your inquiry was about young education you could present your findings in a children's picture book.

Where as when spoke about the word formatted critical review.. it is the reportative form.

• It combines our experience with wisdom presenting cohesive arguments, critical thinking, comparing opinions and authorities.

What Next??!?!?

One of my main discussions with my advisor was how I couldn't really see the difference between the two segments of my critical review(evaluation of process and analysis of findings) it sounds obvious but! I was finding it hard to not write about my finding when evaluating my interviews etc. It turns out I had the wrong meaning of the word findings, the findings aren't just the data collected e.g my interviewees outcomes or literature reviews, because I found gaps in the knowledge from both sources. My analysis is why the gaps have occurred and how I can fill them.

Therefore before worrying about typing out my evaluation of my inquiry process I need to compare and contrast my findings in detail and take a critical approach to be clear of what I have discovered and learnt from the process.

Here I go.....

Hope this post has helped some people that couldn't make the campus sessions!?x

Hair up, Jumper on and FOCUS!

After what only felt like a couple of weeks that was infact over 3 months break from blog writing and focused study, I finally decided it was time to read the final Module Reader and Handbook. This was a success and easier than anticipated as it instantly inspired me to carry out the exciting challenge of writing more words than ever accomplished by me before, on a topic that genuinely interests me and will benefit not only me but hopefully many others in my current workplace and forever growing and excelling Professional Practice!
The reader has reminded me the importance of the modules we have already studied and how I can apply all that I've learnt so far to make it a success. I have kept up my journal over summer to ensure I remained a reflective practitioner and to enhance my thought process and planning for this module.
The first thing on my pre-dissertation to do list was to read through my Inquiry plan with a tooth pick or a pack of highlighters and clarify,pick out exactly what the aim is, how I am going to get it all done in the time we have also what I need to take into account and adjust. This reminded me of how much work I've given myself and how litlle time I have.
Another tickbox was to review on my Inquiry Plan feedback, this helped me focus on things to improve on for example having a more clear plan on my inquiry tool of interviews and their structure. Will semi structured interviews with a question guideline to stick to be too time consuming? How important is it for me to gather qualitative data? These are only a couple of the queries I need to solve before carrying out my research.
Over the summer I have reflected on how I am going to present my findings. In my plan I mention my predetermined timeline that I will constantly scrutinise, update and develop. Although I aim to fill the gaps of the timelines that have already been produced by clarifying, defining and integrating cultural, historical and musical basis I wish to develop this further by maybe making an audio timeline, with narration and music clips as I feel the clearest way to define and depict the musical differences is to hear them.. This is just an idea that has comeup in my journal over summer that I will see how possible it will be carry out!?

Critical Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio

Critical Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio

What do you need to know to be a professional practitioner? This is a question I was asked in the first lecture of Module 2(3835) this seemed an easy, self explanatory sort of question to ask, but 12 weeks down the line I’m still constantly adding to my originally seemingly small, narrow minded list. “It’s about finding our speciality within our sphere of Profession. I now realise I have much more to learn about the meaning of Knowledge by itself as well as how I need to look at my own knowledge and categorize it in more detail”  This is a snippet from my blogpost reviewing the campus session. Through reflection I realised my knowledge is Tran disciplinary because I carry the knowledge I’ve gained from my musical theatre training across to my solo Jazz singing therefore I am using specific knowledge for personal experiences.

To clarify and condense the reader I put Scholarly Research into simple steps, guidelines. This is one of the technical research structures I will be using in my Inquiry so it’ll prove useful. Throughout the first part of the module we discussed big questions and the purpose of our inquiry topic. Judging from reoccurring traits in my reflective poems my interests were veering to such questions as-How much and when do I listen to music? What effect does it have on my mood?

For the first task of the module I thought up some sub-questions but realised that my original ones could be answered already, which is uninspiring. Therefore I wanted to broaden from just the ‘I’ questions to a larger scale, as singing effects so many more people than just me, this led to my new Inquiry proposal of Why is singing such an important use of communication? On that note I set up my facebook thread to get my S.I.Gs started which has worked as a great way to communicate regularly with course associates. This resulted in ideas and helpful resources being developed. I’ve reviewed these in one of my Blog posts back in February.

Our Introduction to professional ethics at this campus session really inspired me to dig my teeth into the course reader, I can now define the difference between personal values and virtues which helps me when analysing ethical issues that occur in my professional practice. I put together a code of conduct, this ethical stance clarified the moral implications that were naturally in place within my professional environment.

After discovering that every practice has an ethical dimension I decided to find a relative to my profession I looked into specific moral dilemmas we encounter in music today I proposed normative questions to analyse the situation and looked at moral axiology using the applied and comparative ethics to analyse the different perspectives. Throughout this module I have kept track of my references and recently experimented with sharing these on a great bookmark and tagging site delicious.

To practice data collecting tools I composed a pilot survey and Interview. After deciding that singing as a communication was still too broad of a topic to base my inquiry on I realised that I was heavily interested in the effect that music has on both the singer and listeners, therefore I would focus on; does singing affect your health and wellbeing? I gained both qualitative and quantitative information from a variety of people as I used a representative sample of participants allowing me to analyse a reliable amount of data.

During this process I realised there were far too many sub topics and questions I wanted to answer in terms of my inquiry. In the midst of this confusion I met with my advisor who asked me; “In your profession what do people expect you to know?” I thought about the process of walking into a recording studio and getting to know the producer/song writer I’m working with and making them familiar with the music I want to make and why.  In order to be more specific, make more links and to generally sound more intellectual on the background and traits of the genres I want to infuse; I need to Learn, clarify and relate everything I should and need to know about the material I sing. Therefore I decided to base my inquiry on- What are the Links between Jazz, Pop, Soul and R’n’B and how have they changed over time? I can use all the information and data I’ve gathered over the past twelve weeks as resources for when I encounter the emotional links between these genres. After writing my plan I’m now looking forward to implementing the tools and techniques I have learnt during this module to my Inquiry.

6d for Delicious!

http://www.delicious.com/gunnelljoanna

I've posted a mixed sample of the academic and professional resources I use, some have been once and some are everyday. Take a look, any recommended literature would be higly appreciated!
Delicious is great! I have found so many data resources that'll I'll be using for my Inquiry.
The minute you tag a bookmark you get hundreds of recommended tags to look into that lead you to some great, very useful sites!
I'd highly recommend everyone to have a try if you haven't already,

6b...Inquiry Clarification

My Pilot Research Tools.

My pilot interviews were extremely beneficially as I gathered many perspectives on music and singing as a use of communication. My interviews were semi-structured which included a set of questions and themes with flexibilty of following interesting or useful emerging issues. The interviews were a useful tool to use because I could collect alot of valuable data about attitudes and expectations creating motives which is information that is less excessible without this personal approach.However it was extremely time consuming and analysing the data has proven complex. I decided to use 'Thematic categories' to interpret the meaning of the evidence presented. If I decide to use interviews as one of my research tools for my inquiry I would use a more structured interview method to stop me from threading of the subject too much and would have a time limit.

The 21 responses I received from my pilot survey have provided me with a good variety of Information to analyse and relate to my Inquiry. Howerver taking other peoples surveys made me realise I hadn't used the opportunity to its maximum benefits. For example Nikki-Louise McGowans Survey covered many different areas of her future inquiry with detail. Therefore If I decide to use this tool again for my Inquiry I will include more questions that'll provide me with more Qualitative outcomes.

Survey Results.

Using just the highest percentage, more people that completed my survey sang as part of their professional practice, the last time they sang was 'today' and hearing familiar music sparks thier singing.They think singing improves their health and well-being sometimes and can feel a difference in their mood after or during they're singing.

The one open response Question I put was- Why do you think people pay alot of money to go and watch people sing?

This question provided me with alot of great opinions on live singing and the effect it has on the audience.

One answer I particurly liked and will use a source of inspiration behind my inquiry was-

"Because it is a form of art that many appreciate, even people non able to sing well...it's a form of speaking with a soundtrack behind...very poetic!" (Unknown survey participant).

After a meeting with my advisor(Adesola) last week I have decided to steer away from the broad question of Whats the benefits of singing? to something that'll be more useful in my current and future Professional Practice and relates to the qualifications I already have. What are the links between the genres I sing? Jazz, Soul, R'n'B and Pop.

The research and work I  have already done can still be linked to my Plan and can works as part of my learning Journey.

Any suggested sources of information or Literature for my new Inquiry aim would be hugely appriciated!?

Rationale

After looking deeper into how we use singing/music as a form of communication I decided  it was too broad of a subject to focus my inquiry on as it lead to too many sub focuses which are very widely spread., Therefore something that particularly caught my interest was the effect the primary source (being the singers)and the secondary source (listeners) has on their health and wellbeing.
When looking into how singing is used within cultures and customs I realised the strength of the lyrics and the amount of positive outcomes from singing, I've decided to now focus my attention onto the effectsand specifics-
Does singing improve your health and wellbeing?
-I've decided to use a representative sample for a Quantative survey to provide me with a range of opinions on how and if singing effects their moods, health and wellbeing.

Singing survey.. PLEASE click on the link!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6CNY8SB