Critical Reflection in summary: Digital Portfolio

Critical Reflection Portfolio

I need to develop my survey to ask the same students about the perceptions of examination in both ballet and other genres to see if examinations are an issue. The holistic nature of my survey perhaps was not narrow enough to get a clear picture of the final problem, but from eyeballing my results I can see this will help me to identify other trends I had not considered before such as examination difficulty and achievement. I feel although my questionnaire gave the option of being anonymous students may not have answered truthfully as I was present in the room, students may have felt as they handed the questionnaire to me intimated. With my next survey I am going to repeat some of the questions about my teaching and get a critical friend to deliver to the students and also collect the raw data so the students don’t feel they have to respond positively to questions about my teaching. I need to focus on the vocabulary I use to promote a longer term career view and show ballet as being more than just ballerinas. I also need to work on body confidence body dismorphia with the class I plan to achieve this by being more open in the class.

I found the workshop I presented to the students extremely helpful to my teaching. I teach both subjects and my approaches to the two are clearly different. By eyeballing I can see results show my ballet students had a deeper understanding of technical vocabulary which on reflection I feel is from the way I deliver this subject. I need to translate my good practice from ballet in to the hip hop lessons by using Pilates to gain strength good body awareness and stamina to the students which will in the future help to retain students in ballet by not using words like “to be a ballerina” and to focus on the strength and the benefits in studying ballet.

Examinations failure is a massive area which again comes down to motivation low self-esteem and confidence. The British Ballet Organization (BBO) free style award schemes do not fail students the results are given on the day with a result grading Pass Merit Distinction. Students receive a certificate and a badge on the same day which to the students is an immediate confidence boost and immediate gratification. I know want to explore and research this further using a survey to students and also interviewing a teacher at The British Ballet Organization.

 My Next Steps:

Things I intend to do to promote and motivate my students in ballet further are;

1. To develop the use of language in relation to ballet to prevent pupils having a narrow view of what ‘ballerina’ is and develop aspiration and eliminate the fear of failure.

2. To develop the use of technical vocabulary in Hip Hop lessons to improve vocabulary attainment

3. To be aware and perform more research around the image of ballet in the 21^st century

4. Look in to examination boards marking criteria

5. Survey to students about examinations and my teaching

6. Visit a local dance school