Professional Artefact

After a very help full phone conversation with Rosemary we developed a few areas and themes that my artifact could be based upon. Initially I thought the artifact needed to be a way of presenting your inquiry to your professional audience, however I now realise it can be stemmed from a theme developed within my inquiry. My inquiry is the benefits of dance classes on young students and adults within this themes have emerged such as physical fitness, skills developed, critical and creative thinking, the way dance is taught and the overall impact and importance the classes have in students.
From this I have had several thoughts for an artifact :

• A booklet illustrating the health benefits of dance including examples of exercises Incorporated in dance to improve flexibility and aerobic ability.
• A video or book explaining teaching tips for fellow professionals on improving classes for the age range explored in my inquiry.
• A book designed for academic leaders,companies,schools to demonstrate the benefits of dance and why dance should be encouraged and incorporated into their system.
• A video collage of dance footed showing work created by students,demonstrating their creativity, ream work dance and performance skills. ( this could maybe be incorporated into the idea above).

I believe my thoughts will developed as I analyse my inquiry further and compare the themes that have arose from my findings I want the artifact to professionally show what has been studied and by a useful piece of information to aid my professional audience.

inquiry analysis

I have been carrying out my inquiry by holding interviews, observations and partaking myself.
I have gathered the narratives from 6 different dance teachers and lecturers on their views on what the benefits are from partaking in dance classes. I have studied 3 pieces of litertaure by laban where they have carried out studies on the impacts of contemporary dance classes which discuss the scientific findings from these studies. Also a piece of literature from the scottish curriculm on the arts, describing the skills and outcomes that the students recieve from the arts curriculum particularly dance classes.
I have recieved the narratives from a class of 20 students taking dance classes- on how they feel after their dance classes and what benefits and skills they feel they may be gaining. Also I have my own observational data from watching various students in dance classes and from partaking in the classes myself.
I am now going on to compare what the different teachers said if their views vary at all and also how this compares to the literature. I will compare what the students felt to what i felt from partaking in the classes and what the literature says in comparison to my observations.

I have started to noticed themes emerging in particular huge similarities with peoples opinions and the scientific evidence found in literature. I have been surprised to notice that the students are not aware of the skills and benefits they are recieving from dance classes to them it is all about enjoyment. One teacher dicussed the benefits gained outside of dance leading onto other careers (the wider creative learner) this has given me more questions to ask as i beleive this goes much deeper than just a dance class. I would now like to know more about this and the part creativity plays on the students so i will search further relevant literature on this.

inquiry thoughts

My initial inquiry plan was the importance of dance inside education, here I wanted to explore the benefits the students recieved from their dance classes and the way dance was taught, I started to open a few too many doors within this inquiry as each thought led onto the next. I have started to carry out my interviews and observations. From observing a college btec level dance class it was brought to my attention that a lot of the students had never danced before they started at the college which led me to think what do they expect to get out of their dance classes and what do they infact learn and gain. They have dance, improvisation and choreography classes where they develop skills such as: team buliding skills, creativity, confidence, expression. Most of these students will not go onto a career in the performing arts indusrty but all various different careers yet the skills they learn in these dance classes are vital and enable them to pursue all sorts of carrers. Which led me onto the inquiry of 'the importance dance has on the wider creative learner'.  I am currently exploring literature related to my inquiry and profession, if anyone has come across any literature in relation I would really appreciate it.