A great Skype call today. I've been doing lots of group interviews over the last couple of months but work has been so crazy that I haven't been on top of reading. I'm going to defer until January so I can get the most out of this journey. I was asking the question about how people have decided on their artefacts? Julie said to try to think about how the people I want to reach to tell them about my research would be able to hear it. How will they be able to access the information in the easiest way? Adesola was saying how can you show the process and how you did it? It's another way to show what you've learnt rather than in an academic way, not being locked into the university world.
It's not just been work that has been crazy this last term but my youngest son has been studying for year 6 SAT's which the school are piling on the pressure for. We keep telling him that the tests actually mean nothing for him as he already has his secondary school, but he puts pressure on himself. Although for my research I'm looking at GCSE girls and how dancing and continuing their dance during their GCSE's has an effect, I'm becoming more and more aware of what an exam testing orientated society we live in and if a child doesn't conform to where the government says they should be at a certain time they are labelled. Surely this isn't right. We all learn in different ways and at different times and we are all good at different things. Why are we telling people there is only one way?
Questions and finding answers. The more I study and read and look at dance and life the more I realise I don't know much, although I thought I did! We may ask questions and not get a definite answer or there may be more than 1 answer. Society generally tells us there is an answer and it's right or wrong. Does this lead back to the exam society? Are we trained froma young age to think like this when actually life isn't always like this? Trying to retrain your brain may therefore be hard but maybe this is what needs to be done in order to accept what we know to be true, we learn through experience and through our bodies not just through text books. Maybe this is why when I'm talking to people about what I'm learning it seems to start to make more sense.
What do you think?
Sunday 3 April 2016
Skype call 3rd April 2016
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I really agree with so much of what you are saying (excuse the rant).
ReplyDeleteA test can be useful in order to see where someone is, at a particular moment in time but unfortunately within that moment of being tested, you may have a migraine or may have been sleep deprived or or or or…..! Where I currently live, children are only tested (11+ which I think is same as year 6 SATS) but none of their process is taken into consideration. I honestly believe that these tests only really test short-term memory. They don't look at the process, only the product. I believe that this leads children to do the same, bypassing the process and real life long learning, for a product that will be of little use, except for that moment of 'testing.
I listened to part of a program on World News about a cheating scandal in (I think Nigeria but not 100% certain) the test papers were being sold and there were students damning it because everyone has now suffered. Even though they paid for the courses and the exam, and not every body cheated, the entire year has made void. Some of the students said that they cheated because everyone else was and they understood that because the level of achievement would be very high they would probably not now pass. Some said they wished they now had cheated because at least they would be being punished for something that they actually did.
But why did they cheat?
I think as adults we need to LOOK AT THE ASSUMPTIONS (as we discussed in todays chat and has been said to me on a couple of occasions re this MA) and re think the way forward for the leaders of tomorrow. It may be that a decision is made and that this way of learning for children still holds currency and is the most appropriate approach but as you said, maybe we should be guiding our children to question as much as we ask them to answer.
I just saw this and an interesting theme that came out of my research was exactly that. I was introducing somatic activities and peer to peer collaboration was part of that within the framework of an RAD ballet class in the pre-teen age group. This actually caused some anxiety as the students were quite preoccupied with whether they were doing it 'right' or not. This was seen throughout the research and it made me realise how children are so conditioned at school to get high grades, get things right that they don't see the value of just 'being' in the moment or understanding their body to mind connection. It's very much a Cartesian experience in schools manifesting itself in many children suffering burn out and anxiety at such a young age. In one of my ballet classes (teens) two students are on anti- anxiety medication and one suffers from anorexia. Not good.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting point as i am researching peer collaboration at the moment and find children who are not used to it get really embarrassed and find it very difficult.
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