Bridging the gap between pre-vocational and professional vocational training

It would be interesting to hear about people’s day to day activity within their teaching roles. It’s quite refreshing to be part of this community, being able to share our work and ideas in such a constructive way. 

My areas of teaching cover two CDET accredited vocational dance/musical theatre based schools, teaching post-16 students who are working towards the Trinity Professional Diploma (level 6). I also work with younger people on a monthly basis who attend an associates programme at one of the said schools and have most recently taken on a small amount of teaching at a pre-vocational dance school.

The age groups I work with during my week range from 9yrs to 23yrs. This experience allows me ample opportunity to identify and embrace possible areas of study in relation to the MAPP programme. At present I am trying to read as much theory as possible to encourage thought and motivation in order to write my blogs and plan ahead towards Module 1 and RPL. I feel slightly pressured by the deadline and can only feel thankful for half term this week. 

Adesola suggested during the Skype on Tuesday, that we try to remain present as much as possible, something which I try to abide by on a day to day basis, but in some cases I relapse into panic mode. No doubt this is a popular topic of discussion within the community. However, I would like to make further enquiry about how people manage their MAPP schedules and plan their studies alongside work commitments, without feeling too much pressure. 
I can share yoga and relaxation ideas in return  : )

For now though, I’m trying to concentrate on one thing at a time, but allow thoughts and ideas to trigger naturally, in which case I will divert to another area of the module/RPL from time to time.

I am currently exploring and developing the utilisation of critical reflection within my classes on a broader scale since I first opened my MAPP handbooks. Subject matter at present involves bridging the gap between pre-vocational and professional dance training. This is one of a few areas within this topic that I wish explore. Firstly I intend to develop critical reflection more so in my lower age-group classes with the intention to prepare these extremely talented and ambitious young people for professional training. Over the next few weeks I hope to make critical reflection as fun and enjoyable as possible for them, with the aim to develop a heightened sense of self awareness and confidence along with sufficient knowledge to equip them in their professional training years. Too many times have I witnessed professional students, particularly in their first year, struggling with contextual studies, part of which critical reflection journals are paramount and play a large part in achieving their level 6 qualification.

Experiential learning on a personal note, knowing the benefits and requirements of critical reflection practice within post 16 professional training courses, has now led me to explore possibilities in how integrate it more in my younger classes.

I have so much more reading to do and should now start to to incorporate more theory into my writing. However, what I have learn’t from the MAPP programme and this community in such a short time can only leave me inspired and excited, no matter how much pressure there is.

Any comments would be gratefully received. Thanks!

Comments

  1. juliemapp.blogspot.com23 February 2018 at 07:24

    I think its quite a huge transition taking that step into professional vocational training. Its so difficult to know how each student is going to adapt and cope with the expectations of the training and course. So much of it depends on how they have been previously trained and even harder for students who have a natural talent but have had no formal technical training.
    However, I could completely argue here with myself and say some students who have had no formal technical training are easier to teach as they are like an open book with blank pages waiting to start their story.
    So much of this depends on the temperament of each student and how do we discover that in a one day audition??
    There certainly is a case for pre-vocational training and a transition period to be developed as we are responsible for development of not only these young peoples bodies but also their minds.

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    Replies
    1. Anthea Garratt3 March 2018 at 04:17

      Thanks Julie. I agree, there are less ‘bad habits’ so to speak. Although starting from scratch in the physical sense requires a much bigger degree of differentiation.
      Good luck on Monday. Hope all goes well.

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  2. Unknown28 February 2018 at 12:08

    Hi!

    Great to read your blog, it feels strange at first blogging (well it did for me).
    My teaching practice and area sounds very similar to yours, picking up on the comment about workload and pressure I struggled with this for about 2/3s of module 1 I used to set a good chunk of time aside each week weather a day or a block of hrs to complete work and having that in my timetable helped, for me infoind the deadlines useful as it gave me something to work towards and a personal challenge which weirdly I enjoyed!
    I found doing my Aols that things naturally developed and each area for my RPL claim fed into another or there was some link.
    I too struggle with critical thinking on students like you say especially 1sy years and their ability to look at themselves in a different way, since starting the MA journey I've tried to incorporatete this into lessons and teaching to help them progress further and have a better understanding.
    I also applied this to me and found myself questioning things i wrote and thought to help my journey through module 1!
    Hope it's going Well! It's important to take tome for yourself and not be to harsh on yourself and work time. A healthy balance is important!

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    Replies
    1. Anthea Garratt3 March 2018 at 04:28

      Thanks Garry.
      I’ve read through your blog a few times and it feels good to know we are all in this together. Like you in so many ways, I have set myself chunks of times to get work/reading done, questioning myself constantly and analysing so much more than usual. It’s opened my eyes to more generic things in life, not just dance. It’s motivating to hear the same from you.
      I definitely will take your advice and be good to myself too. I found this to be solid advice because we do forget, possibly due to the nature of our work....
      ...We are constantly giving to our students.

      Thanks again Garry for your advice, it’s much appreciated.
      Anthea

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  3. Agata Lawniczak2 March 2018 at 12:37

    Hi, thank you for sharing. I can relate to your post a lot. I'm also teaching (among other things) a pre vocational group. Starting this MAPP has also changed my approach and made me reflect upon my teaching. Critical reflection is a great tool and I'm also exploring ways of incorporating it more in my classes. What I like about this process so far, is that I feel the student-teacher relationship becomes more of a dialogue, listening more to my students gives me new "thought food" to reflect upon and creates new questions to explore together. I'm still searching a lot and often feel quite unsure or lost, how to accompany my students best on their journey to becoming autonomous learners. But I start to enjoy the process of trying to explore new ways more and more...

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    Replies
    1. Anthea Garratt3 March 2018 at 04:40

      Thanks Agata,
      The reflection process has increased dramatically for me too and I agree, I think its extremely powerful learning tool. I remember reading a post about dialogue, possibly yours. It’s on my list to look into some more.
      Great to connect with you again Agata, hope to chat again soon
      Anthea

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  4. Katherine-Lucy10 April 2018 at 09:11

    I also teach pre vocational, and think that the jump to vocational school is massive. However I am of the opinion that it is so individual as to the maturity of the student. I have always advocated critical reflection in movement for my pupils, and in teaching my experience has also been to reflect, but not as formally as I have done since I started MAPP. The colleagues I worked with have ben my sounding board, so its great to read the blogs to aid this. My students have always given me and taught me new ideas, and ways to help them. I am enjoying trying to push this even further.

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    Replies
    1. Anthea Garratt11 April 2018 at 08:32

      Thanks once again for your response to my blog Lucy. Since writing it I have explored further methods to introduce more reflective practice into both pre-vocational and vocational classes. This book has been really useful in offering ideas for reflective portfolios. It may also be of interest to you:

      Boud.D ,R Keogh, and D Walker, (1985). Reflection: Turning experiences into learning. London, Koran Page. P.65-68

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