We spoke this evening about 2 main themes; firstly any further thoughts we've had on reflection and our reflective practice and also on one of the theories of professional networking, and that was communities of practice.
Upon hearing how others are getting on with the module, we did touch on the in-action on-action and how people are using it in their working life. I thought about whether anything has changed on my professional reflection and what I thought of was Kolb's learning cycle. Over the past week I have moved to teach full time at a large dance school in Dubai. It's been a daunting experience and I've been thrown into taking a lot more classes than I ever had before. I've prepared as best I could for it and made lesson plans, and yet, when it has come down to it I think I still won't feel like I've done the best job I can at teaching all the groups until I've had more practice. I thought that I entered the learning cycle normally in experimentation, but the past week has proved to me that practice is crucial in learning - practice based research.
Upon hearing how others are getting on with the module, we did touch on the in-action on-action and how people are using it in their working life. I thought about whether anything has changed on my professional reflection and what I thought of was Kolb's learning cycle. Over the past week I have moved to teach full time at a large dance school in Dubai. It's been a daunting experience and I've been thrown into taking a lot more classes than I ever had before. I've prepared as best I could for it and made lesson plans, and yet, when it has come down to it I think I still won't feel like I've done the best job I can at teaching all the groups until I've had more practice. I thought that I entered the learning cycle normally in experimentation, but the past week has proved to me that practice is crucial in learning - practice based research.
These was my diagram displaying my communities of practice. The obvious ones are the companies I work for and colleagues. Tom came up with a good point, which was that our 'other jobs' the ones to pay the bills when we aren't performing are also very useful often in networking with other professionals. As well as this, we touched on how difficult it can be keeping communities separate. I know that if I am working another job (I used to work as a receptionist when I wasn't dancing) I didn't enjoy it when someone I knew who thought of me as a dancer or teacher saw me working the other job. I think I wanted to keep the circles separate, and as Tom put it, it's about compartmentalising areas of you work and life. Conversely, our networks often overlap and often when I have been offered a job (such as the one I'm in now) they will do their research on me and my background by looking at my other circles of contacts, be it online, or by word of mouth. It works to maintain an extended network as likewise I can find out about employers through extended communities of practice.
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