Looking at David Walker Journals, it's clear to see that his method of working is by documenting on a regular basis. By writing down your daily or weekly events, it aids reflection. By being able to look back on your work can clarify experiences and you can capture data for later use in your practice and use it to extend your work and as a way of growing.
As a choreographer, I feel this is an incredibly useful way of learning. Whilst choreographers have every intention of being unique, fresh, individual, they will reuse work, movement, ideas that they have done before. Whether it is in a documented journal form, or in video form, choreographers regularly rethink previous routines and moves to use again and again in their work.
As Schön says, "The reflective practitioner 're-frames problems' to create a reflective conversation in which practice 'talks back'. In this reflective conversation, the practitioner's effort to solve the reframed problems yield new discoveries which call for new reflection-in-action. The process spirals through stages appreciation, action, and re-appreciation. The unique and uncertain situation comes to be understood through the attempt to change it, and changed through the attempt to understand it." (Schön 1983: 132).
Choreographers are often going through states of appreciation, action, and re-appreciation. It's how they can create a piece of work they are proud of, that works with staging and lighting, and through this constant change, they discover different and new formats of choreography. I have often intended something completely different to how it looks when I have people performing it (not just me doing it in my lounge envisaging it with 12 people!) The end result actually had a totally different yet more impressive outcome.
Kolb's learning cycle:
Looking on the internet, not everyone is certain Kolb's learning cycle is relevant.
Reading a blog by Steve Wheeler on the internet he states "...many still continue to refer to Kolb's model as an important model of learning. This is questionable. One view is that the experiential learning model is increasingly irrelevant in an age where social media, and social learning are increasingly prevalent. It is worth revisiting Kolb's model to explore its criticisms and weaknesses"
It is interesting how he mentions this now being an age of social media and social learning at it's peak. I am 26 years old, and feel for most of my life I have been an in age of social media and social learning prevalence.
I am wanting to go in to teaching of Dance and Performing Arts. I feel reflective practice is essential for such a job. With extensive preparation, and not knowing exactly what lies ahead in forms of students and their behavior in each class, you have to have be able to think on your feet whilst having work prepared.
I recently read this "reflective teaching requires that public theories are translated into personal ones and vice versa unless teachers are going to allow themselves to be turned into low level operatives" (Griffiths and Tann 1991: 100)
It is interesting that actually, as a teacher, you may have to research and teach something you may not fully believe in, or have argument against. This is where Kolb's learning cycle, in my opinion, is vital. You want to be able to, in such a clock wise fashion, explore the rights/wrongs/pro's/cons in everything you do whilst enabling the students to speak freely with their own opinions.
Taken from Dani's blog, on this course, she stated "I believe that, as dancers and performers, our backgrounds impact on the way we reflect and therefore learn. I think that, without most of us realising it, we are utilising Schon's theory of Reflection-In-Action most of the time: when training we learn and remember the steps to a routine by doing them, when performing we correct our positioning, allow for variations in the staging and react to the music..."
The research and knowledge I have gained from this task has been excellent for my development in Professional Practice. I am somewhat in agreeance with Steve Wheeler whose blog I quoted above, that whilst there are so many methods and tables and theories, we are now in an age of social media and digital learning, that we need to explore far more different ways of learning.
Not only are we able to keep journals, we can keep blogs, photo and video accounts to present our work to others.
Future developments aid the professional practice in this day in age just as much as past methods.
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