Critical Reflection

Appendix A:
Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry
Eithne Bryan - Module 2

This module, for me, has been a huge development from Module 1. It has helped me to improve the skills needed carry on to the Final Module and completion of my inquiry. Im really looking forward to using my new found skills.


Developing Lines of Inquiry

To start this module, I was faced with generating a set of questions relevant to my practice (Performing Arts) that I felt would further my knowledge (Appendix A - Task 4a - Developing Lines of Inquiry) To expand on our thoughts and make comparisons, I was then asked to interview someone from my own Professional Community (Appendix B - Task 4c - Developing my Inquiry) It was great being able to see what more established performers thought about these questions, as I already had my own opinions this questioned them. This led me to set up my SIG group upon Performing Arts (Appendix C - My SIG Group) I used this to set up discussions upon Jobs outside of performing arts. For me, being able to support myself and still being able to attend auditions has been a struggle. With the amount of money constantly going out of my bank for bills, making sure I get enough money through a job, I feel is very important.

Professional Ethics

Before these Tasks, Ethics was never really something I had thought about. In Task 5a (Appendix D - Task 5a - Ethics) I decided to compare the Ethics within an audition and then general everyday life. After doing some more research into this (Appendix E - Task 5b - Codes of Practice) this made me realize that for nearly everything where another persons personal health and information always needs to be thought of in an ethical way. I’ve now understand that having high standards of personal ethics can help benifit you as a professional performer.


Tools of Professional Inquiry

At the start of this module, I was still a little undecided what specific theme I wanted to base my inquiry on. I knew it was going to be on the gap between leaving college and progressing to professionalism but I just hadn’t narrowed it down. Because of this, for my Pilots, I kept my questions quite open so that I could still have the practice of the different Pilots and be able to analyze the data found. One pilot I found really useful was the Interview (Appendix F - Task 6b - My Reflections) Being able to listen peoples views, questioning them upon their opinions enabling further discussions was very satisfying therefore I would like to use this as one of my tools for my inquiry. In order for me to get the correct information I am going to do a few more pilot interviews, narrowing down the questions that I ask, in terms of what is useful and binning the ones that arn’t. One Pilot that didn’t work so well was my Pilot Survey (Appendix G - Survey Monkey) This ment I was unable to practice analyzing the data. Although I posted it to my SIG and Blog, only one person replied, I think this may be down to the questions I asked, they were very open and didn’t have a clear structure, I would also like to have some more practice in surveying as it is the other tool I would like to use for my inquiry. With more preparation I believe that I will be successful in getting some useful data.

After a very important and useful talk with my advisor, I finally decided on the Topic for my Inquiry which is “ Employment outside of Performing.” Being able to progress and develop my skills for Module 3, I feel, has been a huge success and I’m hoping that with the right research tools I can improve my knowledge.