So today I have tweeted people about taking my Survey, emailed individuals about interviewing and later I am going to do some reading of my chosen literature.

LETS DO THIS x

Module 3

Today I looked over my Module 3 plan and feed back.

I am feeling quite nervous about starting this module as obviously it's so very important.

I looking forward to the challenge though and can't wait to see everyone's presentations in January.

:) x

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.

Inquiry Plan

So after leaving it till the last minute AGAIN I had a skype with my advisor today.

I have pretty much been confused about this whole module but after talking with her my head is a lot clearer now with the task in hand.

The general idea for my Inquiry is "Life outside of college seeking a career in Performing Arts" but we discussed that this is too big a subject for me to do my inquiry on.

We thought of a few parts within that as to what I could do, for example;

- Looking into an establish performers career, such as Rachel Tucker, seeing where she trained, what agent she went with, how she built herself up ect.

- Comparing the different lives of a straight Actor, straight Dancer and someone in Musical theatre and seeing what different steps they do to achieve stability.

- Looking into different colleges prospectus'; what they teach, who has attended the college, what they aim to achieve - do they stick to this?

and

- Are performers able to sustain a "normal" job whilest trying to persue a dream, for example; is the job flexible enough, do they support your dream, where is the best place to go to work ect.

The thing I have to do now is pick which one, if any of these, I want to inquire about.

Task 6d: My Delicious

Hey Guys,

Here's a link to my Delicious Page:

Delicious - Eithne Bryan.

I had never heard of delicious before but after figuring it out, I have come to realise that it is so beneficial.

The fact that I can have links to my frequently used sights and then link it to my BookMarks at the top of my Web Browser is amazing.

Task 6b: My Reflections

So, my Pilots and their use.

I started with my Pilot Interview, this was done by phone to a close friend of mien who is also in Performing Arts. I asked her a number of different questions on different topics such as " How are you preparing for Auditions?", "Do you feel you are able to sustain your Technique?" " How have you grown since leaving college?." Unfortunately I was unable to get her to sign a consent form for me to post her answers but I feel like that is was really useful for me to hear what she had to say.

I've learnt from this that although the phone interview was fairly quick and easy to set-up I lacked the ability to see her reactions to things. Thinking about the work from last term, body language is key to really knowing how someone feels about a particular issue.

For my inquiry I am going to do a face to face interview, and hopefully with the right consent record it.

I set up my Pilot survey on Surveymonkey. Unfortunately, no-one has completed it as of yet but I am going to send it out to a few people Via my other links such as Delicious and Facebook.

This has shown to me that I need to be a little more prepared with getting things set up and that people won't necessarily do things to help, you have to encourage them a little.

I haven't been able to set up a focus group as of yet but some of the things I am going to discuss with them include auditions, technique, research, networking, college performances, growing up - do we know enough within performing ect.

I have researched some really helpful websites such as:

- A Web page designed to help set up a Focus Group.

- A Web page upon why we use focus groups and how they can help.

- Another Web page upon how to set up and use a focus group to youe advantage.

I'm hoping with a bit more use of these sites I can create a focus group to help me with my Inquiry.

In terms of my pilot observation, I am going to look back over some knowledge and notes I already have:

Ballet - Set 1 - Miss Banks' Class;

While watching over this class at College I was able to reflect upon my other class mates. For example, one member of the Ballet class was a known "trouble maker" and would try and distract the other girls from learning and concentrating. In terms of ethics would it be right for the Teacher to Ban a student for this? She pays to go to the College, she is very talented but just gets distracted easily...should this lead to her being singled out and made to leave or should the teacher just try and carry on with the class. In this case, my teacher is very good at handling disruptive students and didn't single out the performer, only encouraged her to do better. With this she pulled her to the front of the class and asked her to perform the exercise by her self for everyone to watch.

I feel like this is the best way to control disruptive people by not singling them out in a way that will embarrassing or upset them but by making them see how other people feel when the whole classed is stopped for them.

For my inquiry, I would like to observe a number of different classes and then carry out a survey on the different thoughts from the pupils. Im not quite sure where I am going to do this as of yet, I may as my old Performing Arts College with the correct consent forms signed and kept filed.

Task 6a: Pilot's

So here's a Link to my Pilot Survey:

Pilot Survey upon Performing Arts.

In terms of my Pilot Interview, for this I am going to ask a range of different people within and out of the performing arts business. I want to know how they feel about the industry, the teaching ect. For this I am going to ask my Mum, Sharon Jarvis (non-performer) and my friend Sarah Atkinson (performer.)


As I attended a performing arts college for 3 years, I don't feel like an observation would be of any help as I already have experience in this so I am going to use some of my past knowledge for this. I have had hands on experience of 'Performing arts' in all aspects wether it's Teaching, being taught, watching a class, discipline and the performances.