First thoughts... reader 3 'The Networked Professional'
A professional network is not an idea I've really thought about in depth before, but it's amazing to realise that you actually already have several you didn't even know about!
I acquired my first professional network many years ago when I first started training at my dance school and local college. Even though I've moved away from home and don't see many of those in the network anymore, I still contact my tutors about decisions I make in my professional life (even about completing this course!) and they are still there for me. As are the people who were on my course - on social media they are the people most likely to post something about a dance related inquiry, and just as I can help them they can then help me.
I also think its useful to have people in your professional network who do live in a different part of the country, or indeed another country, because it helps me as a dance teacher explore different markets for classes and what appeals in different places. For example I've had a lot of interest in my Ballet Fitness class and its doing extremely well, but a few people I've spoken to back at home don't believe there would be as much interest in the class. Obviously this is due to varying factors of population, location, parking, price, cost of hall hire etc, but it's great to know, especially if I go home to do specialists workshops - I can choose a discipline that my dance teacher friends think would be really popular. It's also helpful to know what others in the network are paying for room/studio hire and how much they are costing the class at so I can gauge my class pricing.
I belong to a number of instructor networks and each one helps me bring something different to my professional work. Some post choreography/music ideas, others post exercise 'tips' and some have links to conferences that might be of interest to me where I can develop my own skills.
A sentence I did want to discuss from the reader was 'We would argue that your Professional Network is a highly important part of your current and future professional life'. Now the points I have previously made in this blog completely argue that this statement is true. However, I really wanted to explore another side to this sentence. Professional Networks provide you with information that another professional believes to be true. But can we be sure that what the professional believes is true?
For example.....
Ballet teachers from an older generation that were told to believe certain truths about the body and how it works, may not be teaching young dance students the best way. This isn't a dig at older dance teachers! It's a statement to say that if these professionals did not participate in continual learning (as in they know what they know and that's not going to change), how do you know they are teaching you in the right way? I've been taught by certain Ballet Teachers and after an hour an a half class several times a week, quite a number of us noticed we felt a lot of pressure in our knee joints. Now obviously this could have been we all had bad knees or all of us were doing the exercises incorrectly, after a few more weeks we understood it was due to certain exercises where we were all over rotating due to the Ballet Teacher expecting a higher level of turnout than we could manage.
Now obviously it could be argued that I could have listened to my body and said 'that's enough' to my turnout, BUT I was listening to a professional practitioner, someone I still do greatly admire and who has performed with the top Ballet Companies in their time, and they wanted more, so I tried to give them more. As a result I do I have a slight problem with my knees from training.
You can argue that good turnout is essential for Ballerina's and they were only trying to help you with your career, but good knees are also essential yes? Also, as I wasn't training specifically to be a Ballerina maybe I needed to be told I didn't need to have as good turnout as the best Ballet dancer in class?
A recent piece of research I found states that -
“Based on a self-reported history of low back and lower extremity injuries, ballet dancers have a greater risk of injury if they reach a turnout position that is greater than their available bilateral passive hip external rotation range of motion.”
Taken from a really interesting site http://danceproject.ca/your-burning-turnout-questions-answered/#.VkCs5vnhDIU
So getting back to the point, can we be certain that other professionals in our professional network are practicing knowledge that is true? Or in this case, still true today?
I read a great piece from our reading list - 'Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age', and whilst it is talking about communication web technologies mainly. I felt it really linked with my thoughts here.
It talks about how knowledge has a 'life span' and that used to be measured in decades because 'information development was slow'.
And according to the American Society of Training and Documentation 'The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months'
That's an overwhelming thought - DOUBLED in the past 10 years!
So with this in mind my thoughts are leading me to back to continual reflection and Kolb's learning cycle; where when we continually engage and reflect upon new experiences we continually learn - and we need this to survive as professionals. It is not good enough to say I've done my training, I'm a professional practitioner and know it all. We must keep engaging, talking, attending courses, watch performances, write about them, go to classes and experience. So really what I've done right this second is gone round in a full circle with my thinking (I think). So maybe my Ballet Teacher didn't have as good a professional network as me, and this encourages me to appreciate my networks and want to use them more. At the same time, not everyone you speak to is going to be telling you what is really true, they'll be telling you what they believe is true. And its up to us as professional practitioners to learn from this, we can question it, like I should have done in my Ballet class, or we can take it as a 'past knowledge' and look for a new way to developing an idea so it stays in touch with developing ideas. Or we can appreciate that if a someone in your professional network tells you something you know is not true, then you already had that knowledge anyway.
Then in fact, Professional Networking, it could be argued, could never be detrimental to your own professional practice. It will either be a great source for developing and learning, or it will be a place you may learn something and over time using critical reflection skills you will discover this not to be true, and find your own truth.
Hope this makes sense in parts at least! I really was just going with the flow today!
Would be interesting to see if any of you agree of disagree with my thoughts on the Ballet Class? If any of you are professional Ballet dancers perhaps you can argue it and give me a completely different insight? Or if any of you are teaching tell me what you might think on over rotating? I had a look at another site that was suggesting and backed by a few medical professionals that children should not start ballet until the age of 8! Now that's a statement that would cause a discussion!
Here's the link - http://www.milwaukeekidsdance.com/safe-ballet-training.htm
Please let me know your thoughts! x
I acquired my first professional network many years ago when I first started training at my dance school and local college. Even though I've moved away from home and don't see many of those in the network anymore, I still contact my tutors about decisions I make in my professional life (even about completing this course!) and they are still there for me. As are the people who were on my course - on social media they are the people most likely to post something about a dance related inquiry, and just as I can help them they can then help me.
I also think its useful to have people in your professional network who do live in a different part of the country, or indeed another country, because it helps me as a dance teacher explore different markets for classes and what appeals in different places. For example I've had a lot of interest in my Ballet Fitness class and its doing extremely well, but a few people I've spoken to back at home don't believe there would be as much interest in the class. Obviously this is due to varying factors of population, location, parking, price, cost of hall hire etc, but it's great to know, especially if I go home to do specialists workshops - I can choose a discipline that my dance teacher friends think would be really popular. It's also helpful to know what others in the network are paying for room/studio hire and how much they are costing the class at so I can gauge my class pricing.
I belong to a number of instructor networks and each one helps me bring something different to my professional work. Some post choreography/music ideas, others post exercise 'tips' and some have links to conferences that might be of interest to me where I can develop my own skills.
A sentence I did want to discuss from the reader was 'We would argue that your Professional Network is a highly important part of your current and future professional life'. Now the points I have previously made in this blog completely argue that this statement is true. However, I really wanted to explore another side to this sentence. Professional Networks provide you with information that another professional believes to be true. But can we be sure that what the professional believes is true?
For example.....
Ballet teachers from an older generation that were told to believe certain truths about the body and how it works, may not be teaching young dance students the best way. This isn't a dig at older dance teachers! It's a statement to say that if these professionals did not participate in continual learning (as in they know what they know and that's not going to change), how do you know they are teaching you in the right way? I've been taught by certain Ballet Teachers and after an hour an a half class several times a week, quite a number of us noticed we felt a lot of pressure in our knee joints. Now obviously this could have been we all had bad knees or all of us were doing the exercises incorrectly, after a few more weeks we understood it was due to certain exercises where we were all over rotating due to the Ballet Teacher expecting a higher level of turnout than we could manage.
Now obviously it could be argued that I could have listened to my body and said 'that's enough' to my turnout, BUT I was listening to a professional practitioner, someone I still do greatly admire and who has performed with the top Ballet Companies in their time, and they wanted more, so I tried to give them more. As a result I do I have a slight problem with my knees from training.
You can argue that good turnout is essential for Ballerina's and they were only trying to help you with your career, but good knees are also essential yes? Also, as I wasn't training specifically to be a Ballerina maybe I needed to be told I didn't need to have as good turnout as the best Ballet dancer in class?
A recent piece of research I found states that -
“Based on a self-reported history of low back and lower extremity injuries, ballet dancers have a greater risk of injury if they reach a turnout position that is greater than their available bilateral passive hip external rotation range of motion.”
Taken from a really interesting site http://danceproject.ca/your-burning-turnout-questions-answered/#.VkCs5vnhDIU
So getting back to the point, can we be certain that other professionals in our professional network are practicing knowledge that is true? Or in this case, still true today?
I read a great piece from our reading list - 'Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age', and whilst it is talking about communication web technologies mainly. I felt it really linked with my thoughts here.
It talks about how knowledge has a 'life span' and that used to be measured in decades because 'information development was slow'.
And according to the American Society of Training and Documentation 'The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months'
That's an overwhelming thought - DOUBLED in the past 10 years!
So with this in mind my thoughts are leading me to back to continual reflection and Kolb's learning cycle; where when we continually engage and reflect upon new experiences we continually learn - and we need this to survive as professionals. It is not good enough to say I've done my training, I'm a professional practitioner and know it all. We must keep engaging, talking, attending courses, watch performances, write about them, go to classes and experience. So really what I've done right this second is gone round in a full circle with my thinking (I think). So maybe my Ballet Teacher didn't have as good a professional network as me, and this encourages me to appreciate my networks and want to use them more. At the same time, not everyone you speak to is going to be telling you what is really true, they'll be telling you what they believe is true. And its up to us as professional practitioners to learn from this, we can question it, like I should have done in my Ballet class, or we can take it as a 'past knowledge' and look for a new way to developing an idea so it stays in touch with developing ideas. Or we can appreciate that if a someone in your professional network tells you something you know is not true, then you already had that knowledge anyway.
Then in fact, Professional Networking, it could be argued, could never be detrimental to your own professional practice. It will either be a great source for developing and learning, or it will be a place you may learn something and over time using critical reflection skills you will discover this not to be true, and find your own truth.
Hope this makes sense in parts at least! I really was just going with the flow today!
Would be interesting to see if any of you agree of disagree with my thoughts on the Ballet Class? If any of you are professional Ballet dancers perhaps you can argue it and give me a completely different insight? Or if any of you are teaching tell me what you might think on over rotating? I had a look at another site that was suggesting and backed by a few medical professionals that children should not start ballet until the age of 8! Now that's a statement that would cause a discussion!
Here's the link - http://www.milwaukeekidsdance.com/safe-ballet-training.htm
Please let me know your thoughts! x
Chrissie it sounds like the networking theory has liberated 'thinking out of the box' which is something that Lucy and I talked about today (Lucy is in Singapore now). Luckily we have managed a chat today - we had your blog to start us off and talking about what the 'thinking' part of the coursework entailed - we discussed peers versus professionals - power in relationships - reviewing past experience and relating it to future practice - and your 'argument' that engaging in professional networks will sharpen decision making so participation in them is a positive thing. Sometime experiences do need that reflection to get past emotional barriers - there will usually be events from the past that we would do differently - but Chrissie also pointed out in our conversation that she was connecting with people after a period of time not connecting - and that felt right - so communities of practices can change - be added to - might actually ebb and flow depending on our needs at the time.
ReplyDeleteIt was brilliant chatting with you today Paula and it did make my think about my thoughts on a different level - not just accepting the first thing that came into my head but challenging it, and that sort of relates to my argument with professional networks, as you say even if someone suggests an idea that is not true, we as professional practitioners should always be aware of this and make a conscious decision to look into the idea more before we accept it as true.
DeleteAnd I definitely agree with different communities for different times in my life - our needs as professionals are always changing as we develop and grow as performers, practitioners, teachers, whatever we go to do, and our needs for professional networks will change too. I've written a really short blog on Communities of Practice if any of you want to read it!
We actually had a very similar situation in our college, where we had to talk to our tutor about our ballet teacher as we felt our knees and hips were getting damaged. She was hugely successful and we respected her a lot, so we always wanted to push ourselves for her. The advice we got was to push our turnout when she was looking but then change it appropriately when she turned away! I try to learn something from every performance I watch and course/class I take because I dont want to be one of those people 'stuck in their ways'.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think its very difficult when its someone you really respect - Paula talked to me about 'tipping the power', because ultimately the power is with the teacher but as you start to question the teacher it goes back to you. I think as long as we try to engage continuously in reflecting on our work, even if we do make mistakes, we can rectify them if we don't become too proud about things.
Delete