Award Rationale

My Rationale for my award title

The award title I would like to receive is a BA Honours in

Professional Practice (Human Movement & Education)

The study of Human Movement traditionally incorporates areas of Physiology (living systems), Psychology, Biomechanics (analysis of athletes) but also includes other topics such as Diet, Nutrition and Performance analysis.

There are a number of influences that have helped me to determine my choice of award title. I have thought about all my previous qualifications, knowledge and work experience. I have considered my highest previous qualification which is a Trinity National Diploma in Musical Theatre. I obtained this award after I studied at the Northern Ballet School for three years and gained this rewarding qualification when graduating in July 2004.

I then went onto Preston College where I studied my Foundation in Dance Instruction award and my Certificate in Dance Education in Modern Dance and Ballet qualification. To complete these I had extensive learning of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance syllabus, I was required to demonstrate understanding and learning of Health & Safety and Lifespan Development. I had to demonstrate my capability of teaching my chosen genres (Ballet & Modern Dance) considering different abilities and conduct a class in front of an examiner. Upon completion this now means I am qualified to teach people how to dance and educate them about the dance environment whilst entering people for exams.

Upon completion of my dance qualifications I teach children/students and adults how to dance, I have choreographed many dances for performances using my experience from the Ballet school, I have educated A-Level Dance students from a Grammar School about the dance environment and entered many children and students for exams where they have all gained extremely good results because of my dance knowledge. I have also been working for Monarch education recruitment for four months where I am a teaching assistant, I educate children and assist teachers in primary schools all over Manchester.

Whilst studying these dance qualifications I also completed an A-Level in Physical Education, I have always loved sport from an early age and played for all the sports teams at school, however it was whilst studying the A-Level where I became really interested in sport history, diet and nutrition. During the two years I learned about sport promotion, sport performance, sports science and sport psychology all of which I use my knowledge and experience when teaching.

My proposed project title is another influence for my chosen award title. I wish to study “The public’s perceptions on Pole Dancing as a Sport”. I will be using my work experience, knowledge and previous qualifications to help me to study this. I feel that my project and previous experience and qualifications are related to Human Movement. Human Movement is a related scientific discipline that studies human movement in all contexts including that of sport.

I have strongly considered my title award as after my degree I wish to do my Postgraduate Certificate in Education. I feel that my award title is justified by my past experiences, my present professional work and research and my future aspirations, goals and qualifications.

Research methods learning diary 7

Overall Reflection

I have learnt so much over the past few months and have recently just researched focus groups, perceptual mapping and designed my own survey all are really important as they will be the main body of my project. I have often fallen in and out of love with this module as at times I have loved doing all the research and writing up my findings and then hated it when I can’t find words for my proposal. There has been many times where I feel I have been on top of my work and so many times where I have stared at my computer waiting for a miracle.

The last few weeks I didn’t feel very confident about my work as my project proposal feedback hit me that it wasn’t very focused, this was a knock to my confidence as I realised how much more work I had to do hence falling out of love with the module. However the last few days I have been able to focus and fall in love with it again as I do feel very confident about my work, I have worked very hard to complete this module and have put in many hours to get it to the standard I now feel happy with.

The area I found the hardest was actually writing my proposal as I thought my first draft was good however my feedback proved that it lacked focus, after editing a lot of my word count I then struggled to write anything as I constantly reminded myself not to write anything unnecessary. If I am honest, on many occasions I just wanted to actually start the project as I am so interested and passionate about my title. I took a few days off from my proposal and when I got back to it the words came flowing. This is something that I have learnt, I need to take time away from an area I find difficult so that I can start again with a clear head.

It has only been recently that I have been thinking about the rationale for my degree title, I always wanted it to have education in it somewhere and it wasn’t until speaking to Peter that we agreed on Human Movement & Education. I have to be honest, I had no idea what human movement was but Peter explained what it was and I also researched it and I have to say I am very happy with it.

If I could do it all again I would defiantly try and get time off work to get to the campus sessions as being able to discuss things with people is a way that I learn. I like and feel comfortable when I write lists of things that I need to do or ask and this then benefits my work. I have gathered that the campus sessions have been very helpful as people have been able to do this.

Overall I have mixed emotions of this module but I defiantly feel ready to start my project.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!