This blog is created to support conversation generated from and about the learning process for MA Professional Practice (MAPP) in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries (ACI) at Middlesex University.

Monday 7 April 2014

Mapping, chatting and the next one!!

Yesterdays Skype chat went well. I am in the process of writing an overview of what we talked about (it was quite a lot!!). But I did promise I would post something I wrote for BAPP on analysis (It is written for smaller project at BA level in terms of the examples given in the text). I think that it is so important to have a focus on analysis and not be lost in the 'idea' of gathering data. What will you do with it? that is the question.

Also two dates:
Next chat is Sunday May 4th at 11am (in London time)
The presentation of Module 3-ers research at Hendon is Monday June 2nd (time TBA). Its coming up please plan to come and support them.

Here is the text from the BAPP post:
There are a couple of ways to engage with analysis, here are a few ideas:

-Mapping: using the data to start to better understand how something works, or what something is like or where things or people stand within a topic. For instance, this would be to have data that about 'what dance teachers think of teaching boys dance'. You would use the teachers responses to look at the landscape of teaching boys dance - where does it seem to be 'easier' (teachers feel that when teaching them street dance they are more engaged than when teaching ballet, it seems that the boys in doing dance classes in state schools have better behaviour than boys in private dance schools), then you look at why you think things have mapped out like this - you use the literature to help to theorise about why things look like this. You also use your own experience. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

- Critique: you use the data to inform a critique of the behaviour or phenomena of something. Maybe you asked 'why do dancers get injured?' you use your data to look at a problem (getting injured). You might then identify that certain circumstance lead to injury. You compare what you found with what the literature says and your own experience. You explain the practical situations when something happens and explain why you think that is. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

- Action research - you identify something you want to 'try out'… you try it out.. you look at whether it had the affect you were expecting, you think about what happened and why. You use the literature to both plan the change you try out and then to understand what happened after you tried it out. You can also question the data itself: did who answered the question or how the question was asked affect the data you collected.

How are you finding the idea of analysis?