Task 6b - Reflection on Pilot Tools

Reflection on piloting 'Tools of Professional Inquiry'

Pilot Survey

In order to compose my pilot survey I used the web based survey creator 'Survey Monkey'. This is brilliant as it guides you through exactly how to create it, however I feel that on the basic version there are useful tools that are missing, for example being able to cross reference the results etc. So perhaps when creating the actual survey it would be a good idea to upgrade to a slightly better version.

When thinking about what questions and what type of questions to include, I looked to Rosemary's blog which featured a slide show on all different types of survey questions. As this was a pilot survey I wanted to use as many different 'types' of questions as possible to see which would give me the best sort of results. I used a combination of info, category, multiple choice, ranking and comment questions.

Analysing the limits and merits, I have realised that in order to gain an accurate and real representation the survey needs to be completed by a large number of people. I posted my survey to my blog and also to my SIG page and my network of professionals on facebook. After all this I still only had 10 people complete the survey, so what have I concluded from this? The survey needs to be sent indivudally to people, rather than as a group message or blog. I know personally that if I were to receive something individually I would more likely particpate than if it was part of a group message. Also perhaps in this way you can individually contact the participators and 'catch up' with them, making sure they received it etc..

With this pilot survey I did not include a covering letter outlining the details of the inquiry and most importantly the benefits to the participants. I think this will be a must when carrying out the real survey. If they understand the benefits to them then hopefully they will be more inclined to participate.

Analysing the results of my survey I am actually really happy with the combination of questions I used and the actual questions. I had some good feedback about my questions, saying they were well selected and relevant to my inquiry. At this pilot stage I am happy with that, however I do need to think more carefully about how I am going to actually use the findings. Yes, I have all these great answers giving me both qualitative and quantitative data but how am I actually going to use this. At the moment I am still a little unsure on this, so further research into how to analyse data will definitely be needed before the final inquiry.

If I can actually target a large audience then I believe the survey will be a great tool for me to use!

Pilot Interview

For my pilot interview I decided to interview Angela Avalos-Perez who is a professionally trained Dancer who now owns a Dance School training potential candidates for theatre school. After reading other people's blogs I decided that I would dictaphone the interview, as most people commented on how hard it was to take notes whilst interviewing.

Listening back to the interview there were definitely several merits and limits. I had devised a set of questions but knew that I would try to branch off from these if given a lead. This method worked quite well, but realistically I need to think more in depth about what answers I want the interview to give me. It was extremely interesting and she openly gave me her opinion and answers, but once again I am unsure on how to use the data. So my weakness at this point is understanding how to use the data gathered. Before doing any data collection I need to plan as best as possible to ensure that I will get the answers I want and need. Of course, this is not going to be 100%, but planning as much as possible and really thinking about the questions will help to ensure I get the results I want.

Unfortunately, although I received verbal consent for the interview I did not get the participant to sign an Informed Consent form which is definitely unethical. I have been looking at templates of interview consent forms online and there are definitely some that can be adapted for my own use.

I think it will be important to interview lots of people in the same position, i.e many private dance teachers or many audition panel members, so that I can use the information in a comparative way. As it stands the interview was very interesting and helped me to develop my interview technique, however the information would be more useful and effective if I could compare it with other interviews of a similar nature.

Pilot Observation/Focus Group

Unfortunately due to the timescale and time of year (Easter holidays) I was unable to conduct either of these methods. I did however think about how I would use these tools and how they may be benefitial in my actual inquiry.

Observation

I thought it would be really interesting to observe students at a theatre school in their first month/term of training. I would observe 1 or 2 lessons a week and observe the same lessons every week for the month/term. The aim of this would be to see the variation in how the students cope, physically and emotionally, how long they take to settle in over this period, do they all continue, are they realistic about the expectations of them? etc. This would be difficult to organise, but if achieved I believe could be very benefitial to my inquiry. With this being an observation in a school there are many ethical considerations to think about and obviously more research into this would ensure good ethical practice on my behalf.

Another idea for an observation would be to observe a BTEC class who are preparing for auditions. This would be to mainly focus on the teacher and the teaching methods use. Are the teachers preparing them well enough for the level they need to be at for the audition? I would know this through interviews with audition panel members at theatre schoools and also using existing literature on requirements and entry level standard. 'What are the panel looking for?'

Focus Group

I have created three sectors/groups of people that I want to use to gather data for my inquiry. I will be focusing on graduates of theatre schools, audition panel members and also teachers who are currently preparing students for theatre school. I believe all three will give me a different perspective and intersting results to analyse. The focus groups could therefore be these individual sectors or perhaps a combination of all three? This would also take a lot of organising and I would need to steer the group to make sure the topics discussed were relevant to my inquiry. I do believe this would be very interesting and I am definitely going to look into this as a data collection method for my actual inquiry.

Conclusion

I very much enjoyed piloting the survey and interview and have gained a better insight on how to conduct these in my final inquiry. The main thing I need to focus on is how to actually use the data I receive? How am I going to analyse it? Also I need to ensure that the methods used give me the answers I need. Will the answers/results answer my inquiry questions? Therefore careful consideration needs to be taken over the content for each method to ensure they are successful.