Focus Group - Performing arts findings and whats next

Focus group review and analysis of this: Performing Arts Focus Group.

Questions I asked:

Q1. What techniques do you use to motivate boys within in your P Arts lessons?

Q2. What techniques do you use to motivate girls within in your P Arts lessons?

Q3. Why do you think boys & girls take part in KS3 Performing arts for 3 years and then give it up in KS4?

Q4. Is it a stigma that the P. Arts lessons hold?

Q5.Is it because they are only allowed to pick a certain amount of subjects they are limited?

Q6.Why are boys more likely to take Drama and Music over Dance in KS4?

Q7. How can we as a Faculty Motivate Boys to increase up take in KS4?

Q8. If we had a male Practitioner within the faculty do you think our uptake of boys would be more?

 

 

The answers that I was given I used a Dictaphone to listen back all members of staff preferred this than speaking to camera.

Q1. BMA – Plays that are fast paced, get them involved with the technical element of Drama. Lights house lights, recording the performance. Giving them responsibility. LRO One to one recollection of their work what have done well don’t want to embarrass them in front of peers. Competition element always engages boys. Show that we trust them let them do the technical side. All I am saying and this is connected with the relationship we have with our students. Even though we are female practitioners they still respect us and we respect them. MLE making their learning relevant to them link it in to everyday life cross curricular helps them to be engaged for the rest of the lesson. Let them choose their own groups this allows them to take risks. Within the subject as they are in a safe environment also performing with their friends allows them not to catch their best friends eye in the audience. 

Q2. MLE it’s proven that every boy strategy works for girls. Girls are technically more laid back and will get on with the lesson even they are not enjoying the process they find the creating exciting enough. They are just motivated by what level they will be at the end of the process.

Q3. BMA – family pressures from households sometimes their parents at home don’t have a full understanding of the skills that we teach in performing arts how the transferable skills to English can help them within in other subjects. Its seen in a different light.  They have a misconception of what we offer. LRO I don’t think the title helps Performing arts its not seen as macho or as an academic option and male tangible connotation to it. You know they think it’s all about up you get produce a scene we are not going to write.  Some of the Male staff even give us this stigma is appropriate they do this when they are a role model for students. Yes it is in gest but is this appropriate that we speak like this about our subject. BMA also there is a stigma against our subjects that it is very stereotypical that male’s who take or teach our subjects are gay. It is very negative stigma. Which we know that this is ridiculous but when we are fighting over very old stereo types how do we approach this. LRO I do think that if we had a male practitioner within our subject this may have an impact on our subject boys would see that it’s not seen as a gay subject a male role model is teaching.  BMA- When we had a male practitioner taken Drama we had the biggest uptake in Boys taking Drama. In six years only 4 girls and 18 boys took Drama this was well I think that John was taking all year 9 classes.

Q4. MLE If we are against a subject like PE and extracurricular outside of school we don’t stand a chance. In my last school there was no option blocks I did teach in a welsh school so it was slightly different but students were allowed to pick what they enjoyed at the end of the day these students are taking the subjects they must enjoy them. Performing arts had such a bigger up take not sure on the boy’s element it may have been less.

Q5. BMA – it’s strange as in society you see these bands and programs like x factor diversity and the reality TV shows it’s much popularised like acting dancing and singing.  But boys can’t make the connection they think that its TV big budget they can’t make connection that is still be seen as cool within school it just needs that one year to have a big uptake of boys and I think this stigma could be broken.

Q6. MLE – we were put against each other at one point Dance Drama and Music why would they do this. LRO they do this as they don’t want students taking 3 performing arts subjects it’s not seen as academic. This year there were so many students who wanted to take Drama and Music that they had to put it separate blocks because there was so many complaints. MLE – they were advised last year if you are taking Music you can’t take Drama. They were narrowing their minds, down even though we are shown to have the best consistent results within the school. BMA – there was a lot of bad advice from the SLT members of the school. I know our students that are taking the English Baccalaureate are heavily guided to what they are allowed to take. They’re a lot of false options and they don’t understand this.

Q7 BMA – 6 boys take Drama MLE – 5 boys take Music. GMA – Dance have no boys. LRO – if we look nationally the bigger picture it’s an issue throughout the whole country. Boys do not take dance its either seen as not macho or not seen to be academic I think nationally we have an issue its not just an issue within our school. Even if we had maybe 2/3 students taken the subject we may have that ball rolling seeing the difference that 2/3 boys would make they would be potential role models. Might actually cause the younger boys to look and see it is actually okay we can take it its actually okay to take this subject.

Q8. LRO – MALE TEACHER all of us agree on this.

Q9. BMA- Depending on who the male was if it was somebody who was old or quite feminine would it work LRO you say that but Lawrence was old and extremely old he introduced dance here he had 5 boys take it at btec in sixth form. He totally transformed the performing arts for us. I think it just needs to be that right male practitioner that boys engage with. A strong Male practitioner. MLE – I don’t think that it matters how strong we all are as practitioners as we all I think that male person would help. GMA maybe we have a visiting comes in volunteers and creates that persona for the boys. LRO ethically we can’t advertise for just a male practitioner it needs to be equal opportunities.  How many Male dance practitioners are out there?

 

So after this focus group I decided to research Male practitioners in the area I looked back at my college friends and see what boys were teaching in a secondary school I also asked the staff at my school if they knew anybody. I managed to speak to 2 male practitioners both are young and I know would be seen as cool and are straight not that has anything to do with it. Both Male practitioners only have 1 boy for dance GCSE and no boys for A Level is it just the boys in secondary schools today who have the issues are they just not interested in taking Dance as subject further as a subject.

 After this we had an option evening for year 9 this what at school. I take the boys Dance club the 3 year 9 boys who come to this have opted to take Dance next year I am really pleased was it something I did or was it because all 3 boys have someone to confide in that they want to take it together I think I may need to ask these boys why they are taking Dance I know that I will need send letters home to parents to interview them and discuss with them that the boys will remain anonymous. The head  of my school is happy with me taking this forward.

 

 

Finally a start to Module 3

Findings from my Observations of Male Practitioners from Cross Curricular

 

I started to observe the performing art subjects but realised that we use a lot of the same methods to engage boys at KS3 and 4 level and we are all Female Practitioners. I wanted to see how boys are motivated and how they react differently to a Male Practitioner in a different area of the school. I asked a few Male members of staff. I asked 3 from 3 different areas. RE (they have to take this at GCSE) MATHS (they have to take this at GCSE) then I went in DT ( an option which is against the performing arts lessons when they get to KS4). I went see them teach KS3 then KS4. My findings was at KS3 the boys were motivated how we motivate them within the performing arts by competition  and being able to work with their friends. In DT a lot of independent learning was being seen and the students had ownership over their own learning this is exactly the same for KS4. The DT lesson in KS4 had less competition to it. Students were engaged by creating and making and engaging with their own learning. They were being left to their own devices and being independent. Which we don’t do in the performing arts unless they are working on an evaluation or Solo piece. As Drama, Dance and music all work with you being a team player when creating and devising maybe its something we could introduce within KS4. So they are more independent.  Maths and RE lesson there was no difference between KS3 and 4. They worked from a desk had Questions to figure out and they didn’t work in groups. I found this very strange seeing this as the students work very differently in this environment. They are pretty much silent there is no interaction with other students. I really thought that group work would have helped discover some of the answers then they could have gone off independently. To be honest the Maths and RE lessons didn’t help much they are both to far on the spectrum from Performing arts. So results from the seeing these lessons:

1. Students at KS3 level don’t act that much different within different subject areas.

2. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Male or Female practitioner they will work quite similar and both boys and girls both like competition against one another.

3. They like working with the same sex.

4. At KS4 both boys and girls are engaged by grade if they enjoy the subject both boys and girls are motivated by aspirations of what they will achieve from this lesson for their future.

5. Boys and girls I feel are less engaged at KS4 when they work independently I feel that students should work in groups even in Maths and RE I feel that their understanding of the subject or questioning being asked would help. Then they should work independently.  

 

What will I implement into my Lessons?

1.       I will let students work in their groups from now on and see how it works I know they are given a lot more freedom in Performing Arts subjects so I might put more expectations in place.

2.       I would like to add more competition to my lesson as I feel this will add more engagement and motivation for the boys. Also the girls will want to be better than the boys so this will engage them as well.

 

Teach meet conference

I did attend a Teach meet conference in the week where I went to a seminar on Boys, Boys, Boys, We was given a hand-out that would help us with boys motivation and engagement this was separated into sections. Relevance, consistent, competitiveness, Engagement, What drives students and general points that engage boys. I had a conversation with the Female teacher at the end of the seminar and asked her what she taught she teaches Music she is Head of Music I ask her where she got this information from she has completed a Masters in Boys motivation. Below are some the key points I am going to take into my lessons from this seminar.

1.       Relevant: Boys are typically more interested in learning if they understand why they are learning and how this well effect them in their future.

2.       Consistent: Make sure boys are aware of your expectations and rules. They like consistency and structure to a lesson. They fill more aware and comfortable if they know their expectations.

3.       Competitive: It is proven that boys work better when they work with friends as they feel comfortable to compete against other groups. Sometimes Girls VS Boys works but it is actually proven that this actually places a further gap between genders and is sometimes not positive.

4.       Student Driven by: Boys are engaged by doing and getting on task as soon as possible. They typically tend to have short term attention spans.

5.       Boys are engaged when:

·         Lessons are broken down in chunk size pieces.

·         They are allowed to think pair share before given an answer. This gets them tp practise the answer first then oral give their feedback.

·         Praising boys not in front of other students it’s not seen as being   ‘cool’

·         Working with their friends they will take more risks as they feel incredibly comfortable doing this around friends than peers.

6.       2 quotes that I have taken away:

·         ‘ For most boys, It is more important to be one of the lads than It to work in school. A common view is having a laugh or mucking about is what boys do well’ – Pickering, 2007 P.37

·         ‘Some girls work harder than boys and some boys work harder than girls. It all depends on whether they like the subject.’ – Wright, 2001, P.288

7.       Someone ask the question what about girls the Practitioner answered with the question it is proven that anything that works for boys motivation and engagement works for girls motivation and engagement.

This really helped me understand boys more and their engagements but my next question I asked her what was her up take after this for boys at KS4? She still has less boys than girls and pretty much the same percentage as what we have she has 20 students and only 6 of them are boys in her music class. So even doing all this at a KS3 level it’s still not motivating them to take it for KS4 subject. I think that I need to look into the option process within schools. I have a literature on the dying Performing arts subject within schools because of the English Bachelorette.

 

My next step Literature Review.