Wow- I am in the thick of searching through tonnes upon tonnes of literature at the moment. I feel like I've been buried in books, papers, text, quotation marks etc etc!
One thing I wanted to share on my blog from my learning experience is how much my searching tools have developed. I recently shared a Skype with just Maria as I was the only one and we decided to share screens and start my searching process for literature which was really useful. Previous to this I hadn't been searching very 'smartly' when it came to key words. In Google books it is so easy to search the key words you are looking for from inside the book and then read around the area. Maria also advised me to think of different words that meant the same thing as what I was searching - for example - I had been searching words like mental health and dance and all it seemed to be coming up with was initiatives where people are using dance as a form of exercise to help them with their mental health, or other illnesses including Parkinson's and Dementia. Maria suggested searching the word stress - which has lead me to so many pieces of relevant literature!! The problem is I feel there is now SO much to read and explore my mind keeps going wild and running away with what I'm reading. A key thing to remind myself is what is the question? I keep coming back to this when I feel I'm wandering off my path to remind myself of what I want to find out. I have been interested in the theory of clew by Robin Nelson, as this thread I'm weaving seems to be very useful for learning, however I feel with my topic being as broad as it is, I cannot stray too far away from my path.
As far as progression from module two goes, I have also found myself seeing the same things, and the same names coming up regularly, which suggests to me these may be key players in my field of inquiry. I have done some research into these key scholars, including their background which I have found very interesting. Some people write about dance as it is a hobby for them, but others write about it as they have had a career in it. These two opposing stances to the Performing Arts world seems to be creating different opinions. When I research stressors I seem to find the same other contributing factors come up like performance anxiety, lack of self worth, and also things like financial strain, body image and the influence of social media. Every time I see something new my brain seems to send off a firework that sparks me into a new direction, and opens another door for me to look at.
Basically, although this seems to be my brain thoughts splashed across my screen, what this very 'higgledepiggly' blog is about is that I need to remind myself constantly of the question, this whole process is a learning curve that I am thoroughly enjoying and will continue to do so. I'm off to go on a run now, to manage my own 'stressors' regarding my buzzing brain!!
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