My professional inquiry ...

A professional inquiry is a unique method of learning that centralises the individual in the process of learning making everyone's experience different. Before I begin a new task I always like to take a look at other students blogs to see whether I am working on the right lines and it is clear from the outset of module 2 how personal each students work will be. After asking myself some questions about my practice in my previous post and reading through the Module 2 reader I have realised some key points I should keep in mind when developing my professional inquiry. I should consider a topic that:

- extends and clarifies my professional knowledge
- continues my learning in the future
- utilises the knowledge I have gained from module 1
- is based on my professional arts practice
- engages with scenarios relevant to my workplace

'The ultimate goal of the inquiry will be to explore a topic that will benefit your work and the work of colleagues and fellow professionals, including any work organisations with whom you are affiliated.' 

This quote from the reader really stood out to me and helped me narrow down my thoughts in regards to my line of professional inquiry. I now know that I should also choose a topic which will benefit my work and the work of my colleges. I have now managed to organise my thoughts and narrow down ideas I can begin to think about some potential inquiry questions. 

Professional inquiry related concepts:

Professional inquiry is a way to learn about what you are doing while you are doing it. 

Inquiry based learning (sometimes spelled enquiry-based learning) expects the adult learner to engage with relevant problems and scenarios, draw on existing knowledge, seek out new evidence, and analyse and present that evidence in appropriate ways (Kahn and O’Rourke, 2004). 

Work based learning related concepts: 

I am familiar with the work based learning style and it's benefits and concepts. I know that WBL strategies work well for problem solving and encourages education and work to benefit each other and coexist in a working environment.

“It promotes awareness of the workplace as a learning environment and uses this to extend the learner’s capability and individual effectiveness” (Durrant et al. 2009, p. 1).  

The WBL framework can also accommodate workforce development strategies where more than one learner in the workplace is involved in the educational experience. Even with small units at work, the professional inquiry is something that can affect a number of employees, so this is an aspect of the inquiry that needs to be considered. 

I found the quote above from the reader interesting because myself and my colleague from my ballet company Grace are both BAPP students so it will be interesting to see what different educational experiences we can draw from in the workplace.