What Can I Learn From This? Please help if you can!

I've just graduated and without a relevant agent for the jobs I actually want, I am scouring the net searching for audition after audition, applying and waiting to hear. To get an actual response and getting to the audition stage is a small miracle in itself. In normal job terms it's just the interview part. So I got one through Spotlight, which I recently went to. I came fully prepared, did everything that needed to be done, got down to the last round and am now waiting to hear. So that was my experience. However today my success was rained upon when I was out with friends and one mentioned the certain company I had recently auditioned for is blacklisted and that she was told she should stay away. The second part of my "concrete experience".

Reflecting on this situation later today, I was firstly very upset, because just when I think things are starting to look up in the start of my career, everything falls down again and I'm back to square one. On one hand I might find out that I haven't got the job so this isn't even an issue, but what if it turns out I have? What should I do? Has anyone else been in this situation? I'm sure within this industry much of this "blacklisting" goes on, and I am only just beginning to get to grips with it. Since reading Alan's post of quotes from previous students of this course, they've already helped me look at this situation differently; rather than get upset; what can I learn from this?

So the concluding part and learning from my experience i.e abstract conceptualisation, I am not actually very sure. It might be possible some of you have come across this dilemma, and I would be grateful to hear what you did in this situation. Then I can go on to the "active experimentation" part of my cycle and try out what I've learnt! Thanks in advance!

21st October Update

Since I posted the above I checked with Equity to find out if the company was ok and they are. In conclusion, if this problem were to occur again, straight away I would contact equity. I have learnt from this experience to not always take seriously what "friends" say and how to deal with this situation in future. So, that's the abstract conceptualisation done. I shall wait to continue to the next part of the cycle.

The Kolb Learning Cycle

by Lucy, KT and Sophie

A. Concrete Experience

Yesterday we went to the Cat Hill campus at Middlesex University and looked at the Learning Cycle process by David Kolb (see diagram). We were given extracts from an anonymous peer's blog, which we separated into the relevant stage of Kolb's system.

B. Reflective Observation

At first we were slightly bemused and unsure of the process. By dissecting the text and applying it to the cycle it enabled us to fully understand the diagram.

1. We felt the Concrete Experience was the easiest section to understand. Our understanding of this section is now "a previous personal experience that has happened".

2. The Reflective Observation of the text was another easy part to analyse, understanding it to be reviewing the event or experience.

3. Abstract Conceptualisation. This was a difficult section for us to decipher. We had difficulties differentiating between active and reflective as many tend to cross over. We simplified the term to developing an understanding by seeking information or forming new ideas.

4. Active Experimentation. We made a mistake in our cut and paste exercise with this section. Upon reflection we then realised our sentence should have been placed in the Abstract Conceptualisation. To make this section more understandable we referred to it as "trying out new ideas and learning from experience".

C. Abstract Conceptualisation

After our initial task we then asked to develop our text. We were asked to fill in any gaps of the cycle that were missed by our blogger's text. For example we had nothing in the Active Experimentation section, we would empathise with the blogger and create our own excerpt.

D. Active Experimentation

To put our experience into practice we will write about identifying instances when we have seen ourselves in each of the stages of Kolb's learning cycle. We will also write our learning diaries (and edit our blogs) accordingly to fit with this new learning cycle. My writing is below:

Another instance when I have seen myself in the different points of the Kolb cycle would be during the beginning of this home blog. Firstly, I didn't know where to start in the way of posting. I didn't want to start directly with information about myself. This is what I eventually did, but I didn't post it first. So I started my first blogging experience by posting a picture of Martha Graham. In terms of Kolb's cycle this was my concrete experience; posting a blog.

After experiencing other blogs and becoming a more accomplished blogger myself I reflectively observed that this picture meant nothing, nor told very much useful or interesting information to the reader. So why should anyone read a blog, which is merely a collection of photos that can be found elsewhere on the internet. As they say a picture can say a thousand words, but it doesn't mean it says what I personally feel about the picture.

My abstract conceptualisation of this problem was that if I am going to post an item, picture or link onto my blog, I should post with it an explanation, description or reason for putting it on there. It gives the reader more incite into a idea or topic, which consequently is more interesting than a picture on it's own with no explanation.

My active experimentation was to then add information about Martha Graham and how she had been a part of my training indirectly. I also added a link to a website, where there's is some more information about her. I compared her dance styles to another contemporary dancer. I set out the writing in the form of Kolb's cycle, starting with my studying of Graham's style, then reflecting the style, I went on to conclude the different styles of contemporary dance and finally completed the cycle with a plan to experiment with what I've learnt and try the stylesin my own choreography.

There you have a Kolb cycle within another Kolb cycle.