The DOTS Model

The ‘DOTS Model’ was a theory originally developed by Bill Law and Tony Watts (1977/1996). It is a 4 stage model of career planning, however this doesn’t seem to be a logical order to achieve the aims of career planning.

D:  Decision Learning
O:  Opportunity Awareness
T:  Transition Learning
S:  Self Awareness

Before embarking on the ‘DOTS Model’, there are 3 main points you need to consider:

You need to raise you self-awareness. Think about your interests? Abilities? Motivation?

Once you have done this, take the information and consider what opportunities are available to you. Create a short list of possible options of jobs in the field you want to move into and that interests you.

Based upon this list, you need to consider whether you have the right experience and necessary qualifications or whether you need to return to education.

Even though the ‘DOTS Model’ has a lovely ring to it, unfortunately, it isn’t the most logical order. A more sensible sequence would be SODT.

S:  Self Awareness
O:  Opportunity Awareness

D:  Decision Learning
T:  Transition Learning

Self: Self-Assessment is crucial. This step is usually overlooked step in planning for a new career. It is important to know who you are as a person before you can look for suitable jobs. You need to consider your interests, skills and personal qualities.

Opportunities: Having completed the ‘Self-Assessment’ stage. It is now time for the next part of the process. Researching different careers and the opportunities with that field.


Career Exploration and Decision Making: You may need to gain some work experience in that field, either by shadowing or voluntary activities. Ensure you have undertaken a sufficient amount of research, use local libraries, careers fairs before making a final decision. Self-awareness, occupational awareness and instinct can all play a part in your decision-making.


Transition: Lastly, how will you achieve your goal? For example, understanding how the recruitment process works for the career you are interested in. This will give you the best chance of promoting yourself through applications, interviews and at assessment centres.

Let me simplify it!!!

S

Self Awareness    Who am I?

O

Opportunity Awareness      Where am I?

D

Decision Making     What will I do?

T

Transition Skills      Where will I do it?

John L. Holland – The Vocational Choice Theory

Before you read any further – have a go at this quick quiz!!! - http://www.truity.com/test/holland-code-career-test

 

John L. Holland, born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1919, was an American Psychologist and Professor at John Hopkins University. During his lifetime he developed many theories, perhaps his most famous was Holland's ‘Theory of vocational personalities and work environments.’

He believed that people could be categorized into different personality groups. He concluded it was made up of six which were originally labeled as, ‘motoric, intellectual, esthetic, supportive, persuasive, and conforming.’ These were later developed and renamed to: ‘Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic (Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders), and Conventional (Organizers).’

His research showed that personalities seek out environments where they can use their abilities and skills to flourish, Investigative types search for Investigative environments. Where there is a match, they tended to be more successful and have more job satisfaction, for example an Artistic personality, such as a performer, likes to work somewhere they can use their imagination and are free to express themselves.

• Realistic (R): Realistic personalities prefer concrete tasks. They tend to like working alone or with other realistic people.
• Investigative (I): Investigative personalities likes to use their abstract or analytical skills to figure things out. They are “thinkers” who strive to complete tasks and similarly to the Realistic personalities prefer to do so independently.
• Artistic (A): Artistic members like to create things. They are imaginative and usually extroverted.
• Social (S): Social people prefer interacting with people. They tend to be concerned with social problems and wants to help others.
• Enterprising (E): Enterprising personalities lean toward leadership roles. They are willing to take on challenges and are extroverted.
• Conventional (C): Individuals who are more conventional prefers structured tasks and tending to details. They tend to be more conservative.

These traits are laid out in a hexagon arrangement. The reason behind this is,

The further away the traits are - the less the types are have in common.

For example:

Conventional                      to                      Artistic

Enjoy working with data                             Likes to be creative and work

and structured environments.                    in unstructured environments.

I felt that this was relevant to my inquiry as it would be a great place to start when looking for a new career. Holland also developed the ‘Self-directed search’ which allows individuals to identify their dominant trait. This again will help my inquiry as it will help those looking to transition who are stuck to know what fields they should explore.

I have listed a website where you can find out more information and see what jobs would suit each personality trait:  https://www.careerkey.org/choose-a-career/hollands-theory-of-career-choice.html#.WEXJHIXXLIW

Nancy Schlossberg

After an interesting Skype conversation with Paula, it became clear I hadn’t researched enough sources of information or theorists.

Ones I had previously explored were:

Donald E. Super, who created the idea of the Career Rainbow.

William Bridges, who created the process of transition.

And Danielle Austen, who took Donald E Super rainbow and created the Double Career Rainbow.

All of these sources are fantastic and have given me lots to think about regarding my inquiry however I needed to find more!

Nancy Schlossberg was the first new person I found. She explored Transition Theory. She defines transition as an event or non-event that results in a change, whether that be in relationships, routines, roles or assumptions. Schlossberg recognised four main elements that help to influence a personal ability to cope with transition, these are more commonly known as the 4 S’s, Self, Situation, Support and Strategies.

Self – she has categorised this into 2 further groups.

Psychological – your outlook on life and the change, commitment and values.

Personal – age, gender, stage of life, health.  Factors like health and age play a significant role in why lots of performers transition.

Situation

This is thinking about what triggered the transition? Is it a permanent or temporary change? How much control over this change do you have? Are you changing roles, careers or moving away? Is it stress related?

Social support

Family, friends, personal relationships – these can provide great support when undergoing a transitional phase in your career.

Strategies or coping resources – again she has categorised these into 3 groups.

Those that modify the situation

Those that control the meaning of the problem

And those that aid in manging the stress in the aftermath.

I found this theory interesting because it breaks the process down into manageable chunks. By taking each segment and answers the questions you can analyse where you are, where you want to be and how to get there? This theory will help within my inquiry. Using the 4S’s, it should help the transition to be more positive.

Progress on my direction for my Inquiry

After having a Skype chat with Paula last week, I have been hitting the books and trawling the internet for inspiration and waiting for my lightbulb moment! This actually struck me whilst at work, I was talking to some colleagues about teaching and how their path to this career. Some of them have always wanted to teach, their parents were teachers, so the decision came very naturally to them. However, some, like myself, had thought of an alternative career and fell into teaching almost by accident – but they love it!

This, again, made me revisit the career rainbow that I touched upon in a previous blog.

Some people do indeed have one career that they start when they leave school, college or university, my dad, for example worked for a bank from 18 until he retired at 58.  But, some of us change our minds, moving from one job to another – career transition. This is especially true for dancers, performers, actors, artists ect.

I began to read anything I could find about career development and transition and stumbled upon a Radio 4 documentary entitled “Why do dancers die twice?” http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1fkwdll6ZscvQtHMz4HCYYr/why-do-dancers-die-twice This was a really interesting listen and if you have any spare time maybe whilst your cooking or baking, give it a listen!

During the article, it highlights how the dancer can lose sight of who and what they are. It also states that “Typically, a dancer’s career transition can be incredibly lonely, isolating, often because you might be leaving a world where everyone’s continuing.” This got me thinking about the negative connotations to career transition. Another quote from the article states, “It can feel - because that’s all you’ve done - that you don’t know who you are outside of a dance studio, you don’t know what you’re good at, you don’t know what you’re interested in… it can be a very frightening place.” These made me look into transition theories and the emotions that people experience during this time.

I found William Bridges, “Process of Transition” and “Transition Curve”. This shows all the stages involved when transitioning, these are, denial, anger, acceptance, exploration and finally, new beginnings. This is particularly true when a performer leaves the industry and to seek a new career. When I left the theatre industry, I was very lost found it quite difficult to deal with, the Martha Graham quote jumps to mind, “A dancer dies twice – once when they stop dancing. The first death is more painful.” I find it very relatable, even though I consider myself a performer not a dancer. When you have trained for something and planned a certain career since shortly after learning to walk, it’s hard to say goodbye to that part of your life. It made me think about how having a plan B is important. I raised this in a discussion with my colleagues and I got a very interesting response for one colleague in particular, one of her sons wants to be a musician his response was, “Mum if I focus on having a plan B then I’ll never achieve plan A”.

When do you start to think about career transitions and how can you make it more positive?

Danni Austen, a fellow BAPPER, had designed a double career rainbow. Whilst interesting, it wasn’t quite accurate for my circumstances. Using her double career rainbow as a base, I added in a “wobble” or transition curve in the middle of the two rainbows – this, I feel, reflects a more accurate representation of my journey so far.

It looks like this:

 

The part between the grey lines is really what I want to focus on during my inquiry.

I feel I have had a small breakthrough and the direction I wish to pursue has become clearer! I have been working on my questions so need to crack on and conduct my interviews J

Here we go - The Final Hurdle!

I can’t believe how fast the final module has come around. It was lovely to have some time off, clear my mind and tweek a few things on my assignment but now I am ready to start my inquiry and make it the best it can be!

I have a meeting with my SIG Group tonight which will allow us to talk through the material given to us already – my brain feels like it’s going to explode already!

I have already carried out meetings with professionals in the area of my inquiry so will be blogging about my findings shortly but for now wish me luck and I’ll see you on the other side.

Task 4D - Literature 2

The second piece of literature I found was an article published in the Guardian. It dates back in 2012, however I still feel it is relevant to my inquiry.

Some questions that have arisen whilst developing my inquiry have been, “Do performers go into teaching as a last resort or because they have a passion for it?” “What makes a good teacher?” Having discussed this point with a few of my colleagues it has become apparent that passion for your subject or teaching is essential to make your lessons both enjoyable and engaging.

I found this article extremely interesting as I felt it touched on some important issues I wish to explore further in my inquiry. She states, “For me, it's the passion for your subject and interest in the success of your students that matters more than how all the acronyms add up. This is what will make you a good teacher. There's still room for individuals but you have to have the confidence and passion for your subject to make it work.” I completely agree with this statement as I believe that the love for what you are doing will bring the subject to life.

Later in the article, the writer states that many people drop out of teaching after only a few years due to the high workload and demands upon them. The article concludes by providing some words of advice to anyone wishing to pursue a career in teaching.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2012/aug/12/why-i-became-a-teacher

Task 4D - Literature 1

Literature 1 – Making sense of Drama, A guide to classroom practice by Jonothan Neelands.

As my idea for my inquiry is the transition from practitioner to teacher I thought I’d look into articles or books that related to this topic. Whilst conducting research in my local library I came across, “Making sense of drama, a guide to classroom practice” by Jonothan Neelands. It was first published in 1984 by Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.

This book is designed to give teachers from all subject areas an insight and confidence to explore the possibilities of drama in the classroom. It helps practitioners to plan and evaluate drama lessons as well as exploring the relationship between classroom drama and performances.

I thought that this book was an interesting find and would be useful when I carry out my inquiry because I want to pursue a career in the education world, whether that be in primary or secondary teaching. As I have mentioned previously, I currently teach a Saturday drama class at a dance school but this book highlights the attitude of a teacher in an educational setting.

A direct quote from the book is, “Drama (in the educational context) is not as concerned with the transmission of theatre-skills as it is with the construction of imagined experience. Imagined experience (controlled by the conventions of game and theatre) is seen as being particularly efficient context for children to try out and experiment with new ideas, concepts, values, roles and language in action (i.e. in the situational context in which they would naturally occur). Drama is to do with the child experiencing rather than with the child performing.” This also relates to my inquiry as I wanted to explore if a performer had any skills that could be transferred to a teacher role. It states that though the skills are important it isn’t as important as imagination.