Reflective writing can be helpful in working through challenging situations. Writing down your thoughts about recent events helps you organise them
Task description:
Reflective writing can be helpful in working through challenging situations. Writing down your thoughts about recent events helps you organise them and make sense of them. It allows you to take time to process the emotions associated with significant events, but at your own pace and on your own terms. If you lack experience in dealing with particular challenging situations, your quick decisions may not look as appropriate in hindsight. Reflecting on these situations and the decisions made, will allow you to consider what you might change next time. In other words, reflective writing helps you learn from challenging situations.1A reflective journal provides evidence of your thinking about how you are learning.
However, writing reflectively is not just about learning. Many studies have shown that personal wellbeing benefits flow from writing about difficult situations. The process of writing allows you to process things that may be difficult to speak about, or that you do not want to dwell on. It can give you an opportunity to express emotions but without the risk of making that expression to someone who may not understand you1A reflective journal provides evidence of your thinking about how you are coping with new and challenging experiences.
Reflective practice is an essential meta-level skill for most professions. It requires the practitioner to develop a level of self-awareness which can identify personal strengths and weaknesses and seek out ways to capitalise on those strengths and remedy the weaknesses. A reflective journal provides evidence of your thinking about your strengths and weaknesses and the effect they have on professional practice.
Unit Learning Outcomes assessed:
ULO 5: Reflect on personal capabilities and appraise oneself in relation to expectations for information professionals.
Estimated time for completion Weighting Group or Individual How I will be assessed
10 minutes per week,
3 hours in week 13 20% of final grade Individual Using a 7-Point grading scale
What you need to do
Reflect regularly throughout the semester
It is important to reflect regularly - at least every week when you engage with the learning experiences of this unit - and keep a written record. This written record will not be directly assessed, but you could be asked to furnish it as evidence of your ongoing work towards your reflective journal during the semester. (You may choose to use GoingOK for this task).
GoingOK Signup:Sign-in to GoingOK athttp://qut.goingok.org/Links to an external site.. The initial sign-in process will require a group code:qut-ifn619. If you have used goingok previously for another unit, you may need to register with the unit code for this unit by going to this link:http://qut.goingok.org/registerLinks to an external site.. GoingOK provides an easy way for you to capture regular reflections. Your reflections are anonymised by the system, but may be analysed computationally for group level insights to teachers.Anonymised reflection data may also be used for research purposes, however your identity and personal information will remain private, and your words will never be made publicly visible without your consent. It is not compulsory to use GoingOK, however it is recommended.
Regular reflection: During weeks 1 to 4, you should use GoingOK to write a reflection each time you work on aspect of this unit. It is expected that you will reflect at least every week, but most likely more frequently during this time. You should take account of the 3 threads (experience, personal, and learning). You can use the questions above (in Essential Elements section) to guide your reflecting.
Write a reflective journal based on your short reflections
Your reflective journal will be a 2-page personal story (or narrative) which demonstrates your ability to engage in reflective practice. You should use a first-person point of view in your writing, giving your personal opinions, and using the words I and my throughout. Your writing needs relate to yourself in a way that is personal, and which authentically reflects your learning throughout the semester. Your personal story should contain 3 main threads that are woven together into a single essay:
Experiences Thread:An account of experiences during the unit that are important to you. This wont be a detailed description of everything that happened, but throughout your story you will mention key events or ideas or changes in your thinking related to your learning. Consider answering questions like: What do I notice about my situation? What does it mean for me? Why is it significant? How is it different from or similar to previous significant situations?
Personal Thread:Focusing on yourself, your feelings about what you experienced and why they are significant to you. You should also identify experiences that challenged you and the way you think and describe why you were challenged by them. Consider answering questions like: How do I feel about this? Why do I feel this way? What do these feelings say about me as a learner? What problems exist in my current situation? How do they challenge me? What impact will these challenges have on my goals and aspirations?
Learning Thread:Making meaning from challenging experiences with insight about yourself, learning from your experiences, and possibilities for personal improvement in the future. Consider answering questions like: What should I improve and why? What other ideas or perspectives can I use to improve myself? How do I personally want to change in future? What do I plan to do about it? In which direction do I head next?
Although you might think about these 3 threads separately, you should weave them together into 1 single 2-page story for your final journal. Do not use separate headings and do not write them in order. One possible way of doing this is to use the following structure:
Write 1-3 paragraphs that gives the reader some background what is important to you, and that introduces the overall common idea that links your threads together.
Write 5-8 paragraphs where one paragraph is dedicated to a specific situation/experience that you want to mention and also identifies the personal aspects of that experience in the same paragraph.
Write 3-5 paragraphs that conclude your journal with what you have learnt and how you might change in the future. Each paragraph should address a key insight that you have drawn from reflecting on your personal experiences.
Your honesty and integrity are essential for this assessment and may be verified by the teaching team from other sources. For example, your participation in studio sessions and tutorials may be used to verify claims you make about engaging with the learning activities. Your writing must be your own original work and must not include any text from other sources unless clearly identified as such. If there is doubt about whether the reflective journal is your own work, the unit coordinator may require you to furnish evidence of your regular reflections in order to verify originality. Further detail on the steps required to completing the Reflective Journal is outlined in the detailed instructions section below.
Trial Journal: Using your record of regular reflections from GoingOK, write a short reflective journal (1-page maximum) around the 3 threads. Ensure that your reflection is about YOUR thinking about YOUR experiences. Be careful to avoid too much describing or recounting which are not reflective styles of writing. Ensure that you write from the first-person point of view. Use the criteria sheet as a guide for how the journal will be graded.
Submit for feedback:Submit your 1 page journal to your tutor for formative feedback(by the end of week 4)- this is not marking, but an opportunity to see if you're on the right track.Read the formative feedback you receive on your 1-page journal and record one of your regular reflections with a focus on how you can use that feedback to improve your reflective writing for the final submission.
Continue Regular reflection: During weeks 5 to 13, you should continue to use GoingOK to write reflections related to your learning. It is expected that you reflect at least every week. You should take account of the 3 threads and use the related questions to help prompt your thinking.
Final Journal: Using your record of regular reflections from GoingOK for the semester, and your formative feedback, write a reflection (2 pages maximum) based on the 3 threads. You might like to use the format recommended in the essential elements section. Ensure that all of the essential elements have been catered for in your writing, in particular writing from the first-person point of view. Also ensure that you have carefully read the criteria sheet so that you know how your journal will be graded, allowing you to write the journal in a way that gives you a good grade.
Submit complete Journal: Save your Reflective Journal as a PDF file and submit via theprovided canvas link by the due date.
What to submit
The assignment must be saved as a PDF anduploaded to canvas prior to the assignment due date. Your file should be named in the formatstudentNumber-fullName-journal.pdfand should include your name and student number at the top of the first page (no title page). You are encouraged to upload early to avoid unexpected issues close to submission time. You may upload multiple versions, but only the latest version prior to submission time will be marked. Take care that the last version you upload is the correct version.
This assessment is criteria referenced, meaning that your grade for the assessment will be given based on your ability to satisfy key criteria. Refer to therubric on the assignment submission pageand ensure that you understand the detailed criteria.
Feedback:
You may email a 1-page reflective journal prior to the end of week 4 to your tutor for formative feedback (See instructions above). Formative feedback does not count towards your final grade, but it is based on the same criteria that will be used to grade your final submission. Submitting for feedback is highly recommended, as it will help you: (a) identify if you have satisfactorily addressed the criteria of the task, (b) understand where you can make improvements, and (c) spread your assignment load more evenly across the semester.
Under normal circumstances, you will receive marks for each criterion via a Canvas rubric within 10-15 working days of submission. Click on Grades to see your results. Usually the reason for each choice of mark is self-evident, the marker will include some written feedback about your performance. You should use this feedback to strengthen your performance in the next assessment item.
Moderation:
All staff who are assessing your work meet to discuss and compare their judgements before marks or grades are finalised.
