TIPS for ASSESSMENT ONE - Reading Summaries

TIPS for ASSESSMENT ONE - Reading Summaries

General comments

For your assessment, it needs to be clear how you have applied or used the COCR framework to structure your critical analysis on the issue(s) presented in the chosen article. To do this effectively, you can use the template provided.

Writing Structure

This assessment must be written in the 1st person as you will be unpacking your own thoughts and feeling on the key issues presented in the article and where your ideas are coming from.

As academic writing is worth 5 marks it is important that you have your work proof read for spelling and grammar errors. Use correct paragraph and sentence structure and APA 7 referencing. If you are new to academic writing you may want to seek some additional tutoring support through student services. You will need a reference list with a minimum of 2 references, the article you are reading and at least one other source of information (peer reviewed article or textbook) for theorising.

For further information on academic writing refer to the writing guide on the course website.

Feedback regarding use of each of the components of the COCR framework

DECONSTRUCT

Unpack the main points or articles key tenets. Try to focus on doing this in a way that is succinct (or gets straight to the key points). You will also need to consider what might be held as a taken-for granted notion in the article. What might be assumed or enshrined as the truth about a particular issue? Many of the issues we face when working with children and families have underlying assumptions about how we think about parenting, child development and childrens capacity to participate in decision-making. We may be thinking from only one perspective, which is often the dominant discourse underpinning the way we think. For example, young children do not have the capacity to make decisions; therefore adults can only speak for them or there is only one way to parent a child based on punishment and reward systems of managing childrens behaviour. If we do not open ourselves up to consider other perspectives we may be running the risk of only doing what is perceived to be the right way to parent or the right way to work with children and not be open to new possibilities. Only when we can think from more than one perspective can new possibilities and opportunities for improving practice is made possible.

If you do not understand this I would suggest you go back and re-read the reading on the COCR process. The other thing I cannot stress more is your participation in the on campus tutorials and online tutorial sessions to help you understand this concept.

CONFRONT

This is the aspect of the COCR framework that a lot of people have some difficulties with. This is where you must unpack your own values, beliefs about the issue(s) presented in the article. The two main questions are - What challenges your thinking and where is your thinking coming from?

Without confronting your own way of thinking you will not be able to hear other perspectives or to think otherwise about the issue(s), as you will be stuck in your own habitual way of thinking. This is something to be aware of in itself this learning space is difficult and whether we are early educators, psychologists, social workers, etc. we will be working with people in this space so we need to become self-aware so that we can suspend our judgement to open up to listen to other perspectives.

To improve in this area try to be specific about your thinking on the topic. i.e. I was challenged about the notion that across cultures there are different ways to define a childs capacity/development. In western cultures it appears we only think about childrens developmental capacity by their age and do not consider the childs context, functional and/or relational age in determining their developmental capacities (Morrow, 2013). Hence article challenged my thinking, as I was not aware that there were other perspectives to consider on this issue.

My thinking comes from on my own schooling experience where we were always put in with children the same age despite the fact that some of us learned in different ways and had different strengths. Hence, if you did not do well in what was considered academic subjects you were made to feel badly despite the fact that you might excel in other areas. I did not realise until I studied child development that there are other ways to consider a childs developmental capacity and there are many different ways to think about how childrens context plays a part in their development rather than their age only. This in turn has changed my teaching practice.

THEORISE

Theorising is about hearing other perspectives on the issue(s). You must integrate other theories, evidence from the literature on the topic or issue to help you to deepen your understanding or to hear a different perspective on the articles key messages. Evidence from one other peer reviewed article or textbook on the topic is drawn to support or strengthen the position held on the issue(s). This will help you to identify limitations and/or present an alternative perspective on the topic. The point here is to deepen your understanding and further your knowledge and understanding of the topic from more than one perspective. At this point you will have heard the perspective of the author or authors of the first article, have unpacked your perspective on the topic and have read another perspective on the topic.

For example, when we think about childhood and the complexity of different theories and frameworks as highlighted in the chapter Agency by James (2009), you have ample opportunity for critically reflective thinking. Given the diversity of issues and perspectives that may apply to the topic on childhood you can highlight other perspectives and/or evidence which may be contrary or strengthen the merits of the arguments made. If you did this, you would then also be well positioned to think otherwise.

THINKING OTHERWISE

With thinking otherwise, you really need to demonstrate that your conclusions are informed by both the process of introspection (confronting) and the theory and evidence (theorising) you have chosen to help you better understand the issue(s) from more than one perspective. How are you thinking now? What has changed for you and why? This is the most important part of why we ask you to employ the COCR framework, therefore you must put some emphasis on making sure your conclusions or thinking otherwise reflects this systematic process.

In thinking otherwise some people have only reinstated their own opinion or a solution to the issue. Thinking otherwise is neither about your opinion nor is about solving a problem. It is for you to re-think how you are thinking now after investigating an issue from more than one perspective. What changed in your thinking? What assumptions in your thinking have you been holding on to and now after re-examining your thinking have you reconsidered. It may be that your thinking has deepened as a result of what you have learnt about the issue or has made you think from a different perspective entirely. Finally, how will this new information or way of thinking effect the way you think about the complex issues you will encounter as a practitioner. And how will it help to improve or build on your practice.

Circles of Change Revisited

50960626182100Cartmel, J., Macfarlane, K., Casley, M., Smith, K. (2014). Leading Learning Circles for Educators Engaged in Study. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/learning_circles_resource_0.pdf00Cartmel, J., Macfarlane, K., Casley, M., Smith, K. (2014). Leading Learning Circles for Educators Engaged in Study. Canberra, ACT: Australian Government Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/learning_circles_resource_0.pdf

DECONSTRUCT (To describe what is happening. It means to pull apart the main tenets of theory that govern particular practices and closely examine their make-up: especially practices that have been described as normal and proper practice.

What is happening here?

CONFRONT (Confronting personal, social and systemic issues translate as approaching the issues head-on. This is done by examining the ideas and highlighting some of the inherit ideas that are accepted but rarely questioned about an issue or practice)

What is challenging for you? Why? Where is your thinking coming from?

THEORISE (Linking theory to practice. Apply what is known theoretically to what is happening in practice)

What theory/ research/literature helps to understand what is happening around this issue from other perspectives?

THINK OTHERWISE (Challenge yourself to think outside the usual ways of thinking. Consider the multiple perspectives and what this means for practice).

How are you thinking now? What has changed in your thinking? How will this influence practice?