Assignment: Reflective Essay
2,500 words, excluding references.
The essay is an individual assessment. You will critically reflect on aspects of the process followed in your Team; Team dynamics; and leadership.
You might describe critical decisions and/or incidences that occurred in your Team process, evaluate, reflect on and discuss them in terms of the experience, what you learned and could have done differently and actions you might take in the future given the same experience.
It is important this is done in a structured way and employs an established reflective framework such as Gibbs' reflective cycle or similar (see Gibbs 1998 in module Reading List and attend ALSS session on reflective writing for your essay in week 2- check timetables).
Your essay will be assessed against the following 4 criteria:
1. Breadth (30% of mark)
- Does the essay present a clear and accurate discussion of the process followed in your Team to produce your response to the brief? Need Assignment Help?
- Does the essay include an assessment of how your Team worked together and the roles each member took on?
2. Depth (30%)
- Does the essay provide an analysis of your Team's proposed solution/response to the brief?
- Does it include effective synthesis of information and engagement with a range of approaches/tools and/or arguments?
3. Critical Reflection (30% of mark)
- Does it include critical reflection of the processes your Team followed, and your role within this?
- Does it clearly describe and analyse Team decisions and incidents and what you learned from them, including actions you will take in future?
4. Presentation/communication (10% of mark)
- Is the structure logical and clear and appropriate for the essay?
- Are points clearly articulated and backed up by relevant references?
Tip: Make sure your Team uses the Team Form or some other mechanism to record team roles and expectations and keeps meeting minutes/notes. This should start as soon as your Team is formed. These details will be extremely useful for the essay.
Tip: Ensure you keep individual notes (like a journal) reflecting on how things are going as you progress through the process of responding to the brief. These will be extremely useful for your critical reflection.
Tip: Before you begin the assessment, read the assessment brief and detailed marking criteria carefully to understand how marks will be awarded and why. Pay close attention, ask for clarification if needed.