The Effective Manager
Reflective journal component
Marks allocated: 10%
A reflective journal is a collection of notes, observations, thoughts and other relevant materials built up over a period of time and usually accompanies a period of study, a placement experience or fieldwork.(University of Worchester, 2006).
Its purpose is to enhance your learning through the very process of writing and thinking about your personal experiences. Your reflective journal is personal to you and will reflect your personality and experiences throughout the module.
A reflective journal should not be a purely descriptive account of what you did/learnt but an opportunity to communicate your thinking process: how and why you learntwhat you learnt, and what you now think about what you learnt.
At level 9, reflection should be critical in tone, looking to analyse linkages between module themes, your learning, experiences, and development.
What is reflection?
Reflection is an activity in which you recapture your experience, think about it (alone or with others), evaluate it, and then act upon the evaluation (Centre for Employability, University of Central Lancashire, 2006).
However these processes doesn’t necessarily happen in order. You could experience all of these processes in the act of writing one sentence. Reflection works best when you think about what you are doing before, during and after your experience, in our case, before, during and after The Effective Manager class.
Reflective learning requires that you think through issues for yourself, ask questions and seek out relevant information to aid your understanding.
Why is this important?
Apart from the fact that it is an essential piece of coursework, a reflective journal is important because it:
• Provides a ‘live picture’ of your growing understanding of the module and its varied content (gives it shape and colour etc.)
• Demonstrates how your learning is developing
• Keeps a record of your thoughts, emotions and ideas throughout your experience of learning
• Helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses and preferences and skills in learning
• Allows you to develop skills at self-evaluation
• Often leads to an increase in confidence and self-esteem
What are the aims of your journal?
Aims
Think carefully about why you are keeping this journal (apart from the assessment) as this will help you decide what to write about and will keep you focused on the task. Are you trying to see how you respond to the variety of lectures, for example, or perhaps you wish to explore how you learn about ways of approaching level 9 learning. You can have more than one aim, 4-5 would seem reasonable. Tip: Make a note of your aims in your journal – in fact your first entry might be to discuss your aims.
Questions to consider to get you started:
1. What sort of learner am I and do I want to experiment with other types of learning? You can find out about learning styles at
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/cfe/eggs/learningstyles.htm
http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
or about team roles at
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/cfe/eggs/teamworking.htm
http://www.comp.dit.ie/rfitzpatrick/papers/Belbin’s%20Team%20Roles.pdf
http://keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx
and both learning styles and personality type dynamic for teams at
http://profilingforsuccess.com/take-an-assessment.php
When prompted, enter the following codes: Client code: tflhe, Access code: dublinit, Password: dub2010
2. What do I hope to get out of TheEffective Manager module?
3. What do I think a reflective journal is?
4. Will I find reflective learning difficult?
5. What do I know so far about this module’s themes and what do I need to find out?
6. What personal attributes will I need to be successful on this module i.e. organisational skills, initiative etc.
7. In what ways do I see this module relating to my employment, past or present. How can I connect this learning?
8. Self-Evaluation – How will I know if I have made a success of this module? (aside from the grade?!)
Questions to consider as you go along:
1. What did I learn today in class?
2. How did I feel about the experience?
3. How might other people have experienced/understood the same content. Why?
4. What did I find interesting and why?
5. What did I find puzzling or unexpected and why?
6. What do I feel about the way I am approaching the issue, subject or topic?
7. How am I learning and can I link this to any theories about learning?
8. How can I improve my learning techniques?
9. What do I need to know more about and how can I plan for further action?
10. What other resources interested or inspired me (guest speakers, workshops, visuals etc.)
11. Looking through my journal periodically, how have I improved my writing, reflection and subject knowledge?
Questions to consider near the end of the process:
1. What new knowledge, skills or understanding have I gained during the process of writing my journal?
2. How can I use this knowledge, skills and understanding in the rest of my degree and beyond?
3. Has this module helped me think about my future career?
4. How would I explain what I have done to an employer when I graduate?
5. Self-Evaluation – Have I succeeded in this module according to my own criteria?
How might you organise your material?
Date and Keyword
Make sure you date all your entries and give each entry a keyword or phrase as a title when you have finished it. It is also important to take time to recollect and review class materials or experiences by returning to the representation of the experience.
You might consider sharing your journal with a ‘critical friend’. Ideally this would be another student from the module. The main job of a critical friend is to ask probing questions to help you improve your writing and learning i.e. Why did you struggle to relate to a particular lecture’s content? What could you do to resolve this problem? How could you express this in a clearer way? etc. S/he shouldn’t criticise your journal but offer constructive feedback in a helpful and friendly manner.This is not essential. It will depend on your own approach to successful learning.
Narrative
The most common way of writing a reflective journal is to use narrative i.e. to tell a story. Human beings are natural story-tellers (think about telling your friend of partner what happened to you today) but we don’t always associate this with academic work. While all of us probably wrote stories at school only some of us will continue this creative writing. Although essays may contain some narrative form, many of you will be out of practice at writing in this way. It may feel uncomfortable to use the first person (‘I’) when you have learnt a more formal academic style. On the other hand, many people find this liberating; after all, who else is having these ideas, feelings and experiences but you.
Dynamic List of questions
A useful way to chart your progress is to keep a ‘dynamic list of questions.’ On a separate page in your journal note down any questions you have about this module and date them. Every week or fortnight return to this list. Tick off any questions to which you now have the answer and date it. Then note down any new questions. This will help you see what has concerned you and when it has been solved. You can choose a few questions to write about elsewhere in your journal.
Visuals
Theorists like Tony & Barry Buzan, authors of The Mind Map Book (2005) argue that our brain makes more connections when we display and record material visually than when we use list or narrative format. This may or may not be the case but you may find it useful to use mindmaps, different colours, photos, drawing and diagrams in your journal.
Marking criteria
The following will be taken into consideration when marking your reflective journal and will form the basis of your feedback:
The points included here are offered only as suggestions to guide you as you begin to keep a reflective journal.
The process is meant to enhance your learning experience, so use it in a way that will be most beneficial to you.
• All Journal submissions should be in one document…….not several. We will look for a minimum of 5 entries, so you should write up an entry at least every two weeks, although we do recommend doing it weekly.
• Each entry should be between 200-300 words, with a maximum total for the finished journal of 1,800 words
• Journal should have single line spacing or 1.5, font size 12, Times New Roman,
• Headings may be font size 14, but remember journal should be in a narrative style
• No page numbers, no headers or footers
• Write in 1st person singular.
• As mentioned previously, start with your aims – 4-5
• Include a cover page
• The journal should be printed
• Specifically you are required to reflect on the module learning outcomes in each entry, and the manner and extent to which you feel they were achieved.