Critical Reflection for BAPP WBS3002 - added to

There are some very good posts up about the critical reflection - see Alan's and Rosemary's blog 1 + blog 2 + Adesola's...

Natalie and I just had a phone conversation about the 750 word that was useful to collecting my thoughts - so I would like to add to the conversation.

This is about evaluating what you did this term. It summarises what is in your 'portfolio' - a portfolio is the collection of tasks, blogs links etc. that represent your thinking about the course materials.

This piece of writing is a bit more structured than others you might have written on the blogs. Sometimes blogs are written more in a 'stream of consciousness' style that includes a lot of repetitions and thinking through things... this piece of writing is more about summarising and highlighting specific thinking that has taken place during the module. It needs to be specific.

Try reading the sentences out loud - are they too vague? Do they provide the detail needed to convince the 'reader' about the 'argument' or 'point of view' you are framing? For example, if you say you are now using Web2.0 more in your professional life - be specific how and why and relate it to some of the theories you reviewed in your blog.What ideas really helped you or got you to thinking about what you do professionally?

The first sentences are always important and often need to be rewritten several times. I like to make paragraphs - rule of thumb from USA - paragraphs are at least 3-5 sentences with introductory sentence, sentences covering the key points and concluding sentence- rules to be broken perhaps but grouping thoughts is helpful to the Reader as they follow your train of thought.

Finally, what have you achieved during the module? This is an important overriding idea that should be in this piece of writing. What have you been good at? For example, Natalie has written consistently in both her public blogs and private journals and this process has helped her organise thinking through her various professional roles. Natalie needs to tell us exactly how in her critical reflection - but to take ideas from higher education and create actions or change in professional practice is a purpose of the course. If she can convince us that this has happened, that is a real achievement.