Posted: May 31st, 2015

Coursework 2: A fieldtrip or placement reflective diary

Coursework 2: A fieldtrip or placement reflective diary (40% of total module mark)

 

Students should submit a reflective diary of 2,400 words. This diary should address between six and nine events experienced during a fieldtrip, or six to nine specific days during the placement.

 

The format of this diary submission should be similar to the learning journal. Each of these individual events/days should be written up: (a) assessing what was learnt; (b) identifying this learning’s relevance to the student’s course; (c) reflecting upon the immediate impact of this learning; and (d) considering the longer term benefit of this learning.

 

More advice on how students could go about writing a reflective diary, and how best to structure this assessment follows in this handbook – in the What is a learning journal? What is a reflective diary? section.

 

 

 

What is a learning journal? 

What is a reflective diary?

 

 

A learning journal or a reflective diary is a collection of notes, observations, thoughts and other relevant materials built‐up over a period of time and maybe a result of a period of study, a fieldtrip, or placement experience. Its purpose is to enhance your learning through the process of writing and thinking about your learning experiences. Your learning journal or reflective diary is personal to you and will reflect your personality, preferences and experiences.

 

Why use a learning journal/reflective diary?

 

• To provide a“live” picture of your growing understanding of a subject experience
• To demonstrate how your learning is developing
• To keep a record of your thoughts and ideas throughout your experiences
• To help you identify your strengths, areas for improvement and preferences in learning

 

Learning journals and reflective diaries help you to be reflective about your learning. This means that your journal or diary should not be a purely descriptive account of what you heard, or what you have done, but an opportunity to communicate your thinking process: assessing how what you have learnt fits into your wider course and your overall thinking about international security.

 

What is reflective learning?

 

Reflective learning is a learned process that requires time and practice. It is an active process: involving thinking through the issues yourself, asking questions and seeking out relevant information to aid your understanding.

 

Reflective learning works best when you think about what you are doing before, during and after your learning experience. Reflective learning is therefore not only about recognizing something new, it is also about see reality in a new way.

 

Reflection is an important skill to develop and requires you to think about how you are personally relating to what is happening in the workshop, fieldtrip or placement.

 

Content of your learning journal

A learning journal should focus on your personal responses, reactions and reflections to new ideas or new ways of thinking about a subject that you have been introduced through asking questions such as:

 

• What do I think about this issue/topic/experience?
• Has this event reinforced or challenged my assumptions, understanding, perceptions and ideas?
• Was anything associated with this event confusing or difficult to understand?
• What more do I need to know about this issue to help my understanding?
• Should I refine my ideas and beliefs as a consequence of attending this event?
• How should I identify, locate and interpret relevant information and resources to learn more about this issue?.
• How can I use this experience to improve my learning and thinking and working?
• And, in the specific case of M40ISS, how does this event relate to what I have learnt elsewhere on my course? How does if confirm/contradict my current understanding of international security?

 

What should you write about in your journal and diary?

 

You could break this reflection down into:

1. What you have leant
2. This learning’s relation to your overall course
3. Your immediate reflections on this learning
4. The potential longer term impact of this learning

 

Questions you could ask yourself:

 

1. What have I learnt?

• What have I learnt in this session?
• Was this learning new knowledge, or reinforcing knowledge I already had, or a combination of both?
• What was the most important thing I leant from this session?
• Is there any further research I should do to help me further understand the significance of this session?

 

1. This learning’s relation to your overall course

• How does the content of this session relate to what I have learnt on other modules or my independent research?
• How does the content of this session relate to the literature of my discipline/course?
• Does what was leant reinforce or contradict what I have read in the academic journal sand books?
• What did this session tell me about international security praxis?
• What contribution does this speaker make to international security?

 

1. Your immediate reflections on this learning

• What you think about issues discussed at the learning event?
• Any flashes of inspiration you had
• What you understand so far
• What you find puzzling, difficult or contradictory
• How can you reach a better understanding
• What do you need to know more about, and how can you go about finding out more?
• What resources have helped you to understand and/or been interesting to use
• How do you feel about the way you have approached the subject/topic so far
• What new knowledge, skills or understanding have you gained during the process of writing your journal?

 

1. The potential longer term impact of this learning

• Have you changed your opinions or values during the process/experience?
• How can you improve your learning, thinking and working in the future?
• Have you identified the next step for your development?

 

How should I write/structure my journal/diary

 

You should reflect upon each speaker session/fieldtrip event/day on placement individually, posing the questions in (a) to (d) above. These ongoing notes will form the journal/diary itself, and provide the foundation of the assessment. This journal should be kept for future reference, and tutors may ask to see these rough notes.

 

The actual submission will be writing up these field notes to create a more formal presentation (i.e. using full sentences and correct grammar).

 

The number of individual events that need to be written up are:

• The speaker session learning journal – the writing up of six selected sessions
• The fieldtrip diary – the writing up of nine discreet events
• The placement diary – the writing up of nine individual days experience

 

These reflections, for the submitted assessment, must use the (a) to (d) four point structure above. There is no need to write a collective introduction or conclusion for these assessments. Your diary/journal should take the form of a series of reflections addressing each individual event – preferably written up from your notes soon after the event itself.

 

 

 

Below is my professor explained detail about this paper:

 

“Dear all,

I hope your fieldtrip reflective diaries are going well.

I have been asked to clarify the number of events you need to document in this diary. Originally this was set at 9, and later I have reduced this to 6-9 events.

My objective here is to give you flexibility to define what an ‘event’ actually is (within reason). Some of you who went to Sicily, for example, may want to write up the day spent with the police as one event, while others may want to separate out the flying squad part from bomb disposal display, calling this two events. I would be happy with both approaches.

Likewise, as another example, those who went to NYC/Washington DC may want to count the 9/11 memorial and museum visit(s) as one or two separate events. Again, this is up to you.

What I don’t want is the whole diary concentrating on just one event or day, or, on the other end of the scale, a fragmented report managing to find 15 isolated events to write about.

In short, don’t get too hung up about the number of ‘events’ – just make sure you cover a range of these.

Hope that helps”

 

 

 

As I only have two lectures PPT you can use for two events in the paper maybe. Others I attached some other information please check. And since there should be two more events still need, please follow the syllabus to get some information till to enough of 6 events. For example: the first day we had campus tour, maybe you could write about something about American university, especially UC San Diego something like that. And maybe write something around the academic area. etc. my professor does explained something in the attachment of the instruction, please read and create two more good events to write please. Thank you!