ASSIGNMENT THREE
Assignment 3: Self-Reflective Portfolio
Worth: 35%
Length: Max. 6 pages
Due Date: 12pm Wed, 3. June
Task: Students are required to submit an individual self-reflection portfolio consisting of three sections:
1. A pre-subject reflection on student’s main assumptions and expectations on the subject including tensions students have identified in their experience with managing, leading, stewardship.
2. A mid-subject reflection on learning/changes/tensions as a result of in-class and out-of-class discussions/materials/experiences; students must include a reflection on the ‘lived case’ that will be role played in class. This section requires students to identify major learning and changes as well as new/ongoing tensions/open questions.
3. A post-project reflection on learning including an outlook for the future and the development of your personal action-guiding principles. In this section, students are required to reflect on their experience in the subject, what they have learnt, what has changed for them, what tensions were resolved, what tensions remained or what new tensions opened. A concluding paragraph has to be included on the student own philosophy of managing, leading & stewardship. This paragraph need to articulate the student’s own action-guiding principles and how these will guide the student’s judgements and actions in the future.
Students will have to bring a work-in-progress self-reflective portfolio to one of the tutorials (to be advised) and provide peer assessment to another student.
Please note: No portfolio will be assessed without peer-assessment.
What is a self-reflective portfolio?
A self-reflective portfolio is a collection of thoughts, ideas, concerns and reflections on your learning as you take the journey over the course of this subject. You should reflect on your original assumptions, what you are learning, what is changing and how you are putting into practice what you are learning as you study. Your reflections must include:
- your original assumptions of managing, leading, stewardship and your expectations of the subject
- your experiences in the seminars
- your thoughts while reading and reflecting
- thoughts and feelings from your learning that you notice have entered your head while working and dealing with organisational and management issues and problems
- thoughts and feelings during and after completing exercises, doing your individual and group assignments and so on.
The self-reflective portfolio must be a creative piece. It is advised that students take notes from their first session which they will use to complete the portfolio.
Why a self-reflective portfolio?
Several studies in management education, and postgraduate education generally, have provided strong evidence that reflective learning is one of the most critical and powerful components to lifelong learning (Gustavs and Clegg, 2005). Many studies have shown that when students are asked to keep journals the impact of learning is far greater, richer and rewarding- this is especially so when approached creatively and symbolically [through art for example] (Barry, 1996).
You are doing a self-reflective portfolio because it will facilitate your learning in a way that how you think and what you think is influenced by what you learn. Typically, what you know usually affects what you do. Hence, the portfolio aims to bridge the gap between what you think and what you do (i.e. Theory and Practice or the Knowing-Doing Gap), while at the same time developing and improving the knowledge and how it is applied.
How do I keep and present a self-reflective portfolio?
It is strongly advised that students keep notes from their first session in this subject which they then can use to complete the self-reflective portfolio.
While we do not want to determine what students’ creativity will look like, we do have to place some boundaries around the self-reflective portfolio in order to ensure it serves its purpose. The self-reflective portfolio must contain the following:
• Three sections of entries: One at the start of the subject, one half-way through (written mid-April) and one after the last session.
• A description of thoughts and feelings before starting the subject, at mid-point and after finishing the last session.
• Discussions of how you implemented or utilised learning from this subject in practical ways.
• Students can include a collage of creative works; references to movies, readings, and news paper articles; proverbs and metaphors, drawings, cartoons, etc that have either caused you to reflect on the topics discussed in class or exemplified an issue or topic covered in class or in your readings and discussions and assignments.
• A final entry of about 300 words that seeks to synthesise all your entries and bring together all your key learning including the articulation of your personal philosophy of managing and leading (this is part of the post-subject reflection section of the portfolio).
• We are not too fussed how students present their portfolios. Students may type it using word (etc), or can keep an art scrapbook. Students can do a combination of both, and print their word documents, cut them up and place them in the scrapbook. Use whatever is most comfortable with. However, please do not handwrite as handwriting is almost always difficult to read.
• AND PLEASE BE CREATIVE!
MARKING CRITERIA
Weighting
Pre-subject reflection (max 2 pages)
- Overview of main assumptions about managing, leading, stewardship
- Statement of expectations on the subject
- Identification of key areas/topics related to managing, leading, stewardship that are of concern to the student or create tensions 10
Mid-subject reflection (max 2 pages)
- Depth of thinking and reflection (inside knowledge communicated and contemplated intra-personally): How well does the student demonstrate his take up of new knowledge in the class? Does the student think about how well his existing knowledge is working for him in his everyday practice, and what needs to or has changed in terms of his thinking?
- Transference (inside knowledge applied outwards): How well does the student show that s/he is able to integrate the knowledge learned in class and apply it into practice? Does s/he provide well thought out examples?
- Perceptions and interpretations (outside environments turned inwards): How well does the student demonstrate an ability to read his/her environment and make sense of it with his/her newfound knowledge? That is, what signs, symbols and stimuli catch his/her attention and how is s/he making sense of these things. 10
Post-subject reflection (10) (max. 2 pages)
- Depth of thinking and reflection (inside knowledge communicated and contemplated intrapersonally): How well does the student demonstrate his development during the subject? What has changed? What hasn’t changed?
- Transference (inside knowledge applied outwards): How well does the student show that s/he is able to integrate the knowledge learned in class and apply it into practice? Has the student developed own action-guiding principles?
- Perceptions and interpretations (outside environments turned inwards): How well does the student demonstrate an ability to read his/her environment and make sense of it with his/her newfound knowledge? That is, what signs, symbols and stimuli catch his/her attention and how is s/he making sense of these things. 10
Creativity (throughout portfolio)
Creativity is the ability to take knowledge and perceive things in new ways:
Is the student demonstrating that s/he is able to think about things in new ways, come up with new ideas and solve problems both internally (intrapersonal) and externally (contextual)? Does the student demonstrate creative ways to address contradictions/tensions that s/he is facing/might face in their relationships at work/at home/in the community? 5
TOTAL MARKS 35
Typically the poorer portfolios have some or all of the following characteristics:
• Illogical, unreflective sections that provide no synthesis in learning (it’s just a bunch of entries – unrelated and independent of each other in terms of thinking and reflexivity.
• Similarly, creative and practical illustrative example are ambiguous, disengaged and fail to demonstrate reflective learning.
• The student forgets the portfolio is about managing, leading, stewardship and treats it more as a personal journal. While it is good that you view this task in a personal way, DO NOT forget it must always be reflexive of managing, leading, stewardship as practice.
• The student tries to write the portfolio in a week (and sometimes) a night before it’s due for submission. Students who do this almost always fail the task.
• The portfolio provides little or no reflexivity. Rather it is nothing more than a descriptive piece that lists what happened and what was said in class. For example
o “Today we played the Prisoner’s Dilemma” we were put into groups which I did not like. We were then given instructions to bid. I said I wanted 20, someone said they wanted 30….The lecturer then debriefed and we went home’.
IMPORTANT NOTES ON ALL ASSIGNMENTS
To pass this subject you MUST gain an overall mark of 50.
‘TRUTH IN WRITING’ Requirement
To avoid -plagiarism- and to demonstrate that you have read the literature and understood the ideas and arguments, YOU MUST clearly acknowledge where your ideas came from. This not only demonstrates good scholarship but also shows that you have read widely.
For ALL assignments students must fill in the ‘TRUTH IN WRITING” SHEET, which you can find at the end of this document.
NO ASSIGNMENT will be accepted or marked unless all details are filled in appropriately and the cover sheet is signed and submitted with your assignment.
Return of Assignments
Every effort will be made to return graded assignments before the next assignment submission. To give some perspective, you might think 2,000 words seems like a lot to write – 2000 words multiplied by the number of students (e.g., 40 per tutorial) is a lot of words to mark (2,000 x 40 = A LOT OF WORDS!)
Subject & Assignment Grading
High Distinction 85% Outstanding material, in terms of depth, academic research, richness of reflections and ability to connect theory and practice. The entire work is flawless. Typically, HDs are rare.
Distinction 75%-84% Excellent critical and analytical work supported by in-depth research. Insightful reflection and very good ability to connect theory and practice. No grammatical, referencing errors.
Credit 65%-74% Very Good work. No grammatical, referencing errors. Written at a high postgraduate level – MASTERS level.
Pass 50%-64% Higher Pass: Good work. Demonstrated a satisfactory level of critical thinking and analysis. All elements of the assignment are covered well. There are no errors in any aspect of the logistics of the presentation, as stated in the subject outline.
Lower Pass: The student completed ALL aspects of the assignment at a satisfactory level.
Fail 0-49% The assignment lacks depth, research, analytical thought, and critical analysis of the material. Limited reflection. Lack of connection between theory and practice. Little attention is paid to the requirements of the assignment. If Student is shown to have plagiarised (instant fail may be awarded= 0).