Decision Rigidity and Operational Needs

Personal Reflection on Practice (formative) students are required to submit a written piece of an academic standard (700 words) as a reflection on their personal experience of a challenge they had faced where decisions had to be made and where there had been considerable uncertainty.

A personal reflection is a piece of writing to explore a personal experience, describing both the feelings of the author and the events. It is an opportunity to reconsider events, thoughts and emotions from a fresh perspective.

You should aim to do this in an academic style. You need to show that you can evaluate ideas and draw a comparison between those ideas, and your own. You could also reflect upon your own learning in order to identify and then evaluate a different approach that may have been helpful or unhelpful. You should aim to consider your own role in the process. The key to a successful personal reflection is to remember that it is a personal response by you.

Your response will be influenced by:  1) Your opinions, beliefs and experiences  2) Similarities or contrasts with your own experiences  3) Your emotional state at a given moment  4) Sympathy or empathy with the involved characters Even though this is personal, you need to justify your opinion.  You will need to give reasons why you developed your perspective.

Reflective writing requires personal language, although it is important to try to minimise the use of the word ‘I’. Instead, use connotation (the emotion or ‘vibe’ of a word) and modality (degree of meaning) to offer your opinions. This is a formative piece of writing at this stage. An indicative mark will be provided with guidance, but the grade will not count towards the final module mark.