Lizzie B's Blog

Workshop with Michael Cleg  (22/03/2021) Reflection allows us to learn from our experiences and be better prepared for similar situations in the future. We started the session by discussing Free Writing, which is when you write for 5 minutes on a topic without stopping. This gives you a chance to collect your thoughts and notice patterns, as well as eliminating the problem of 'internal censorship' which sometimes blocks one's ability to write.  We practiced this by writing for 5 minutes about a recent learning experience. I found it hard not to judge the quality of my writing but, towards the end, did manage to get into the flow. What I notice from reading back my ramblings is that I had a strong sense of how I felt about my learning experience, whereas it normally takes me a long time to articulate feelings in the 'right way'. This is something I will take forward to my Areas of Learning, as I have yet to write down my experiences. Using free writing might allow me...

Workshop with Bally Binning (16/03/2021) We focused on Harvard Referencing in this workshop. When referring to literature in an essay, you can do one of 3 things: - Directly Quote the source material (uses quotation marks) - Paraphrase (write idea in your own words) - Summarise (give a broad overview of the source - good for experiments/studies)  For higher grades, tutors look for paraphrasing .  To avoid plagiarism, you must cite the source you are referring to in the text. The citation can either go before or after the reference.  e.g. (Singh & Doherty, 2004, p.11-12) If there are more than 2 authors, you can use 'et al.' after the first listed author. The citation is part of the word count. Direct quotes are also part of the word count. Secondary Referencing  If you are referencing sources referred to in another source, you can use the phrases 'quoted in' or 'cited in'. e.g, ( Horton , 2012, cited in Chu , 2016)      Primary Source  ...

I've just finished the 8:15am Zoom with Peter Thomas about writing structure and it was super helpful. So, I'm going to summarise what I've learnt before I forget! Basically, for a conventional academic essay, you need to: 'Tell them what you're going to say, say it, and then tell them what you said.' I kind of already knew this from school but, it's been so long since I've had to actually write anything important, it was good to be reminded. Below is the structure that we are encouraged to use on the BAPP programme; it is 'theme-based'. INTRODUCTION (10% of the whole essay) - What? (What's the topic?, What's the focus?) - Why? (Why is it relevant to you/the reader?) - How? (How have you done the research? How are you going to present the research?) CONTEXT - Define key themes - Give background on your examples ANALYSIS - Theme A (Example 1/2/3) - Theme B (Example 1/2/3) - Theme C (Example 1/2/3) CONCLUSION - What have you found? - Why i...

I've been finding all the reading material a bit overwhelming, so I thought I could just summarise what I've understood so far from reading 'The Reflective Practitioner' by Donald A.  Schön  (Pages 1-55). The key parts that link to my own potential areas of learning are near the end, but I think it's interesting to see the history of how society has developed a need for reflection-in-action. SOME KEY TERMS   Profession  - work that needs special training and involves applying general principles to specific problems Professionals -  people specially trained to deal with problems in their specific area of expertise Avocation  - a hobby Major Professions  (term by Nathan Glazer) - jobs like law or science where there is discipline, a clear outcome and training comes from and established institution.  Minor Profession  (term by Nathan Glazer) - jobs like social work or teaching where the outcome is ambiguous, isn't so strongly linked to scientifi...