Reflection Instructions
Weight: Each Reflection is worth 5% of your course grade; combined, the five Reflections account for 25% of your final course grade.
Reflection 2: after Unit 5
Reflection 3: after Unit 8
Reflection 4: after Unit 11
Reflection 5: after Part III, once you have completed the Literature Review Paper
Overview
You are required to write and submit five (5) Reflections over the duration of the course. The Reflections provide you with the opportunity to reflect privately with your tutor on your reading, learning, and experiences. You may choose to use a case study, to pose questions, or to use metaphors or other methods to demonstrate prior knowledge and experience, and to integrate new information, ideas, or skills. Contact your tutor if you need help selecting appropriate topics.
Write each Reflection when you have completed the assigned readings for the units after which it is due. Submit each Reflection in its drop box on the course homepage.
You must receive your tutor’s feedback on each Reflection before you submit the next one. This is to make sure that you can benefit from your tutor’s comments and make the most of your thinking about the course topics. You will not have access to the drop box for the next Reflection until you receive your tutor’s feedback on the previous one.
Content
In each Reflection you will address three (3) distinct topics.
Each of the three topics in each Reflection should have a “Discussion” heading and a “New Learning and Relevance” heading, as indicated in the following outline:
Reflection [Number of Reflection]
Topic 1: [Name of the Topic]
Discussion
New Learning and Relevance
Topic 2: [Name of the Topic]
Discussion
New Learning and Relevance
Topic 3: [Name of the Topic]
Discussion
New Learning and Relevance
The content of the two sections should be as follows:
1. Discussion
Summarize and discuss the issue or topic that you have chosen to write about. Write a thorough discussion of the topic in your own words. Your goal is to show your tutor how much you have learned. The summary of each topic should be at least two or three paragraphs long.
2. New Learning and Relevance
Explain the relevance of the learning to your experience and previous knowledge. What have you learned in your studies about this issue or topic that you did not know before? Was there information that confirmed previous knowledge and beliefs? Was any of the information unexpected? Was there anything that caused you to ask questions?
These questions might help to guide your thinking when discussing new learning and relevance:
a. In what ways are you being challenged by your current reading, viewing, and studying?
b. What is puzzling you as you are reading?
c. What are the connections between your life and what you are currently reading, viewing, and studying?
d. What was interesting?
e. What was new learning for you?
f. Are you discussing any points from the course materials with others in your field?
g. How will you use your knowledge?
h. What evidence led you to your thoughts?
i. How is this learning relevant to your work with children or adults with learning disabilities?
Reflection 5 should be similar in length to the other reflections and should use the same format, but its content should be somewhat different. Reflection 5 is your opportunity to reflect upon the course as a whole, evaluating its relevance for you and your work. Select three topics related to your experience of the course. For example, you might choose to consider one of the following questions:
