Reflective Assignment Guide

The purpose of the reflective assignment is to provide students with the opportunity to critically examine their ELR experience and connect it to the learning objectives of their major, their future career plans, as well as their personal values, goals, and skill sets.

Completion of the reflective assignment can occur in a variety of ways, however faculty supervisors should provide guidance on the preferred format. The following list offers suggestions for how to reflect on the ELR experience and complete the reflective assignment:

• 4-6 page reflection paper
• PowerPoint or other digital presentation
• Video documentary
• Journal
• Narrated photo album
• Portfolio
• Short film

Students should aim to answer the following questions in their reflection:

OBJECTIVE

This part of your analysis will include descriptions of your concrete experience.

What did you do? Whom did you work with? Where did you work? What is the purpose of the organization? What did you observe? What did you hope to learn?

REFLECTIVE

This part of your analysis will focus on how you felt or interpreted your experience.

How did you feel at the beginning of your experience? What was the first day like? A month later? Did you feel more confident? More confused? Did you feel successful? What was the most enjoyable and challenging parts of the experience?

INTERPRETIVE

This part of your analysis will focus on what you learned from your experience.

What did you learn? Did you accomplish your learning goals and objectives? Why or why not? Did your experience change the way you thought about a particular issue or your career field? Why was this experience important? How does your coursework or career field connect to this experience? Can you use what you learned in other ways?

DECISIONAL

This part of your analysis will explore how you will incorporate your new knowledge into your current state of mind.

What decisions have you made based on your experience? Have you changed any of your beliefs, opinions, and truths? What would you do differently next time? How has this experience affected your career path, your personal life choices, or your use of new information, skills or technology? How are you going to use this new knowledge in the future?