This document provides guidance for students on completing a reflective journal assignment. It includes an overview of the assignment which asks students to reflect on what they have learned over the last three weeks and incorporate course materials with their own experiences. Students must address two questions on whether public relations theory and practice is universal and the value of cultural diversity in PR teams. The document then provides tips on how to start the reflection, including reviewing resources, understanding the grading rubric, and planning. It discusses generating personal responses and using examples and quotes to support opinions. Finally, it introduces frameworks for structuring critical reflection, including the 5R's Framework, and encourages brainstorming, planning, and drafting to develop the reflection.

1. Assessment 2: Reflection
Adapted from work by Rhonni Sasaki

2. From the task sheet…
• Assessment overview
• This reflective journal requires you to demonstrate your
understanding of the information you’ve learned and gathered over
the last three weeks. Ideally you will incorporate this information
with your own understandings and experiences of PR. As such you
will be able to generate new schemas and conceptual frameworks.
• We hope to guide you through this personal reflection process by
offering questions to which you should respond using the
information provided by content pages and weekly readings as well
as any other research or reading you’ve undertaken on your own.
Motivation:
Extrinsic: 30% across two journal entries.
Intrinsic: Immeasurable?

3. From the task sheet…
Assessment details
• Your reflection should seek to address the two following questions:
• Is public relations theory and practice universal? Should good
practitioners allow for variations in local operating environments?
(Provide a couple of examples of how this might be done).
• Is there organizational value in reflecting the population and
cultural diversity of an organisation’s operating environment with
its representative team of public relations professionals? If so why?
If not, why not?
600 words (+/- 10%)

4. How to make a start?
Review your resources
Understand the rubric
Brainstorm and plan
Format and structure your writing
Know how to reference sources
“'One of the most engaging uses of personal
student journals is as a mirror of the mind.
In this mode, journals invite learners to find
language deep within self to array one's
hopes, dreams, disappointments, concerns
and resolves…..The result is that students
often express astonishment and delight at
the kaleidoscopic self portraits which
emerge from the pages of their notebooks
as they journey through a course.'
(Bowman, as cited in Moon, 2003, p5)

5. What do you have to work from?

6. Personal Reflection…
The key to writing a successful personal reflection is to remember that it
is a personal response made by you. Therefore, your responses are
usually different from someone else’s. Your response will be influenced
by:
1) Your opinions, beliefs and experiences
2) Similarities or contrasts to your own life (i.e. experiences you can
identify with)
3) How real or believable a subject / text is
4) Your emotional state at a given moment
5) Sympathy or empathy with characters
Even though you have been asked to provide a personal response you will
still need to justify your opinion. This means you need to give reasons
why you developed your ideas.You can support your response through:
1) Examples from the text
2) referring to specific events within a text
3) referring to specific quotes within a text
(Feledy, 2011, http://bit.ly/1f5TuMJ)

8. 2. Ability to articulate your ideas
Unsatisfactory
Excellent
Max Marks = 1 Very little
analysis of teaching and
learning in the 21st century.
Very few or undeveloped
personal examples of what this
means to you.
Max Marks = 6 Demonstrates
a deep understanding of
teaching and learning in the
21st century and personal
connections are made that
enhance this understanding.
Able to articulate key ideas
with depth and clarity.
Simple analysis vs deep understanding. Personal examples vs personal connections that
enhanced (or challenged) this understanding.

9. The 5R’s Framework for Reflection

13. Specific referencing styles that may be useful…
Online forum/discussion board posting and other such references (plus is a wonderful
resource overall): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
An example of citing a personal journal:
Source: http://eadm820.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/essay-guide.pdf
Personal life experience is not cited
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/04/can-you-cite-personal-life-experience.html
You can find the exact publication date of a web page by following these instructions:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/search/find-publishing-date-of-web-pages/8410/
Referencing a software app:
http://rivendell.lib.uic.edu/news/2011/10/14/how-to-cite-an-app-in-apa-format/

14. So how might you get from these resources you have…

15. …to reflect and think critically about what the key concepts
you select mean for you and your future students in the
changing landscape of the 21st century?

16. Brainstorm -> Plan -> Draft.. Draft.. Draft..
Select the concepts or issues from your resources (readings, journal,
discussion board, etc.) that sparked something in you
Identify what the spark was and why
What experiences or personal connection do you have to the selected
concepts or issues?
Apply The 5R’s Framework to each concept or issue
and attempt some free writing for each
Is there any connection or relationship between the concepts/issues selected
that could underlie a theme or cohesive approach
to your reflective writing?
Use the Model to Generate Critical Thinking to form critical questions
to begin to structure your approach for your reflective writing

17. Or a mind map…?

21. “Reflection could be argued to be the essential stage where
learning is integrated within the whole learner, and added to
existing frames of reference… internalised and personalised.”
(The Higher Education Academy, 2006)