StudyLoop

Week 2 Tutorial Preparation Activities: Professional Identity and Reflection

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luna
in

Week 2 Tutorial: Communicating Professional Identity and Reflecting on Experience

2A: Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit of work, students will have:

  1. Developed an understanding of the transferable skills needed in engineering work (Bolton, 2020) so they can write about these in their résumé and discuss them in job interviews.
  2. Developed the ability to communicate their “value proposition” to potential employers (Holbrook Hernandez, 2020; Tanner, 2019) to make their job applications competitive.
  3. Developed an understanding of the importance of reflection to learning from work experience, and the levels of reflection required for successfully writing reflective learning journal entries (Yocco, 2018; Skills You Need, 2020; Ullmann, 2017, p. 164).

2B: Tutorial Preparation Activities

See the reading list for this unit of study on Canvas.

  1. Read seek.com (n.d.). Pay attention to sample #4 Graduate – this is the closest to your situation. Draft your pitch to an employer. Note: you are probably not a graduate if you are in this subject, so you may need to adapt this to your undergraduate student status.
  2. Identify the transferable skills needed in engineering according to Bolton (2020).
  3. Consider John Dewey’s notion, “We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting upon experience,” based on your reading of Yocco (2018) and Skills You Need (2020). Think about why reflection is important to learning from work experience and becoming a professional engineer. You will need to write about this for assessment task 2.
  4. Read the Code of Conduct for participating in EPP1 file in the Getting Started Module on Canvas.
  5. Read the following in-class activities. Prepare your individual responses to the questions. You will review these activities with your Peer Review Group (PRG) during the tutorial to help you develop your understanding of subject content.

2C: In-Class Activities

  1. Your Peer Review Group (PRG)
    • You have been assigned to a PRG. You will not choose your group members. The purpose of this activity is for you to learn to work with people you may not know. In this PRG, you will give and receive feedback on one another’s Learning Journals. In tutorials 4 and 6, this feedback will be part of two formal Peer Review Activities. Think about 3 or 4 things you need to know about your PRG members, such as their names, engineering majors, and two or three other things.
    • Meet with your PRG and get to know one another. Find out the information you thought about in 1a above.
    • Read the following explanation of peer review, and discuss with your PRG what benefits you will get from engaging in peer review together. What are the benefits to the reviewer in peer review? Nominate one student to be your spokesperson to report back to the whole class (a different student should take a turn at being the spokesperson each time you see this instruction).

The peer-review process involves collaborative learning in which students assess one another’s work (usually against explicit criteria) and provide each other with feedback. The process is formative and aims to improve student learning while it is happening to enhance understanding of the work involved and hence improve the quality of the final product (Somerville, 1993; Topping et al., 2000).

Through engaging in peer review and receiving feedback from a number of peers, students are exposed to a greater diversity of perspectives than just those of their tutor or lecturer. Indeed, the ability to ensure that students receive feedback from a number of different people is one of the main benefits of student peer review.

The review process requires students to analyze, review, clarify, and sometimes correct each other’s work. This can help to clarify and reinforce the reviewers’ knowledge and understanding of the area and encourages the development of advanced critical thinking and higher-order cognitive skills (Topping, 1998; Gehringer et al., 2001).

The peer-review process can also enhance student learning by:

  • Building problem-solving skills through identifying areas needing improvement and providing constructive suggestions (Dochy et al., 1999; Somerville, 1993).
  • Encouraging reflection and thereby promoting skills in self-assessment (Liu and Carless, 2006).
  • Enhancing greater meta-cognitive self-awareness (e.g., Topping, 1999; Liu and Carless, 2006).
  • Increasing student motivation by fostering a sense of responsibility and ownership for their peers’ learning (e.g., Dochy et al., 1999; Warren and Cheng, 1997).
  • Promoting independent learning and reducing dependence on staff as ‘the experts’ (Brindley and Scoffield, 1998; Dochy et al., 1999).
  • Improving self-confidence (Brindley and Scoffield, 1998).
  • Providing valuable experience and preparation for the professional workplace (Brindley and Scoffield, 1998; Biggs and Tang, 2007).

Reference: Pearce, J., Mulder, R., & Baik, C. (2009). Involving students in peer review. Case studies and practical strategies for university teaching. Centre for the Study of Higher Education, pp. 2-4. Source.

d. Go to the People menu item on Canvas and investigate your PRG Homepage and the file exchange function. You will be able to use these to provide peer review to your teammates during the semester.

  1. Look at the “How to be successful in EPP1” file in the Get Started module on Canvas. Discuss with your PRG. Do you have any questions about this? Nominate one student to be your spokesperson to report back to the whole class (a different student should take a turn at being the spokesperson each time you see this instruction).
  2. Review your answers to the tutorial preparation activities with your PRG. Nominate one student to be your spokesperson to report back to the whole class (a different student should take a turn at being the spokesperson each time you see this instruction).
  3. Working with your PRG, complete the following table with information about the features of Academic Reports and Academic Essays based on your prior learning and experience. Nominate one student to be your spokesperson to report back to the whole class (a different student should take a turn at being the spokesperson each time you see this instruction).

Features of Academic Reports and Academic Essays

Essays:

  • Structure:
    • How does it begin? What are the essential features of the beginning?
    • What is in the middle? What are the essential features of the middle?
    • How does it end? What are the essential features of the end?
  • Language Features:
    • What would you expect in terms of word choice?
    • Is it typically written in first person (I, me), second person (you – this is called addressive because it is addressed to someone), or third person (she, he, they)?
    • Are headings typically included?
    • What is the typical structure of the paragraphs? For example, are they typically deductive (starting with a general statement of the topic followed by a series of sentences containing specific information about the topic), or inductive (starting with a series of sentences containing specific information and ending with a general statement of the topic)?
  • Academic Rigor:
    • In what two ways must the student writer include information from published sources?
    • How does the reader distinguish direct quotations from indirect quotations? Author-prominent citations from information-prominent citations?
    • Note: a mixture of author-prominent and information-prominent citations is common in many academic texts, but information-prominent citations are more common.
    • Compare and contrast the following:
      • The statement, “insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result” is attributed to Einstein.
      • Morell (2013) outlines what students might look for in a good workplace supervisor.
      • Weber (2018) presents data that identifies what engineering employers are looking for in a student’s portfolio.
      • According to Blair (1990), groups go through four main stages in their formation.
      • The phenomenon of ‘living in a bubble’ can be observed in university students (Medoway, 2012).
      • A powerful addition to the discussion of diversity is the notion of ‘individual diversity’ (Foor, Walden & Trtten, 2007).

Reports:

  • Structure:
    • How does it begin? What are the essential features of the beginning?
    • What is in the middle? What are the essential features of the middle?
    • How does it end? What are the essential features of the end?
  • Language Features:
    • What would you expect in terms of word choice?
    • Is it typically written in first person (I, me), second person (you – this is called addressive because it is addressed to someone), or third person (she, he, they)?
    • Are headings typically included?