How can my strengths and weaknesses be used to lead others?

How can my strengths and weaknesses be used to lead others?

Assessment criteria:

(for detailed marking grid, see rubric)

• Depth of reflection – 30%

The extent to which the piece demonstrates a deep level of engagement with a concrete experience

• Analysis, evaluation and abstract conceptualisation – 30%

The quality of the sources used, and how well these inform the points being made. The extent to which ideas are conceptualised beyond the experience being discussed.  

• Level of ‘forward thinking’ – 30%

How well the arguments are used to generate an action plan of future development, and how effectively the plan is constructed.

• Quality of writing and use of referencing skills – 10%

The quality of the writing, as well as the quality of referencing.

Each reflective piece will be awarded marks in accordance with the marking rubric. These marks will then be automatically converted to a mark out of 100. The final assessment mark will be the mean average of all three marks.

Assessment briefing:

 Reflective essays of approximately 500-words. Each essay must address a prescribed topic. The first topic is compulsory, and is submitted in week 3 to allow for early formative feedback. The other two topics are chosen from a shortlist, and submitted in weeks 6 and 9 respectively.

Reflective essay

• How can my strengths and weaknesses be used to lead others?

Further guidelines

Reflective piece is designed to allow you the opportunity to consider your skills, learning and professional practice. You should reflect on a concrete experience, which may be one of the class activities and/or an experience at work or elsewhere in university.

In order to complete this assessment effectively, you will need to do the following:

• Reflect on a concrete experience. Keep the description to a minimum, but instead you should be focusing on what you have learnt, what went well/badly, what you could have done differently and why etc.

• Analyse your experience in light of the academic material covered in class and in your wider reading. Support your arguments with high quality academic sources.

• Use your analysis to ‘think forward’, and consider what you will now do in light of this reflection. You should produce clear action points that apply the principles of SMART.

REMEMBER THAT A REFLECTIVE WRITING STYLE IS DIFFERENT FROM AN ACADEMIC WRITING STYLE. However reflective writing is still scholarly writing; you must use evidence and argument to support your points. Your writing must be authoritative and informative, however it is appropriate (in fact preferred) to write in the first person (eg. I, me, my etc).