Reflection: Education and Reflective Practice Essay

The aim of this assignment is to give back a reflective account on group introduction and the peer taxment process as well as the excogitatement of a personal action plan. It would involve using The What? Model of merged construction (Driscoll 2007) to analyse the experience of using a group designed valuatement excessivelyl to assess my peers and the experience of being peer assessed. Additionally, experience of completing a group creation would be reflected upon. A personal action plan which identifies areas for personal development and the designed assessment asshole is attached as appendix 1 and 2 respectively.Reflection entails reviewing experience from practice so that it may be described, analysed, evaluated and wherefore used to inform and change future practice in a positive way (Bulman and Schutz 2013, p6). Reflection could be (Oelofsen 2012, p4) in real time (reflection in action) or retrospectively (reflection on action). Several authors (Jay and potson 2002 Ta ylor 2006) gravel suggested the use of fashion models to guide students undertaking reflective writing. However, John (cited in Bulman and Schutz, 2013, p118) cautions that reflective frameworks are guides rather than a rigid prescriptive format. Jasper (2006) also warns that frameworks come with the authors perspective and values base and leads reflectors in a specific direction. It is therefore imperative to be critical of the model of choice and adjust the framework to suit ones purposes so that it dejection be used effectively.Numerous frameworks for facilitating reflection are utilised in nursing (Doel and Shardlow 2009, p42) such as Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) and Johns Model of unified Reflection (1995). Following critical analysis, The What? Model of Structured Reflection (Driscoll 2007) consisting of three simple questions What?, So what? and forthwith what?, for each one with sub questions was chosen. The rationale for this choice is that this framework is comparat ively simple (Howatson-Jones 2010), effective and very canny for novice practitioners that can equally be used at different levels (Jasper 2003, p99). Moreover, it can be used logically with any type of situation by using the cue questions which gives a deeper and important reflective process hereby leading to the formulation of an action plan for the future. Furthermore, as opposed to Gibbs and Johns framework, it enables reflective activity to lead to action being taken rather than being proposed or tentative.The purpose of returning to this situation is to learn from the experience of using a devised assessment pawn to assess my peers. Haven being divided into a group of four students based on our learning styles, each group was expected to design an assessment creature and carry out a presentation which is to be peer assessed. The group presentation involved presenting on one of the 3 future roles of a take in educator, curbr or professional. Devising our assessment tool was very challenging as each member of the group brainstormed, shared views, and prioritised. Communication was done via emails, phone calls and meetings as agreed by all members. telling team working was evident among all members. The assessment tool was amended based on feedback true from the lecturer.On the presentation day, majority of the students including myself were anxious as there was a misunderstanding of the date of presentation so were not prepared. Although, this affected the quality of our presentation as it was prepared under 20 minutes. However, students becalm proven that they could be innovative even under duress. The peer assessment process involved an various(prenominal) assessment of each groups presentation using our assessment tool and calculating the add up to give the final grade. During this process, I realized how difficult it was assessing others and being assessed without being biased. It was particularly difficult to tax the criteria as our asse ssment tool was not explicit making it impossible to justify the mark awarded. It had too many separate components with inappropriate weighting which made it arduous and complicated in the averaging task. Although, the assessment tool appeared simple as it involved ticking boxes. However, it was difficult to decide which boxes to tick because students demonstrated majority of the criteria but at different levels and this led to being over marked. It would have been more realistic to award marks to each criterion rather than ticking boxes.Hargreaves (2007) as well as Quinn and Hughes (2007, p270) propose that assessment tool should be both valid (assess what it claims to assess) and reliable (perform in a consistent and stable manner). It is of the opinion at a time following the assessment that our assessment tool cannot be considered valid and reliable for the following reasons. Learning issue was not part of the criteria so it was impossible to make a judgement about the qualit y of the students presentation and thus could not be penalized. Hinchliff (1999) suggests that learning outcomes should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed (SMART). It should include an indication of the evince required to demonstrate that learning has been achieved (Dix and Hughes, 2004), but Welsh and Swann (2002) caution that too many may make believe unreasonable expectations. Moreover, the ambiguity of the tool and individuals subjectivity in terms of attitudes, beliefs and values (the halo effect) resulted in comprehend bias which affected the reliability. Bias however, remains an issue to overcome and as such I matt-up the feedback received from my peers would not be accurate.Although the peer assessment process made us engage richly in the presentation and learn from the strengths and weaknesses of our peers, there is a need to develop the necessary skills and judgements to effectively manage peer assessments and this involves knowledge and experienc e (Oelofsen 2012, Somerville and Keeling, 2004). Furthermore, there is a need to be fully prepared and equipped, develop criteria that match the identified learning outcome, consider the issue of fairness particularly with disabled students and clearly transmit assessment criteria . The above reasons can be considered as areas for future development, an in depth analysis of this can be seen in the attached action plan (appendix 1). This process of reflection on action has proved successful as it brought about learning. Even though critics like Rolfe (2003) and Markham (2002) criticised reflective practice for lack of comment and unproven benefit. Taylor (2010) however argues that it is nevertheless worth the effort to bring about deeper insights and changes in practice and education.In conclusion, this essay has demonstrated an understanding of the peer assessment process by assessing the worth of our assessment tool on other students and the experience of being assessed by peers. Using a framework of choice, my experience was analysed and areas for only development identified and attached as appendix 1. Overall, this reflection has brought about deeper insights which identified strengths and weaknesses that would consequently call forth my professional development and result in changes in the future should the situation arise again.