41038 Engineering

Practice Reflection

Learning Guide Autumn Session 2020

UTS CRI

1
Subject Coordinator
Jeremy Lindeck
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
University of Technology Sydney
E: Jeremy.Lindeck@UTS.edu.au

Tutors
Names and contact details of tutors are available in the staff section of the UTS online pages for
these subjects

© Adrian Kelly, June 2018

8 October 2019 2
Contents
Subject Coordinator 2

Tutors 2

Contents 3

Background 4

1 Introduction 5
1.1 UTS Online Resources 5
1.2 Recommended reading 5
1.3 Response to Student Feedback 6
1.4 Evaluation 7
1.5 Communication Protocols 7

2 Assessment tasks 9
2.1 General overview of assessment 9
2.1.1 Assessment Requirements 10
2.1.2 3 Slide Presentation 11
2.1.3 The ethics of confidentiality and non-disclosure 11
2.1.4 Reflective writing for portfolios 11
2.2 Specific assessment tasks 14
2.2.1 Review of peers’ draft reflections and updated resumes/CVs (10%) 14
2.2.2 Constructive critical review of peers’ curated professional practice portfolios (10%) 15
2.2.3 3 Slide Presentation (40%) 16

3 Feedback Strategies and Techniques 18

3.1 The Feedback Sandwich Method 18
3.2 Active Listening 19

8 October 2019 3
1 Introduction
Successful engineers are able to communicate a professional identity to employers, clients,
colleagues and other stakeholders and participate in constructive verbal and written
professional communication. This subject provides students with opportunities to identify and
articulate learnings from their first internship. Discussion of these learnings, through written and
oral reflections, helps students develop their professional identity and develop a confidence and
resilience which will shape their future studies. It is envisaged that much of the learning in this
subject will result from the sharing of experiences with their peer group. Students will be
encouraged to view their resume and portfolio as works in progress and will be expected to
update them in light of their recent experiences.

On successful completion of this subject, students will be able to:

1) Reflect on professional experience
 Conduct critical self and peer review and identify learning outcomes
 Understand their achievements and learning needs
 Develop as an experiential learner: plan for professional development and
lifelong learning
2) Articulate development of professional identity
 Communicate effectively in ways appropriate to discipline, audience, and
purpose
 Edit their written work for grammatical accuracy, and clear formatting
 Communicate effectively in oral and verbal modes

This Learning Guide should be used in conjunction with the Subject Outline and UTS Online
resources. The Subject Outline provides important information about the subject, and in
particular, due dates for assessment tasks. In UTS Online -> Resources you can find other
supporting documents.

There is one assessment task in this subject with 3 parts, The three parts are:

 critical review of peers’ reflections,

 three written reflections,

 a presentation on your internship.

All have specific requirements that you will need to meet.

41038 is designed to require an investment of at least 60 hours in total over the session for an
average student to achieve a passing mark with work of adequate quality. Please refer to
MyStudentAdmin for class sessions and the subject outline for deadlines of each of your
assessment tasks. Enter these into your diary.

8 October 2019 4
1.1 UTS Online Resources
The resources for this subject in UTS online provide information and activities that you should
use to prepare for face-to-face classes and for your assessments. Students who do not use
these resources will have difficulty successfully completing the subject

1.2 Recommended reading

Students are encouraged to read widely to inform their reflection. Some reading material will be
provided on UTS Online and students are encouraged to refer to this in the portfolios where it
enriches their reflection or analysis. In particular, students are referred to:

Boser, U. 2017, Learn Better. Mastering the skills for success in life, business, and school, or,
how to become an expert in just about anything. Rodale, New York.

Dowling, D. Hadgraft, R. Carew, A. McCarthy, T. Hargreaves, D. & Baillie, C. 2016, Engineering

your future. An Australasian guide. 3rd edn. Wiley, Queensland.
Fook, J. & Gardner, F., 2007. Practising critical reflection. A resource handbook. Open
University Press, Berkshire, UK.

Short Presentations

Look at the following videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck
Don McMillan – Death by Powerpoint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLg
Hans Rosling TedTalk in the presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ntLGOyHw4
Present like Steve Jobs

1.3 Response to Student Feedback

In previous sessions, we asked students completing 41038 Engineering Practice Reflection how
they think we could improve the subjects from a student’s perspective. Students told us they
would like the subject to be more communicative and directly relevant to their work experience.

8 October 2019 5
 Teaching and learning activities and classes
Pre-session task:
 Read Subject Outline and
Learning Guide Orientation Activity Worksheet
 Prepare 3 questions you available on UTS Online
Orientation week would like answered in
first lecture COMPLETE, PRINT OUT, AND
 Write a reflection on what SUBMIT AT LECTURE WEEK 1
value you think the subject
will have for you
Lecture:
 Q & A time for students to
clarify requirements of
subject
 Introduction to key
methods used in subjects:
Week 1 Feedback Sandwich
Method and Active
Listening
 Peer practice using key
methods
 Introduction to
Assessment Task 1
Tutorial 1:
 Before the tutorial, review
peers’ three draft
reflections.
 After tutorial, make necessary
Week 4  Use Active Listening and
changes to reflections.
Feedback Sandwich
Methods to give and
receive feedback from
peers
Update reflections in the light of the
feedback from your peers.
Week 8 Submit completed reflections
Design your slides and practice your
presentation in week 9.
Tutorial 2
Week 9 Practice your presentation in front of .
your peers

Week 10 Presentation Seminar Participate in seminar

1.4 Evaluation
We will be asking you for your feedback on the subject during and at the end of the session. We
listen carefully to what our students tell us and use this to engage in constant improvement.

Some of the methods we will be using in the subjects are innovations upon which we will be
seeking your reflections and evaluation. We are confident that they will give you the best quality
learning opportunities. We will simultaneously be employing the methods of critical self-
reflection on our work that we are encouraging you to develop in your future professional
practice development. Your feedback to us is an essential part of our professional practice with
you.

8 October 2019 6
1.5 Communication Protocols
The preferred mode of communication between teaching staff and students regarding these
subjects is email. Please observe the following protocols when emailing your tutor or the subject
coordinator:

 Always use your UTS email address. This identifies you as a UTS student. Privacy
dictates that we should not discuss matters concerning your studies unless we can
verify that we are writing to you

 Future professional engineers are expected to write in a professional manner. In

particular, your emails must:
a) Address the person to whom you are writing in one of the following ways: If you
have never met the person, address them using “Dear” followed by their title
and surname, e.g. Dear Mr Lindeck, Dear Ms Knight

b) If you have met them, you can use their first name, e.g. Dear Jeremy, OR Hi
Jeremy, Dear Tess, OR Hi Tess

c) In the subject line of the email, include the subject name or number, and the
topic of your email, e.g. Engineering Practice Reflection – Task 2 question

d) Professional communication in Australia is expected to be brief and direct. You

should state the issue clearly and briefly, and ask questions directly and clearly
using accurate language

e) Re-read and proof read your email for spelling, grammar, and meaning

f) End your email with your formal name that appears on your enrolment with the
university, and your student number. If you would prefer us to call you by
another name, place this name in parentheses following your formal name

Example 1: Yours sincerely,

HAI Ba Trung (Julia)

Student number: 123456789

Example 2: Regards,

Terence HOWARD (Terry)

Student number: 11111111

8 October 2019 7
 Example 3: Regards,

Mohammed Ali CLAY (Cassius)

Student number: 987654321

g) Assist your reader to know what they should call you. In many cultures, the first
name is the Given Name and the last name is the Family Name. In other
cultures, this sequence is reversed. Consider the following example:

Regards,

Zetian
(WU Zetian, student number 684-705)

This student has assisted the reader to know that they can call her ‘Zetian’.
They have also told the reader that their family name is ‘Wu’ by underlining the
family name and spelling it in capital letters. This assists your tutor to find your
name on the class list.

h) Meetings with staff can be requested via email. Such meetings should be
reserved for matters that cannot be dealt with or resolved via email

8 October 2019 8
2 Assessment tasks
2.1 General overview of assessment
The success of your internship is determined by your ability to take on board the lessons you
learned. These lessons may not be positive experiences at the time, but are incidents that help
shape your identity as an engineer. You will be expected to write about these incidents and how
they will change your professional practices in your studies, second internship and future
career.

You are asked to write about 3 incidents. This means you should write about one specific event
for each topic you choose. The subject does not ask you to give general thoughts on the topic.
Your writing should also not jump around commenting on a number of described events. A
reflection on a critical incident describes and analyses a single event. See the description of a
critical incident below.

Critical incidents – these are events that you have been involved in that have been influential
in your professional development. The word critical here means important and life changing.
Fook and Gardner (2007) define a critical incident as “an incident that:

 is significant or important (to professional learning)

 is an incident from which the participant wants to learn
 protects the confidentiality of other players in the incident
 is an incident the participant is prepared to expose to the group, and will minimize risk
but maximize learning potential
 should be written about and include in the participant’s own words
- why it is significant
- a raw and concrete description of the context/background to the incident
- a raw concrete description of the incident” (p. 77).
This means you should not just write about positive experiences, but should focus on negative
experiences also.

…it seems almost overwhelmingly the case that people choose what they experienced as
‘negative’ incidents for reflection. For them this may mean incidents that were puzzling, traumatic,
ones they couldn’t stop worrying about or forget, that they regretted, thought they could have
handled better, or felt strongly (negatively) about. In our experience these seem to be the ones
from which people are most open to learning, ones that they want to rework in order to gain some
different type of new meaning. It seems that if people bring incidents that they have felt were
positive (usually because they think they did well) they have more of a vested interest in
preserving their perspective on them, and are therefore less open to other perspectives. This is
the key point here: participants should choose incidents they are open to learning from. (Fook &
Gardner, 2007, p. 77-78, italics added)1

1
Fook, J. & Gardner, F. (2007). Practising critical reflection. A resource handbook. Open University Press, Berkshire, UK.

8 October 2019 9
 Perhaps we should call this your “portfailio” rather than your “portfolio”! Instead of
telling us your “victory narratives”, tell us about your failures, and what you have
learned from them.

Evidence - You should attach artefacts such as copies of pictures, photos, drawing,
documents, reports, etc. to illustrate and support your reflections.

2.1.1 Assessment Requirements

You are expected to write reflections upon critical incidents in your professional experience on 3
of the following topics:

 Ethical conduct and professional accountability (3.1)

 Effective communication in professional and lay domains (3.2)

 Creative, innovative and pro-active demeanour (3.3)

 Professional use and management of information (3.4)

 Management of self, and professional conduct (3.5)

 Leadership and Teamwork (3.6)

 Another topic relevant to your current or future study plans

Your reflections should refer to relevant theoretical literature pertaining to the topics you have
reflected upon using the UTS Harvard referencing system. Some theoretical literature will be
made available on UTS online but students are also encouraged to seek their own resources.

Your reflections should provide a narrative that tells the reader how and why each element is
connected and significant in the development of your professional identity.

2.1.2 Three Slide Presentation

You will be asked to present to a seminar of approximately 5 of your peers. The presentation is
limited to 3 slides which should address the points below:

 where the internship took place and your role in the company

 your hopes and expectations on joining the company

 what you actually experienced while working there.

You may be asked follow up questions by the tutor or other students.

2.1.3 The ethics of confidentiality and non-disclosure

As an employee and a professional, you are required to behave ethically in regards to the
confidentiality of information you know from having worked in an organisation. It is unethical to
provide information to people outside an organisation about clients, or the identity of people

8 October 2019 10
within an organisation whom you may criticise or represent solely from your perspective. This
means you will have to think clearly about the level of detail you provide about the identity of
people involved in the critical incidents you recount. As a general rule, people referred to in your
critical incidents should not be identified directly by name. Rather, you should describe people in
more generic terms, for example, in terms of their role. Where necessary, give such people
pseudonyms and make it clear to the reader that this is not their real name.

We do require you to provide information about the organisation you have worked in,
so it is possible that a reader could identify who you are talking about; while they may
be identifiable, you should not identify them.

2.1.4 Reflective writing

Successful professionals are able to think about themselves and their experiences, and use this
thinking to improve their professional practices. There are many different reflective learning or
experiential learning models. Some well-known ones are Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle and
Gibbs Model of Reflection. The model is not important; what is important is that you reflect. One
possible model is:

Ullman (2017, p. 164)2 identifies six key levels of reflection ranging from the lowest
level , the mid-level , to the deepest level :

i) Recount/Description of an experience: ‘This category captures the

subject matter of the reflective writing’

ii) React /Feelings: ‘Often, the feeling of being concerned, having

doubts, feeling uncertain about something, or frustration are reasons for
a reflective thought process. However, feelings such as surprise or
excitement [may] also [be] mentioned’

iii) Personal beliefs: Reflection is often personal. ‘This is about one’s

assumptions, beliefs, the development of a personal perspective, and
the knowledge of self’

iv) Recognising difficulties: ‘Expressing an alert, critical mindset is an

important part of reflective writing. A critical stance involves being aware
of problems and being able to identify or diagnose such problems’

v) Perspective: Relate/research: ‘The writer considers other

perspectives. For example, the perspectives of someone else, theory,
the social, historical, ethical, moral, or political context’

vi) Lessons learned and future intentions:

‘Retrospective outcomes: Descriptions of lessons learned, better
understanding of the situation or context, new insights, a change of
perspective or behaviour, and awareness about one’s way of thinking.
2
Ullmann, T. D. (2017). Reflective Writing Analytics - Empirically Determined Keywords of Written
Reflection. In: LAK ’17 Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge
Conference, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, ACM, New York, USA, pp. 163–
167.

8 October 2019 11
 Prospective outcomes: an intention to do something, and planning for
the future’

In your first attempts at writing reflectively, you may produce writing that describes at the lower
levels. It is important that you reread your reflection, using Ullman’s levels of reflection, and
attempt to write at some of the deeper levels of reflection.

Alternatively, you may find the following Modified Gibb’s Model a useful guide to deeper
reflective writing:

Experiment & Recount/Record

Plan Experience

React &
Relate/research
evaluate

Analyse
Meaning

In the recount/record experience dimension, you present a narrative about a critical incident.
A critical incident is an experience or event that has changed you in some way; things that are
critical are important, even necessary, and life changing. In a narrative, you need to tell your
audience about the context (where it happened), and background (what was going on at the
time), the participants (who was involved including your involvement), the sequence of events
(what happened), and roles (who did what). You should pay attention to describing this well for
a listener or reader so they can get a good ‘picture’ of what happened and the sequence of
events.
Fook and Gardner (2007,) define a critical incident as “an incident that:

 is significant or important (to professional learning)

 is an incident from which the participant wants to learn
 protects the confidentiality of other players in the incident
 is an incident the participant is prepared to expose to the group, and will minimize
risk but maximize learning potential
 should be written about and include in the participant’s own words
- why it is significant
- a raw and concrete description of the context/background to the incident
- a raw concrete description of the incident” (p. 77).

8 October 2019 12
a) In the react and evaluate dimension, you tell listeners or readers about why this
experience is memorable for you and why you think it is important or critical. What were
you thinking and feeling at the time? Have your thoughts and feelings changed over
time? Evaluate the experience; was this a positive, negative, or neutral experience? In
what ways was it positive and negative, and why?
b) In the analyse meaning dimension, you tell listeners or readers what makes this
experience meaningful for you. Why did it happen, or why is it important to you? What
was challenging for you about this experience?
c) In the relate/research dimension, you seek out whether this or similar experiences
have been written about by others, or have been told by others. What meanings did
other people connect with their experiences? You can utilise the internet, university
library resources, or learning materials provided by your lecturer to search for
theoretical information that might help you understand your experience.
d) In the experiment and plan dimension, you tell listeners or readers about your
reflections on how you might deal with a similar situation in the future. Would you do the
same things, or deal with the situation differently? Why or why not? Does this
experience help you to make decisions about your future professional development?
What plans can you make to better prepare yourself for situations like this in the future?

2.2 Specific assessment tasks

There are three parts to the assessment in this subject and the due dates are specified in the
program in the Subject Outline. The assessment task is:

2.2.1 Part 1: Review of peers’ draft reflections (20%)

a) In this subject you are required to prepare 3 pieces of reflective writing based on your
engineering work experience, other work experience, study experience, and broader life
experience. Each of these 3 pieces of writing must be on one of the following topics:

 Ethical conduct and professional accountability (3.1)

 Effective communication in professional and lay domains (3.2)

 Creative, innovative and pro-active demeanour (3.3)

 Professional use and management of information (3.4)

 Management of self, and professional conduct (3.5)

 Leadership and Teamwork (3.6)

 Another topic relevant to your current or future study plan

8 October 2019 13
Before the first tutorial you are required to draft your reflective writing (using some of Ullman’s
six levels of reflection outlined in section 2.1.4 of this Learning Guide) on the above topics.

Upload your draft reflections to your Peer Review Group in UTS Online by the due date
designated in the Subject Outline.

b) Log in to your Peer Review Group in UTS online and review your draft reflections. Use the
Peer Review Sheet available in UTS online to prepare feedback for your peers using the
Feedback Sandwich Model. Print the completed Peer Review Sheet and bring it to tutorial 1 and
provide verbal feedback to peers on their draft reflections.

c) Write a summary of the feedback you have received from your peers in tutorial 1 and how
you plan to respond to this feedback, and submit this paragraph via Turnitin by the due date
designated in the Subject Outline (250 words)

Note: marks for this assessment will only be awarded to students who have uploaded
their work, reviewed peers’ work, and provided verbal feedback in their tutorial by the
due dates designated in the program section of the subject outline. As outlined in the
Late Penalty clause c) section of the Subject Outline, students who fail to meet all
requirements of the assessment including attendance at the tutorial will receive zero for
Assessment Task 1. These are essential components of Course Intended Learning
Outcomes E.2 & F.1

2.2.2 Part 2: Completed reflections. (40%)

Use the feedback provided by your peers in the tutorial, to finalise your work demonstrating
ability to:

1) reflect on professional experience, conduct critical self-review and plan for professional
development;

2) articulate in writing the development of your professional identity to date.

The completed work will consist of 3 reflections of around 500 words each.

2.2.3 Three Slide Presentation (40%)

Upon completion of your reflections, you will be required to give a 3 slide presentation
addressing the following points about your internship:

• the company you worked for whom you worked, and your role in the company.

• your hopes and expectations on joining the company

• your actual experiences

Ideally, you will use images from your internship on the slides. The images should be
representative of your experiences and should not contain too much text as this will distract
from what you are saying.

8 October 2019 14
After you have finished your presentation, you may be asked questions by your peers or by the
tutor. See the marking criteria below.

Marking

The presentation will be marked out of 40. The marks will be divided equally between your
message and presentation skills. Marks will be given as follows:

Message (20 marks)

 Description of workplace and role

 Description of hopes
 Comparison with reality
 Description of feelings about your experiences
 Expression of identity as an engineer

Presentation skills (20 marks)

Slides
 Choice of images
 Relevance to message
 Support of spoken message
Delivery
 Pacing
 Voice
 Body language

8 October 2019 15
3 Feedback Strategies and
Techniques
Giving feedback to peers and receiving feedback from peers is an important professional
communication skill. We need to find a way to tell others what we think are the strengths of their
work, and what we think they could improve, in a way that minimises the risk that they will be
upset or angry because of what we have said or how we have said it. Likewise, we need to be
able to receive feedback gratefully, and listen to it even if we hoped the feedback had been
more praising. In 41038 we will be practising the following two methods, one for giving peer
feedback, and one for receiving peer feedback.

3.1 The Feedback Sandwich Method

The Feedback Sandwich Method is often used in professional environments to provide
feedback to colleagues on their work. It is also known as the PIP Method (Positive-Improve-
Positive Method). There are three stages to the Feedback Sandwich Method:

a) Positive: begin by talking about what is positive in their work – this reinforces the things
that have worked well

b) Improve: talk about the few key messages you want to communicate as areas of
improvement. In peer feedback, you might approach this by asking some questions, for
example, “could you explain to me why you approached task x by doing y?”, or “ I
noticed you did x, and I wondered if you had considered doing y, and if not why not?” It
is a good idea to allow the person time to respond to your feedback. Some people find it
very difficult to receive negative feedback and their initial response may be to reject
what you say. In such cases, do not argue with them. If the person has heard you, that
is all that is required of you. You do not have to convince them you are right if they
reject your feedback. Move on to stage 3.

c) Positive: reiterate the positive feedback you gave in stage 1, and indicate what kind of
positive results you anticipate if they improve their work as outlined in stage 2.

8 October 2019 16
3.2 Active Listening

Active Listening is an important professional skill. It requires that you fully concentrate on what
is being said to you, ensure that you understand what is being said to you, respond to what is
being said to you in an open and receptive manner, and remember and act upon what has been
said.

8 October 2019 17
Following are some ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of active listing:

Do: Don’t
 Give eye contact to the person  Interrupt, talk over them, or enter
giving you feedback – that into prolonged monologue
doesn’t mean you stare at them,  Use technology such as a mobile
but look at them from time-to-time phone
 Be aware of your facial  Fidget, look around the room, or
expression and make sure that it communicate in any way with
is friendly, interested and other people
receptive  Fill your mind with thoughts about
 Indicate by your posture that you what you are going to say next
are paying attention  Argue with the person – if you
 Give verbal indications that you disagree with them, explain briefly
are listening such as ‘mhm’, why you did what you did and
‘aha’, or repeating key words to inquire appreciatively into their
show you have heard them, and opinion.
non-verbal indications such as  Attempt to convince them they are
nodding your head, and mirroring wrong
their facial expressions
 Take notes so that a) you can
remember what has been said,
and b) you signal to the speaker
that you are paying attention to
what they are saying
 Ask for clarification if you are not
sure what they meant
 When they have finished,
summarise what they have said,
ask if you have understood
correctly, and ask if you have
captured it all
 Thank them for the feedback

8 October 2019 18