Reflective writing

Reflective writing

Learn how to write a reflective text about a learning experience.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an English teacher for a while so it was a good opportunity to see what it's like. The students had all just arrived to start a new life in the UK and they had a range of levels from beginner to intermediate. They came from a variety of countries and had very different backgrounds and experiences.

For me, the most important thing was the relationship with the students. I was nervous at first and did not feel confident about speaking in front of people. However, I found it easy to build good relationships with the students as a class and as individuals and I soon relaxed with them. It was a challenge to encourage the lower-level students to speak in English, but at least they understood a lot more at the end of the course.

At first, planning lessons took a really long time and I was not happy with the results. Classes seemed to be too difficult for some students and too easy for others, who finished quickly and got bored. I found it was better to teach without a course book, adapting materials I found online to suit their needs. I learned to take extra activities for students who finished early and that was much better.

I still need to continue improving my lesson planning. I would like more ideas for teaching mixed-ability groups and I want to plan the whole course better next time. That way students have a focus for each lesson and a sense of progress and of what they've covered. I'm also going to put more confident students with beginners when they work in pairs so conversation activities give everyone more chance to speak and students can help each other.

Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've decided that I would like to become an English teacher in the future.

Tips

  1. Reflective writing is more personal than other types of academic writing. You can use the first person (I ... , My ... , etc.) and explain how you felt.
  2. Think about the experience in detail. Explain what went well and what was challenging, and say what you learned in the process.
  3. Use a structure:
    • Short introduction to the situation
    • Evaluate the most important things about the experience, including solutions to problems
    • Say what you would do differently next time
    • Say what you learned overall.
  4. Keep the focus on your learning process and what you will do better in future.

Discussion

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Average: 4.2 (23 votes)

Submitted by Elsayed Esmail on Sun, 22/01/2023 - 06:03

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My last challenging experience was working az a Turkish<>Arabic translator in a factory which working in textile field, So I have to tranlate some phrases which I didn't before in this field. I tried to learn more about textile field and how they making this process of pants production.

Submitted by Rita25 on Sun, 23/10/2022 - 14:50

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When I started learning Spanish, honestly pronunciation was bit easy but verb conjugation was a total struggle for me since I studied on my own. I had gotten pretty good at some grammar points in Spanish but still couldn't speak, I was so overwhelmed and frustrated. It was really challenging to learn another language.

Submitted by ouiam saoud on Sun, 11/09/2022 - 20:54

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my last challenging learning experience (which even now lasts) concerns learning a Turkish and English, which are a very complex languages, also for people who, as me, has study with his mother language. especially when you study in a spicific major at university and you need onather language as module different of your mother language but you haven't it.

Submitted by marwan297 on Thu, 11/08/2022 - 18:36

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My last learning challenging experience was English and still. I'm trying to improve my speaking and listening skills and it's hardly being improved. I have tried many places but they were overrated and not good enough, but I don't give up and I won't stop until I'm fluent.

Submitted by orhannt on Sun, 10/07/2022 - 16:14

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During the last two months, I started using online course platforms, namely Coursera and Linkedin Learning. I had been thinking about using them for a while but I'd postponed several times. Then I found a great online Academic Writing in English course and became a keen user of these services.

To follow a course on one of these platforms, you only need a computer -even a cheap one would be fine- and an internet connection. The quality of the contents was really high. Some courses ask you to upload a project at the end, and some do not. Each group has a mini forum for students to ask questions either to tutors or students and do peer review. So, you are on yourself since everything is online and there is usually no one couraging you to practise regularly, unlike a regular course. Moreover, other participants were not keen on doing peer review.

First, I found it a little bit hard to encourage myself to practise every day. Luckily, I got accustomed to this new way of learning quickly. I believe that the instructors designed the course in a way that helps students to study every day. Regarding the lack of peer review, I couldn't find a solution to this. I offered discussing each other's papers, works etc. to my friends -the ones I know in person- and they refused. So I imagined like I was a stranger reading my own paper. Although it sounds strange, as if playing chess alone, it surprisingly worked. The next time I use these platforms, I think that it would be better to ask a friend to start together, rather than to enrol alone. Or I can make research about which courses have an active community.

Overall, online courses are a great opportunity nowadays. They are beneficial since I only have to pay to get a certificate but it is free to watch the lessons and access materials. Some platforms offer high-quality courses and these certificates could make a difference on CVs.

Submitted by Gildas on Sat, 29/01/2022 - 17:09

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My first job was very specific.
It had a connection with my graphic design studies but it was completely new to me.
We scanned images on a scanner and we flashed the texts on a printer. We created films that were sent to the printer.
Then the computers arrived. The films have been replaced by digital files.
I had to learn how to use the computer and the layout programs.
This saved us twice as much time when we started working on the computer.
Currently, we are going ten times faster than 30 years ago.

Submitted by Suraj paliwal on Sat, 06/11/2021 - 20:21

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I have last challenging experience was about I was too sleepy but now I'm a hard working and non lazy person who do work hard on study.

Submitted by GiulianaAndy on Thu, 08/07/2021 - 01:42

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My last challenging learning experience was exactly during this semester. I started university classes this year and I'm a freshman. In March of this year I started my online classes from university as an international business management student. I've been thinking about becoming a founder of a company in the future so I need to study this career. My classmates are any age I mean they are from 16 to 21 years old. They come from variety of districts and have very different backgrounds and experiences. For me, the most important part of the university is to present the projects on time and give a plus to some things (I mean to do something different with the project). It was challenge to getting used to working with my classmates, but at least now I have a really good teamwork and I do every homework with it. At first, distributing and avoiding the group meetings was so difficult. The majority of the members in the teamwork only talked about their personal lives during the work meeting , so I decided to delete the meeting style and starting with the work distribution for each member of the team, but it didn't work at the beginning because people were used to giving me their parts only one night before the presentation's day and I was not able to complete the work with their parts only in one night, therefore I decided to add a time limit and if they hadn't given me their parts until that time limit I would have eliminated them from the group and it works. Since that day the members of my teamwork always give me their parts until the deadline. Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've learned how to talk to people whom don't like to help with the teamwork.

Submitted by Ehsan on Wed, 16/06/2021 - 06:09

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My last challenge was learning to trade in Forex.

Submitted by German on Thu, 04/03/2021 - 01:39

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My last challenging experience was the first semester of the master. It was difficulto to me because was a new experience and in a university very important in my conuntry therefore I was so nervous. Fortunately, It was a great experience and I could learn a lot.