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Methods course documentation
Participants' final reflections (D8.2)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Raffaella Borasi)
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| Choices of focus and format for the participants' final reflection |
| Scheduling of the final reflection |
Choice of format and focus for the participants' final reflection
I chose to define the scope of this final reflection as a term paper where each participant would try to identify and document what they had learned in the course. In this way, this reflection would also serve the function of a "self-evaluation" that could contribute to the student's overall assessment and grade in the course. (Note that the paper would count 10% of the course grade, and occasionally I used the evidence it provided to decide the grade in borderline cases).
Since this kind of term paper is rather unusual, I tried to provide students with very detailed directions about my expectations in terms of content and format (see Instructional materials for the text of this assignment). As I wanted to encourage them to "take stock" of what they had done in the course up to that point, I also explicitly asked that they look back at their journals and assignments, and further encouraged them to make explicit references to those artifacts in their paper.
Scheduling of the final reflection
The "What have I learned" paper obviously needs to be the last assignment in the course. Preferably, I have assigned this task the week before the end of the course, along with responding to the course evaluation questionnaire (see section of the schedule of Implementation B as an example of this option). The main advantage of doing so is that these assignments together can better prepare the students for the final class discussion, where individual achievements in the course are celebrated and suggestions for improving future implementations of the course are discussed. Another advantage of this option is that it enables full time college students to devote their attention to this major assignment without the competition of other final exams and papers due after the end of classes.
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In some implementations of the course, however, I have chosen to assign this final reflection as the final assignment after the last class meeting, so as to not interfere with other major assignments also due towards the end of the course (see schedule of Implementation C as an example of this option).
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