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• Aims of today's session: To explain what you need to do for your reflective report assignment, to explain what we mean by 'reflective' writing and observation, to give you a rough template to help you, Q&A
• Reflection


  Your response to experiences and events, including your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and opinions
• Reflective report


  Helps you to learn from a particular practical experience and make links between theory and your actual observations
• Traditional academic writing


  • Objective and dispassionate, written in 3rd person
• Reflective writing


  • More subjective, emotive and written in 1st person, but common to both is the fact that you will need some evidence to support your claims
• Reflective Essay Titles


  • Option 1: To what extent did you observe evidence of Tuckman and Jensen's (1977) stage theory of Group Development in your group? Explain your answer with reference to both the academic literature and your personal reflections.
  • Option 2: Why is social loafing a problem in groups? Illustrate your answer with reference to the prevalence of social loafing in your own group and relevant academic literature.
• Three parts to the report


  1. Theory

  2. Context

  3. Self-reflection
• Theory section


  • Brief introduction, describe the theory with supporting evidence, likely a shorter reference list but make efforts to bring in other references
• Context section


  • Consider pre-existing relationships, cultural diversity, late joiners, attendance, communication (in-person vs online), give 2-3 major events/observations to back up claims
• Self-reflection section


  • Tell the reader what you have learnt about your own ability to work in a group, what you will change for the future, whether you were a social loafer and why, whether you struggled to engage, what skills you still need to develop and how you will do this
• Do NOT name people, refer to people by number or letter, do NOT be rude about people or too colloquial in your writing, do give some concrete examples of your observations to back up your claims, reference in APA format
• Useful Reading


  • Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups.
  • Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited.
  • Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing.