Briefing:

Briefing:

Having undertaken the MEGA business simulation in your team, you are now required to write an individual report (NOT AN ESSAY) based on reflective analysis. This should contain the following in 2000words (+/- 10%) and the deadline is: Thursday 18th of February 2016 by electronic submission through turn-it-in on Blackboard by 12:59 (mid-day). The link to submit will open one week before submission :-). So here we go:

1. An introductory discussion on how reflective practice techniques can be useful to analysing your MEGA team experience.
2. Use of relevant academic theories and concepts applied to the context of your reflective analysis.
3. An outline of critical incidents (positive and negative) that affected your team and you as an individual
4. Elaboration on the consequences of these incidents
5. A concluding chapter on how the areas discussed previously have:
(i) Developed transferable skills (or not)
(ii) The influences that your learning experiences will have in any future organisational and team roles that you undertake.
(iii) You are encouraged to use relevant academic theories in your conclusions as well.
6. You MUST include in the appendices the log-book/diary of your MEGA team meetings. Do not worry about the fact this part of the assignment would be the same for every team member – nothing to worry about the percentage of plagiarism. We are aware of this. (log book = diary, and it is the team one – not essential to attach an individual one)

NOTE: YOY CAN SUBMIT (ON TURN-IT-IN) ONLY ONE FILE – SO PREPARE ONE WORD FILE TO BE SUBMITTED ONCE – NO SECOND CHANCE OF RESUBMISSION OR ADDITIONAL FILES

Assessment Criteria for assessment 2

? Use and detail of critical incidents: 30%
? Application of academic theories & concepts: 30%
? Conclusions (Quality of critical insight or else Critical Evaluation /Transferable Skills developed): 30%
? Structure, clarity & presentation of work: 10%

Proposed Structure:

• Front Cover (excluded from the word count)

• Ex. Summary (excluded from the word count):
Describing max one page what is this assignment on, key concepts, key incidents and mostly the learning outcomes on your transferable skills)

• Table of contents (excluded from the word count)

• Introduction:
Short – one/two paragraphs ideally describing briefly reflective techniques and their value. Here you mention the key theories on reflection that you will use (or not) and why. For example theories from authors suchs as Kolbs, Gibbs, Schon, etc. A smart way to get points is not just to mention and reference the ones that you use but also the ones that you will not use and why (and of course reference them).

• Critical Incidents analysis:
Over here you can write from 2 to 4 critical incidents either positive or negative from your experience in MEGA simulation. Avoid writing only one or more than 4 (since then you either overanalyse or analyse too thinly). Ideally 3 would be just fine depending on your writing style (extensive or not). Within those critical incidents (for every one): you need to analyse what happened shortly and not write a narrative/personal story or self justification. You need to identify both your view and the other members’ views looking at things in a reflective manner. You can also write in the 1st person if you need to.

It is for you to reflect on the most memorable (important for you) moments/processes/feelings and then go on the next level to analyse them through the relevant theoretical concepts – up to now this is the ”Use and detail of critical incidents: 30%” interwoven of course with the next part!

Reflecting, you need to mostly explain through the use of theories why this/these happened. For example, in the beginning/first week of your teamwork for the simulation you might experienced issues on getting together as team members and take the appropriate decisions.

This can be viewed though the ”team formation” theories (i.e.norming, storming, performing), through communication theories, through leadership, through power, through culture, through team working/group dynamics concepts and or course through strategy concepts when talking of the appropriate strategy. These concepts (and many more similar) should be used for you to analyse your experience (providing the referencing) and talking about the implications to you and your team. (This is the ”Application of academic theories & concepts: 30%”)

In the end of every incident OR after the incidents, you need to say clearly how this experience helped you develop your skills (which skills and why) and these can be used in the future to your professional life. That is why we call them transferable skills. For example how did you develop more your interpersonal, organisational, communication, planning (and many more) skills and their value since using them in the future professional life. This is the ”Quality of critical insights: 30%” and part of the conclusions.

• The conclusions can be either part of every incident or a final part of the report. In any case, please make them clear for us by making them either separate sub-chapters in every incident or a different chapter in the end of the report. Over here you need – as said before – you need to explain clearly the transferable skills developed

• Sources/ References (excluded from the word count):
Make sure you list all the theories, concepts that you mention inside the text and also the ones that you read to write the text (even if they are not mentioned in it!). Use of course, the Harvard Ref Style. Number of Refs? Minimum 10 but is not a matter of quantity – it is rather quality!

• Appendices (excluded from the word count):
Make sure to include the log-book/diary of your team (it is the same thing) and not any personal one. The second one – if you have one – is up to you to include it or not. Don’t worry, we know about the similarity percentage that will come out from the turn-it-in, we will not calculate it as plagiarism. All team members should have the same log-book. Still, if no log-book is included then 5% is deducted from the overall mark of this assignment!
NOTE:
Theories and Concepts that can be used in your critical incidents analysis and reflection (you don’t need to use all of them but we are sure that you can if you want to):
• Reflection theories and techniques
• Power and Politics
• Communication,
• Culture,
• Decision Making
• Group Dynamics
• Strategy concepts (e.g. cost leadership or differentiation approach from M. Porter)
• Leadership
• Team formation and co-working

AND anything more that you think relevant and you can reference it properly!

ALL THE ABOVE THEORETICAL CONCEPTS TO USE AND ITS REFERENCES EXIST (MOSTLY) ON ZORICA’S SIDE SLIDES AND MATERIAL.

Finally, wherever theory is mentioned we do mean to use the theoretical concepts (as the bullet points above) and reference them properly.

That’s all folks!

Ioannis, Zori and the Team!

BLIKOBOOK Qs (from last year)

Hello, I Just Wondered How Am I Supposed To Reference The Lecture Notes?
Follow Recommend

Yes, according to Harvard Ref Style
(Christodoulou or Patel, lecture notes 2013 or 2014)

Critical Incident Technique
Is there a difference between CIT and Reflective Practice or is CIT considered as a reflective practice model? In other words, Is CIT a model just like the other reflective models such as Rolfe, Schön and Boud? For example, can I use the What, So What and Now What questions instead of using the CIT questions, which are stated on the powerpoint? Why, What, How, What, What…

Hello,
CIT is a reflective technique. So yes, you can use the What, So What, Now What but make sure you reference it properly and in the introduction state why you are using (benefits) of this technique.
Thank you.
Reflective Report
You say in the brief: “Make sure you list all the theories, concepts that you
mention inside the text and also the ones that you read to write the text (even
if they are not mentioned in it!).” So do you mean we should first list all the theories we used, and along with them we write the references that we used for each one of them?

Hi there,
We mean the sources should have both the in-text references and the bibliography (sources not in-text).
Thank you.
2nd And 3rd Assignment
Dear Ioannis,It is possible to do multiple submissions on turn-it-in for assignment 2? And for assignment 3?Also, What are the supplementary appendices to which Assignment 3 refers to? What they should contain?
Thank you
Hi there,Nop – you can submit only once for every assignment. Also, the link for the reflective will appear on Friday 21/02 at 13.00.
As for the appendices of assignment 3 – there are not obligatory – it is up to you if you want to include anything.
Thank you.

Reflective Report
Is the reflective report about the experience or can we talk about the stimulation and link that back to theories and the experience.
E.g talk about the stimulation and how we changed our strategy half way through and linking that to my personal participation and the role I played within the team.
I’ve been told to only talk about the experience within the team and not talk about the stimulation? However that means everyone will be talking about the same things?

Firstly, it is simulation rather than stimulation. Please attend to proof- reading before you submit your reflective report.
Secondly, everyone will be reflecting on different experiences due to different consolidation of their teams and different situations that made impact on them – so Critical Incidences will be varied.
Thirdly, what should be avoided is writing descriptively about the Mega learning simulation, but changing the strategy and linking to your personal involement and reflecting on it is desirable. You will have an opportunity to demonstate your knowledge and understanding of some strategic issues (include relevant theoretical input) and also offer a personal reflection of the process of change and how it effected you on many different levels: feelings, thoughts and behaviour.
I hope it helps and best
Zori

Reflective Report
Can someone please clarify what the reflection is on? I wrote it on how I could have improved certain situations during the MEGA Learning experience but my seminar tutor told me that I was being too one-sided and to quote “were you the only one doing MEGA?!!”. So should I be reflecting on others actions and what they should have done as well or just myself?????

Maryana Semenyuk 11 Feb
the reflection is on the work you did as a team, not a game! so talk about positive/negative experience. You should have between 3-5 Critical Incidents! Good luck!

Anonymous 11 Feb
Pretty sure it’s a personal reflection

Zorica Patel 12 Feb Lecturer
In reply to the 1st post – without seeing your work, it is difficult to comment on what the tutor meant by saying: one-sided. Certainly, any piece of reflective writing offers the individual perspective – it is your personal reflection. However, Mega Learning experience happened in a social environment, i.e. within the team work – so you might not be reflecting on actions of others, but certain actions of others had to make some impact on you – how you felt at some points, what you thought and how you behaved.
I hope it helps and best
Zori
BBUS601: CW1 – Reflective Review Of Journal
Hello, I wanted to ask if the first piece of assessment is similar to a literature review? Thank you.

The answer is – NO.The purpose of the literature review is to offer a detailed outline of the theoretical underpinning of the researched subject area. It is usually one of the separate chapters in many project dissertations.
Here, you are ‘researching’ yourself – your experience in the team environment within Mega Learning and what you have learnt about yourself and others in the process. Your theoretical input in relation to aspects covered in strategic and organisational parts of the module will be continuously interlinked within your report. However, in your Introduction, you will briefly outline some of the reflective theories, but this is far too little (content-wise) in comparison with any in-depth literature review.I hope it helps and best, Zori

Which Log-Book?
Dear Ioannis,
there are two different log books, one is only covering week 2, 4 and 12. The other one is the learning contract together with a log book which includes every week. Which one are we supposed to use?

Ioannis Christodoulou 22 Jan Lecturer
Hi there,The one that is for every week.This is the one included with the learning contract on BB.Thank you.
BKEY601: Individual Reflective Journal
Hello,Can I put my individual journal in the appendices as well? I have done one for myself on a weekly basis.Thank you.

Hi there,If mean an individual log-book/diary then yes, you can include it as well if you want. No problem. But you still need to have the team’s one as well. Thank you.
Reflective Essay References And Sources

Dear IoannisI was wondering, if you could recommend a few books/journals to help me complete by reflective essay of the MEGA SimulationMany Thanks
Dear XXX,Thank you for your inquiry.Actually Zori is the expert on it and that is why I copy her here so as to hepl us further. However, I am sure that you can use all the references/sources from the end of every chapter of our book. Especially, the chapters from part B of the book that are directly related to all the theories mentioned in the briefing on BB and the one sent by e-mail to all of you. Thus, over there, you can find plenty of articles, books and on- line sources to investigate further with (for example) EBSCO database, through business source complete : http://library-collections-search.westminster.ac.u k/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A%28WST%29&frb g=&tab=local&dstmp=1390037403018&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&dum=true&indx=1 &tb=t&vl(freeText0)=business%20source%20complete&fn=search&vid=WST_VU1
and then : http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/advanced?sid=7fd93c8a-4760 -402f-80a2-e1ee847d52f6%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4212
Thank you and good luck.Ioannis
And the Reply from Zori!:
Dear XXXX Thank you for your inquiry. In addition to Ioannis’s suggestions and in relation to the reflective practice theoretical input, please see below REFERENCES – LAST SLIDE FROM THE PPT SLIDES ON REFLECTIVE PRACTICE – ALREADY ON BB

?????????Boude D., Keough, R, Walker, D (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning Kogan Page London: Clamp C (1980) Learning Through Critical Incidents Nursing Times Oct 2: 1755-1758

?????????Davis, P. (2006). Critical Incident Technique: A Learning Interverntion for Organizational Problem Solving. Development & Learning in Organizations. Vol. 20 No.2. pp 13-16

?????????DeweyJ (1933) How we think. Henrey Regney, Chicago

?????????Flanagan, J. (1954).The Critical Incident Technique. Psychological Bulletin.Vol. 51. No. 4 pp 327-358

?????????Girot E.A. Reflective skills. In Maslin-Prothero S.(ed.) Baillere’s Study Skills for Nurses 2001 – second edition. Baillere Tindall/RCN. London

?????????Greenwood J(1993) Reflective Practice: A Critique of the Work of Argyris and Schon. J. Adv Nurs Vol 21: 1044-1050

?????????Johns C (1995) The Value of Reflective Practice for Nursing.J. Clinical Nurs. 4: 23-60

?????????Kemmis S (1985) Action Research and the Politics of Reflection. In: Boude D et al (1985)Reflection Turning Experience into Learning. Kogan Page, London

?????????Louden W (1991) Understanding Teaching.Cassell, London

?????????Mezirow J (1981) A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education. Adult Education 32: (1) 3-24

?????????Reid, B (1993) “But we’re doing it already” Exploring a response to the concept of reflective practice in order to improve its facilitation. Nurse Ed Today 13: 305-309

?????????Schon D (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. Josey Bass, San Francisco

Assignment 2 (Logbook)
Will the Logbook attached in the appendices of the Critical Incident Assignment be assessed?

Hi there,If the log-book (that has to be the same for all team members) is not included then you lose 5% . In terms of the format/structure the log-book is not assessed but it needs to be clear, precise and to reveal the meetings’ information per week. – if it is -lets say- an one page log-book with very few info then the seminar tutors have the responsibility/authority to mark you down from 1 to 5% again..Thank you!

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