Reflective project 2025
Creating an independent position on an ethical dilemma
The reflective project keeps the ethical dilemma as central to the process but is now externally assessed. There are structural enhancements to create more choice, voice, agency and authenticity. What remains the same is the way PPS supports the development of ethical thinking skills but we can be more intentional in how the rest of the core and the CRS and DP subjects contribute to skill development.
Want to find out more about the Reflective Project? Do check out the Think-Ins below we are running over the next term and click here to book.
Tuesday 27th October 9am CEST or
Wednesday 28th October 2pm CEST
Keys to Success: Connecting your CP through Ethical thinking
Facilitator: Rebecca Pickard
More info …
This Think-in for all CP educators will focus on how ethics and ethical thinking can connect all elements of the CP and strategies to enhance the students’ experience not just across their whole CP experience but also to lay the foundations for a successful reflective project process.
Session 1: The Ethical Lens: How does our understanding of ethical issues and dilemmas evolve when we look use different ethical frameworks?
Session 2: How can we use ethical thinking to enhance the CP experience for our students? Strategies to connect your CP core and prepare students ahead of the Reflective Project.
Tuesday 17th November 9am CEST or
Wednesday 18th November 2pm CEST
Focus on the Reflective Project: The Ethical Dilemma
Facilitator: Rebecca Pickard
More info …
This Think-In, for RP coordinators and supervisors, will focus on the ethical dilemma and how to support your student’s exploration of this throughout the Reflective Project process.
Session 1: An exploration of what you need to know about ethics and ethical dilemmas for the Reflective Project.
Session 2: Strategies to support and develop ethical thinking with your student throughout the Reflective Project process
Tuesday 24th November 9am CEST or
Wednesday 25th November 2pm CEST
Keys to success: Reflective project essentials for coordinators and supervisors
Facilitator: Rebecca Pickard
More info:
This Think-in is for reflective project coordinators and supervisors as we explore supervisory approaches that enable students to be agentic and lead their own learning journey.
Session 1: Making the most of meetings and the learning journal: supporting ethical, critical, reflective and reflexive thinking
Session 2: Creating a consistent approach to giving and receiving feedback with your RP student and across your CP cohort.
Tuesday 8th December 9am CEST or
Wednesday 9th December 2pm CEST
Focus on Reflective Project: Learning journal and Formats
Facilitator: Rebecca Pickard
More info …
This Think-in is for reflective project coordinators and educators as we explore practical ways to enhance and support communication skills in the reflective project learning process; we will focus on the learning journal and formats.
Session 1: Harnessing different communication styles for successful learning journals
Session 2: The connection between career fields, communication skills and choosing the right written, audio, visual and audio-visual format.
Choice
- Students can choose an ethical dilemma related to their career-related studies right now or a career field of interest which might not be what they are studying
- Students can utilise a format within written, audio, visual and audio-visual modalities with an intentional parity of effort in its design (a criticism of the last specification is the imbalance of effort between option 1 and 2)
- With this parity in mind, RPs are either 4000 words or equivalent to 4000 words, including up to 1000 words written reflection
Reflect in context
How are already students supported exploring careers other than their CRS? Am I clear on the new format options? How will students be introduced to the format choices and encouraged to link this to their career interests? How can we utilise the rest of the CP to explore the formats? Is it a deal-breaker if a student wants to work in a format that is less familiar to the supervisor and/or RP coordinator? How can we overcome this?
Voice
- Whereas students were encouraged in the last specification to have a voice in their RP, the emphasis could be more on a balanced evaluation of sources and including one's own perspective as a result of this; and whether students did this to a greater or lesser extent. In the 2025 specification, 2 out of 3 of the requirements of Critical thinking (still criterion C) is about demonstrating and justifying a personal position as well as exploring the impact and implications of this positionality and why alternative positions are not as viable; in short, including a personal position is non-negotiable and how well one develops a position obtains marks and not whether one includes one or not.
- Reflection has always been important to the RP (eg. it's actually named after it) and students were required to have 3 reflections from throughout the process. Now, the RP acknowledges the importance of reflection taking place throughout the process and not limited to three moments; not only this, the emphasis on reflexivity will build students' ability to have a distinct position on their ethical dilemma. The learning journal is crucial for this.
Reflect in context
Where will students explore, think about, debate and discuss ethical dilemmas? How will student develop understanding of perspectives and contexts? What opportunities do Community Engagement and Language and Cultural Studies offer to develop real world experiences and understanding of perspective and context? What opportunities are there in the whole CP for students to develop personal positions on ethical dilemmas? How will students develop reflective and reflexive skills throughout the CP? How will students know how different types of thinking skills develop your thinking in different ways? Are there share systems for reflection and reflexivity (eg question banks) you can use across the CP?
Agency and authenticity
- The RP process is scaffolded in 5 phases with feedback loops to increase student autonomy and agency. New features include peer feedback in at least two places in Phase 1 and 4, as well as presenting your findings of the initial draft.
- The learning journal is a mandatory tool and is a constant companion to students for their ideas and reflections on research, discussion, and feedback. It provides a place for students to capture an authentic learning experience with all its ups and downs. It provides the main source of academic integrity, inspiration and evidence for the students as they prepare for their viva voce with their supervisor, once they have submitted the completed RP.
Reflect in context
How will we prepare students to be able to give and receive feedback successfully? What system will we use for the learning journal? How will we launch the learning journal and make sure it is used?
Assessment objectives - quick glance
| AO1: Knowledge & understanding | Ethical dilemma → knowledge and understanding of concepts and terminology |
| AO2: Application and analysis | Methodology → perspectives → implications and impact → contexts |
| AO3: Synthesis and evaluation | Connecting ideas → justification → positionality → reflection and reflexivity → learning and growth |
| AO4: Communication of research | Organisation → coherence → structure → style → terminology |
Marking criteria - quick glance
Students' RPs are marked using 5 criteria which range in 6-8 marks each and out of a total of 34
| Marking criteria | … aligns with Assessment objectives | |
| Criterion A: Focus on the ethical dilemma | AO1: Knowledge and understanding AO2: Application and analysis | 6 marks |
| Criterion B: Knowledge and understanding through research | AO2: Application and analysis AO3: Synthesis and evaluation | 6 marks |
| Criterion C: Critical Thinking | AO2: Application and analysis AO3: Synthesis and evaluation | 8 marks |
| Criterion D: Communication of ideas | AO4: Communication of research | 6 marks |
| Criterion E: Reflective practice | AO2: Application and analysis AO3: Synthesis and evaluation | 8 marks |
There are 5 distinct phases of the reflective project
These are designed to sustain the momentum of the project from start to finish. Here we look at these phases from a perspective of coordination implications and also how you can map opportunities across the whole core to prepare students for this independent project.
Phase 1: Preparation and Planning
This includes the long term preparation and planning of research, self-management, communication and thinking skills needed for the RP utilising all aspects of the CP, as well as the student's official project preparation and planning.
Students determine their ethical dilemma and focus as well as the scope of their project; they create and present a research proposal with intended contexts, perspectives and potential format to their peers and supervisor, inviting and acting on feedback before proceeding to the next stage; they also use their learning journal to record their findings and include their reflections.
Students leave this phase when their project proposal is signed off and agreed with their supervisor.
Phase 2: Research and analysis
Students use appropriate research skills to carry out and accumulate research utilising their learning journal.
Students leave this phase with a personal, critical position on the ethical dilemma and are prepared to reflect upon this in the learning journal and discuss it with the supervisor.
Phase 3: Development
Students now organise their research and thinking with their chosen format's structure, terminology and style in mind.
Students leave this phase with the production of an initial draft.
Phase 4: Presentation of findings
Students use communication skills to present their initial draft to their peers with the intention of inviting feedback. They can expect to give and receive feedback on their line of argument, the scope and quality of their research, the success of the choice of format. Students need to decide how and if to act upon feedback
Students leave this phase with a range of perspectives on how to finish their project.
Phase 5: Completion and submission
In the final phase, students receive feedback on one draft from their supervisor and discuss how they will finish their project. Students review the criteria and self-assess. In the final stages, students use their whole learning journal to put together their written reflection, complete and submit their project. Students then complete a viva voce with their supervisor as a way of proving authenticity of the whole reflective project process.
Students leave this phase with a submitted RP with written reflection and take part in a viva voce to finish the process.
The learning journal. Just like in Language and Cultural Studies and Community Engagement, the learning journal is a mandatory part of the RP process and a centralised learning space. This can be multimodal and reflect communication styles that best suit the students.
- A learning tool to evidence engagement and demonstration of the assessment objectives
- a learning tool as a place for research, feedback, discussions and reflections on these
- provide the basis of discussion for supervisory meetings
- evidence of sustained and authentic engagement which can be used directly in the written reflection and forms the basis for discussions in the viva voce.
Learning journal introduction
By the time the students get to the RP process they should have some decent self-management and thinking skills to tap into for the mandatory RP Learning journal. This could be reflexive thinking practices...
Assessment objectives in context of the core
There are common threads in the design of the CP core which this table demonstrates in the form of:
Self identity/personal development Contexts/Systems Intercultural understanding
Ethical understanding and thinking Critical, reflective and reflexive thinking Communication skills
| Reflective project | Personal and Professional Skills | Language and Cultural Studies | Community Engagement |
AO1: Knowledge and Understanding •Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of terminology and concepts related to the focus of the project. | LO1 - Develop and apply intrapersonal skills in a variety of contexts. | LO1 - How personal identity is shaped languages, cultures and diverse perspectives | LO1 - Foster reciprocal and dialogic engagement |
AO2: Application and Analysis • Apply appropriate research methods. | LO2 - Develop and apply communication and interpersonal skills in a variety of contexts | LO2 - identify strengths and aspirations and set personally relevant goals | LO2 - Explore systems, and develop awareness of their roles within these |
AO3: Synthesis and Evaluation • Demonstrate the ability to synthesize research, making • Formulate a personal position on an ethical dilemma and reflect on the potential impact. • Justify thinking and choices using reasoning and reflexivity. • Evaluate and reflect on the learning experience, including project effectiveness and personal growth. | LO3 - Develop and apply thinking skills in a variety of contexts | LO3 - apply communication skills and understandings to various contexts | LO3 - Develop, articulate and enact ethical thinking and action |
AO4: Communication of research • Communicate research findings in an organized and coherent | LO4 - Develop and apply intercultural understanding in a variety of contexts. | LO4 - practise reflexivity and develop self-awareness as communicators within and across languages and cultures. | LO4 - Engage in reflective and reflexive practice |
| LO5—Demonstrate an awareness of the ethical implications of one’s choices and actions on self and others |
Self/identity/personal development Contexts/Systems Intercultural understanding
Ethical understanding and thinking Critical, reflective and reflexive thinking Communication skills
A quick overview of different parts of reflection and reflexivity
Remember that reflective and reflexive skills build throughout the CP course and not just in Community Engagement; critically reflective and reflexive skills will become more nuanced the more opportunities students have to practice them with questions and tools to help them.
Metacognitive reflection
Thinking about one's own thinking and learning processes to understand how one learns and how to improve.
Type of question: What is motivating and engaging you in CE? What is standing in the way of your engagement?
Process reflection
This is thinking deliberately about the process you have undertaken: what you did and why you did it to inform future choices and actions.
Type of question: How have your learning process and engagements led you to new understandings?
Critical reflection
In the context of Community Engagement, students can think more deeply by examining their experiences, assumptions, and beliefs to gain a more complex understanding and improve future actions. This can be achieved through a conceptual lens, focusing on the dimensions of community and principles of engagement
Type of question: How do your experiences with community help you understand other people and their actions?
How do your experiences within your other CP subjects and core components help you understand other people and their actions?
Self reflexivity
This type of thinking,at leads to the examination of one's own beliefs and perceptions.
Type of question: What have you discovered about your personal values and how this impacts how you interact with others in different contexts?
Critical reflexivity
This type of thinking leads you to examine beliefs and perceptions of wider system,systems such as different communities and groups and your own positionality within this.
Type of question: Which of the Dimensions of Community - Personal, Relational and Systems have been the most significant in your CE learning engagements?
Reflective & reflexive tools
The requirement to be reflective and reflexive is present in all four elements of the core; this is something that takes time to build up. Let's start with just some reflective and reflexive thinking...
Looking over your core component plans, use this checklist
- Guided -> to open inquiry over the two year course
- Designed for students to make connections and be able to transfer ideas, experiences and skills
- Explicit attention to Concepts, Contexts, Content and Skills
- Learning journal/portfolio supports every element
- It's all about the process
- Use the LJ/portfolio to demonstrate how they are achieving the learning outcomes
- Consistent opportunities for reflection and reflexivity, ethical thinking and decision-making
- International-mindedness
Tips to create a collaborative core
You've read the guides, you've looked at existing good practice that you want to keep. Are you ready to get building inquiries? As a CP coordinator, it can feel like both good news and bad news that you...