Extra Credit Journal #6 – Self-reflective essay
Writing a self-evaluation:
To be able to evaluate yourself fairly, candidly, and helpfully is a valuable life skill which will be an asset to you long after you leave college. There is no single way to write a good evaluation. That will depend upon the course, your goals, your style, and your needs. The advice below is only that: advice. Do not follow it slavishly or respond as if it were an outline to be followed. And do not assume that you must touch on all of the points mentioned. A good evaluation selects the most important results of the learning process, and from this selection much else is evident. Give time and thought to what you write and care to how you write. A sloppy, careless self-evaluation filled with misspellings, incomplete sentences, and half-thoughts leaves a poor final impression even if you did very well in a course of study.
A VITAL POINT: Try to write in a way which communicates information about the content of a course or independent study. Do not just speak in abstractions and personal feelings, such as "This class was extremely important to me because through discussion and the readings my thinking developed immensely." What subject? Which discussions? What did you read? Think about what? Developed from where to where?? A reader who does not know what the class studied should be able to gain an idea from your self-evaluation. One should be able to form some judgment about how well you understand a subject from what you say about it, not merely that you claim to understand it. In other words, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, BE SPECIFIC, and, finally, BE CONCRETE.
Here are some-suggestions only:
Cognitive: Did I do more or less than was expected by the instructor? Why, or why not? What are your new understandings and knowledge? What do you now understand best about this subject? What do you understand least well? What is the most important single piece of knowledge gained? What will you remember in a year? Five years? How has your knowledge grown? How has it changed? What do you need to learn next about this subject?
Skills: What new skills have you gained? What old skills have you improved? Did you actually use these skills? How has your ability to solve problems, think, reason, and research improved? What skills do you need to develop next?
Judgment: Do you understand the difference between process and content? Can you apply principles to other classes? Can you apply them to life? If you took the class again, what would you do differently? Has your way of thinking changed?
Affective: Did you change? Did your beliefs? How about your values? Was the class worth your time? Do you feel good about it? What is the single most important thing that you learned about yourself? Evaluate your participation in discussion. Did you discuss and learn with other students? How has the course altered your behavior? Did you grow, shrink, stay stagnate, float, etc.? Has the course irritated you? Stimulated you? Touched you personally? Has it made you uncomfortable about yourself, about society, about the future, about learning? Are you the same person who began the class ten weeks ago? What's different? What was most satisfying about the class? What was the most frustrating? What was your responsibility for each?
