Assessing employability
through reflective diaries
on teamwork
• CEC 202 A Sense
of Place
• School of English
• Second Year
Approved Module
Objectives
• Building relationships with key organisations
in the tourism/ heritage sectors
• Providing innovative solutions to problems
faced by these organisations
• Giving students the opportunity to engage
with these organisations in order to
appreciate the ways in which research can
be applied in the ‘real world’
• Giving students an insight into the problems
and challenges faced by these organisations
• Providing the opportunity for students to
acquire key skills in teamwork and
presentation.
Problem or Opportunity?
• Uncertain outcome of project: fear of
failure
• Group work with unfamiliar colleagues
• Different cultures/ working practices
• Communication (with group/ external
partners)
Tools
• Belbin team role descriptors
• Weekly journal
• Longer reflective journal at half-way and
end
For the reflective journals, you should look back on the
project at the half-way stage and after completion. At the
half-way stage, you should reflect on your initial selfassessment using the Belbin team role analysis and
discuss whether your experience has changed your
ideas on this. You should also reflect on the skills that
you have developed. In each case, it's a good idea to
give a specific example of something you did that
illustrates this. You can also give your thoughts on how
the team is working together and how the project is
going. For the final reflective journal, much the same,
except you can reflect on the final output and on how the
presentation was received.
Belbin Team Role Descriptors
• Students evaluate themselves at the
beginning of the module
• As a team, they discuss these and allocate
roles/ jobs accordingly
• Students learn to appreciate different
personalities/ different skills
• All role types have good and bad points!
Weekly Journal
• Students reflect on their experience
• Builds awareness of skills development
• Allows them to learn from problems and
mistakes
• Enables rapid intervention in case of
problems
• Longer reflective journals at two key points
• ‘This is like therapy’!
Self-awareness
Where do I start? The last couple of weeks
have brought out a lot of qualities in me, that
I thought I was not capable of…. As
previously being a shy individual, I had never
thought that I could communicate with
members of the community with confidence.
However the best part of it was representing
the University of Sheffield. It was a great
pride to say that you’re a student from the
University of Sheffield who is carrying out a
campaign to save X
Developing awareness
In the initial self-assessment, I described
myself, according to Belbin’s Team Roles, as
a Teamworker, as I thought of myself as one
of the people in the group, who help it to run
smoothly and identify the work that needs to
be done and who can do each job…. However,
now that we are half way into the assignment,
I feel that I have become more of a Monitor
Evaluator as I think that I am quite good at
weighing up the team’s options and what we
have to do as a group, as I think some of the
girls’ strengths lie in their creativity, whereas I
think I am better at assigning jobs to people
or ways that things can be done.
Troubleshooting
Firstly I felt upset and annoyed as it feels like
all our hard work has been dismissed and we
have no end result to show for all the work
that we undertook. As a group we have
worked for over 50 hours on this project and
due to the lack of communication between the
external agents we have not been able to
produce a viable end product. It has been
disheartening that we tried so hard to
effectively communicate with all the bodies
involved, yet they inferred that it was our fault
and they did not appreciate the work, time and
effort we have given to this project.
Troubleshooting
On a personal note, I believe that our group
has demonstrated a high level of
professionalism and we have worked very
well together as a team. Each individual has
taken an active role over the project and we
have also been able to create friendships and
working relationships with one another easily.
Although I have found this week stressful and
disconcerting, I have enjoyed working as part
of a group as I feel that I have not had enough
opportunities to do this in other areas of my
degree programme.
Feedback
the project has
provided me with
numerous transferable
skills which will be
welcomed in my
modules next year and
in many workplaces.
I feel I have contributed to a
good cause and done
something more meaningful
and helpful to others than
writing essays about novels
and poetry.
I feel like our work is actually
worthwhile in the community.
Our input is helping towards
making improvements for
local people, which provides
me with a great sense of
satisfaction.
Making team decisions,
listening to the opinions of
others, dividing up tasks and
trusting everyone to do their
fair share are all
transferable skills which
employers look for in a
potential employee who will
be working in a team
environment.
Practicalities
• Rapid response essential: set a time to
read and answer journals
• Intervention: suggest solutions, react
appropriately
• MOLE not USpace: journals confidential
• Not every entry is assessed: only the 2
reflective journals + best two of the rest