Reflective Paper
Your Reflective Paper is worth 60 out of the 70 marks for the Team Project, which shows
how important it is to learn to reflect well. Even if your project didn’t go so well, you can
rescue your grade with a good Reflective Paper. Likewise, even a great project needs a
well-written reflective paper to score well.
The good news is, you don’t have to be a brilliant writer to do a good Reflective Paper. If
you carefully work through the prompts below you should be able to create a piece of
writing that fulfils all the criteria and scores well.
Illustrate your points with actual examples from your project, to avoid generic comments
(i.e. things that sound like they could be pasted into anybody’s project).
The complete Reflective Paper should be about 1000 words but no longer. The word limit
is strict, so write concisely.
Make sure you have your Outcome, your Explanation and your research and planning notes
open for reference and inspiration while you write your reflection.
1. Evaluation of Project Outcome in Achieving Project Aim
(about 250 words)
How well did the Outcome
meet the project Aim?
Write about at least one
strength of the Outcome.
(How do you know it is a
strength? You will need to
refer to the feedback data
you collected.)
Write about at least one
limitation of the Outcome.
(This should also come from
evidence, and not just be an
unsupported opinion.)
Following on from the
strength(s) and/or
limitation(s) you mentioned,
suggest at least one way the
Outcome could be improved
to better achieve the aim.
2. Evaluation of My Own Work Process
(about 200 words)
How effective was your own,
individual work process?
(Don’t include comments on
how you interacted with the
team here – leave those for
the next section.)
What were your research
methods and how effective
were they?
How well did you manage
your time?
(Include both strengths and
weaknesses of your own
work process.)
What might you try
differently next time in your
own work process?
3. Benefits and Challenges of Working as a Team
and
My Performance as a Team Member
(about 300 words)
What were the benefits of
working as a team? (Give a
significant example from your
project.)
What were the challenges of
working as a team? (Give a
significant example from your
project.)
How active and committed
were you throughout the
process? Why?
How did you add value to
team discussions,
organisation, decision making
and research?
(Don’t go into detail on your
research findings here as that
goes in the next section.)
Include a balance of your
strengths and limitations as
a team member...
—following on from these,
how might you improve your
approach in future
collaboration?
4. My Learning and Contribution
(about 250 words)
Which cultural perspective(s)
on the issue did you yourself
research? What did you learn
about them? What significant
information did you find out
about the issue?
(Include citations to your
sources.)
My Key Research Findings about Cultural Perspectives
Explain how your own
research findings informed
the Outcome (i.e. helped you
decide what actions to take)
and/or supported the
Outcome (i.e. provided
content to help you do/make
something).
Connection of my work to the Team Element
What did you learn about the
issue from the project overall Overall Learning about the Issue
(i.e. including your
teammates’ research?)
How has it developed your
perspective on the issue (Has
it opened your eyes / changed
your mind / confirmed an
opinion / raised questions?)
When you finish, paste your four sections out into a separate document, leaving behind the
prompts. It is helpful to keep the section headings, though you don’t need to keep the
numbering.
Check the word count, proofread (aloud!) and keep editing until it’s perfect.
Wishing you the best of luck —
www.igcseglobalperspectives.net