Engelhard student reflection prompt
Fall 2008
NOTE: Please send your response through e-mail.
I will note whether this assignment is turned in and grade it similarly to the journals/blogs.
You may count it as either a blog or journal entry. In your response, please note which
you would like it to count as.
Your name will then be removed and your response shared anonymously with the
Engelhard research team.
Prompt:
An important component of this course is reflective writing. This particular reflective writing
assignment asks you to reflect on your personal experience and the course content (concepts
and themes, readings, class discussions, information in the Engelhard module, the guest
speaker, community-based activities, and assignments, etc.), in order to discover and illuminate
the dynamic intersections between them.
Some of the materials we’ve studied and the concepts we’ve talked about may have struck a
personal chord with you, such as the presentation and discussion Bringing your personal
reactions into this piece of writing is appropriate, as the goal is to have you think about what
we’ve been studying as it relates to larger life and societal issues. But it’s equally critical to tie in
the issues discussed in class and the academic content of the course.
After organizing your ideas, please write a one to two-page reflective essay conveying your
personal response to this class. Your essay should make explicit the specific connections you
saw/see between your personal lived experiences, the content and activities associated with this
course. More specifically, did the course’s attention to the social/psychological/moral/emotional
dimensions of teaching and learning connect in any way to your own learning this semester and
your past or present experiences?
There are many different ways you might approach this personal essay. You may choose to
describe what was different about this class, compared to others (non-Engelhard courses) you’ve
taken at Georgetown. You might give examples of how the learning environment or class
atmosphere affected your learning in the course. If you feel you did better academic or other
kinds of work in this course than in other courses, you could explain why you thought that was so.
Most college classes don’t openly address mental health and wellness issues. You may want to
describe how such discussions in this class affected your experience of the course and your life
as a Georgetown student. You could also discuss what your experience in this course made you
think about outside of class, and if you changed any of your habits or behaviors because of what
you learned or discussed in the course. You might also address whether the course generated
new discussions or modified your interactions outside of class.
If this class raised any unsettling emotions for you, you may want to describe what they were and
how you worked through them. You could also indicate if you now feel more confident that you
could manage unsettling emotions and situations in the future..
Your response will be submitted anonymously to the Georgetown Engelhard research
team as feedback on how the program is reaching its goals.