Reflective Journal 5: Reflect on SES. You may want to consider the curriculum, the learning process, the assessment, difficulties you faced, how you overcame them, and how might SES be applicable in time to come.
It’s coming to the end of a full semester, and I have some thoughts about SES.
Personally, I feel I have grown a lot through learning about SES. I was able to connect with the curriculum on Chinese and American perceptions of self, because I am a ethnic Chinese and I have always been interested in the portrayal of Americans as confident, assertive individuals. A lot of books I read, like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, are based around Western characters with the American perception of self, and thus I was very interested during this segment of the curriculum, and I did have many of my own comments and clarifications to make. I was also intrigued by this topic because it related to my life in Singapore, as a country that had adopted snippets from both. I did not have the same level of connection with the segment of curriculum in Term 2, which emphasized more on the economic side of things, because it is just not my area of interest. I did not really identify with the tutorials on factories and the Industrial Revolution, in spite of appearances. However, I feel it is very good exposure, and I have definitely learnt a lot about how to factor in a country’s societal context into its economy, and vice versa.
I also enjoyed the method of pedagogy, because it enabled mutual learning between peers. Although I was one of the few people who spoke up consistently at first, I was in fact very glad when people like Jing Ling and Darrel made thought-provoking comments in response to my own. I feel that our class has people who think in very different ways from my own, and so I have many chances to learn from their ways of thinking and reasoning. It was also rather interesting being the one to scrutinise everyone’s comments and systematically rebutting them, at least initially. I just love a good debate, and in the process I often get to hone my own faculties of logic and reasoning as well. The pedagogy served as a sort of sharpening stone for me, and I feel I’ve definitely become sharper and keener through this process of mutual learning. One thing I’d like to suggest is to have smaller-scale group discussions instead of a class discussions, as some people may need to be eased into a discussion-oriented style of learning, before they are ready for class discussions. In smaller groups, everybody also gets more time to themselves for sharing of opinions.
At first, I was rather intrigued by the policy of having a word limit rather than a minimum word count. The initial idea of slacking off and writing less in my reflective journal was soon erased after I found that I actually wanted to write more. I really came to appreciate the 800 words we were given in each reflective journal to talk about our opinions, because it gave me ample space to flesh out my thoughts and perspectives on the issue itself, and attain a level of depth I was satisfied with. At the same time, the 800 word limit put pressure on me to be clear yet succinct whenever I had a wealth of opinions to explain. The result is that I learned how to balance depth with breadth, maintaining an appropriate level of detail as I expressed my opinions in each reflective journal. The kind of mentality a word limit created in me was that out of so many things to talk about, I had to select a few and expound on them, compromising neither breadth nor depth. As a result, I tried to adhere as closely to the word limit as possible, to fully develop my various arguments. I think this mentality helped a lot other subjects like English, because it helped open my eyes to the abundance of possible viewpoints I could adopt when writing. No doubt I never ran out of content to talk about, be it English or SES.
As I was going through some of my earlier reflective journals, it was quite noticeable how I have changed. I initially adhered more closely to the hints and pointers given in the questions, and as such my reflective journals tended to be more repetitive. When I compared them to those my classmates had written, the similarities were often very striking. But practice has helped me develop my personal voice and be willing to explore territory outside the boundaries set by the question. I think the most important thing, for me at least, is being able to express my personal thoughts and talk about my experiences in a way that is truly authentic.
Ultimately, I think I’ll never forget what I learnt in SES – not just the content, but the encapsulated skills as well.
(word count: 800)
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