Assessment 1:

Reflective Essay

Reflection is a critical component in one`s professional and personal life. It provides a sense of meaning to experiences, an opportunity to put these experiences into perspective, and under review and provides an opportunity to change how you see, understand and experience situations. The reflective process involves reflective thinking and critical thinking and is a personal response to experiences and new information. It is important to develop our ability to reflect to inform and develop our helping role. Understanding how this process works and how we learn can help us appreciate how important the use of reflection is to our learning. Reflective writing flows from this process of reflection and is a way of exploring your learning and identifying your knowledge gaps and areas for improvement and serves as a channel for communicating your response to thoughts, and feelings but more importantly, it serves to provide clarity and a better understanding of what you are learning.
For some food for thought on reflective writing click here.
The student`s ability to: examine their thoughts about the content, and what it means for them, offering a unique and independent yet related view, and understanding of the content, will be assessed. Furthermore, the student`s ability to write and reflect will be assessed.

Instructions:

Write a reflective essay that includes the following:

1. Provide a brief overview of your current community and identify the factors that contribute to a sense of community cohesion and community well-being.
2. Reflect on how your understanding of community psychology has been shaped by colonial perspectives. In your reflection, describe the steps you can take to challenge and decolonize these perspectives to centre African knowledge and ways of knowing in your approach to community psychology. Use research/theory to support your reflection.
3. Consider the advantages of being a psychology student in your community and reflect on the role you could play to enhance your community`s overall well-being. Be sure to draw on what you have learned so far.
4. Discuss the importance of considering contextual community factors when engaging with a diverse community. Explain how you can use this opportunity to educate the community while developing and enhancing community cohesion.
5. Provide an evidence-based explanation of why an ecological systems approach is better in understanding, unpacking, and responding to community-related issues and challenges.
6. Discuss the significance of critical psychology in a community context, with specific reference to the uniquely South African contextual challenges and issues we face.