COMS1010-Academic and Professional Communications

Purpose

Reflective and critical thinking are vital in whatever discipline you are studying – these levels of thinking make you a successful professional in your field. Critical reflection is not the same as ‘being critical’. It is a specific term that refers to identifying and challenging the assumptions you make. Instead of assuming that something is true, you identify the assumptions you are making when you believe it, and then challenge these assumptions. You can do this in any part of your life, and you can apply it to the assumptions underlying all texts you read, hear and watch. This assignment is designed to encourage and teach you to think in critically reflective ways in the discipline you are studying, reflecting on:

1.yourself as a learner – what works for you and how you need to adapt to university study

2.your discipline and your future professional life

3.ideas introduced to you in the rest of your course

In this group project, you will choose a social issue, then challenge your own and other people’s assumptions about this issue. To do this you will focus on primary documents about the issue – news reports, historical documents, Acts of Parliament, advertisements, street art, art works, cartoons, music videos, songs, stories, films, and so on. You may also create your own primary documents in response to the issue – brief performances, paintings, sculptures, fashion designs, jewellery, webpages, stories, poems, and so on. (However, please be aware that you will receive no extra marks in this assignment for creating your own documents – the focus is on your critical reflection on the documents you include.)

Issues:

1.Refugees and migration in Australia

2.Domestic violence 

3.Equality and equal opportunity

4.Nationalism and security

5.Indigenous disadvantage in Australia

6.Education in Australia

7.Prescription and illegal drug use

Group task

While this is a group task, you will submit an individual portfolio, and your marks will be individual. The purpose of organising it this way is that you will have opportunities to reflect critically by sharing your ideas and resources with each other but your final mark will not be affected by the performance of other group members. Your choice of issue and your ongoing critical reflection on texts will take place on a discussion board set up for your group.