Reflective Writing for National Academy of Sciences -myassignmenthelp

Question: Write about theReflective Writing for National Academy of Sciences. Answer: It has been a week since I enrolled at the University of Sydney for an undergraduate course as a bachelor of science (health). Being an American, I was hesitant of moving to a new place, far away from home, in order to pursue my studies. A week has already passed now since I joined up and I believe I am growing familiar with the place and the people. With more passing time, I believe I would be more comfortable in settling down and attending the classes here. Since the time I have arrived, I have made acquaintances with two of my hostel roommates. They have been helpful enough in providing an essential tour of the university campus and pointing out the hangout spots in the city. I have already attended three lecture sessions and the standard of education looks promising. The University of Sydney is one of the most oldest and reputed Universities in the world. The rules present here are strict and violating them may result in suspension or expulsion. The faculty is qualified and capable. Unlike American Universities, Australian Universities do not have fraternities or sorority, which is upsetting. However, the overall atmosphere here seems to be satisfying and wholesome. As more days pass by, I hope to make new friends with the other students in my batch as well as the University. The University has an ambitious and talented football team that I wish to join up. Apart from studies, I feel having fun and maintaining a social life is important as well, mostly since it would make me feel less homesick. This is my first experience of staying abroad and studying abroad and I wish to make many new experiences during my course of stay here. Week 3: As I started to spend more time attending the lecture sessions and classes at the University, I realized it was important to keep a note of the discussions and presentations taking place in the lecture sessions. Most of the professors did not provide handouts of their lecture sessions and therefore the best solution was to manually write down and maintain a copy of important notes. The process of note taking soon became quite troubling for me. It was hard to keep up with what the professor was saying and most of the time I could not keep up. I possess a short attention span and most of the time I found myself losing focus, which contributed more to the problem. The constant difficulties I kept facing in writing and maintaining notes made me realize the reasons due to which this was occurring. The lack of focus and inability to keep up with the pace of the lecturer were the primary causes. The other reasons being my problems in understanding the technical terms used by the lecturer, inability to prioritize what to note down and the lack of handouts. In case of any problem, the solution is never too far away. I too similarly discovered ways by which I could solve my problems in note taking. I observed that sitting in the front seats would help increase my attention and I would be more focused in class. Reading the chapter ahead of the next days class helped me in understanding which of the points were important and need to be note down. Using short forms or abbreviations was helpful in maintaining the speed while writing. Lastly, comparing the notes with other students allowed me to fill in the incomplete parts or areas I missed out while writing. Week 4: Learning is considered as one of the most primary and important functions of the brain. The term learning has numerous definitions. I feel that the term learning simply means to gain information, knowledge or training that was previously unknown. There are two types of learners- active and passive learners. The course of study I am currently pursuing requires me to be an active learner in order to stay updated on the topics and it would be helpful in understanding the subject clearly. In the active learning process, I need to constantly be engaged with the content that I am learning. Passive learning on the other hand, means listening to a piece of information but doing nothing about it. It is true that it would not be possible for me to be an active learner on almost all of the topics that I am learning. Being a passive learner is applicable for these cases. However, I feel active learning has its own benefits which outweigh that of passive learning. Active learning has helped increase my motivation in the subject I am currently studying and has made me aware of the effectiveness of working in a group. Active learning can be implemented via a number of ways. I however, feel that researching and gathering information from other sources like articles, books, research papers and so on, is a simple yet effective method of active learning. Discussing various topics with friends, family or like-minded people helps you gain some valuable insights you previously had no idea about. Following up on the subject after the end of a class, homework and participating in debates are some of the steps I wish to implement in future to increase my level of active learning process. I feel that if there were more discussion sessions in class and educative game sessions, it would be an extremely helpful way of active learning, for not only me, but also the entire class as a whole. Bibliography Baepler, P., Walker, J. D., Driessen, M. (2014). It's not about seat time: Blending, flipping, and efficiency in active learning classrooms.Computers Education,78, 227-236. Boctor, L. (2013). Active-learning strategies: The use of a game to reinforce learning in nursing education. A case study.Nurse education in practice,13(2), 96-100. Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,111(23), 8410-8415. Jensen, J. L., Kummer, T. A., Godoy, P. D. D. M. (2015). Improvements from a flipped classroom may simply be the fruits of active learning.CBE-Life Sciences Education,14(1), ar5. Kim, K., Sharma, P., Land, S. M., Furlong, K. P. (2013). Effects of active learning on enhancing student critical thinking in an undergraduate general science course.Innovative Higher Education,38(3), 223-235. Minasny, B., McBratney, A. University of Sydney. Risko, E. F., Buchanan, D., Medimorec, S., Kingstone, A. (2013). Everyday attention: Mind wandering and computer use during lectures.Computers Education,68, 275-283. Shernoff, D. J., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Schneider, B., Shernoff, E. S. (2014). Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. InApplications of Flow in Human Development and Education(pp. 475-494). Springer Netherlands.