Hello,this assignment is related to the reflective piece which you guys have done it before. along with details file, i will attach reflective file plus example file of previous students which will be helpful for you guys to work on
Reflective 1 Personal Experience 6 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY Student Name: Priyanka Gulia Student ID: 33526968 Table of Contents Personal Experience3 References6 Personal Experience It has been a long time now that I have completed my graduation from a prestigious university in India although the experience is unforgettable. Coming back to education, learning, and that too in an international university was an all-new experience for me. I was worried about the new culture and learning environment and was not sure whether I will be able to adjust to the environment. However, the treatment I received at Murdoch University while the orientation program was very different from my imaginations. The atmosphere of the university was welcoming and supportive. I could easily sense that the teaching style and culture of the university will create many learning opportunities for me both at the professional and personal front. As I have already mentioned that I have done my graduation from an Indian university, I felt a huge change in the education system of these two universities. In India, students are encouraged to undertake courses by attending the classes in person while here in Australia classes are online and students have to go through the daily online lectures provided by their course coordinator. Moreover, in India hand-written assignments are more popular in universities. In contrast, universities here in Australia are more dependent on online tutoring. Though it will not be easy for me to adopt a new education system, I like taking challenges and will surely be able to live up to the expectation of my teachers and assessors as per the standards of the university. As suggested by Gündüz, Alakbarov, and Demirci (2020) communication skills are extremely important for international students and therefore I need to focus on my communication skills. The difference between India and Australia lies not only in their education system but also in their culture. Coming from an Indian culture it was not at all easy for me to adapt the western culture. It was initially difficult for me to interact with the teachers due to the language barrier. However, I would like to mention that the teachers at the university are supportive. Murdoch University and its management are capable enough to manage the cultural diversity existing within its campus and the policies and procedures of the university ensure equality for all, which is commendable. After joining the post-graduation program in this university, I felt that I would not only earn a degree from the university but will also gain a lot of knowledge about various communities and thus become a better person with a lot of cultural understanding and ethical values. As the students in my class were all from different cultures, therefore they had different ideologies and perceptions. Because of this, there were several conflicts in the classroom during some of the initial classes, but the teachers were capable enough to provide the students with the moral and ethical values along with the knowledge regarding the course material. The way teachers promoted open communication channels supported the students to coordinate with each other with greater efficiency and effectiveness (Wang, 2018). The interaction between the students and the teachers here at the university was outstanding. The education culture here helped me to be more attentive as we have to be focused to complete the assignments on time and to gather the details necessary for the assignments we have to listen to the online lectures attentively. Although, I felt quite uncomfortable while taking lectures in the English language, the teachers and other students helped me a lot to understand the language and the lectures. The flexible timings of the classes helped me a lot to adjust, as I have to make some changes to my daily routine according to the timings and culture of Australia. I managed to make many friends in my class who helped me to adjust to the culture and helped me a lot to learn the English language. For my further stay, here in Australia and studies at Murdoch University, I aspire to be a more active participant in the university courses. I would also like to build up my self-confidence as I am quite introvert, owing to my cultural roots. Moreover, I need to make considerable efforts to improve my communication skills so that I may be able to adjust to the culture and the people from different communities with greater efficiency and effectiveness (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). This will not only help me to undertake the course properly but will also help me to be a culturally sensible member of society. References Gündüz, M., Alakbarov, N., & Demirci, A. (2020). Improving the Communication Skills of International Students: Case Study of Usak University. In Academic Language and Learning Support Services in Higher Education (pp. 140-162). IGI Global. Mesidor, J. K., & Sly, K. F. (2016). Factors That Contribute to the Adjustment of International Students. Journal of International Students, 6(1), 262-282. Wang, Y. (2018). Cultural Conflicts in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Assignment 3: Essay: Coming into community (40%) Friday Week 11 All of us move in and out of different communities. Each of these community settings has its own set of languages, cultures and systems. As a community worker you will need to build skills and practices (some call them cultural competencies) to help you move in and out and deal respectfully with new communities. An important part of your ‘tool kit’ in doing this will be your ability to reflect on what is happening to you and those around you. This assignment intends to help you start to exercise this skill of reflective practice. This assignment consists of two parts; equal weight is given to each. Part 1: (1000 words) Reflect and write about your experience of coming into the Murdoch community. You may find it helpful to explore the following: · What you wrote in assignment 2. · How is the culture (language, formal and informal rules, expectations, systems) of Murdoch different from your ‘home’ culture (where you have recently come from)? · What has it felt like over the first semester of coming into Murdoch? · What have you done that has been helpful in dealing with these differences in culture? · What will you need to do in the future to help you move in and out of your life at Murdoch? Part 2: (1000 words) Research and write a short essay for an academic reader exploring what the literature says about the art of ‘coming into a new community’. The essay must include a minimum of 7 references to the literature, cited both in text and end of text. ASSIGNMENT 4 Vinny Paul Fernandez Student Id 33731932 Glad to introduce myself, Vinny Paul Fernandez, in assignment 2 I briefly discussed the decision to choose community development for my master’s and my personal influences of involving into volunteering works form a very young age. In my previous assignment, I mentioned volunteering opportunity, how to get into community work, fortunately, I found volunteering work in an organization named ‘Vinnie’s good works’. Living in a new country is can be very exciting and adventurous. The support we get at Murdoch through professors, tutors are immense. When we are in Murdoch the exposure we get paves the way to huge opportunities that improve our lives both personally and academically. The decision to study community development is an asset not only for me but for all those who take part in community works. To quote this, “Community development, both as a practice and a discipline, can be considered a complementary concept with overlapping core foundations as found in community well-being. The predominant focus and value of community development is to improve people’s lives” (Lee and Jong, 2014) While talking about culture, which is a huge word which covers a lot of ground. The term culture refers to a set of habits, norms, behaviors. The term tradition and culture can sometimes overlap. To get adapted to a new culture can be hard at times. As a part of adapting to a new culture, culture shock is very common, usually happens for people who live in a foreign country for a very long time. Once culture shock is interpreted in the right way, the effects caused by it can be minimized drastically. The kind of culture that I have seen in the Murdoch community is that most of the professors are liked to be called by their first names. But in my home country, India, we do not usually address the teachers by calling their names instead, we address them as sir or madam. While writing emails, we start the mail mentioning the name of the tutors because back home, we are not supposed to call the teacher’s name because in our culture, it is seen as a lack of respect, but the culture here sees it as totally normal. Another aspect in the use of language is that here, in Australia there is a tendency to shorten words like such as Woolworths as ‘woolies’, McDonald’s as ‘maccas’. The acronyms and contractions can sometimes make things confusing and not sure of what things really are. People here are immensely value the relationships, are friendly and welcoming. In the first month, the adjustment phase, everything was quite new for me, it was the first time in my life that I have been to a different country. It was a period of cultural adjustment. I felt homesickness, simple day-to-day tasks seems to be a hurdle for me like, transportation, and shopping and so on it was a real challenge for me to adjust into a novel environment. There was problems of language, especially the accent. Even I had to meet lots of difficulties with the unfamiliar norms and rules, by observing how other people act upon specific situations helped me to understand and tackle these kinds of problems. Even I took much care to understand other people’s verbal and non-verbal communications in order to get a complete and exact picture of what is happening around me. Whenever I struggled to find out things, I asked people for help and assistance. Sometimes understanding others and making myself understood is time-consuming especially for rephrasing, clarification, and repetition. I have participated in programs conducted by Wanslea Foster care in association with the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), to be honest, it was a wonderful experience for me. I came to know about how society works and different aspects of community involvement happen in Australia which of course different from that of my home country. Now, I see the new country and culture positively, managed to adapt happily. The things that helped me to understand and deal with the cultural differences are many. One of them is the perspective of seeing things differently, that begins open-minded to accept the different cultural varieties. When adapting to a new culture seems hard for me I took time to engage in activities which I love doing, like watching movies in my home language, listen to my favorite music, and read books. I took the time to