Reflecting on reflection: what we know and what we need to know; insight from a capstone marketing communication module

This collaborative study between a Marketing lecturer and a learning developer analyses students’ reflections on an industry group project in order to identify common issues surrounding the assignment. Participatory action research was utilised in order to incorporate the student view and shift the focus of the research from the students to the group project assignment itself with a view to improving it. The findings uncovered six key themes: asking for help, obstacles, specific skills achieved, acquired self-knowledge, identified strategies and identified traits still to be achieved. Within these themes, limitations within communication skills, emotional factors and teamwork, including cultural differences proved to be the main areas of interest, although it is clear that many difficulties were overcome with newly-found perspectives throughout the process. We have observed that students will take their learning from other modules to apply to other assignments, their tutors play a great role in supporting their learning, this group project enables a clear improvement in understanding career expectations and that we can mitigate some identified obstacles.