Reflection on Learning Communication Skills in Dietetics Practice

Critical reflective commentary and portfolio of evidence
This assessment has 2 components, a portfolio of evidence of learning and a critical
reflective commentary on the learning evidenced by the portfolio.

Aims

The aim of the reflective commentary and portfolio is to enable students to
demonstrate development of learning on communication skills in dietetic
practice and an ability to reflect critically on that learning.

Learning
outcomes

The learning outcome the portfolio will assess is:
• The ability to appraise the communication skills of self and others,
effectively give and receive feedback, and synthesise feedback with personal
reflections to further develop skills

Marking
criteria Assessed using the School marking criteria supported by a task specific rubric
Word limit 1500 words (+/- 10%) for the critical reflective commentary. The portfolio is

not included in the word count.

The critical reflective account
The first step in writing the reflective commentary will be to identify the elements of
learning that have been most important to you during the module. It is unlikely that you can
cover all of the learning experiences you have reflected on over the course of the module.
There is no specific format for the commentary and this piece of work could follow a
number of formats, for example:
1. It could provide a critical reflective commentary that follows your progress during
the skills sessions, teaching and learning activities highlighting one or two
experiences important to you and the impact that they have had on upon your
learning.
2. It could focus on specific themes or “questions this raised for me” resulting from
your learning during the module.
These examples are not intended to be exhaustive and there is an opportunity to be
creative and to work within your own personal style.
The next step is to start to plan the structure of the reflective commentary.
It is important that the work provides more than a description of what happened, the
description element will most likely be in the artefacts in the portfolio
You should be able to state in a few sentences the theme/learning that you are writing
about and why you have selected this out of all of the information contained in the
portfolio. The main part of your commentary must be a critical reflection on different

aspects of the key issue/theme identified. Critical reflection is an ability to step back and
interrogate an issue from a number of different perspectives and then to form an opinion
about future learning. The perspectives that you draw on during critical reflection might
come from
• An honest examination of your feelings and how they impacted on the issue
• Relevant literature which might agree with your initial perspective or perhaps
challenge you to see the issue from a different angle.
• Perspectives from literature, film or TV
• Feedback from a peer, skills session facilitator, or simulated patient
• Video comments

• Any other source that helps you to shed light on the learning or aid you in meaning-
making

It is also possible to introduce some critical commentary by examining sources that you
have identified in a critical way, e.g. what are the strengths and limitations of identified
studies that might influence the weight you give to their conclusions when arriving at your
future learning. Remember that your critical reflection can derive from several sources and
the above options are not mutually exclusive.