SWINBURNE VIETNAM

HO CHI MINH CAMPUS

CLASS: GC 6.7
Topic
Reflective Writing about Global Citizens course level 5

INSTRUCTOR: …Dr.Larry & Ms.Christina

STUDENT NAMES:
1. __ _

HO CHI MINH CITY – NOVEMBER, 2023

WORD COUNT: _1171_ EXCLUDING REFERENCES
Description
To begin with, I'm currently a fresher student at Swinburne Vietnam University and going to finish
Global Citizen program at level 5. For a newbie like me, starting a journey at the university has
never been an easy task as there are so many essential skills that I have to prepare for myself to get
the best performance with my major. Fortunately, Swinburne Vietnam has the Global Citizen
course which is helpful for students as it is a compulsory course and it provides foundation
knowledge including critical thinking, teamwork, academic writing, debating, to name just a few.
That's truly the reason why I joined this program as they could help me get used to the international
learning environment. Additionally, I also studied it simultaneously with my major as I want to try
to apply those skills in real-life situations so that I can use them more efficiently. It is noticed that
academic writing and debating skills are the main points of this course and to pass this level …

Feelings
To be honest, before the course got started, I was extremely excited as I would learn so many new
useful things to serve for my study. However, I soon got overwhelmed cause it was tougher than I
expected, especially the academic writing. To be more specific, I was quite confused when I first
encountered the concepts of reference and citation. I was truly struggling to figure out how to apply
them in my essays and reports. Besides that, I had to do a mandatory debate with students from
other classes in the same level but I was not confident in my English-speaking skill so I was afraid
and did not think I could make a speech in front of the crowd. This was also the reason teamwork
was a challenging task for me as my teammates are all new people and I was afraid that if I said
something incorrect, I could get embarrassed. At that time, I easily got stressed as I found myself
not good at anything.

However, I came to my lecturer to seek help to figure out barriers and received useful advice and
support about how I can address my academic writing and debating problems. Thanks to my
lecturer, I could keep myself from not being overwhelmed when encountering those problems and
knew what I had to do to solve my issues step by step, from small to large ones. With my academic
writing, I figured out that there are tools that could help me with my citations and preferences so
that I was no longer confused whether I am doing it right or not. Moreover, I also spent much more
time and effort to practice my speaking skill as well as improving my confidence so that I could get
more involved in my team’s tasks and feel free to share my ideas.

In my perspective, the most crucial skills that I accomplished at this level are critical thinking and
academic writing. They all supported me a lot with my major. Critical thinking is a multifaceted
skill that emphasize both the ability to reason effectively and the inclination to apply those skills.
True critical thinkers not only possess strong reasoning capabilities but also actively engage in
evaluating the strength and validity of arguments. (Siegel 2010). Thanks to this, I am now able to
be more objective in my assessment of the issue so that I can make more precise decisions when
working in a team or doing rebuttal round in debating. Even though it was a bit hard, the Global
Citizens program really helped me get myself better at a variety of aspects.

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Evaluation
Taking the Global Citizen course has been a transformative experience for me, providing a solid
foundation for my academic journey. The course's emphasis on practical skills that I need to tackle
the tasks in my major. However, I believe that the course's learning approach could be further
enhanced by incorporating more interactive and engaging activities. The current reliance on slides,
while informative, can sometimes feel impersonal and lacking in dynamism. Incorporating more
hands-on activities, group discussions, and real-world case studies would significantly improve the
learning experience, fostering deeper comprehension and retention of the material. These
interactive elements would not only stimulate our engagement with the course content but also
encourage collaboration and critical thinking, skills that are crucial for success in any field. By
diversifying the teaching methodology, the Global Citizen course can truly reach its full potential
as a transformative learning experience that prepares students for both academic and professional
development.

Analysis
At the beginning of the program, I was too shy to share my thoughts in public and group
discussions. Although I consider myself a hard-working student with a high responsibility spirit,
poor communication prevented me from getting much involved in teamwork. Therefore, I had to
work hard to improve my confidence so that I could support others and raise ideas to enhance the
group’s tasks. By practicing speaking with my roommates, and foreigners through “Cambly” app
whenever I had free time, I began to feel less scared when speaking and feel free to share my ideas
with other people. Thanks to my effort, I changed myself from a person who was always afraid of
speaking to become the one who is always eager to share my perspective.

Taking doing group exercises into consideration, according to Asgari and Dall'Alba, students were
expected to evaluate each other's contributions to group work which is the reason why students are
required to be trained in teamwork skills before joining in group’s projects as it provided them with
a foundation for not only contributing well but also evaluating their own and their teammates'
contributions (Asgari & Dall’Alba, 2011). Realizing the importance of this, my teammates and I
were trained in fundamental skills before getting started with an official project. However, there
were some students who still had poor communication so we tried to organize regular meetings
both online and offline so that everyone could break down barriers and become closer to each
other. Those meetings also provided group members with the opportunity to share their thoughts
without being afraid of being embarrassed. Having tried to apply those methods to improve the
group working performance helped some students, including me, to improve our ability.

Conclusion
To conclusion, it is good to know that I have learned a lot from the Global Citizen course which is
extremely helpful for my major. My academic writing has improved dramatically as I know how to
do citations, reference papers from different resources and avoid plagiarism. Hence,
communication in group working is no longer an obstacle anymore. I also realized that never

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giving up spirit is the key factor that helps me to overcome any barriers I have in our studies or
works.

Action Plan
In the future road, I will definitely try not only to harness the skills I have learned effectively but
also constantly develop them to a higher level, especially my leadership ability to pursue further
goals.

Reference list:
Abel & Appleton & Hanuscin 2007, Handbook of Research on Science Education, 1st edn,
New York.

Asgari, S., & Dall’Alba, G. (2011). Improving Group Functioning in Solving Realistic Problems.
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1).
https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050108

Siegel 2010, International Encyclopedia of Education, Critical thinking, pp. 141-145.