EDFX 267 Community Engagement

Assessment Task 3: Reflecting on the Experience

Name of Pre-Service Teacher: Melisa Jreige

Student ID: S00171778

Community Engagement Placement(s): _People Outdoors

Due Date: 29/11/2015

Submission: To be submitted via the LEO Assignment link. Please make sure that this is typed
not handwritten.

This task requires you to reflect on your Community Engagement Placement (CEP) and its impact on:

1. Your understanding of engaging with community

2. Your development as a teacher.

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 1. Your understanding of engaging with community
Complete the chart below by rating each statement taken from the unit outlines description and
learning outcomes. The rating is from 1 5 with 1 representing strong agreement and 5
representing strong disagreement. You must add an explanatory comment (this is not optional).
You may wish to give an example here too.

To what extent has your 1 2 3 4 5 Explanatory comment

placement (s)

assisted you to understand and value
diversity in its many forms therefore
enabling you to cater for diversity
more effectively
As the people outdoors camps, catered
to many children who all had an
intellectual disability and all varying in
extent it allowed me to understand how
to cater to each child individually

enhanced the development of your When supervising and caring for the
understanding of the contextual children it allowed me to understand
factors that impact on the way in what their guardians must go through
which people live their lives on a daily basis and allows me to have
a bigger sense of empathy as we were
placed in their shoes for the weekend.

enhanced your critical examination, This experienced challenged my

promoted reflective practices and established beliefs in that before the
challenged established beliefs camps I had the thought that those
who had such severe intellectual
disability where they could not care for
themselves and were not verbal did not
have much quality of life, however after
becoming exposed to this more it has

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encouraged open and flexible
thinking, and responsiveness to
change
enabled you to listen to the voices of
marginalised people and, through
reflection, allow such experiences to
impact on your personal and
professional lives as engaged citizens
provided opportunities for you to
contribute to the life of the
community through the sharing of
personal expertise and time
shown me that although they are in a
difficult state they can still enjoy life
and get pleasure out of it which was
beautiful to see.
The experience has allowed me to see
how to interact with those who have a
disability as before these camps I had
never had any experience with those
who has any kind of intellectual
disability and it has taught me to be
more open minded about their
situation.
These camps allowed us to form bonds
and friendships with the children which
taught me that although they have an
intellectual disability it does not mean
they should be excluded. After being
exposed to people with a disability it
impacts on my life personally and
professionally in that I am not afraid to
approach a person with a disability as I
now know how to respond to the
situation.
As you form bonds and friendships with
the children you begin chatting with
them and giving them advice and
taking the time to just give them a
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 listening ear which they appreciate.

2. Your development as a teacher

In the following chart identify two changes in your views about learning or your intentions for teaching
because of your participation in your Community Engagement Placement(s).

My views
Before my Give evidence
about Significance of
involvement in and indicate from
(identify the After my outcome/achievement
this Community which source
issue or involvement I for you both
Engagement (e.g. LEO posting
aspect of think professionally and
Placement I for Assessment 1
teaching and personally
thought or 2)
learning)

1. children Those with a They can have a LEO posting for I think this change in
with an severe intellectual great life if they Assessment 1, I my views is very
intellectual disability had no are given the had written that I significant as I am no
disability quality of life and right feared that I longer afraid of those
it would break my opportunities and would not be able with a disability as I
heart. not be excluded to create a now have more
relationship with knowledge and
the children, and experience with them
after the camps it which impacts on me
has definitely on both a professional

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 shown me that it and personal level.
is easy to create
a bond with a
child who has a
disability as you
treat them as any
other child. The
children can see
that you are
struggling and
they understand
that and they
helped me, and
therefore we did
learn together.

2. how they It would be Children with a LEO posting for I believe this change
can be difficult for the disability or assessment 2 I in beliefs and views is
included children to be anyone with a wrote about the a very significant
included in the disability are notion of trust move as it has taught
activities set up underestimated and working me that although the
for them, and with their abilities together, which children do have a
they would need a and when given was a huge part disability they do have
lot of help from the opportunity in my the ability to be
the volunteers do these children involvement in involved in
allow them to can surprise you the camps, as the adventurous activities
participate. in the most volunteers work such as the ones on
amazing way. with their camper the camps. On a
and create the personal and
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 trust the camper professional level
will be more these camps have
inclined to taught me not to
participate in the underestimate their
activities. abilities before you
get to know them as
an individual.

Summing up the experience:

Looking back on your Community Engagement Placement experience, how would you describe your
experience overall? What were the highlights and challenges? What advice would you offer others
undertaking Community Engagement Placement(s) in the future?

The experience was amazing, it was lovely getting to know the children and forming a bond and friendship
with them. Highlight of the camps was going to all these different places in Victoria that I had never been
before and without these camps most likely never would have gone, it was a good experience for me
personally as I was doing something outside my comfort zone, which allows you to start having a different
view on life itself and you start appreciating more. The challenges of the camps would be having to deal
with the little conflicts that would arise between the children which just develops the skills in me
professionally. As we were dealing with children who have intellectual disabilities we had to be more
patient with them and these camps taught me how to be more patient and how to interact with these
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children.
My advice for others would be not to be afraid and just take that step. These children will teach you so
much and it is truly rewarding seeing their smiles and laughter as they do go through challenging times,
and being responsible for their smiles is beautiful. Community Engagement is not only what you can do for
them but what they can do for you, and what these camps taught me is to never underestimate them. It is
a challenge but with every challenge you develop new skills that you can take with you on your next
challenge.

As a professional these camps will assist me significantly as I was exposed to many different personalities
and gives me the knowledge on how to interact with the children should I have a student with a disability
in my classroom, and as they all have a different personality they will all come with different challenges
and I believe as a result of these camps I am better equipped now than before the community engagement
where I hadnt had any experience with people with any kind of disability

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