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Reflecting on Your Experiences
Your Experience Record helps you keep track of what you have done and how much time you committed to it. Further, it gives you the opportunity to reflect upon your experience and achievements, while understanding the competencies and skills you have developed. You can use your Laurier Experience Record to help you apply for and interview for jobs, other co-curricular positions, or graduate school.
Competencies
Competencies appear on your online Experience Record. You identify them yourself to reflect your individual learning resulting from your experiences.
Competencies are overarching categories that can be likened to transferable skills and encourage meaningful learning as a result of student involvement. Competencies include:
- Reflect and take action in the face of change and/or adversity.
- Improvise and demonstrate flexibility in order to move forward.
- Work effectively with others for team success by contributing, leading, teaching, motivating and/or encouraging others.
- Develop mutually-beneficial relationships by co-operating with others and managing conflict constructively.
- Explain information, ideas and opinions effectively, both verbally and in writing.
- Engage in conversations by asking questions, listening and sharing.
- Generate new and unique ideas and strategies.
- Engage in artistic or creative forms of expression.
- Research, analyze and objectively evaluate information from multiple perspectives.
- Utilize digital technologies and tools to research, interpret, evaluate, create and communicate ideas and information.
- Awareness of and inclusive approach to different beliefs, identities, values, cultures, behaviours and/or points of view.
- Conscious of assumptions/biases with a willingness to learn from others.
- Knowledge related to academic discipline.
- Job and/or industry-specific knowledge.
- Inspire and organize others towards achieving a common goal and/or transforming vision into reality.
- Purposeful self-management.
- Understand complex issues, identify and access relevant information and resources, assess potential outcomes and make informed decisions.
- Demonstrate responsible behaviours, time management, organizational skills, work ethic, positive attitude, integrity and commitment to ongoing learning and self-improvement.
- Understand personal interests, skills, values, preferences, behaviours and attitudes.
Reflection Process
Through experiential learning, you apply knowledge and skills in authentic contexts in both curricular and co-curricular environments. This type of learning requires preparation and guided reflection that challenges you to make meaning from your experiences, a key component of this process. You have the opportunity to expand your knowledge, develop skills, clarify your values, heighten your self-awareness, and explore careers.
An approved co-curricular position will not appear on your published LER without completing the reflection questions, selecting learning competencies and indicating your time commitment.
Reflecting on your experience:
- Integrates your academic and experiential learning.
- Provides opportunities for you to identify skill development and areas for improvement.
- Helps you clarify your values and heightens your self-awareness.
- Allows you to explore how experiences impact your educational journey and career path.
Reflection Questions
You will be asked the following reflection questions regarding your co-curricular experiences for your LER. The reflection must be completed before the experience will display on your published LER.
- Describe a specific activity or task within your experience that provided a key insight or learning.
- What did you enjoy most or least about this experience? Why?
- What challenged you in this experience?
- What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to pursue this experience again?
- What did this experience tell you about yourself to inform your future skill development and career decision-making?