EPQ - Summary and Reflection

Summary

In this informative video, Peter Flynn provides a detailed guide for EPQ students as they approach the critical stages of their project: the summary and reflection. Flynn emphasizes the significance of these components in showcasing the project's background story and reflections, which are crucial for scoring marks. He navigates through various aspects including assessment criteria, skills building, project-based learning, and the importance of independence in learning. Furthermore, Edgar shares valuable insights on decision-making, problem-solving, and the learning outcomes from engaging with such projects. The session concludes with advice on how students can evaluate their projects and their learning journey effectively, underlining the potential impact of the EPQ experience on their future academic pursuits.

Highlights

• EPQ's summary and reflection are essential for showing learning and gaining high scores. 🎯
• Assessment criteria involves detailed project management and reflection on learning. ✅
• Independent project work helps cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 🧠
• Effective reflection involves self-evaluation and acknowledging areas of improvement. 🔍
• Project-based learning from an EPQ offers a preparatory experience for university studies. 🎓

Key Takeaways

• Embrace the summary and reflection process as it's paramount for scoring EPQ marks. 🏆
• Assessment focuses on the project's management, resource use, and personal learning journey. 📊
• Highlight your independent learning experiences—EPQs demand self-direction and agency. 💡
• Acknowledge both strengths and weaknesses in your project, showcasing growth in learning from mistakes. 🌱
• Link the experience of independent study with future academic and career benefits. 🎓

Overview

Peter Flynn's engaging video serves as a comprehensive guide for EPQ students nearing the culmination of their projects. He underscores the importance of the summary and reflection phase as a crucial opportunity to score marks through detailed self-evaluation and reflection, beyond just the final report or artifact.

Flynn delves into the assessment criteria, emphasizing management, resource utilization, and importantly, personal learning narratives. He encourages students to reflect on the autonomy of their EPQ journey—highlighting the growth of their decision-making and problem-solving prowess alongside the project's progression.

In the end, Flynn advises on how to effectively convey one's learning journey, urging students to be honest and specific about their achievements and setbacks. This preparation not only ensures a thorough evaluation of their EPQ but also readies students for future academic challenges, potentially influencing their success in higher education.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to EPQ Summary and Reflection The chapter explains the importance of the summary and reflection stage in the EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) process. It highlights that this stage is crucial and a major mark-scoring opportunity. Most of the marks in EPQ are not just based on the report or artifact but also on the reflection. Therefore, it is vital for the students to pay attention to this part of the project. The instructor, acting as the coordinator, emphasizes that they heavily focus on the summary and reflection when evaluating the students' EPQ projects.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Importance of Reflection and Background Story The chapter highlights the importance of incorporating background stories and reflection in tasks to enhance scoring opportunities. The speaker acknowledges the lengthy nature of the topic and suggests pausing on certain slides for detailed reading. The focus is on providing an overview of the task related to summarizing reflections.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Overview of Tasks: Skills and Independence The chapter discusses the importance of understanding assessment criteria and how to effectively approach writing summaries, even though they might not seem like the most crucial element. It highlights the value of skill-building and evidence knowledge building, emphasizing project-based learning and fostering independence for students, particularly in the context of A-levels which have become increasingly spoon-fed. The chapter underscores the significance of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in developing these areas.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Reflecting on Learning and Improvements This chapter explores the theme of autonomy in learning, focusing on how students exercise control over their own projects. It delves into reflective learning processes, particularly concerning assessment objective 4. The chapter highlights the benefits of hindsight and how students can leverage their experiences to provide advice to others. Key reflection questions include understanding what has been learned, identifying new knowledge or expertise gained, and recognizing personal strengths throughout the project.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Assessment Objectives and Evidence The chapter titled 'Assessment Objectives and Evidence' discusses key reflective questions used in project-based learning. These include evaluating the weaknesses in a project, recognizing skills improved, considering what changes should be made if the work were undertaken again, and offering advice to others undertaking similar projects. The chapter emphasizes the importance of these reflective questions in guiding project assessments and personal development.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Detailed Evaluation and Personal Pronouns The chapter titled 'Detailed Evaluation and Personal Pronouns' focuses on the importance of addressing all assessment objectives during project evaluation. It emphasizes discussing project management, resource utilization, and the development and realization stages. Key skills to highlight include problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking. The chapter also reminds readers that 40% of the grade is based on development and realization.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Data Analysis and Decision Making The chapter titled 'Data Analysis and Decision Making' includes a segment where the significance of presentations combined with summaries and reflections is emphasized. This is highlighted as part of Assessment Objective 4, which involves reviewing learning progress, reflecting on it, considering improvements, and acknowledging achievements. Particular stress is laid on the necessity for detailed and careful evaluation, especially in the higher bands of assessment, indicating a thorough engagement with the material and competencies required of the learners.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Writing a Brief Summary In this chapter titled 'Writing a Brief Summary,' the focus is on reflecting on personal development through a project by acknowledging strengths and weaknesses. The emphasis is on using personal pronouns, particularly 'I,' to illustrate one's thought process and learning journey. The chapter highlights the importance of showing evidence of learning, improvement, and lessons learned from mistakes, as this will provide solid evidence of one's judgment. Additionally, the chapter briefly mentions an interesting point related to AO4.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Reflection in Action and Learning Benefits This chapter covers the importance of communication skills, particularly in writing and speaking during presentations, as part of a production lock assessment.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Problem-Solving and Skills Acquisition In the chapter 'Problem-Solving and Skills Acquisition,' the focus is on the critical evaluation of sources and the decision-making process involved in choosing and utilizing them. The chapter emphasizes the importance of not only using resources but evaluating them, showcasing the rationale behind decisions made during this process. This involves a thorough presentation of decisions and changes with clear and appropriate reasoning. The text underlines the necessity of showing this decision-making process throughout the production log, which is then reflected upon in the final summary and reflection.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Project-Based Learning and Independence The chapter emphasizes the importance of project-based learning and its role in fostering independence among students. It highlights the concept of synthesizing information as a crucial element in learning, particularly in the context of reflection. By bringing different elements together, students can showcase their learning achievements and gain a comprehensive understanding of their work. The chapter also mentions the importance of keeping summaries concise and suggests pausing to reflect on the content.
• 11:00 - 13:00: John Dewey and Learning by Doing The chapter "John Dewey and Learning by Doing" explores a project with a summarization aim of around 130 words. It exemplifies a method of distilling complex projects by providing a brief recap and reference to broader issues, with an emphasis on highlighting significant aspects. The summarizer evaluates arguments effectively, focusing on key ideas and the essential takeaway. The method reflects John Dewey's educational philosophy that emphasizes practical experience as a core component of learning, suggesting that just as in Dewey's approach, the essence of a project can be captured in a concise yet comprehensive manner.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Habits of Mind and Successful Learning The chapter 'Habits of Mind and Successful Learning' discusses the importance of summarizing during reflection. It gives an example of a summary addressing whether the government should take measures against binge drinking in Britain. The suggested summary is concise, at 120 words, and serves as an excellent model.
• 15:00 - 16:30: Presentation Skills and Public Speaking The chapter focuses on enhancing presentation skills and public speaking abilities, emphasizing the importance of reflection in action. It highlights the significance of addressing assessment criteria, particularly the reflection element, which is crucial for scoring well in this aspect of the evaluation.
• 16:30 - 18:00: Honest Reflections and Emotional Challenges In the chapter titled "Honest Reflections and Emotional Challenges," the emphasis is on the importance of reflecting on past actions with the benefit of hindsight. The speaker highlights that self-criticism, when done constructively, is a mark of intellectual maturity. This process involves looking back at past decisions and deciding where improvements could have been made. The chapter encourages readers to engage in regular reflection to enhance personal growth, implying that repeated practice of this introspective activity leads to better self-awareness and improvement in future actions. A notable student quote is appreciated for encapsulating these ideas.
• 18:00 - 18:30: Research Ethics and Sensitivity The chapter emphasizes the importance of setting aside contemporary biases when researching historical figures and events. It uses the example of Augustus, illustrating how a modern reader might initially perceive him negatively due to modern values on freedom. The chapter encourages reflection on personal biases and the application of hindsight to better understand historical contexts. This approach is beneficial for students of history and humanities, but is applicable to any subject area, underscoring the importance of considering historical perspectives without modern prejudice.
• 18:30 - 20:30: Moving Out of Comfort Zone and Decision Making This chapter discusses the concept of moving out of one's comfort zone and the decision-making process associated with it. It explores a problem and solution formula that can be applied to real-world scenarios. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a clear plan, demonstrated by a project that effectively divided whistleblowing into three distinct design stages. The narrative suggests that successfully addressing problems and demonstrating effective planning are key to achieving high scores in assessments.
• 20:30 - 23:30: Reflection and Presentation Balance In this chapter titled 'Reflection and Presentation Balance', the emphasis is on solving problems effectively and showcasing one’s work with pride. The discussion hints at the importance of demonstrating skills and knowledge acquisition throughout the problem-solving process. A specific example provided is the improvement of report writing skills, highlighting the ability to construct a report in the correct sequence and employ appropriate academic language, including crafting an impactful abstract.
• 23:30 - 25:30: Concluding Summary and Personal Growth The chapter titled 'Concluding Summary and Personal Growth' discusses essential components in academic writing, such as crafting a concise literature review, synthesizing conclusions, and compiling bibliographies and appendices. It also highlights the use of critical evaluation methods like the CRAAP test to assess information. This chapter serves as a testament to the student's growth and learning, particularly in mastering the genre of academic writing and the structure of an EPQ report.

EPQ - Summary and Reflection Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello epq students if you've reached this point in the epq firstly congratulations because you really are near the end that said the summary and reflection is a absolutely vital part of the epq as a coordinator i look at it a lot uh it's a great opportunity to score marks don't forget that many of the marks in the epq aren't always visible in the actual report or the artifact themselves
• 00:30 - 01:00 they come from the background story and from your reflections so that this is a real opportunity to score marks now some of the slides today i'm going to go through quite quickly because this is a very long screencast otherwise and i think it's best that i will put them on the screen and you could pause and freeze and read them later otherwise this will be too long so what am i going to be looking to cover today i'm looking at an overview of the task of the summary reflection
• 01:00 - 01:30 i'm going to be looking at making the most of the assessment criteria i'm going to touch on how to write the summary not the most important element of the submarine reflection but still a task worth looking at in a bit of detail i'm going to look at the idea of skills building and evidence knowledge building i'm going to look uh also at project based learning and this idea of independence which i think you need to stress a levels have become more and more spoon-fed so the epq is vital in
• 01:30 - 02:00 terms of allowing you as students to have agency and to discuss what it was like being able to control your own work and decide how you're going to do it i'm going to look at the idea of reflecting on your learning assessment objective 4 the benefits of hindsight and how to advise others now these are the questions that you are given in the final summary reflection what i have learned from completing this project what new knowledge or expertise have i found what are the strengths and
• 02:00 - 02:30 weaknesses of my project what skills have i improved what changes should i make if i undertook such work again that's very important it's the essence of project based learning as i'll show you in a moment what advice would i give to others undertaking such a project okay so there's quite a lot to cover and those are just guidance questions however i would use them and take them off as you go because i think they are important now in terms of the assessment
• 02:30 - 03:00 objectives this is as i say a very important time to hit every one of the assessment objectives so you want to say something about the management of the project you want to say something about the use of resources you want to say something about the develop and realize showing your problems solving skills your decision making and your critical thinking um and you're looking for evidence of that as much as possible let's not forget that 40 percent of the grade comes from develop and realize and
• 03:00 - 03:30 the presentation together with the summary and reflection is one of the main places where that will happen in ao4 the review that's where you look at your learning and you reflect back and you think about improvements and you think about what you're proud of okay and those questions certainly do cover that assessment objective four i want to stress in a lot more detail here it asks in the top band for detailed and careful evaluation of the
• 03:30 - 04:00 strengths and weaknesses okay and to show your own learning during the project so that you personal pronouns the use of the word i with clear evidence of tracking your thought process and showing evidence of learning and getting better and making mistakes but learning from them and that's why all together this will give you sound evidence of your judgment okay don't forget interestingly in ao4
• 04:00 - 04:30 it's also communication skills so your writing and your speaking in the presentation should also be covered in this particular part of the production lock assessment objective number three that's problem solving decision making creative thinking and achieving planned outcomes i'm going to pick out a few key phrases here you have to show that you have thoroughly analyzed your data so if your data is a literature review that you've
• 04:30 - 05:00 gone into a great deal of critical evaluation of your sources you've thought about your sources you've made judgments between them you haven't simply used the resources you've also evaluated them so you want to show your decision making why you made particular decisions okay and that they are clear and appropriate reason for changes so this should occur throughout the production log but you reflect upon it in your final summary and reflection
• 05:00 - 05:30 and synthesizing is a key idea and i think that that's absolutely key in the um submarine reflection because if that is a synthesis it's bringing things together and showing the learning and having an effective overall picture of it now in terms of the summary i'm not going to say too much here other than the summary should be quite brief now i would suggest that perhaps you think about pausing the slide in a
• 05:30 - 06:00 moment uh you're looking for a kind of summary of the project of no more than a hundred and say thirty words this is a very good example of somebody summarizing over here and looking at the idea of a brief recap reference to a larger issue highlighting the important aspects of the project a very brief an um evaluation of the arguments and i think the absolute key idea would be the take
• 06:00 - 06:30 home message so that's how you might want to begin your submarine reflection with a little summary statement like that and here is an excellent example of what a summary should look like it addresses the question should the government take measures to discourage the amount of binge drinking which occurs in britain today you'll see it's 120 words and i suggest that you pause the screencast now and have a look at this summary because it is an absolutely
• 06:30 - 07:00 superb example of one now i'm going to move on to the question of reflection in action i spoke earlier about the need to address assessment criteria number four which is the reflection element and this is in addition to the presentation an absolute key moment for you to earn some good marks for this particular aspect of the mark scheme so i've called this
• 07:00 - 07:30 slide the benefit of hindsight this is one of the things that you're doing in the reflection you're looking back and with the benefit of hindsight you're deciding where you could have been better now self-criticism of this kind is a sign of intellectual maturity so i would strongly recommend that you do this we are all better when we do things repetitively and we have the ability to go back okay so have a quick read of this i particularly like this bit where the student says i would also
• 07:30 - 08:00 stress the need to put aside modern day biases when studying ancient history for example i as a modern western reader first encountered augustus this is a epq about augustus my initial reaction was to turn back on him because he had reduced freedom and then he goes on to reflect and to talk about his own modern bias so this is a good one for a kind of history humanity student but it doesn't matter what your epq is use this idea of the benefit of hindsight to see how you
• 08:00 - 08:30 could be better next time now problem and solution formula i call this one okay one of my project strengths was that i had a clear plan that divided the whistle blowing into three main stages of design and he goes on to explain why this was so effective okay so if you are thinking about scoring some really good marks under 803 you show how you encountered a problem
• 08:30 - 09:00 and then you go into how you solve that particular problem and why you're proud or pleased with your work and at all times you are looking to emphasize skills acquisition knowledge acquisition okay here's a very good example of skills um acquisition in terms of report writing i now know how to write a report in the correct sequence and to use appropriate academic language this includes creating an abstract having a short but impactful
• 09:00 - 09:30 introduction writing a concise literature review synthesizing a conclusion putting together a comprehensive bibliography and appendices in addition he talks about using critical evaluation here using the crap formula which you can watch in some of my other videos if you need to so that's a very good example of this particular student highlighting how much he's learned and in particular how much he's learned about academic writing and the genre of the epq report
• 09:30 - 10:00 now the epq is a kind of project-based learning so in your final reflection it would be a good idea to talk about how you coped with this as i said earlier a levels do have a reputation of being very teacher directed the ebq on the other hand as you know is student driven and you have chosen your own epq title so it might be a very good
• 10:00 - 10:30 time for you to reflect on how you coped with this different style of learning some of the key elements of project-based learning you will recognize in the epq the idea of student voice and choice the idea of inquiry the idea of it being authentic in other words been applied to the world okay reflection which is what we're doing now highlighting your reflection a publicly presented product now you know that that's what the ebq presentation is all
• 10:30 - 11:00 about the process of feedback and revision which you get with your supervisor or with your technical mentors whoever it is that you've been working with so i think it's a very good time for you to think about how you've coped with this form of learning have you enjoyed it has it contrasted a great deal with the mainstream curriculum if you're doing a level or if you're doing a kind of b tech was it quite similar to btec perhaps an interesting uh moment future reflect
• 11:00 - 11:30 here is the fact that southampton university's research shows very clearly that epq students do better in all of their degrees now that's very interesting and i think it might be time for you to talk about the fact that this kind of independent research based learning might be very good for university many students do say that and they write to me later and they talk about how the epq was perhaps the most important and valuable thing that they did during
• 11:30 - 12:00 their time at college now another person who is very interesting is john dewey and he is the kind of originator of um project-based learning we might say and his famous phrase is learning by doing now this is very much the philosophy of the epq it may have been at times that when you started you felt plunged into some kind of whirlpool where you didn't
• 12:00 - 12:30 know what you were doing now john dewey believes that students do need to go through difficulty in order to truly learn things and he argues that deeper learning happens when the student is genuinely engaged in directing the learning now he might be a person you might want to refer to in this particular case or you can refer to the whole idea of reducing the scaffolding what do i mean by this well this is another term that's very popular in
• 12:30 - 13:00 teaching it comes from a russian psychologist called vygotsky and the idea is that very often students need to actually have some kind of scaffolding to help them in lessons however if we give students too much scaffolding then the idea is that you're not really learning anything and you're not trying out things for yourself so the epq is all about reducing the scaffolding and making the students survive on their own now there can be periods of as i say
• 13:00 - 13:30 great confusion but there can also be periods of incredible creative and critical learning so that might be something for you to refer to another very interesting idea is art costa who is an education theorist who wrote a very good book called the habits of mind and it goes beyond education to look at highly successful people and from his study he works out that there are according to him
• 13:30 - 14:00 16 different habits of mind which ensure success and i'm just going to pause on a couple of them thinking independently how important that is yeah thinking flexibly okay persisting thinking with clarity and precision uh creating imagining and innovating now these are skills that i think the epq really does foster so once again in
• 14:00 - 14:30 the reflection if that has been your experience it might be time for you to reflect upon the epq journey and to consider what it is that you've learned not only in terms of educational knowledge things but what kind of characteristics of learning uh your kind of learning disposition and i think these habits of mind are very interesting i think it's very important as well because we've seen i've moved from ib to a level there is very little presentation in a level um
• 14:30 - 15:00 teaching and of course a major part of the epq is the public presentation and for many students that can be quite nerve-wracking but it can also be very empowering it can be a moment of pride when you actually share your learning and it's quite unique in terms of a british school experience i think to be able to present your work in this particular way so that's something i would strongly advise that you put into the reflection and you
• 15:00 - 15:30 think about it both in terms of character building but also in terms of maybe cultivating public speaking and and that sort of thing now this slide i thought was very interesting and i'm not going to read it all out because that would be really dull you might want to pause it and have a little look at it why i liked it is after my presentation i must admit i felt a little bit upset now i like this because of the actual honesty of it
• 15:30 - 16:00 and about the learning experience and reflecting that learning can be quite hard it can be quite difficult it can be quite stressful it can be quite emotional for us so i think that that's an excellent and really interesting reflection that i encountered now moving on here's another one where i found really interesting where the student actually reflected about realizing that the ethics of research is so important okay here she says due to the sensitivity of the research i initially felt like i was
• 16:00 - 16:30 potentially exploiting the participants okay because she was studying a serious mental illness and i thought that this was excellent because she really did realize that research can be extremely risky and that people need to consider the morals and the ethics of the research now with the remainder of the slides i'm going to suggest you pause them and read them yourself because once again i think it'll be very tedious if i read them out i think moving out of one's comfort zone
• 16:30 - 17:00 is a very interesting thing to address and this student does that very well moving on to the next slide decision making and reflection here the student very clearly explains why they have made the decisions that they have and i would strongly urge you to do something quite similar demonstrating the learning however i realized that the question was too broad to the research and there was a lack of
• 17:00 - 17:30 research to support the sides the journey taught me about resilience as i kept going and pushing myself through so here we see a student who's learning how to devise a research question and learning that incredibly valuable experience of moving from something that is perhaps under-researched or too general to having a very specific research question which is answerable that has a clear research base and that is an excellent example of demonstrating learning in the reflection
• 17:30 - 18:00 piece reflecting again on the presentation and very very important as i said earlier here this student also talks about using more highly technical vocabulary and having to learn in the presentation how to translate that into more layman language we know that one of the key things of the presentation is not to be too technical whereas the written report is written for an expert audience the presentation is to be delivered to a public audience that
• 18:00 - 18:30 needs to be able to understand you so that process of writing uh your speeches into accessible english is a great learning opportunity here's an excellent one on skills acquisition here okay and how this particular student learnt about their strengths and weaknesses improving researching essay skills and referencing problem solving is a key one you'll remember at the beginning of my presentation i talked about ao3 problem
• 18:30 - 19:00 solving decision making showing that you've come to decisions through a process of thought and a methodical process in which you've eliminated all the different variables and decided on your course of action reflection is absolutely key as i've said a04 so think about your learning here like as soon as i started trusting the process and believing my own ideas the sooner i was able to craft my argument
• 19:00 - 19:30 so once again i'd suggest that you pause this and read that it's an absolutely excellent paragraph to include in a reflection and although i apologize for this being a little bit blurry this is an excellent uh paragraph on lessons learned and um and in particular how this crap test was used for critical evaluation and how that will go on to help this particular student as he goes on to
• 19:30 - 20:00 study economics at university and now in conclusion the summary and reflection as i have shown is a key aspect of scoring marks i would strongly advocate that you write a thousand to 1500 words in this and really evaluate both the project as a whole and your own learning avoid generic comments and really get specific and be true to
• 20:00 - 20:30 yourself because that truth comes across and it's something that the marker will look for try to show aspects of metacognition metacognition is learning about learning what have you learned about your own learning and have you been able to talk a little bit about project-based learning as i've said there were you able to cope with it with the independence and the increased cognitive load that comes with not being taught or directed all of the time okay
• 20:30 - 21:00 illustrate your observations with specific details so that you personalize your learning journey and reflect upon the validity and strengths of your conclusion that's of course in the report so you could say are you happy with your conclusion do you feel that you came to a highly evidence-based conclusion did your project succeed in other words and of course you can still be critical of yourself and get an a star nobody's
• 21:00 - 21:30 expecting you to be a phd at this particular level yeah reflect on whether your artifact achieved its intended purpose if you were an artifact person learning is effective it's about emotions what did you learn about yourself what coping mechanisms did you develop what kind of learning dispositions as i said have you developed as a result of the epq and how do you imagine this might help you in your future career and your future studies at university
• 21:30 - 22:00 and finally look to the future as i say is this a topic that fascinates you would you continue to study it later or is it just a topic that has helped enhance your learning skills your referencing skills and your researching skills so to conclude finally this is a key time for an epq candidate to score as many marks as you can so be thoughtful be specific and be interesting and engaging i hope
• 22:00 - 22:30 that this was a useful video podcast and best of luck finishing your epq i hope that you get that elusive a star thank you