Small EL: Workplace Goal Setting and Reflection

In this Small EL activity, students complete midpoint and end-of-term self-evaluations based on their work-integrated learning placement, using supervisor feedback and a DEAL(ER) reflection to assess their progress toward professional goals. The activity encourages students to engage intentionally with workplace feedback and connect practical experience to academic learning. Students reflect on workplace challenges, identify resources that supported their development, and consider strategies for navigating changing workplace expectations. Through guided reflection, they strengthen critical thinking, self-awareness, and professional decision-making while articulating learning gained through authentic workplace experiences.

• Activity Setting: Workplace
• Time for activity: Work Integrated Learning micro-placement (less than 40 hours a semester)
• Assessment Approach: Part of Specifications Grading
• Assessment Type: Self-Assessment
• Weight in Final Grade: 4% each x 2 = 8%

Learning outcomes

1. Students engage in a supervised work‑related experience that complements their studies, career goals or degree program.
2. Students acquire and apply professional skills and personal development strategies to guide their behavior, decision‑making and goal setting.
3. Students plan for and respond to changing or unforeseen workplace circumstances, including shifting relationships, responsibilities and technical requirements.
4. Students reflect on and communicate their learning and make connections between their work and academic experiences.

Course description

Introduction to the foundational and transferable skills that support success in workplace, volunteer and professional settings. Through a current paid work, volunteer or career exploration experience, students will identify skills that support their success in the experience, reflect on strengths and areas for future growth, and learn how to articulate academic and foundational skills to employers. Foundational skills include; communication, creativity and innovation, problem solving, adaptability and collaboration.

This is a course description from the UCalgary Academic Calendar. 

What worked well?

Students provided thoughtful feedback about what was happening in their workplace, which strengthened the quality of their reflections.

What challenges did you encounter?

Some supervisors or placement mentors did not respond, often due to limited communication with students or a lack of available time.

How might students redo/try out or apply these skills in future opportunities?

Students can continue applying these workplace skills in future professional settings.

• Format for reflection: Written reflection
• Graded: Yes

Sample reflection prompt

"Students reflect on their progress toward their goals, identify helpful resources and tools, and describe what additional support would assist them moving forward."

Students consistently provide thoughtful accounts of what is actually happening in their workplaces, and this authenticity is what makes the reflections strong. The heart of the activity is the feedback loop: supervisors assess student competencies and describe strengths and growth areas with specific examples, and students then reflect on that feedback, its accuracy, and what they will change. The critical lesson from running this activity is proportionality. In micro-placements of under 40 hours, often volunteer positions or job shadowing, supervisors cannot be expected to show the same commitment as co-op or internship supervisors. The activity has since evolved from two supervisor feedback requests to one, placed about two-thirds of the way through the term with a higher grade weight, followed by a student-only final reflection. Learning to productively receive feedback and use it to inform action matters more than the mechanics of any particular survey.

Advice for those seeking to try this activity

• Keep the supervisor ask as light as possible. One well-timed feedback request works better than two; supervisors who respond once are often unwilling or unable to respond again within a short window. Place the single request about two-thirds of the way through the term.
• Set expectations early and remind often. Contact supervisors at the start of the course to let them know feedback will be requested, then send the request two to three weeks before it is due. Simultaneously ask students to raise the request with their supervisors directly, shifting responsibility toward student initiation while maintaining instructor contact.
• Design the feedback as a conversation, not just a form. Ask supervisors to review their responses with the student in person, since the discussion of strengths and growth areas is where much of the developmental value lies. Give supervisors simple, numbered steps: complete the survey, download the summary, meet with the student.
• Build a fallback path for supervisor non-response. Have students document the feedback they have received informally, the tactics they used to request formal feedback, and how they will approach feedback-seeking going forward. A stronger option currently being piloted: when supervisor feedback is unavailable, require feedback from two other people in the workplace, at any level. Two sources compensate for potentially lower-quality individual feedback, and the principle holds that students receive and work with real feedback one way or another.
• Coach students on receiving feedback productively before the feedback arrives, so growth areas are met with planning rather than emotion.
• End the term with a student-only reflection, weighted slightly less, with no supervisor requirement.

• Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1, 25-48. (Foundation for the DEAL(ER) reflection model.)
• Nilson, L. B. (2015). Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time. Stylus Publishing.
• UNIV 304 Supervisor/Placement Mentor Feedback Survey and Student Self-Assessment instruments