Toolkits

Activity J: Reflect and grow

23 Jul, 2025

Objectives: “Reflect and grow” is your personal journey to deepen your commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Through a guided self-assessment journal, you’ll reflect on your experiences, perceptions, and areas for growth in EDI.

Guided self-assessment: Reflect on your EDI knowledge, attitudes, and experiences with thought-provoking questions.

Personalised feedback: Receive insights and recommendations based on your responses.

Actionable resources: Access curated resources to expand your understanding and application of EDI principles.

Introduction: Reflect and Grow is a personal journey designed to deepen your commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Through a guided self-assessment journal, you’ll have the opportunity to reflect on your knowledge, attitudes, and experiences related to EDI, and receive personalised feedback to help you grow. This activity also encourages you to embrace your authentic self, explore your cultural heritage, and practice self-affirmation. With curated resources and thoughtful reflection, you’ll strengthen your understanding of EDI principles while celebrating your unique qualities and achievements.

Topic: A guided self-assessment journal that supports personal reflection, growth, and deeper understanding of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) through personalised feedback and self-affirmation.

Keywords: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; Cultural competency; Professional development; Inclusive or Responsible design; Active learning.

Embrace your authentic self

Spend time to reflect on who you are, what you identify with, and what makes you, you (your uniqueness)

Deepen your knowledge of your cultural heritage. This can involve speaking to people from the older generation who share the same cultural heritage as you and participating in cultural practices where possible

Practice self-affirmation

Reflect on your achievements. This could be your academic progression, work experiences, any awards or positive feedback you have received from others about something you have done

Reflect on things you are happy doing; what you are good at; any talents you have; skillsets you have or are developing

Using the above reflections, affirm your worth and celebrate your unique talents and  experiences.

Spend time practicing positive self-talk  and challenge any internalised negative messages that may hold you back

Get started

Are you ready to explore your insights and begin completing your self-assessment journal? You can start now by filling it in below:

Engineering Practice and Problem-Solving

Teamwork and Leadership Skills

Professionalism, Ethics, and Social Responsibility

Contact

Reflective Practice: I am an Engineer

This Personal Professional Development (PPD) form has been designed to support the documentation of your personal and professional development reflections.

The form is a framework to assist you in your:

PPD: Reflective Practice – I am an Engineer: Use this form to reflect and provide any supporting evidence for your reflections, such as digital copies of assessments and tutor feedback. Include your appendices in your personal reflections to provide evidence that supports your reflections.

Action Plan: To identify areas for personal development and outline strategies to address them.

Instructions

1. First-time reflection guidance
If this is your first time completing a reflection, use these instructions as a starting point. Over time, as you progress through your degree, you should aim to answer each question at least once. Completing these reflections will also support you in building a library of responses that can be used for job applications and for future Engineering Professional (IEng or CEng) status applications.

2. Select 2–3 reflective areas to complete
You can choose any two or three areas from the list:

Engineering Practice and Problem-Solving
Teamwork and Leadership Skills
Professionalism, Ethics, and Social Responsibility

3. Answer the questions under your chosen areas
Each area has headings with various questions. Select the headings and questions that best match your experiences, and provide thoughtful reflections.

4. Indicate non-completed sections
If you choose not to answer a section or heading, mark it with an X to show it is not applicable.

5. Review before submitting
Check your answers for completeness and clarity before submission. Remember, reflections are most useful when they accurately document your experiences and learning.

Engineering Practice and Problem-Solving

I solve interesting problems *

How do you apply your critical, analytical, experimental, and computational methods to solve engineering problems?
How did you identify constraints and develop solutions that meet those constraints?
Which physical principles and understandings have you drawn upon to solve these problems?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I make decisions *

How have you based your experimental conclusions on scientific and engineering principles?
How did you critically evaluate your own decisions/engineering solutions as well as those of others?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I evaluate outcomes *

How do you apply critical technical evaluation and sensitivity analysis in your work?
How do you understand and manage uncertainty?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I use the right tools for the job *

How have you selected the appropriate tools – computational, experimental, practical, or workshop-based (e.g., finite element analysis, Vickers hardness test, CAD, drawing, milling, literature resources, etc.)?
How did you decide which tool to use for a given task?
How have you mastered the application of these tools?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I understand how the world works *

How have you questioned engineering solutions, products, or approaches in relation to learning from other modules?
How have you applied engineering concepts and knowledge in your practical engineering work?
How have you designed, mathematically modelled, or tested engineering concepts?
How have you tested the performance and limits of systems, either theoretically or in practice?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I work at the cutting edge *

How have you kept abreast of developments in your engineering field?
What resources, activities, and events have you attended or been involved in outside the classroom and engineering workshops to deepen and broaden your engineering knowledge?
Which modules, coursework, extracurricular engineering activities, or professional body events have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

Teamwork and Leadership Skills

I get my point across *

How do you effectively communicate your point of view to an audience?
How have you carefully selected data to be presented?
Which methods have you used to convey the data accurately and clearly?
Which methods of communication have you developed (e.g., report writing, blogs, presentations, posters)?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I contribute to a team *

What role did you play in a team?
How did you contribute to the team’s objectives?
How did you negotiate, lead, and organise yourself and others within the team?
How did you work independently to deliver tasks for the team?
Which modules, coursework, engineering extracurricular activities, or union activities have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I work well with others *

How have you been empathetic to others’ (peers, managers, colleagues, teammates, friends) ways of working?
How have you accommodated others’ disabilities when working with them?
How willing are you to learn from other cultures and religions that influence the way people work?
How have you been inclusive in the way you work with others of different genders?
How have you been an ally to colleagues from different minority communities (e.g., gender, LGBTQ+, ethnicity, religion, age)?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I can lead and manage a team *

How have you led a team to a successful outcome?
How have you helped bring all team members to achieve a successful outcome?
Through leadership, how have you demonstrated allyship?
Through your leadership, how have you been equal, diverse, and inclusive in your approach?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

Professionalism, Ethics, and Social Responsibility

I demonstrate professional conduct *

How do you apply a professional attitude to a task or in group work?
How have you managed your time, punctuality, and attendance?
How have you managed and organised your workload and time?
Have you joined a professional body?
Have you attended any professional body events?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop this skill, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method

Please answer this question.

I am an ethical engineer *

In my Bill of Materials, I consider ethical issues related to the source, location, or extraction method of the raw materials used to produce refined materials.
I implement a robust testing programme that conforms to principles of good scientific methodology, industry standards, regulations, and/or directives.
How have you applied health and safety practices?
My engineering proposals reflect values of peace, social justice, and environmental protection.
I act honestly, fairly, and with an open mind, ensuring my projects take into account the protection of public health, welfare, and safety.

Please answer this question.

I use UNESCO Sustainability Development Goals in my projects *

I take a cross-disciplinary and collaborative engineering approach, including working with those experiencing the problem we are trying to solve.
I conduct comprehensive life cycle assessments of my engineering solutions.
Outline which of the 17 UNESCO Sustainability Goals are embedded in your project.
I act with environmental and sustainable responsibility.
I strive to go beyond legislation where possible, challenging the status quo using the latest scientific information.
How have you considered the impact of your engineering solutions on others and on global resources?
Which modules or coursework have enabled you to develop these skills, and how?
Describe your experience using the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) method.

Please answer this question.

I consider risks in practice *

My work takes into account health and safety issues and complies with relevant legislation.
I consider risk management and implement mitigation strategies.

Please answer this question.

I consider security issues in my work *

I design out crime in my work.
I apply principles of security engineering and audit the security of my engineering solutions to ensure they:
- Comply with safety standards
- Are tamper-proof
- Are secure against terrorist attacks or cyberattacks

Please answer this question.

I consider Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in my work *

I work on being my authentic self being fully present in my work and interactions with colleagues.
If you identify with any minority group(s), have you considered how to use this as an advantage in your work? For example, a female engineer used her lived experiences and engineering knowledge to design sports shoes for women, by women, after identifying that no sports shoes were specifically researched and designed based on the female anatomy.
I bring the authentic voices of others – through personal interactions or research literature – into my work to make an epistemic difference.
I have engaged in extracurricular activities to develop my social capital, which has helped me forge connections with fellow engineering colleagues and expand my professional network.
I actively interact with fellow students who look different from me or come from different backgrounds.

Please answer this question.

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