Final Reflection Blog

One of the most transformative learning experiences for me is the study of social construction of gender values. In the study of toxic masculinity, female gender roles and how they change from past to now, I learn that we should be ourselves no matter what others told you to do and force you to become. Everyone is an independent figure. The value of ourselves and the identity of ourselves tell us not to become the perfect girl or boy defined by some old opinions, but to become the one who can help others and save ourselves and challenge those outdated unfair opinions. I also learn through Beauty and the Beast that the true beauty is inside ourselves. Here is a picture of the film Beauty and the Beast (2017).

Instead of having a beautiful appearance, being kind and gentle to everyone no matter how others treat you is the important life lesson too. If we do not give up on the lifelong journey of finding our own identity, our lives would be more vivid and valuable. In the past, I always tried to please everyone by following the social construction of gender roles. However, it did not seem to work very well. I lost my own identity and some people never liked me even if I followed all the social opinions. And I did not know my own value and identity to the world too. After studying this course and gender roles, I learned that the most important thing for us is to find our own identity, define our future, and not take love as the only way we can save ourselves. In the future, I will continue to find my own identity, help others in need, and disregard some harmful opinions toward me.

The other important transformative learning experience is having critical thinking and close reading skills. It is also related to our two course objectives and habits of mind. They are developing habits for engaged reading, applying these reading skills to various kinds of texts, and engagement. In the past, I do not usually have critical thinking when I was watching a film or reading a book. What seemed to come to my mind when I was reading or watching is simply that this plot is touching or moving, and the characters have good looks. By studying this course, I learned close reading skills and analyzed many different films. By doing these, I developed a habit of critical thinking. When the next time I watch a film, what comes to my mind will not be that the characters look pretty, but what important value and opinions the author wants to convey and how they are influencing our thinking and behavior. This is definitely worth studying and it serves as a way to influence our engagement of mind, habits of reading and definition of learning. When I look back at this class in the future, what I remember will not only be the happy moment of group learning, but also those methods of studying that help me develop a critical mind.

One of the problems I still have is time management. I am a person who likes to put all the effort on things I am doing. This sounds like a good thing at the first. However, this also means I easily run out of time when I am doing things. This problem appears when I was learning this course as well. As we have relatively more homework than other course I take, I have to decide how to spend my time on specific assignments to balance my study and life. Also, a habit of mind I think I will still keep on learning in the future is flexibility. I think what I need to do is simply think about what is the most important, and what is less important. Then I will spend more time on important things and put those things at the beginning of the study cycle. In this case, I will not easily run out of the time as there is a clear hierarchy of importance to guide me on how to spend time wisely. Also, I think mentally preparation is very important. Sometimes I wasted a lot of time on a relatively hard assignment because I was afraid that I could not do my best. However, if I can plan ahead and think about how I will do it in steps, and how long I should spend on it, the results will turn out much better.

The other problem I think I still have is about writing. When I think I write clearly and effectively, other people do not think so. Take our weekly discussion for an example. In one of the assignments about writing an introduction paragraph, I wrote a long sentence and describe what I think is important. And then one of the students in my podcast group said that I should split the sentence up and make it two sentences because the original one is a little confusing. Here is a picture of the reply.

After I read her reply, I went to look at my original sentence and found that it was true. It is a little long and may confuse my readers. However, when I was reading the introduction paragraphs by myself, I did not find this problem. This means that I still need to improve my ability to write prose that is readable, focused, and full of details. Writing is a lifelong journey, and we need to improve our writing skill gradually. Instead of suddenly becoming a great writer, I think I have to always take other students’ peer review into consideration and remember those mistakes I had in the past. When I improve my writing skills, I take a little progress toward writing effectively. And in the long run, I will achieve my goal.