Final Assessment Guidelines

Module title: Developing Critical Professional Practice

Assessment Point: Critical Report

Word count limit: 4,500 words

Submission deadline: Please consult the VLE.

Submission procedure: Please submit via the respective submission links on the VLE.

Extenuating circumstances
If you are experiencing unforeseen personal circumstances that are affecting your ability to
submit within the stipulated deadlines, you are required to communicate these issues to the
Unicaf Extenuating Circumstances team in the first instance, via
[email protected], for further information on how to make a personal
circumstances application for consideration.
Personal circumstances requests may usually only be made within 5 working days of the
original deadline unless valid justification, along with appropriate evidence, exists to show
that you could not have reasonably communicated the issues any earlier. It is
important to keep in mind that if the claim is not upheld and you have not submitted by the
deadline, the module shall be failed as a result of no submission of the summative
assessment.

Please submit your module summative assessment(s) by 11:59 pm (23:59 hours) VLE
(UTC) time on the due date at the latest. Any summative assessment submitted up to 5
days late will be accepted, but the mark will be capped at 50%. Any work submitted
more than 5 days late after the submission deadline will be recorded as 0%.

Academic misconduct including plagiarism

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……….
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By submitting your work you acknowledge that you have read and agree
with the above statements.
General Guidance
Your assignment should be word processed (handwritten assignments are not accepted),
using time new roman size 12 font, double spaced, with numbered pages and your student
number printed as a footer on every page.

The word limits stated for this assignment excludes the reference list at the end of the
assignment but includes all text in the main body of the assignment (including direct
quotations, in-text citations, footnotes, tables, diagrams and graphs).

Please be aware that exceeding the word count limit will affect the academic judgement of
the piece of work and may result in the award of a lower mark.

Appendices are not considered a supplement, and thus, will not be assessed as part of the
content of the assignment. As such, they will not contribute to the grade awarded, however
it may be appropriate to use an Appendices section for any material which is a useful reference
for the reader. Please note that appendices are not included in the word count.

The majority of references should come from primary sources (e.g., journal articles,
conference papers, reports, etc.) although you can also utilise area specific textbooks. You
must ensure that you use the Harvard style of referencing.
Please indicate the word count length at the end of your assignment.
Please note that you are required to submit an extended literature review project where you
will critically evaluate scholarly articles and books in order to answer specific research
questions.
NO STUDENT WILL BE ALLOWED TO COLLECT ANY PRIMARY DATA

Written Assessment Guidelines

Your summative assessment is a Critical Report discussing and analyzing the role of Critical
Professional Practice. Students need to critically tackle the learning outcomes mentioned below
that analyze the concept of professional development and growth through the different topics
(Professional Development, Critical Thinking, Theoretical Frameworks and Concepts, Reflecting
on Learning, Professional Practice and Knowledge Sharing and the Case Studies) discussed in
the course and provide their experiences and personal practices. The critical report consists of a
4,500-word equivalent text which will be graded out of 100.

Learning outcomes assessed in this assessment

 Critically analyze key theoretical frameworks and concepts in relation to an identified

aspect of your own professional practice
 Critically analyze and synthesize research findings and other evidence (case studies) to
inform the identified aspects of your practice
 Reflect on and critically evaluate the impact of your learning on professional practice
and of sharing knowledge in an appropriate way
 Structure of the Critical Report Essay
Your work should include and cover the following sections/aspects and content (as
shown and stated in the table below). The specific percentage marks allocated to each
section/aspect of your work is stated below. Please also note that the Level 7 marking
criteria (located towards the end of this assessment brief) will also be used to reflect this
overall grade.

Marks
Title of section Further Explanation Available
100/100

Introduction Introduce what the assignment’s focus will be.

and Give some background here on your first thoughts. 10
rationale Provide the context and the rationale of the report.

Research aims Explain the aims and objectives of the report and explain in detail 10
what you will be critically analyzing.

Explain your search strategy - How did you go about this?

Books? Journals? Databases etc.? - Perhaps use a table here and
Methodology show, which databases (Emerald/Sage etc) you used and which 20
journals come from where.

What does the literature tell you in relation to the different

topics you need to develop?
Did anything startling come out of the review that you were not
expecting?
Findings of the Are your findings relevant to your personal professional practices
literature 25
review and methods? How so?
What is the relation between your professional tactics and the
topics explored and analyzed?
Do you critically evaluate the impact of your learning on your
professional practice?

Conclusions Try to summarize your text and discuss the implications and
and recommendations you have found. 20
Implications This section should not include any new material.

Cover Page, Table of Contents, Page numbering, Line spacing,

Presentation Appendices (if it is necessary), Font consistency, Separation of 10
paragraphs.

Harvard Citations and reference list according to the Harvard referencing

5
referencing style.
LJMU Level 7 Grading Criteria
Mark Performance
range characteristic Grading criteria
 Exemplary attainment of all learning outcomes
90-100 Exceptional  Demonstrates an outstanding synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the
Pass analysis of key issues in the subject area
 Wide-ranging emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the
forefront of the discipline
 Offers an exhaustive exploration of the literature and evidence-base
 The material covered is accurate and relevant
 The argument is highly sophisticated
 The standard of writing is refined
 No errors in the use of the specified referencing system
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.

 Excellent attainment of all learning outcomes, with some met to an exemplary

80-89 Outstanding standard
Pass  Demonstrates a comprehensive synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the
analysis of key issues in the subject area. Wide-ranging emphasis on knowledge
and ideas that are at the forefront of the discipline
 Extends far beyond expected levels of engagement with the literature and
evidence- base
 The material covered is accurate and relevant
 The argument is generally very astute
 The standard of writing is refined
 No errors in the use of the specified referencing system
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.
 Excellent attainment of all learning outcomes
70-79 Excellent  Demonstrates a thorough synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the
pass analysis of key issues in the subject area
 Strong emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the
discipline
 Thorough use the literature and evidence-base
 The material covered is accurate and relevant
 The argument is persuasive and there are very perceptive elements
 The standard of writing is refined
 No errors in the use of the specified referencing system
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.

 Good attainment of all learning outcomes

60-69 Good Pass  Demonstrates detailed synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the
analysis of key issues in the subject area
 Good emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the
discipline
 Good consideration of the literature and evidence-base that
develops from recommended readings
 The material covered is accurate and relevant
 The argument is persuasive
 The standard of writing is refined
 No errors in the use of the specified referencing system
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.
 Adequate attainment of all learning outcomes
50-59 Pass  Demonstrates a limited, but sufficient, synthesis of varied theoretical
positions in the analysis of key issues in the subject area
 Some emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the
discipline
 Sufficient consideration of the literature and evidence-base, but little
consideration beyond recommended readings
 The material covered is mostly accurate and relevant
 The argument is straightforward and relatively clear
 The standard of writing is well clear and readable, with some sophisticated
phrasing
 No errors in the use of the specified referencing system
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.
  Meets most, but not all learning outcomes
40-49 Needs some  Demonstrates limited synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the analysis of
improvement key issues in the subject area
 Less than expected emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the
forefront of the discipline
 Basic consideration of the literature and evidence-base, but
restricted to recommended readings
 Some inaccuracies or irrelevant materials that suggest confusion and
misunderstanding
 The argument is relatively clear, although some elements are difficult to
understand
 The standard of writing is well clear and readable, but overly simplistic
 Minor errors in the use of the specified referencing system, but meets key
principles
 Well-presented and organised in an appropriate academic style.

 Approximately half the learning outcomes are met

30-39 Needs major  Demonstrates very little synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the
improvement analysis of key issues in the subject area
 Little emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the discipline
 Minor consideration of the literature and evidence-base, with
inadequate use of recommended reading and no exploration outside
that
 Some materials is accurate, but the amount of inaccurate or irrelevant
materials indicates insufficient understanding of key concepts
 The argument is poorly defined and defended
 The standard of writing is mostly clear and readable
 Some errors in the use of the specified referencing system, but meets key
principles
 Generally, well presented and organised, but does not always conform
to conventions of academic presentation.

 Most learning outcomes are not met

20-29 Needs  Demonstrates no synthesis of varied theoretical positions in the analysis of
significant key issues in the subject area
revision  Little or no emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the
discipline
 Superficial consideration of the literature and evidence-base
 There are major inaccuracies or significant amounts of irrelevant material
 The argument is very weak
 The standard of writing is reasonable and there are very few areas of
confusion and/or errors in spelling/grammar
 Attempts to use of the specified referencing system. Meets key principles, but
there are systematic errors
 Good presentation that may include some organisational errors and/or
tendency not to conform to conventions of academic presentation.

 Does not meet any learning outcomes

0-19 Needs  Demonstrates misunderstanding of varied theoretical positions in the
substantial analysis of key issues in the subject area
work  No emphasis on knowledge and ideas that are at the forefront of the discipline
 No engagement with the literature and evidence-base
 The material covered is inaccurate or irrelevant
 The argument is incoherent
 Standard of writing is acceptable. The structure is reasonable, but there are
some areas of confusion and/or some errors in spelling/grammar
 Attempts to use the specified referencing system, but there are significant errors
 Acceptable presentation that may include some organisational errors and a
tendency not to conform to conventions of academic presentation.