Looking back is a skill
You have planned, tested, designed and built. Now you must look back. Not to say sorry, and not to boast.
A good look back says what worked and why. It says what did not and why. And it says what you would do with more time.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reflection | thinking back about what you did and how it went |
| Evaluation | a judgement of how well something met its aims, with reasons |
| Strength | something that worked well |
| Limitation | something the solution can not do, or does badly |
| Improvement | a change that would make the solution better |
| Query | a question you ask of data, written in SQL |
| SQL | a language for asking questions of data kept in tables |
| Priority | how soon or how much a change matters |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can reflect on a project with evidence and say how it could be improved if it were revisited in more detail.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
This is practice
Important
The real task comes from the exam board. This lesson uses an invented organisation and its own made-up data. Your teacher tells you how the real tasks are set and what you may bring.
Worked example: describe or evaluate?
| Sentence | Kind |
|---|---|
| I wrote a query to find repeated rows. | Description: says what was done |
| The repeat query found the fault in one run, so the clean data could be trusted. | Evaluation: says how well, with a reason |
| The report took 6 seconds, which is slower than the 5 second aim, because it recounts every row. | Evaluation: evidence and cause |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
A simple way to evaluate
For each part of the project use three steps: point, evidence, so.
Point: "The cleaning worked." Evidence: "The repeat and range tests gave 0 faults." So: "The report totals can be trusted, which was the main need."
Do the same for a weakness.
Say how you would improve it
If you did it again with more time, what would you change, and why? Pick changes that fix a real limitation.
For each, give the benefit, the cost in time or money, and a priority. Do the cheap, high benefit changes first.