HLPE1540 Grant Banfield

2148786

Samantha OMalley

Reflective Journal #3
As discussed in my first two journals this HLPE1540 topic has broadened my understanding
of health in a way that I had never considered before. When looking back to the start of the
semester and entering this topic with very little knowledge of thinking about health
sociologically, I can confidently say that 14 weeks later my understanding of health
education has changed dramatically. The topics aim was to develop our thinking as students
and introduce a broad understanding of the philosophies and ideologies of contemporary
issues in health. I can say without a doubt that I am walking out of this topic with ideas,
questions, thoughts and concepts that I never had before. This topic not only has
demonstrated to me that health education has so many different areas to identify but also it
has assisted me with my critical thinking and the way I reflect on ideas. Looking back
through my journey of the topic I think the ideas and concepts that have been introduced to
me as a student will help with not only progressing through my degree but will assist me
when I become an educator myself.
As the topic has now come to an end it is a good time to look back at the topics expected
outcomes and see what I as an individual have achieved. As mentioned in my first journal I
entered this topic with very little knowledge on health and felt overwhelmed in first couple of
workshops. As I look back now I think it is because the topics aim was to get everyone
thinking out of the box and keep looking into different aspects in more depth. I think early on
in the topic my understandings of certain concepts that were introduced were not clear, and
this lead me to feeling confused about topics and ideas that were spoken about in class. As
the semester continued I started to ask questions to help myself with the way the class was
thinking, because I wanted to understand and start looking at the topics more critically. This
helped me a lot as a learner and straight away taught me that if I feel passionate about
wanting to know more, then I need to change my way of thinking. A certain area of the topic
that helped me a lot with understanding health in this sociological way was when we began
our enquiry projects. My group was luckily enough to have a student who already had quite a
broad and in depth understanding of sociology and health. Her knowledge, ideas, views and
opinions straight away took my interest. I loved how passionate she seemed to be on a
range of topics and I felt like I wanted to learn from her. The idea she introduced to our group
about Globalisation and the effects it had on health was something I had never considered
or heard of before. Her knowledge on the topic was immaculate and I felt drawn to the idea
of Globalisation straight away. We decided this would be a fantastic area to focus our project
on. As this idea of Globalisation was something I had never recognized before, the project
became so interesting to me and everything I learnt throughout the process of our project
didnt feel like work, it was amazing information that was completely new to me and iit was
fun. After completing this project I suddenly had different views on health, I learnt many ways
of thinking about health and most of all I learnt why these ways of thinking are so important.

The concepts and ideas I am introduced to throughout my degree will not only guide and
assist me through my course but they will be used and thought back on throughout my
teaching as well. During this topic we have demonstrated many ways of thinking critically but
the two main concepts that I consider to have the most value and will continue to use in my
time as a student and a teacher are the social imagination template and the OBASTRA
method. These two ideas were completely new to me before starting this topic and already

HLPE1540 Grant Banfield

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Samantha OMalley

even after finishing the topic I have found myself using them in other uni topics and real life
situations.
As discussed in my first journal when Grant introduced the social imagination template it
took me a while to understand the concept of how it can used in our thinking. As my thinking
developed over the topic I decided to try and use it with something that was happening at
home. I considered history of the issue and the culture of the issue. By breaking it up into
bits and really considering what each part of the template meant it made it easier to
understand. Also by discussing it with other peers and getting their opinions on what they
thought it meant helped a lot. I have discovered with my learning so far that it is important to
always discuss your ideas with others to gain different perspectives, because as Grant said
in first few weeks The only way to learn is to talk amongst ourselves.He made it very clear
from early on that his job as the teacher is to tell us information and get us thinking, but the
only way we will take in the information and learn is if we discuss and talk about it. That
perspective is something I have taken out of this topic and it can help when I become the
educator and not the student.
The other concept that has helped with my critical evaluating and reflecting is the
OBARSTRE method. Early on when Grant explained this method it seemed to be very
helpful with the way it demonstrated our ideas and how it helped us split our ideas into
different sections. It allowed us to think about each different aspect and it broadened my
understanding of why it is important to use a method like OBARSTRE. The 4 sections
(object, argument, structure and reflection) allow space for creativity and more advanced
thinking. This OBARSTRE method was used very appropriately when we had to reflect on
each groups inquiry project presentations. Instead of just providing irrelevant comments that
didnt get us thinking critically we were asked us to use this method to produce well thought
out ideas and comments about each presentation. I personally enjoyed using this method to
evaluate the groups, it really got me thinking about each section critically instead of just
writing down comments that had no relevance to thinking about health critically. Also with
Grant discussing and giving his thoughts on the objective, the argument and the structure
helped us understand different perspectives and ideas. This method of thinking is definitely
another concept I will continue to use throughout my learning and I think it is a very
productive way to get a student really thinking in a different way.

After reflecting on the course content and what I have learnt as an individual, I can clearly
see how my thinking about health has changed. At the beginning I made assumptions and
judgements about what I thought health education was and now I have a complete different
opinion on the subject and see it in a different way. This is clearly shown throughout my two
drawings of health (see below). My first drawing included only basic definitions of health with
only showing the small perspective that I had on the subject. When comparing it with my
peers we all seemed to have similar views on the subject and it was obvious that our
thoughts on health were very limited and didnt include any analysis. As this topics aim was
for us to achieve a broader understanding of health and think about it in a sociological way, I
can confidently say that this was achieved after I drew the health map again at the end of the
topic. (see below). Not only did my second attempt include more pictures and words but it
demonstrated what I had understood throughout the topic. My thinking has become much
more critical and I now think of perspectives and ideas that I had never before. At the

HLPE1540 Grant Banfield

2148786

Samantha OMalley

beginning health to me was only defined by certain food, the mind, fitness and sickness, but
as I leave this topic I do not only take away a better understanding of health but I find myself
focusing on health education and the places it is going to take me in the future as an
educator.

Now that this topic has come to end I think to myself, well what is next?.... Now that I know
all these new ways of thinking about health and ways to act on health issues what is the next
step for us, the future educators? During the rest of our degree we need to consider what
type of health educators we want to be. What can we do to change health education? Will
we change the way it is taught? Or will we introduced new ideas?
I leave myself with all those questions in my brain because they continuously keep me
thinking about what I am going to do to make a change in the future. Before this topic health
education was never something I considered needed to be changed but now I believe we
can make a change in this society, just need to think outside the box, just like I did in this
topic. Grants teaching method of always asking us to look and think further into everything
has shown me the teacher I want to be.

Word count: 1599

WEEK 1 - (1/3/16)- my drawing of

health

HLPE1540 Grant Banfield

2148786

Samantha OMalley

WEEK 13

(6/6/16)

mydrawing of health

HLPE1540 Grant Banfield

2148786

Samantha OMalley