With thanks to Jim Longbottom. (Jan 05. Rev. Jan. 07)
Proforma | Written explanation for students (.doc file)
A MAC, otherwise known as a verbatim or critical incident analysis, is a record of the interchange between you and another person.
You do the MAC by analyzing what happened with a supervisor so you can learn from it. The analysis process is much like unpacking a suitcase. The closed suitcase has everything in it, but you can't see it clearly. By "unpacking", you can bring everything out and lay it out so that it's easy to see.
MACs basically ask five related questions:
Especially in graduate studies, they are likely to be the core method of supervised field education and involve significant reflection. In this sense, "reflection" includes:
Advanced and graduate students may then be asked to write formal papers or do formal presentations on topics arising from their reflection.
MAC supervisors sometimes require students to keep dairies or journals.
MACs in this context are used as one method of personal formation for ministry. They can be useful for any kind of interpersonal contact, so have a very broad application.
Many people in ministry are blissfully unaware of their own baggage and consequently can cause more problems than they solve.
By understanding yourself as a person, MACs help students to prevent manifesting their own baggage while pastorally caring for others.
MACs can be written on any sort of encounter, but they do need to be a real encounter. They may be talking to the lady next door over the fence or a heated exchange in the foyer of the church. The choice is the student's.
A word of warning…. People often try to write up a neutral innocuous encounter so that the supervisor will "be kind" to them…. It never works! Better to write up an encounter that moved you (one way or another) and let’s draw the learning out of it.
The incident that suits a MAC is one that normally offers some kind of challenge or insight. It may be an inflamed encounter or seem to be fairly innocuous, but either way, you make every effort to record what was actually said.
The actual encounter is written so that the identity of the other person is concealed. It’s not about them; it's about you!
WARNING: Well supervised MACs will be personally confronting, so be prepared for that.
MACs can be used for teaching, for formative assessment and for summative assessment.
The proforma is in three sections:
Having prepared the document, students forward it to the supervisor ahead of time so that they can get some feel of what is happening and frame a few questions to help the student extract the learning from the encounter.
The presentation involves the student reading what he/she has written, and it is helpful to have the supervisor take the part of "the other." The students then traces through their analysis of the learning and then the supervisor asks some focusing questions.
WARNING: This experience can be emotional and stressful.
As part of the assessment plan in your unit description, you should specify the kinds of situations that MACs should be used in and tell students how they will be assessed on them.
These should reflect the requirements of the unit(s) you are assessing.
With thanks to Brian Holliday and Randy Salmond
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