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Executive Summary
The main purpose of this report is to gather own personal skills, which can help to evaluate what has been learnt and plan how to develop more or improve them. Methods including analyse experiences before and during university to identify skill areas which relate to personal and professional development. Different people have their preferred learning style, which understands own learning style and uses it effectively is necessary to successfully further develop skills. The main finding learning process is a five steps cycle (Atkins and Murphy (1993) cyclical model), consider this module, one can be achieved improvement step by steps.
Recommendation: applying for a job with more independent research, continue writing journals to keep up to date with your work or life, finding different learning style which works for you.
Introduction
The ability to be a self-reflector is important skills that students would benefit from developing different skills and experience during university, therefore use (Part A: self-audit) that can to analyse current skill levels and how it can be important to the industry. Critical reflection has been described as an extended and abstract outcome of learning (Biggs 2003), implies that student can absorb different experiences and knowledge during university, also (Part B: Critical reflection and self-awareness) evaluate the experiences and skill before and during university. Critical reflection can support professional development through assessment of decisions and actions, and it can lead to improvement in service delivery and patient experiences of care (Brookfiled 1987; Mezirow 1994.), show on (Part C: action plan).
Critical reflection and self-awareness
One of my interesting personal experiences is leaving China and deciding to study in the UK in a private school by myself when I was fourteen years old without any help from my parents, and I have been through many difficulties at the beginning. For example, overcoming the language barrier and stay positive and motivated. It has been a tough time and I have not enjoyed my life in a new environment but looking back now I have realised how much these experiences have positively impacted my skills and development. A much more culturally diverse environment from what I was used to in China helped me to build my cultural awareness and socialising skills. This is important for a future career in the industry as it may interacting with people from different countries and backgrounds. This benefits a lot when it comes to customer services as you would understand and communicate with them and it can also help with marketing research as better knowing a different culture.
One of the important abilities I have developed during my time in the UK is adaptability. I believe that being able to adapt to any kind of new environment is vital in real life, such as going to a new school or having a new job. As talked about having a new job, a good level of adaptability will show flexibility and uniqueness of you, which can offer an attractive skill to have when applying for a job. Another important skill is listening, which I developed while I was learning English. I could not express myself well by using English, but I do understand what the person saying, so I always listen to the words and try to picture everything in my mind. I believe listening skill is essential for everyone in the industry. By listening to the customers, you will understand their needs and maximise the satisfaction to build a better connection with them as they are likely to be royalty to the brand, meanwhile further develop the brand image. Also, with a good listening level, I can be more productive as a result of a better understanding of the task and expectations from managers, therefore it helps to set up the goals for me to produce a perfect task.
During my time in university so far, I have already had a few group presentations for the workshop. This requires doing a lot of research on the task and at the same time you need to build a good connection with your new team members. I was not confident enough to present my work in front of a group of audience and then I was thinking about skipping the presentation day, but then I realised how important is my role within a group, so I gave up the idea of skipping the lesson and finished my group presentation. Through this experience, I have realised that negative energy could affect you through feelings and actions. As a team, a team spirit is needed for everyone. This developed my teamwork skills drastically through disappointment that is feared when presenting to a group of audience from a lack of confidence. Furthermore, teamwork is the key to the success of all businesses because good teamwork can create ideas, solve problems and better quality of work. As developing good teamwork skill, it increases output by having quick feedback so problems can be solved faster. For example, when comes to decision-making in the industry, speed is required to solve the problems as there are limit time and opportunities. So, a variety of skills involved in a team will help to spread the workload which provides efficiency and productivity to the industry.
Different people have a preferred learning style, according to Felder and Silver learning style module (FSLSM), each learner according to four dimensions: active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global. After I complete questionnaire provided on NC STATE UNIVERSITY website, I have found my result:[image: ]
For active/reflective, I have scored seven favours to reflective, which means I have a moderate preference for reflective. So, I may learn less easily by doing something active, for example, discussing or applying or explaining it to others. But it helps me with the lectures in the university as normally you need to require sitting through lectures without getting do anything physical but take notes and think quietly and as a result, a high level of attention can be achieved.
For future development in industry, I could use my reflective learning skill to think deeper for every single task or problem as I can think carefully and reflective on me. But then it is difficult for me when requires explaining details within a group as I prefer to think quietly. Teamwork is common for every industry thus this could impact my role within a team because teamwork requires a lot to discussion and presentation. However, the work I received could be more individually, so I can do my best with the work and at the same time it will not affect the work process of the team.
Action plan
I can use Atkins and Murphy cyclical model to help me with every action or experience and go through each of the steps and further improved my skills and knowledge.
Relevant skills of university and professional could be communicative, leadership, adaptability, language and creativity etc, firstly, activities like career workshop/meeting, this could help students for future employment by building the connection between different people and also providing employment opportunities, further increase their awareness of the future industry. For academic skills like language skill, applying for language class is a good choice as you can learn to speak another language and understand a different culture, so lay the foundation for future marketing and customer service work. Doing a part-time job or internships have the potential opportunity to learn many things outside the textbook. For example, how to communicate with others, time management and manage your finance. If you choose a part-time job to relate to your course, you will be able to gain experience and expertise in this field and these experiences will look good on your CV.
Conclusion
Critical reflection is important, it gains attention to the different purpose of reflection thus may help to achieve more collaborative approaches to learning. Learning about different personal or professional skills will provide many opportunities and it is important to know how to take the opportunities and show the best of you, which is an important learning process. And also, self-reflection is one of the important keys to success, it gives a better understanding of own behaviour and the ability therefore, to be self-motivated. But improvement can only be achieved with understanding a level of knowledge for certain types of skill.
References
- Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University 2nd Edition. Buckingham: Open University/SRHE.
- Biggs, J. B. & Collis, K. F. (1982). Evaluating the quality of learning: The SOLO taxonomy. New York: Academic Press.
- Brookfield, S. (1987) Developing Critical Thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
- Felder, R.M. and Soloman, B.A. (1997) Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire. Available at: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html.
- Felder, R.M. and Silverman, L.K. (1988) Learning and teaching styles in engineering education. Engineering Education, 78: 67481.
- Habermas, J. (1978) Knowledge and Human Interests (second edition). London: Heinemann.
- Mezirow, J. (1994) Understanding transformation theory. Adult Education Quarterly, 44(4) pp. 222235.
- Messick, S. (1996) ‘Cognitive styles and learning’, in De Corte, E. and Weinert, F. E. (eds), International Encyclopedia of Developmental Psychology, 638-41. London: Pergamon.
- Pask, G. (1976) ‘Styles and strategies of learning’, British Journal of Educational Psychology 46, 128-48.
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