Having begun the session with objectives as set out in my learning plan, I can gladly say that the session was a successful one. All my learning plans have been achieved and I feel like a new person having grown as a professional. The session could not have been without its challenges but despite the challenges, I managed to learn and acquire skills that are essential for my carrier development. This is a reflective report that analyses my growth and experiences throughout the session. The report highlights my goals as set out in the learning plan at the beginning of the session, the strategies employed to achieve the goals, the challenges encountered in the course of pursuing the goals as well as a reflection on the outcome, the means used as well as what I intend to do to improve on my achievements and failures in the future (Muloin, 2017).
The goals covered in the reflective report as set out in the learning plan include learning to improve my academic writing skills, develop a growth mind set, as well as improve my time management skills. Through this reflective report, I discuss the above goals that I had set out in my learning plan at the beginning of the session focussing on the strategies that I put in place to ensure that I achieve the goals, the barriers encountered in pursuit of these goals as well as reflecting on the entire session including a comparison of myself at the beginning of the session and the me at the end of the session in terms of the skills I have acquired and how the events encountered in the course of the session have shaped who I am today and who I intent to be in future (Centre for teaching and Learning Quick Guide, 2014).
Being a Nepali, I study English as my second language. Due to this, my language skills both written and spoken were very poor at the beginning of the session. I realized at the beginning of the session that all the lessons in my class are taught and examined in English. I had to do something on my poor writing skills lest I risk failing my examinations. As a result, learning to improve my academic writing skills was one of my major goals (Ortlipp, 2008, pp. 695-705). Some of the strategies which I put in place to be able to acquire the writing skills included reading widely on academic writing skills. I read materials such as newspapers, books, novels and journals. Similarly, I learned through practice by trying to speak and write proper English grammar from time to time. Furthermore, to ensure that not a single information I learned on academic writing could get lost, I noted down everything I learned so that I could review later and make additions (Watt, 2007, pp. 82-101). Nonetheless, my efforts were not without challenges. In the course of studying the academic writing skills, I encountered a myriad of barriers which included difficulty in understanding what I read due to the fact that English was my second language. Moreover, in my attempt to learn the academic writing skills through techniques such as group discussions, I was constrained by social and cultures barriers. For instance, some of my colleagues seemed unfriendly due to the fact that I spoke a foreign language.
Furthermore, I found it extremely hard comprehending the grammar used by my tutor, colleagues as well as that written in books. Nonetheless, despite the challenges, my academic writing skills have greatly improved. Though attending lectures, conducting academic reviews on academic writing skills as well as joining and participating in group discussions, I have managed to acquire and improve my academic writing kills (Naidu, et al. 2007, pp. 53-72). Today, I can speak and write good English. I have mastered writing skills such as construction of sentences, use of paragraphs as a well as punctuation. For the first time, I managed to score a grade B in my end of session essay. My presentation has also improved as I can speak comparatively good English. However, I still find some difficulties paragraphing my articles. To improve on this technique, I plan to undertake a short course on effective writing skills to help me improve on my academic writing skills further.
I had the desire to grow into a responsible individual both academically as well as socially. Nonetheless, as an individual, giving up in life was my major undoing that I needed to focus on addressing. To achieve this, one of the goals I set at the beginning of the session was to develop a growth mind-set. I put in place the necessary strategies to help me achieve this objective. Some of the strategies I employed include evaluating myself with the intention of discovering what was missing in me that made me give up so easily. Similarly, I ensured that I gave my best in all the tasks I was involved in (Oakleaf, 2011, pp. 61-82). This would ensure that I do not fail as I discovered that one of the major reasons as to why I easily gave up was due to the fear of failure. Furthermore, I employed the strategy of trying hard to minimize the mistakes that I made. To achieve this, I tried my level best to acquire the best out of my learning skills. In pursuit of these goal using my strategies, I encountered several challenges key among them repetition of the same mistakes I had made before (Navarro & Thornton, 2011, pp. 290-301). Upon realization that despite the efforts I was repeating the same old mistakes, at most times I contemplated giving up and continuing with the old lifestyle. More, one of the barriers to my achievement of this goal was due to the fact that whenever, I registered success, I was tempted to relax thinking that I was now a better person only to realize later that I was retreating back to the same old ways. However, in spite of the challenges, I can gladly say that my efforts towards achieving this goal bore fruits.
Through interaction with my peers, I managed to learn new ways of embracing positive growth. Moreover, I widely read inspirational books and watched inspirational movies which served as a motivator to my changed personality (Ryan & Ryan, 2013, pp. 244-257). Today, I am a responsible person able to manage my roles both academic as well as social. My grades have significantly improved. Furthermore, towards the end of the session, I was appointed as the class representative with my tutor siting my grown mind-set as the reason why I was the best suited to serve in the capacity of a class representative. I intent to pursue leadership classes to further advance on my leadership skills. I could be the next President of Nepal.
Living in an era where academic cheating is the order of the day, I had to maintain the moral values that I had been brought up with. Cheating at whatever level is evil. This is what my grandpa said to me every time I tried to engage in any form of cheating. I wanted to observe the teachings of grandfather. To do this, one of my major goals at the beginning of the session was to learn how to practice academic integrity. Regardless of how much hard my examinations could be, I had to observe academic integrity always (Grant, et al.2006, pp. 379-388). To observe this, I employed the use of various strategies such as spending adequate time reading and researching on my assignments. Similarly, I was to read widely on how to use materials belonging to other authors without being accused of plagiarism. In this pursuit, I encountered a myriad of obstacles.
Among the barriers that I encountered in this endeavour include the general lack of adequate knowledge on plagiarism. I found it extremely hard to grasp the concepts on citation to reduce cases of plagiarism (McNamara, 2013, pp. 183-197). Similarly, there were not many books in the library addressing the issue of referencing and plagiarism. Worsened by the fact that I was studying English as a second language, I found it extremely difficult comprehending the scarcely available material on citation, referencing and plagiarism. With all the challenges, at the end of the day, I managed to study and acquire a great deal of knowledge that enabled me to observe academic integrity in the course of the session.
I learned and acquired adequate skills on how to cite and reference works of other authors without necessarily plagiarising their work (McKinney & Sen, 2012, pp. 110-129). Using the skills acquired, I managed to participate in the Australia National Essay Competition. Through observation of academic integrity skills, I managed to write the best essay that saw me get nominated for an award. Nonetheless, I realize that I still have some problems citing using the Chicago referencing style. I intent to review articles referenced in Chicago style to learn on how to use the Chicago referencing style.
Time is an essential factor for the success in any field. Many a times in my life I have failed due to the inability to manage my time properly. In realization of this fact at the beginning of the session, improving on my time management skills was one of my major goals. Towards the beginning of the session, I had difficulties implementing this goal. On many occasions, I was sent away from class as a result of turning up late for my classes. This drove my desire of achieving this goal before I fail in my examinations. Some of the strategies I put in place to achieve this goal include coming up with a time table to help me manage my time as well as setting priorities to enable me know which tasks need to be addressed first and the time to be allocated towards each task (Lo, 2010, pp.77-95). This was to promote order in the performance of the tasks.
In implementing my strategies for this goal, I encountered obstacles such as spending too much time on social media as well as setting wrong priorities which ended up consuming a lot of precious time. However, I managed to acquire efficient time management skills throughout the session. Due to proper time management, my academic performance improved significantly in the mid -session examinations (Muloin, 2017). Through interactions with my group members, I was able to learn and acquire time management skills which include setting priorities as well as putting up timetables. To further improve on my time management skills, I plan to undertake lessons in time management.
Through the pursuit and acquisition of skills stipulated in my learning plan at the beginning of the session, I gained skills relevant to my day-to-day life as well as applicable in my profession. For instance, to compete favourably in my daily routines and contribute to the success of any organization where I will work, time management skills will come in handy. Through the academic writing skills, I possess efficient communication skills. Moreover, integrity is significant in any field. The integrity skills acquired have made me an honest individual who can fit in any workplace.
Conclusion
Doing a self -reflection on the activities engaged in during the session enables an analysis of the entire learning process, allowing for discovery of the areas that need improvements. The areas of strength also enable one to channel the necessary skills acquired in addressing challenges in the professional life. Through a reflection analysis, the teacher is able to assess the effectiveness of the learning methods used and devise appropriate methods to use in the next session. Hence, reflective analysis is a proper method of learning (Khan & Coomarasamy, 2006, pp. 59)
The skills I learned throughout the session are relevant to my professional life and if applied adequately will see me become a wonderful professional. However, I would recommend that in order for the class to produce better brains, the tutor should emphasize more on imparting practical skills relevant for the on-field professional work as opposed to too much theory. Moreover, measures should be put in place to consider foreign students taking English as the second language so that they are not disadvantaged in the examination and learning. Private lessons should be arranged for the foreign students to teach them language skills to enable them compete favourably with the speakers of the English language as their first language.
Centre for Teaching and Learning Quick Guide 2014. Reflective writing, Southern Cross University, Lismore, viewed 9 May 2017, https://scu.edu.au/teachinglearning/index.php/5.
Grant, A., Kinnersley, P., Metcalf, E., Pill, R. and Houston, H., 2006. Students’ views of reflective learning techniques: an efficacy study at a UK medical school. Medical Education, 40(4), pp.379-388.
Khan, K.S. and Coomarasamy, A., 2006. A hierarchy of effective teaching and learning to acquire competence in evidenced-based medicine. BMC medical education, 6(1), p.59.
Lo, Y.F., 2010. Implementing reflective portfolios for promoting autonomous learning among EFL college students in Taiwan. Language Teaching Research, 14(1), pp.77-95.
McKinney, P. and Sen, B.A., 2012. Reflection for learning: understanding the value of reflective writing for information literacy development. Journal of Information Literacy, 6(2), pp.110-129.
McNamara, J., 2013. The challenge of assessing professional competence in work integrated learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(2), pp.183-197.
Muloin, S, (2017).EDU10010, Language and learning in your discipline: Topic 2 Learning theories and time management, Southern Cross University, Lismore.
Muloin, S, (2017). ‘Using references in your writing,’EDU10010, Southern Cross University, Lismore, 21 March.
Muloin, S, (2017). Week 2: Learning theories and time management, PowerPoint slides, Southern Cross University, viewed 9 May 2017, <EDU10010 Blackboard site>
Naidu, S., Menon, M., Gunawardena, C., Lekamge, D. and Karunanayaka, S., 2007. How scenario-based learning can engender reflective practice in distance education (pp. 53-72). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers New Jersey.
Navarro, D. and Thornton, K., 2011. Investigating the relationship between belief and action in self-directed language learning. System, 39(3), pp.290-301.
Oakleaf, M., 2011. Are they learning? Are we? Learning outcomes and the academic library. The Library Quarterly, 81(1), pp.61-82.
Ortlipp, M., 2008. Keeping and using reflective journals in the qualitative research process. The qualitative report, 13(4), pp.695-705.
Ryan, M. and Ryan, M., 2013. Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(2), pp.244-257.
Watt, D., 2007. On becoming a qualitative researcher: The value of reflexivity. The Qualitative Report, 12(1), pp.82-101.
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