Reflection on the development of academic and professional skill in year one In this paper I am going to reflect on my professional and academic skills development throughout my first year at University. I began this course as a mature student hungry for education and a fresh challenge. During semester two, I found university quite hard as I am currently having family problems; as a result I had to learn to balance university life, part time job and regular trips back home (and that is Bulgaria).
At these times, in compound business environment and growing competition, to be able to compete on the job market you need to possess outstanding skills and be always a step ahead of others. Being a good learner and constantly developing one’s personality are necessary skills that individual who want to succeed should possess. The foundation of learning process is the learning orientation, which defines his or hers educational realization (Dunn et al., 1977).
One of the most common definitions of “learning styles” defines the term as diverse form of behaviour made of cognitive, effective and psychological factors that present the appropriate indicators of the learners’ observation, collaboration and reaction to the learning environment (Curry, 1981).
Completing Neil Fleming’s VARK questionnaire I realised that my preferred learning style is Tactile /Kinaesthetic or also known as the Active Learner Style. I learn best not from explanation or direction; but from doing it. Felder and Silverman (1988, p. 71) described that in the Tactile/Kinaesthetic Learning Style, “Learning comes through touching and physical sensation. Thinking is anchored by movement, and touch, often three-dimensional, and usually all or nothing understanding of concepts. Demonstration or application works better than words to illustrate ideas”. As an active learner I tend to be controlled by impulse, be disorganized, absent-minded and hyperactive, and most of the time I will act first and think later. To be successful student and gain good grades I had to improve on my learning style thus, I adopted Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model. Kolb’s model is based on the cross-comparison of two dimensions – active/reflective and abstract/concrete (Kolb, 1984).
The Essay on Awareness Of Individual Learning Styles
My overall learning style calculated to be no surprise mildly kinesthetic! I have a hard time sitting still and study better with someone drilling me questions rather than listening to a lecture. My body needs to be actively doing something in order for me to retain the information being given. If Im just sitting there I tend to zone off really easily and my memory will not retain much that is ...
However, the Experiential Learning theory is criticized for the absence of prognostic rationality (Allinson, and Hayes, 1988).
Honey and Mumford’s Learning Style Questionnaire is considered to be a development of the Kolb’s theory. To a certain degree it has enhanced legitimacy and predictive accurateness in compare with the Learning Style Inventory (Romanelli, Bird, and Ryan (2009).
This learning style defines four kinds of learners-activists, reflectors, theorists, pragmatics. The Honey and Mumford mechanism is more practical in management framework than the Kolb’s model. The results showed that I fall into activist type of learner category, for example I constantly absorb the positive experience that I am faced with, and I take under consideration even the smallest feedback I received for my actions, based on that I try to improve and grow as a professional and academic person.
The Experiential Learning Model combines the person’s knowledge with preparation and experience (Kolb, Rubin, and McIntyre, 1984).
This model reveals the growth of skills of behaviour branches from the observation and practice (Campbell, 2010).
As a human being that constantly wants to improve and develop its professional and academic skills I realised that the best way to do this is by reflecting on my experiences. Boud et al (1985, p 43) defines reflection as “an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in learning”. I will examine and outline three different skills that I trust I have improved on. There are a lot more skills than those three that I think I have improved on, but the word limit will not allow me to talk about for more than three. Communication
The Essay on Team Diversity Skills Work Occupation
Diversity within a team can have both a positive and negative impact on the team. Typically, diversity is beneficial to a successful outcome of a team's project; however, diversity can cause potential problems within the team. Differences in personality, occupation, ethnicity, and skills are a few aspects of diversity that may challenge a team. Difference in occupation is one example of diversity ...
As an assistant manager in a local restaurant I dealt with most of the clients, this helped in me developing really good communication skills. Actuality getting involved in such type of professional conversations improved my level of communication and taught me how to behave in a professional manner. Also I would like to say that communication is a dual practice, you not only get to talk and build on your communication skill but, you also get to listen and by it become an understanding supportive person. One of the drawbacks in my communication skill enhancement is that I don’t think it works well in UK, in this multicultural university I have struggled to communicate effectively with students and teachers. This can be explained by Hoftsede’s structure of cultural dimensions (Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, 2010).
In his framework he explains the world as complex of diverse nations and people, who act, think and perform differently (Hoftsede et al., 2010).
To overcome this difficulty I was supported by my colleagues at university. Team-working
My duties as an assistant manager included a lot of team work. The planning of an occasion meant that more people will have to work in close cooperation. These duties helped me in the developing of team-working skills. I have gone even further in improving my skills by engaging in tutorials which are based on team-work. I used Team Life Cycles to expand my observation and skills on team-working. The Life Cycle presents clear structure and directions on how teams ought to function to perform well (Campbell, 2010).
Personal Learning Styles Style Personality Skills
Personal learning styles are highly complex and unique to specific individuals. It is often difficult to pinpoint an exact learning style. Though there are different categories, we often fine tune them to our own abilities. By examining our traits and tendencies we create a clearer understanding of how we process and learn information. With careful review, I have developed a specific analysis of ...
According to the Team Life Cycle during my team-working improvement I manage to reach the stage Performing where emotions are expressed with high energy, confidence and leadership skills. Knowing what good team-work is and what it comprise, I can see some of the mistakes my team and I did in past works, in terms of lacking enthusiasm and initiative which are crucial to the completion of a task. I used Belbin’s Team Role Self-perception Inventory (1981), to reveal and evaluate my behaviour in the team-working process. The results showed that my role in a team is a Shaper. Leadership
In the place I work most of my duties involve organising and managing big and small events. I had to make sure that everything was done according to the company’s high standards. Because of my position as an assistant manager I had to follow certain rules and at the same time be a good leader too. My boss always said “lead by example”. Trusting my capability to motivate and bring out the best in others, we were pretty efficient and always met our deadlines; I was born to be leader. To decide if I was good in leadership I used Daft questionnaire (Campbell, 2010).
The results showed that I was a person that behaviour is based on leadership abilities to develop new ideas and use non-traditional approach to anything. I think that during some of the group assignments that I took part in University my leader traits were proven to its best. I organised all the group meetings and made sure that we all had equal parts of work to be done, after every meeting I made sure that if anyone of the group struggled I was there to listen and help him/her overcome their problems.
According to Path-goal contingency theory the willingness I have to simplify the path and help my followers in the achievement of any task by reducing the road blocks determined that my leadership style was a mixture of supportive and participative leadership (Robbins et al., 2010).
To further my improvement on leadership I used the Denison Leadership Development Model, which describes effective managers as leaders that look at situations in a different angle and adapt their behaviour accordingly. These leaders tend to create organisational culture that inspires and enables a high performance (Denison, 1990).
The Homework on Learning Styles 11
Learning Styles Persons learning style: Auditive = 29, visual = 33, kinesthetic = 35. The higher the score the better this person is in that learning style. As far as we can see, this person belongs to so-called mixed type. Three channels of modality are quite similar, so the teacher can use three of them during the learning process. Yet, his preferable channel of world perception is kinesthetic. ...
By using this model I am helping and teaching myself how to be more effective and reach high performance in my life and work. In conclusion, I found that by writing this assignment I gave myself the opportunity to think in depth, organise and bring out the most important personal and professional skills that I possess. I believe that these skills will help me build and improve myself to higher standards and become a successful professional.
References
Allinson, C., and Hayes, J. (1988), ‘The learning styles questionnaire: an alternative to Kolb’s inventory’, Journal of Management Studies, 25, (3):269-281. Belbin, M. (1981), Management Teams, London, Heinemann.Boud, D., Keogh, R., and Walker, D. (1985), Reflection: Turning experience into learning, London, Kogan Page. Campbell, T. (2010), Professional Skills, Pearson, Harlow.Curry, L. (1981), ‘Learning preferences in continuing medical education’, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 124:535-6. Denison, D. (1990), Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness, New York, Wiley.Dunn, R., Dunn, K. and Prick, J. (1977), ‘Diagnosing learning styles: a prescription for avoiding malpractice suits’, Phi Delta Kappan, 58:418-20. Felder, R.M., and Silverman, L.K. (1988), Learning and teaching styles in engineering education, http://www4.ncsu.edu./unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/LS- 1988.pdf[Accessed on 28 April 2014].Hofstede, G.H, Hofstede, G.J and Minkov, M. (2010), Cultures and organizations: software of the mind: international cooperation and its importance for survival, 3rd edn, New York, McGraw-Hill. Kolb, D. (1984), Experiential Learning, Engltwood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.Romanelli, F., Bird, E., and Ryan, M. (2009), ‘Learning styles: A review of theory, application, and best practices’, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73 (1): 1-6.
