Business Communications Skill - Essay Example

Rеflесtiоn Еssаy on Grоuр Wоrk/Рrеsеntаtiоn and Sеminаr Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Rеflесtiоn Еssаy on Grоuр Wоrk/Рrеsеntаtiоn and Sеminаr Introduction Business communications skill seminars help develop engaging and responsive communication style, which lead to positive results in organizations. Reflection enhances student motivation and ownership in learning through ways unavailable in the traditional achievement testing. Reflective statements indicate the form and content of student written work. Moreover, reflective statements aid students in becoming aware of the preferred approach in writing and facilitate them in taking risks for trying new and productive strategies on tasks. As well, during revision, students may scrutinize their reflections on earlier processes of writing, as well as considering alternative approaches. Reflective writing results in intimacy between teachers and students, which enable teachers to respond and encourage student development in writing skills. In addition, reflective statements offer teacher insight to student thinking and development that is not usually available (Times Higher Education, 2000). Tutors often have a hard time in getting students to freely engage in group debates regarding their ideas and studies. Exley argues that involving students in setting the ground rules can help ease tension and nerves. Seminars are regular features in many courses, whose aim is to offer students the chance to converse their work with peers and tutors. Seminars also, encourage students to increase their knowledge through reading and research and relate their understanding to case studies, problems and novel situations. Even though, the theory is students are capable of honing their communication and academic skills, tutors often face an uphill struggle in putting this to practice. Students may be unwilling to perform the necessary preparation or reserved in contributing to the discussion, thus the students gain little from the discussion. Nevertheless, offering clear ground rules helps establish a productive atmosphere. Involving students in designing and agreeing to their ground rules is an effective way for including all individuals from the onset. As well, it encourages students to take responsibility of the seminar. In Nottingham University, history students agreed on the way their seminar would operate during the initial session. The students assigned roles for everyone and determined the way the seminar was to run. A pair of students took the responsibility for every seminar, assigned pre-reading tasks to peers, present essential findings and organize the ensuing discussion. The task of the tutor was to aid leaders in underlining the key points. In developing group skills, students have to engage in many activities rather than mere completion of group tasks. Therefore, it is essential that students reflect on group processes. Students reflect on the process and product of the group work. During the incorporation of reflective activities to group work, students have a chance for applying their knowledge through reflections of future tasks that aid learning. To increase in effective group skills, students practice their skills and reflect what worked and what did not work. This aids them in forming generalized principles based on experiences that in turn inform their potential actions (UNSW Australia, 2012). Various strategies help students reflect their group work skills. Reflective activity such as having learning journal is essential. Keeping a learning journal aids students in tracking the development of group skills. Moreover, checklists aid students reflect on the group’s preparation and performance. Checklists ensure that students have time for reflection, in order to understand that reflection is an integral in group work and consider it in future meetings. Encouraging students to offer each other regular feedback during group meetings aids them in integrating reflective practices. Offering opportunities to students to practice articulating aspects of their skill development is essential. Employers and recruitment organizations expect students to know what is effective group skills, as well as articulating their experiences and certain strengths (Horning, 1997). Many tutors encourage students to increase their presentation skills in seminar courses. The standard format involves students selecting a certain topic to discuss from a given list. The topics could be grouped in themes and 2 or 3 students present related topics in one seminar. Students gain from this experience in increased understanding of the topic, as well as skills gained by presenting to the tutor and peers. Communication skills and seminars are designed to advance interpersonal communication skills, business writing skills and presentation skills in today’s workplace. Communication aids individuals communicate and influence perceptions of others in business and personal interactions. Even though, the delivery methods and structure in development seminars and workshops improved drastically, valid criticism exist regarding the ration of group activity in relation to individual work. In early 1950s, an American psychologist Kurt Lewin together his colleagues began an experiment of group functioning. The result led to training group movement, which was influential and popular to 1960s and beyond. Thus, the ideas of personal work in an organizational training and seminars reduced in majority of course developers and designers. Nevertheless, in those days some organizational psychologists maintained the necessity of properly placed individual work (Experiential learning cycle, para4 - 8). Notwithstanding, another voice remind of the need of individual work. The voice comes from brain-based learning researchers. Explosion of digital imaging technology in the last few decades unlocked the mind to scientists in search of how the brain learns. This uncovered various interesting things regarding the operations of the brain when learning. The notion agrees with the conclusion that the brain understands in bite chunks and takes time to develop and rest prior to moving on. Thus, this suggest that seminars with constant group discussion and no time set aside for individual activities, in which learners reflect on their study may overload the brain. In practice, individual activities are time consuming and serve to slow down fast-paced learners. There are several things de-motivating to quick learners than waiting for everyone during a seminar to complete individual task. Therefore, there are various ways of dealing with the dilemma, such as assigning individual tasks as homework. As well, another way is scheduling tasks prior to lunch or other break period. This offer the slow participants to work even during the break in order to complete the assignment. Moreover, individual tasks could be structured to include a required part and an optional part. This way, quick learners have something to perform if they complete the required part in less than the specified time (Fortress Learning, 2012). Conclusion In experiential learning, teachers select activities to demonstrate a concept. The experience enables students to engage in the topic in many ways. The reflection phase enables the students to query and review their performance. In this phase, the focus is on facts as the students examine the different answers, which help them develop the skills for critical thinking. In generalizing and abstracting phase, students examine experiences at an advanced level. The students consider the factual information collected. Students examine abstract concepts and connect ideas and the actual experience. Moreover students are able to ascertain their learning achievements and hypothesize on the next move. In transfer phase, students start applying the knowledge gained to the next activity. In this stage, students are likely to take a critical action. Thus, experiential learning cycle encourage students to think deeply, increase critical-thinking skills and transfer the learning into action. Bibliography Hellison, D., 1996. Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility in Physical Education. In Student Learning in Physical Education: Applying Research to Enhance Instruction, ed. S. Silverman and C. Ennis. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics. Henton, M., 1996. Adventure in the Classroom: Using Adventure to Strengthen Learning and Build a Community of Life-long Learners. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt. University of Oxford, 2012. Presenting at seminars and conferences. [Online] available at http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/supervision/stages/presenting/ [Accessed 14 December 2012]. Fortress Learning, 2012. Mixing Up Your Methods – Individual Work in Seminars and Workshops. [Online] Available at http://fortresslearning.com.au/2011/10/mixing-up-your-methods-individual-work-in-seminars-and-workshops/ [Accessed 14 December 2012]. “Experiential learning cycle”. [Online] available at http://health.tki.org.nz/Key-collections/Curriculum-in-action/Making-Meaning/Teaching-and-learning-approaches/Experiential-learning-cycle [Accessed 14 December 2012]. Alliance training and consulting, 2012. Communication Skills Training Overview. [Online] available at http://www.alliancetac.com/index.html?PAGE_ID=42 [Accessed 14 December 2012]. Times Higher Education, 2000. How to... get a seminar group to sizzle. [Online] available at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=154852§ioncode=26 [Accessed 14 December 2012]. UNSW Australia, 2012. Helping Students to Reflect on their Group Work. [Online] available at http://teaching.unsw.edu.au/helping-students-reflect-group-work [Accessed 14 December 2012]. Horning, A., 1997. Reflection and Revision: Intimacy in College Writing. Composition Chronicle: Newsletter for Writing Teachers 9.9 Jan. 1997: 4-7. Pintrich, P., Weinstein, C., Brown (Eds.), & D. Student motivation, cognition, and learning: Essays in honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie (pp.213-237). Read More