Reflective Journal on My Academic Performance - Coursework Example

Reflective journal on my academic performance Introduction In my previous academic year I had a mean score of 34.4%. This is a very disappointing performance that I have decided to improve on by following several steps to improve my performance. For a student to perform well and also be adequately prepared for the job market, he/she must poses certain skills and master them to perfection. For instance one has to adopt the right communication skills, team-working skills and also good language skills among others. These skills make it possible for one to take up knowledge from the people, literature material and the environment effectively. The purpose of this essay is to identify and exemplify on the skills that I hope to perfect so as to improve my performance. These will be done under the respective subheadings. Communication Communication can be defined as a process through which information, ideas and thoughts are exchanged between individuals through a channel. It is facilitated through symbols, signs or behavior. Communication is a two way process which is only complete after the party who is intended to receive the message confirms reception of the message to the sender through a feedback (Rand, 2012). Rand (2012) notes that even though many people think they are communicating; only a few people achieve effective communication. Effective communication helps an individual to get a good understanding of others and also share his/her ideas and thoughts clearly. Effective communication is achieved through good listening skills that enable one to get the best out of the speaker, development of non-verbal communication such as dressing and body language, ability to manage stress and let it not be a hindrance to communication, and also being emotionally intelligent which helps one to become more aware of the situation others are going through (Rand, 2012). These four and other communication skills are effective in fostering effective communication mainly in a workplace and in a group. I believe that I still have to improve on my communication skills if at all I am going to develop effective communication ability that will develop me as an individual in my career. I particularly need to do study a lot on emotional intelligence since it is a vital skill in fostering good team-work. Team working ability is very important for any organization and it is a skill much sought after. Critical thinking Critical thinking can be defined as the ability to think clearly and rationally. It is a form of engagement into reflective and independent thinking whereby the person with good critical thinking ability is able to decide whether a claim is true rather than fully agree with a claim without questioning its trueness. Although critical thinking may appear to be argumentative and critical of other people, it should not be confused with these two phenomena. In fact critical thinking helps us to expose fallacies, increase cooperative reasoning and also acquire knowledge and strengthen our arguments (Paul & Elder, 2002). As such critical thinkers according to Paul and Elder (2002) are able to: Identify logical connections between ideas, Evaluate arguments to detect inconsistencies and common unseen mistakes. Solve problems systematically, Identify the relevance of ideas, and evaluate one’s beliefs and convictions. These abilities therefore point to the fact that critical thinking is a very important skill for me not only at the student level where I will have to apply critical thinking as a study method to understand ideas and the theories well, but also in my future career since I will need to critically evaluate arguments and situations to get a deeper picture of the real situation. I will study a lot of critical thinking development tools that will help me improve on my .critical thinking skills. Critical thinking also requires one to gain a lot of knowledge to back his conviction which I am prepared to do by researching matters further whenever I am faced with a situation that is not clear to me. Numeracy and language Numeracy can be viewed as the ability to apply numbers and mathematical concepts to express a relationship or to derive meaning from a numerical expression. Simply said is one’s understanding of mathematical concepts and ability to use them to solve problems. Rainbird, Fuller, & Munro, (2004) note that numeracy skills are very important in the work place today since one should be proficient in skills such as using percentages, developing relational graphs, using statistical methods to prepare reports, interpret graphs and understand relationships is also very important. I will strive to take every numeracy module very seriously to improve on my numeracy. I also plan to go an extra mile into studying a lot of mathematical books to understand how to tackle common and complex mathematical problems. Mathematics is a subject that is interlinked with almost every discipline in my studies as well as fields in the job market and as such I have to take it very seriously to improve my position in the competitive job market. Language is a means by which we express ourselves so that others can understand us. Understanding how to use language properly to ones advantage is perhaps one of the most important elements needed for success especially in the corporate world. Through language we are also able to understand other people their ideas and opinions to help us learn from them. In fact language is the means through which an educator imparts knowledge to his student (Rainbird, Fuller, & Munro, 2004). I will improve my language skills by reading a lot of literature on my specific field of study and also for leisure purposes. This way I will be able to see how the author manipulate the language so that they can bring out the meaning they want to pass to the reader. I will also type a lot of reports and analysis of what I have studied either for practice or for my career development purposes. This way I will improve on my grammar and language expression skills. Since writing is not enough I will have to improve my speaking too by participating actively in team meetings, clubs meetings where I will take advantage of any chance to address the group to improve on my speaking and more specifically public speaking skills. Online language tests are also another way of assessing my language skills and improving on them. Most of these online tests are freely available although I may also have to take certified online language tests to boost my profile in the job market and also for the purpose of personal development. To improve on my presentation skills I will have to do a lot of presentations in my group and at class so that I can perfect the skill. I will also have to understand the various presentation software solutions like Microsoft’s power point to know how the package can help me to give a high quality presentation. Presentations also require that one gains considerable knowledge on the topic being addressed, and as a matter of fact I will have to be dedicating a lot of time to researching my presentation topics. This way I will be confident in whatever I am presenting to my audience. Public speaking skills will also be very vital in improving my presentations as well as language all of which I am planning to improve on as I explained earlier. Team-work Working in teams can be very productive but only if team members have the required team working abilities that will make the team achieve its best. Teams are preferred in learning and working environment for their ability to save on time and approach problems from different perspectives due to the creativity and knowledge base of different team members. Most employers look out for this critical skill when they are hiring new employees to work for them especially in management levels (Ryan, 2013). It is therefore vital that I improve on my team-working skills so that I can stand out in the job market and also to ensure that I am able to help the teams I engage in to achieve their goals and objectives by being an effective team player. To do this is I will have to improve on my communication skills. I will have to bring out my concerns as well as my disagreement whenever I feel I should point out anything I don’t agree with since this will help the team break out from group thinking and critically evaluate every aspect of our discussion for the benefit of the team. Good communication also requires I understand body language as well as use it effectively to communicate with team members. Apart from communication, it is also vital that I understand how to relate well with tem members in terms of understanding how to constructively criticize others so that my criticism may not appear personal but rather to improve on certain faults I may notice. On that note it will also be important that I learn how to appreciate and support ideas by others so that creativity can be encouraged in the group. Emotional intelligence is also very important when working with teams since at the end of the day team members are humans who happen to be social beings and it is important you read other peoples’ feelings so that you know how to relate with them. To improve on this I will read a lot of emotional intelligence books to improve my level of emotional intelligence. Ryan, (2013) asserts that team work is also about playing roles effectively and delivering individual targets as well to boost overall team effectiveness. Teams are mostly demoralized by the presence of individuals who fail to accomplish their parts thereby burdening the rest of the team with their work. I will endeavor to deliver my level best when working wit teams. Time management Time management is a crucial skill in attaining goals in everything one does. Time management can be viewed from different perspectives but at in all the perspectives the bottom line is how to make maximum utility of time which is a limited resource to produce the best results. Prioritizing is perhaps one of the most popular time management skills. This is particularly a very important skill when time is limited and there is a lot of tasks to be accomplished but by one person or a small group of people (Forsyth, 2013). I will learn good prioritizing skills from online sources and books so that will be in a better position to manage my time effectively during study and also when working with groups. I will come up with prioritizing tools such as grids and matrices to help me understand which activities are urgent and important to me and which are less urgent and less important and which happen to be either urgent but not important or important and not urgent. This way I will be in a better position to decide how I prioritize my activities for my time. This skill I also very important for my career for it will help me be very effective in my work place. Use of software In terms of computing, there are a lot of software solutions available to facilitate smooth study fro me right from research to analysis and also engaging with my tutors. I believe this software solutions are capable of helping me achieve my study goals. I am particularly interested in general Microsoft office software which has several software packages such as word processor, excel and PowerPoint which are very useful for a student and also going forward in the job market. There are also other stand alone software solutions such as data analysis software that are important for a student to know how to use. I will ensure I learn how to use these and many other software solutions to improve my results. Conclusion My results for the last year were very dismal at 34.4%. I have in this essay identified several skills that I expect to improve on in order to boost my academic performance for the next year. Although these are not the only steps I need to take to improve my performance, they happen to be critical in helping me achieve my desired results for the next year. I will particularly employ critical thinking in my studies to get a better understanding of my topics. I will as well improve on numeracy since it is a vital skill required in almost all the courses in my study. References Forsyth, P. 2013. Successful Time Management. Kogan Page Publishers. Paul, R., & Elder, L. 2002. critical Thinking: Tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life. FT Press. Rainbird, H., Fuller, A., & Munro, a. Eds.2004. work Place Learning in Context. Routledge. Rand, C. 2012. communication. Raintree. Ryan, S. 2013. When is a team a team? "Teamworking" and the reorganisation of work in commercial cleaning. Employee Relations , 34 (3), p.255-270. 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