Higher Education & The Learning Agenda - Essay Example

Higher education requires a lot of development in the skills of the person seeking to gather knowledge due to the fact that the level of education demands that. The foremost important thing for the person is personal autonomy which will increase the autonomy for higher education. The different initiatives which higher education commands has increased importance to different generic, core and key skills which the student has to possess to be able to grasp the requirements of higher education. The manner in which higher education has undergone changes has increased stress in ensuring that the students have a degree of maturity which has transformed the manner in which education is imparted (Bowl, 2001). This is supported by the Dearing report which stresses the importance of having integration of diverse students from different background who have the required skills in the field of analytical, communication, problem solver and others to be able to gain full advantage of the education system (NCHIE, 1997) Higher education requires special skills in the field of reading, writing, researching and reasoning and students who had prior experience or mature are able to handle this situation better in comparison to others (Zeegers, 2004). This crops up a difference between younger and mature students as mature students are able to understand the subject better due to their deeper understanding whereas the younger students aim to pass the course and don’t look at deeper knowledge (Yorke & Longden, 2007). This situation can be improved slightly if special care and attention is given to ensure that the students develop their analytical and reasoning skills which will help them to understand the subject better. The quality of education for higher education is high which requires that the student is able to keep pace with the developments that are taking place and will require efforts from the students in all directions so that the overall learning process can be improved and will thereby act to ensure that the retention power in relation to different information is better. I feel that I need to ensure that I act more maturely and look towards understanding the topic in depth. Only reading the topic superficially for the sake of passing will not help as in the future while working I will require some of this skills. This is an aspect which I need to develop. Further, since I am able to understand and have a desire for learning will ensure that I am able to retain whatever is taught but being able to demonstrate skills where I am able to provide different reasons and look at the entire problem differently will help me to act in the best manner and will help me to achieve the objective for which I had taken higher education. Blog 1: Report Writing Report writing is an aspect of higher education which is very important as it ensures that the data or things can be presented in a manner which provides the reader an understanding of the reason for which it has been undertaken (Report Writing, 2012). This aspect involves the presentation of different facts and findings which helps to provide useful recommendations and is aimed at a particular group of people and is recorded and kept for future purpose (Report Writing, 2012). This topic benefitted me immensely as it helped me to understand the different aspect of data and the relevance it has. Further, since it is aimed at a particular section I understood the fact that things can be directed towards a specific group so that response can be evoked. This will help in the future as I will be able to use it and present important facts and findings to people in the management. The learning process was very challenging as I had to understand the fact that the report had to be succint and only important matters are highlighted and brought forward. Further, the manner in which direct things are written at the same time it is ensured that it doesn’t hurt anyone requires great skills which was a time consuming process for me as I had to learn it through continuous practice. This will thereby help me to present report relating to employees’ performance, organization growth and requirements to the management team and ensure that the results achieved help in business development. Blog 2: Learning Process Learning process is a series of steps which makes the person use different techniques and skills so that the knowledge can be acquired which will ensure development of skills to perform better (Holmes, 2002). This process looks towards applying different skills so that better information can be grasped which can be used for the development of self and others. I found the learning process during higher education quite superior and advanced as the use of real life situation examples and making us think on the best solution helped to act as managers. This I feel will ensure that we are able to discuss the problem in a better way and look towards working as a group so that better coordinated group goals can be achieved. I also gained a lot of knowledge as looking towards having techniques which increased my knowledge ensured that I was better placed to used it in future endeavors. I found the process quite challenging because working together as a team and accepting other views was difficult. This was matched by the fact that I was encountering such a situation first time so thinking of alternatives to the same problem was difficult as the mind went to the same solution. This was difficult for me as I had to look towards using different mechanism to change my thinking process. The value of the learning multiplied due to the use of different techniques like case study method, focus group and group work ensures that the process was developed where the skills were tested for all. Blog 3: Presentation Technique Presentation technique is making a speech before some people by ensuring that there are clarity and clear expressions so that the person to whom the message has been communicated can understand it and react accordingly (Presentation Technique, 2012). This requires that the presenter is able to communicate clearly and pass on the message to a large audience instead of a single person. I learnt immensely from the teachings provided in the direction of presentation technique as I understood the fact that while presenting I need to look it from the listener perspective and based on it develop my presentation so that it is effective. I also understood the fact that the presentation is making people understanding different things so it should be simple and not complicated so that the total understanding improves The most difficult thing which I found during the process was to develop the presentation based on the listener. Since, I was developing presentation based on my understanding and if I had knowledge about the topic then I would deliver my performance thinking that other had the knowledge too. This was a wrong perception which I had and to change it was very difficult for me as it required special skills. The fact that we were allowed to present on different topics and were also assigned different projects which we had to present acted as an example and taught us the different areas which needs to be laid emphasis and helped me to improve my total presentation skills. Blog 4: Referencing Conventions Referencing convention is an aspect which is very important as it looks towards providing complete justice and rights to be person by clearly stating if the idea of writing has been taken from someone else (Referencing Convention, 2012). This thereby helps to keep the authenticity and provide complete justification to the different materials that is used and ensures that the person who has previously done research in that direction is provided recognition. The learning benefitted me as during the course I realized the importance of providing correct references as it increases the authenticity of the work. I was able to benefit from it as providing the correct references and quoting the previous researches, findings and studies helped me to strengthen my finding and could back it up with other references. This helped me to ensure that my work was better recognized and depicted the idea in a better way. The most challenging aspect here was to ensure that the information which I provided has been correctly referenced as there can be situation where I didn’t look towards providing the correct references which results in reducing the value of the assignment. Further I found it difficult to find the references as I saw in some situations that when I was not providing the references the results were driven from my past knowledge and this was due to the fact that it had happened somewhere and I had read it from there and provided it. Changing this was difficult and I am still working on it and will be able to overcome it over a period of time as the different reports presented in the university has helped me Blog 5: Exam Techniques Exam techniques require that the student appearing for the exam uses certain skills and techniques to ensure that the exam is conducted in the most proper way (Exam Techniques, 2012). These will require that the respondent is calm, answers the questions he knows first, looks to be patient and being practical and cool so that the questions that have been asked can be answered in the most proper manner. The learning from the course benefitted me as I realized that answering questions which I know first helps to remove the exam pressure and provides relive which will ensure that the other questions are also tackled well. I also learned the importance of keeping my cool and ensuring that I don’t panic and choose questions to be answered properly so that my overall result gets reflected in being able to deal with the situation in a better way. The challenging aspect for me was to keep cool and calm as knowing that I have an exam increases pressure and makes it difficult to even answer questions which I know. This was an area which was difficult because the mind at all times focused on the exam on hand and being able to divert it to other things was not possible which thereby increased pressure and made it difficult to deal with the changes. Being able to sit in the exam different time helped me to use the skills to a certain extent and I need to continue to do so; so that I am able to control my emotions and deal with the situation in the best manner. References Bowl, M. 2001. Experiencing the barriers: non-traditional students entering higher Education. Research Papers in Education, Volume 16 (2), pp 141 – 160 Exam Techniques. 2012. Exam Techniques. Retrieved on August 31, 2012 from http://www.palgrave.com/skills4study/studyskills/exams/techniques.asp Holmes, L. 2002. Higher Education & The Learning Agenda: A Degenerative Programme? Annual conference of the Society for Research into Higher Education, Glasgow NCIHE. 1997. Higher Education in the Learning Society, London: NCIHE (DearingReport) Retrieved on August 31, 2012 from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/ncihe/sr_008.htm Presentation Techniques. 2012. Presentation Techniques. Retrieved on August 31, 2012 from http://www.itplacements.com/ITP/EffectivePresentationTechniques.html Report Writing. 2012. Report Writing. Multimedia Publishing. Retrieved on September 1, 2012 from http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/tskills/reports/repwrite.pdf Referencing Convention. 2012. Referencing Convention. Retrieved on September 1, 2012 from http://www.education.monash.edu.au/students/current/study-resources/referencingconventions.html Yorke, M. & Longden, B. 2007. The first-year experience in higher education in the UK.Report on Phase 1 of a project funded by the Higher Education Academy. York: The Higher Education Academy Zeegers, P. 2004. Student learning in higher education: a path analysis of academic achievement in scienc., Higher Education Research & Development, Volume 23 (1), pp. 35 - 56 Read More