Critical Reflections upon Personal Learning Experiences - Essay Example

Individual Report (Reflection) ID: Module: Developing the Professional "MSc Management" of Glamorgan Faculty of Business and Society Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Critical Reflections upon Personal Learning Experiences 3 Personal Reflection on Assignment 1 4 Reference List 12 Appendices 14 Appendix A 14 Appendix B 15 Appendix C 16 Appendix D 17 Appendix E 18 Appendix F- Photos 19 Introduction Through management degree program, respected teachers and professors have shared their pedantic knowledge with us in order to provide new learning opportunities for us but I felt that enlightenment is the final goal of any learning process. To be honest, I must admit that this essay is not about mechanistic silhouette of my personal skill rather this essay is more of a personal learning statement which will guide me throughout the career. Research scholars such as Dollinger (2008), Pandey and Tewary (2011) and Cope (2005) stressed on the fact that personal learning reflection and skill auditing help a person to understand personal strength and weaknesses. I agree with their opinion and also agree with their argument that personal learning reflection is especially helpful for students who want to be future entrepreneur. I cannot deny the fact that, entrepreneurship was probably one of the most challenging and exciting study topic for management student hence there is no surprise why I want to taste my luck in entrepreneurship if I will get opportunity to do so in future course of time. However, in this essay, I will not confine the discussion in the boundary of entrepreneurship rather I will try to shed light on large set of learning and skill aspects. Politis (2005) and Harrison and Leitch (2005) pointed out that learning should be self-directed in order to help a person to grow in sustainable manner. I am not ashamed to admit that I had very little knowledge about fundamentals of business process prior joining the masters program in university but the master’s program in management has really improved my personal understanding about various core elements of management. I must admit that module 1 and module 2 of course were comprehensive enough to give me and my colleagues to improve our personal learning and self awareness about personal skill orientation. These modules were absolute necessity for students who want to know about how to organize an event, how to work in group, how to prepare group report and how to guide a team during contingent situation. There is no doubt in the fact that all the modules in the course proved to be learning opportunity for me and significantly helped me to grow as professional. Throughout this essay, these learning experiences will be critically reflected in order to substantiate my claims that I have learnt a lot from my management degree program. I will take help of the learning cycle theories in order to present my personal learning experiences and the learning cycle model will also be integrated with skill set development in real world business scenario. Although, modern research scholars such as Johns (2004), Moon (2007), Taylor (2006) and Wilson (2009) found that there is significant difference exist between personal leaning and skill development. For example, personal learning experience cannot help a person to judge technical skill or situational skill sets which can only be realized in real world scenario. However, Watson (2008) highlighted that personal skill auditing is good way to ensure professional and academic development of a student. Hence, in this essay, I will use SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and Force field analysis in order identifies key skill areas that I need to improve in order to excel in professional field. Critical Reflections upon Personal Learning Experiences I am grateful to my respected professors not only for their pedagogy but also for their help to make us better professional in future course of time. To be honest, prior joining the university or going through different modules in the course, I did not have knowledge about SWOT analysis, importance of Curriculum Vitae (CV), functional importance of Force field analysis etc. But, after going through different modules in the course, I got fair bit of idea about skill auditing, preparing project proposal for business purpose, preparation of group process report etc. I believe that developing such skill sets will definitely help me to grow as both in academic and professional field. Using SWOT analysis has helped me to understand what my weaknesses are and what sort of personal development plan is needed in order to get rid of these weaknesses. In the next section, I will try to reflect the learning experience in assignment specific manner. Personal Reflection on Assignment 1 Rae (2003 and 2004) rightly stated that it is not possible to learn the whole thing or reach the stage of personal enlightenment by accomplishing particular assignment or doing a particular job because learning is a lifelong process. Hence, I will not dare to argue that I have learnt almost everything after accomplishing the task mentioned in assignment 1. However, doing the assignment 1 and modules pertinent to the assignment has improved my understanding about core functions of management such as planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling. Before starting the management degree program in the university, I had very little understanding about core elements of management function and how can one use the core principles of management for self improvement. After completion of the assignment, I got fair bit of idea about personal skill management and professional development planning. In the first assignment, I was asked to conduct personal skill audit, personal SWOT analysis, Force Field analysis in terms of personal perspective and write a professional application letter in response to job advertisement. Doing these tasks has immensely helped me in terms of formulating career objective enriched by personal learning experiences. Kolb’s Learning Cycle model can be used to demonstrate my personal learning experience. At first, the essay will try to understand the Kolb’s Learning Cycle from academic viewpoint before using the model in personal learning experience perspective. Graff (2012) rightly argued that learning is always self directed mechanism and individual responsibility of a particular person. A person can only learn if he/she allows himself/herself to accept the skill gap and ready to accept external stimuli to fill up the gap. In such context, it can be conjecturally said that learning from experiences is a time consuming process hence personal learning experience cannot be created in overnight manner. Teunissen and Dornan (2008) beautifully defined personal learning as the collection of discrete learning experiences and the learning path is non-linear due to involvement of lack of self-motivation, life constraints and personal resistance to change. These scholars argued that people prefer to live in their comfort zone due to Mother Nature’s law that every object prefer to stabilize with lowest potential energy. In such context, Kolb (1984) believed that learning is personal experience driven phenomenon and it has four components such as, 1- having concrete experience, 2- gathering and analyzing experience through observation and reflection, 3- developing abstract concept about the experience and 4- testing the experience in real world situation. Simplified version of the model can be depicted in the following manner. Figure 1: Individual Learning (Source: Yeo, 2013, p. 5) Kolb (1984) strongly argued that personal learning is a systematic process complemented with active extension of experience in context to external environment, internal reflection justified by trade off between extension/extraversion and intention/introversion. In simple words, learning is the non-linear combination of two factors such as, 1- value- personal value system of the person and fact- external environment knowledge stimulate. Kolb (1984, p. 228) defined learning as, “The continuous balancing of facts and feelings, what we feel is a result of our individual interpretation in a concrete situation and this makes us human and gives us personality.” Personal learning is created with the help of one’s ability interpret experience in terms of value and fact, meaning and relevance (Kolb, 1984). In such context, Revans’ (1982) action learning model emphasized on learning of individuals working in group. Kolb (1984) stressed on the fact that learning should be based on positive virtues because creating action plan without learning from previous failure creates the case of courage without wisdom. In such cases, persons repeat the same mistake again and again manner which ultimately closes down the opportunity to progress in life. Careful analysis of Kolb’s Learning Cycle reveals the fact that a person cannot learn by emphasizing only on previous experiences rather the person should use the experience to develop a generalised concept which can be used in practical situation. Such kind of learning needed to be tested in different emergent situations in order to check the reliability of such experiences in context to real world problems. According to me, successful learning can only happen in those cases where learner can link the theoretical experience with practical actions with the help of management functions such as planning the process map, organizing resources, coordinating activities and finally controlling the lagging measures in the activities. Kolb’s Learning Cycle can be analyzed in context to my personal leaning experiences in the following manner; Table 1: Kolb’s Learning Cycle & My Personal Learning Experience Concrete Experience Throughout the management degree program in university, I have attended number of classes, workshops, seminars in order to increase knowledge in various field of management. I have also participated in number of academic projects and team activities. Participating and attending such activities have infused certain experiences in me and in some cases, some of these experiences qualified as concrete experience for me. Reflective Observation I have learnt experiences with the help of academic reading and practical experiments in group activities. Having such experiences, I have conducted skill auditing in order to understand what personal skill areas are needed to be sharpen and what skill areas might be considered as redundant from professional perspective. Based on the skill overview, I have created a skill portfolio which is needed to be enhanced by me in order to excel in professional field. For example, although I have fair bit of professional and management skill but at present, I do not have sufficient intellectual skill to handle tricky business problems. In such situation, I need to improve my quantitative skill to fulfil intellectual skill gap. Abstract Conceptualisation After doing the skill audit, I got clear picture about the lagging skill areas in my skill portfolio which needs further attention. I need to work on those areas in order to ensure successful learning. In such context, I have done personal SWOT analysis which has further helped me to know factors that restrict or fillip learning experiences. For example, I have found that my strength areas such as qualitative reasoning, leadership skill, people management ability etc can help me to become successful entrepreneur in future course of time while weaknesses such as lack of quantitative aptitude, lack of experience in handling difficult people might create barriers for me in future professional world. Active Experimentation After learning about strength and weakness related to personal development, I have created objective statement and personal development plan in order to reduce magnitude of barriers in personal learning path. Objective driven approach has helped me to formulate future learning planning in order to ensure higher success rate in forthcoming modules in the university course. I have conducted force field analysis in order to create a project map to generate further concrete experience for future learning. Modern research scholars such as Jarvis (2007), Lake and Hamdorf (2004) and Larsen (2004) extended the Kolb’s Learning Cycle by integrating the concept of lifelong learning. According to these scholars, it is not right to expect that a person can learn in equal fashion throughout every phase in the life. Similarly, for student like me, dimension of personal learning during academic life has to be different from dimension personal learning in professional field. Lets depict the situation in pictorial manner. Figure 2: Non-linear Learning Curve Source: (Source: Graff, 2012, p. 79) According to the above model, I might develop particular skill set during my management program in University but there is no guaranty in the fact that I would be able to use all of these skills during professionals. There might be cases when particular learning experience in my academic life would be treated as redundant in professional field and I might not use these learning experiences in the working field. As a result of lack of practising, the particular skill level would be downgraded while certain new learning experiences will be upgraded during professional. Even the learning experiences change as we change our job or chose alternate career path. Hence, I need to conduct skill auditing at regular interval in order ensure sustainable flow of personal learning experiences. On the basis of modified version of Kolb’s learning cycle, I can say that, performing the assignment 1 can be linked with the concept of lifelong learning. Performing tasks of assignment 1 and related modules of the assignment has helped me to understand how personal learning experience can be used assessed in systematic manner with the help of different tools such as SWOT analysis, Force Field Analysis, Skill Auditing etc. I am pretty much sure that identified personal strengths such as time management skill and leadership characteristics can be used by me in lifelong manner in any stage of my career path. For example, I can use the time management skill in order to perform assigned task in different job functions while enhancement in quantitative skill level will definitely help me to handle numerical problems even in daily life. To be honest, I had no clear idea about my skill set driven core competency or personal strengths before conducting the skill audit and personal SWOT analysis. As a result of such perplexity, in many cases I failed to use my potential skills to perform particular task and as a result, overall performance in the task gone down. According to Jarvis (2007), human can learn by three types of elements such as visual experience, auditory experience and kinaesthetic. After doing the SWOT analysis, it became apparent that I am a kinaesthetic learner or a person who prefer to learn by involving body movement. On the basis of such revelation, I have decided to participate in those learning activities which need high level of body movement such as role playing, acting, presentation etc. Writing formal application letter to a vacant job position in response to advertisement was also professionally enriched experience for me. Writing the formal letter has improved my understanding about how to approach a job advertisement professionally and what points in the CV to be highlighted in order to grab the attention of recruiter. Even my writing skill has significantly improved after writing the letter and interesting fact is that, after completion of assignment 1, I have already applied to three job advertisement without taking other’s help in writing the application letter. I have realized the fact that a professional must have superior command English and other international languages in order to express or communicate ideas with others. I am thankful to my professors for giving me the opportunity to complete the assignment 1 and related modules to the assignment. Completion of the assignment has not only helped me to grow in academically but also brought out the hidden professional inside me. Such learning experience will definitely help me to handle future challenges in professional field and excel in workplace. Reference List Wilson, J., 2009. Reflecting-on-the-future: A chronological consideration of reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 9(2), pp. 177-84. Watson, M., 2008. Building your portfolio: The CILIP Guide. Facet: London. Moon, J., 2007. Getting the measure of reflection: Considering matters of definition and depth. Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice, 6(4), pp. 191-200. Johns, C., 2004. Becoming a reflective practitioner. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell. Taylor, B., 2006. Reflective practice: A guide for nurses and midwives. 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Pandey, J. and Tewary, N. B., 2011. Locus of control and achievement values of entrepreneurs. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 52(2), pp. 107-111. Dollinger, M. J., 2008. Entrepreneurship: Strategic resources. 4th ed. Lombard, IL: Marsh Publications. Cope, J., 2005. Toward a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(4), pp. 373-398. Harrison, R. and Leitch, C., 2005. Entrepreneurial learning: Researching the interface between learning and the entrepreneurial context. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(4), pp. 351-371. Politis, D., 2005. The process of entrepreneurial learning: A conceptual framework. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 29(4), pp. 399-424. Rae, D., 2003. Opportunity centered learning: An innovation in enterprise education. Education and Training, 45(8), pp. 542-549. Rae, D., 2004. Entrepreneurial learning: a practical model from the creative industries. Education and Training, 46(8/9), pp. 492-500. Yeo, R. K., 2013. Building commitment through reflective practice: An inside-out approach. Industrial and Commercial Training, 45(1), pp. 3-11. Teunissen, P. W. and Dornan, T., 2008. Lifelong learning at work. British Medical Journal, 336(7645), pp. 667-9. Graff, J., 2012. Is the grass greener on the other side? Experiential learning, lifelong learning and career shift. On the Horizon, 20(1), pp. 74-83. Revans, R. W., 1982. The origin and growth of action learning. Brickley: Chartwell-Bratt. Kolb, D. A., 1984. Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Jarvis, P., 2007. Globalisation, lifelong Learning and the learning society: Sociological perspectives. Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society, 2, Abingdon: Routledge. Lake, F. R. and Hamdorf, J. M., 2004. Teaching on the run tips 5: Teaching a skill. Medical Journal of Australia, 181(6), pp. 327-8. Larsen, H. H., 2004. Experiential learning as management development: Theoretical perspectives and empirical illustrations. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 12(6), pp. 486-503. Appendices Appendix A SWOT Analysis Leadership skills * Quantitative research People management skills * Reflection Qualitative reasoning *Managing difficult people Time management Secondary research * Fear of quantitative research Management simulator Exercising with friends Appendix B Appendix C 24 April 2012 RE: Saleh Alyafei and Masters Students from Glamorgan University To whom it may concern This is to confirm that Saleh Alyafei and fellow Masters Students have registered with us to organise an event to raise money for Breast Cancer Care – registered charity in England and Wales 1017658 and registered charity in Scotland SC038104. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the charity. Any contribution to his fundraising efforts would be greatly appreciated. Please give generously. Breast Cancer Care is here for anyone affected by breast cancer. We bring people together, provide information and support, and campaign for improved standards of care. We use our understanding of peoples experience of breast cancer and our clinical expertise in everything we do. Visit www.breastcancercare.org.uk or call our free helpline on 0808 800 6000. Please do not hesitate in contacting me if you have any queries on Best wishes Wendy Murgatroyd Fundraising Executive – Wales Appendix D City Lit Keeley Street Covent Garden London WC2B 4BA 19 March 2013 Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing in response to your advertisement for the position of Student Experience Manager at City Lit. I am a perfect candidate for this position given my interpersonal and communication skills. I also have experience playing the leadership role in the academic context. I believe that firms must serve their customers as though they have only one. Individual attention is vital to the attainment of a competitive edge according to my approach to customer service. Even if the theory of corporate social responsibility does not take social service into consideration, my approach to customer service makes a strong connection between the firm and its external stakeholders. As this approach is bound to help your company grow – personalized attention being the foundation of student success – I offer my services to grow with City Lit. Yours sincerely, Name: Appendix E Appendix F- Photos Read More