Personal and Professional Development: A Critical Understanding of Reflective Learning

This report discusses the importance of personal and professional development through reflective learning. It covers the Gibbs reflective cycle and its six steps, and provides an action plan for continuous development. The report also highlights the significance of developing various skills to achieve professional goals.

Personal and
Professional
development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAINBODY....................................................................................................................................1
Gibbs reflective cycle.............................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Personal reflection refers to the evaluation of the past experience, skills, knowledge in order to
determine the strengths and weaknesses. It helps the person to take effective initiatives in for
their continuous development (Albrecht, Moscardo, and Dwyer, 2022). It refers to the
combination of ideas, approaches along with techniques which will help them to manage the
growth addition to learning. The personal reflection enables the person to develop their skills in
order to get better opportunities in future to achieve their professional goals. Through this an
individual make an action plan to develop skills which they are lack in in order to perform their
practices in effective manner (Baecher and Chung, 2020).
This report highlights the a critical understanding of the concepts of reflective learning and
personal development. further it covers the personal approach to reflective learning along with
continuing professional development.
MAINBODY
Personal development and reflective learning can be understood as the practices of
developing various skills from analysing past events (Bond, and Blevins, 2020). personal
development plan refers to the result of the reflective practices in order to gain better
understanding along with use it in future practices to meet the desired professional goals. It has
been determining by me that I want to become marketing executer for that I need to develop
various skills and knowledge (Brown, and Shaindlin, 2021). I decided to enrol in institution by
participating in the marketing course for completing my learning course in order to gain better
job opportunities in big organisation. while learning in the institution I conduct my reflection in
order to determine my skills, strengths, weaknesses, area for improvement for development to
become successful in my career (Caena. and Vuorikari, 2021).
Gibbs reflective cycle
For the reflection I used Gibbs reflective cycle which is most effective model and it
introduced in 1988 by Graham Gibbs to provide direction. It helps a person to structure their
learning experiences in systematic manner in order to find out the better outcomes for the
development. It enables me to make effective plan for mine overall personality development. It
allows a person to describe their learning process from starting to end by covering all events in
effective manner (Coe, Natarajan and Mahesan, 2022). It enables me to analyse various events
1

which provide clear insight to me so that I can improve my skills and knowledge to conduct my
professional practices in effective manner so I can achieve both personal and organisation goals.
It has six steps which provide clear understanding for the growth and development along with
find out beneficial result. The six steps of the Gibbs reflective cycle which I can use to evaluate
my learning process of marketing to gain job of marketer in leading company that are as follows-
Description – It is the first step of this model in which I give the detail description related
to the course, learning process along with my skill and knowledge. After mu graduation I
decided to participate in marketing course for higher studies. it has been seen that I develop
interest in marketing while learning in university as well as gaining knowledge with my relatives
and friends for successful career (Coombe, 2020). so I and my friends decides to take admission
in famous marketing institution to learn new things and various skills which I need to develop to
perform my job role in an organisation. There is various advance technology in the market such
as digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing and many more. I conduct deep
research about this course and take participate in course in order to meet my personal and
professional objectives. for that I need to develop various skills such as communication skills,
research skills, ICT skills, networking and team work skills, time and self-management along
with problem solving skills which helps me to complete my study and get better job role in
future (Dali, Bell and Valdes, 2021). In order to develop all these, I put my full efforts
throughout the learning process along with coordinating with teachers which helped me to learn
new skills, concept, principle relate to the topic. At starting I found various difficulties in order
to adjust in environment and with people along with I did not aware my skills which I used in
learning process to gain better grade in this course. The professors gave us various project and
assignments to gain practical knowledge about many importance, principle, types, limitations,
concepts and usage of marketing activities, techniques and tools (Farahian, and Parhamnia,
2021).
Feelings- It is the second stage of this model which is related to the feelings, experienced
which I faced while learning in the course. It has been determining by me that I develop feeling
to get more knowledge in my graduation time for improving my self-awareness skills in me.
Initially I was quite nervous to learn new things, working with new people which have different
mind-set, culture, background and many more (Fathelrahman, 2019). Along with there is many
teachers which are different in nature, behaviour and action that make me nervous to interact
2

with them while learning in classroom. But as time passes away I develop the understanding
about the nature, behaviour and ideas of the people which helped me to complete my learning
process effectively (Lahir, Lucarotti and Gortney, 2021). At the mid of the course I built my
confidence and morale in order to interact with team mates and teachers to reduce my stress,
workload and anxiety. The teachers allow me to ask questions related to the subject, course so I
learn fast and develop various skills. Throughout the learning cycle, the students also helped me
to work as a team in order to complete the given project on time (Gratton and Gratton, 2020). At
the completion of the course I enjoy to learn in classroom, develop understanding about different
topic while discussing teachers and other people as well as working with classmates. I get clear
insight about my strengths and weaknesses which I can future use at my workplace to work with
other people.
Evaluation-It is the third stage in which I examined my strengths and weaknesses which
foster as well as hinder my performance during the learning process. there are various skills such
as communication skills, ICT skills, Technical skills, time management, problems solving and
many more which is essential for me to have and learn for the personal and professional
development. It has been determined by me that some skills are good in me and in some I an
weak which I need to learn to work effectively and efficiently (Makovec, 2018). I am good at
communication, research and ICT skills which enable me to work in a team along with help
other to interact and share information with them. Communication skills refers to the ability in
me to share my ideas and thoughts to other so they can understand it in better manner and use
information for completing the task on time. Research skills can be understood as the ability to
find out the facts, data and information and use it in the project to provide reliable and accurate
information to users (Paulson and Laverty, 2018). Along with ICT skills has been termed as
technical skills in order to work on compute and advance technology for better outcomes. All
these skills enable me to learn and make better connection with teachers and students to gain
more knowledge about the concept and topic about business, marketing, customers, employees
and other. Moreover with many strengths there are some weaknesses in me such as I am lack of
team working, time management and problem solving skills for that I faced various problems
during the learning process. All these skills hinder my performance in class room and unable me
to focus on the course or work proper (Pugh. and Broome, 2020).
3

Analysis- It has been analysing by me that communication skills helped to make better
connection with team mates as well as all people can listen me and develop trust on me to lead
the task in order to complete it before time (Quirke, 2020). By conducting deep research I collect
various information related to the marketing concept which I communicate to other manner
effectively so we divided our task in order to reduce miscommunication, overlapping of work
and many more. ICT skills allow me to work on computer and make attractive presentation or
store data which we can further use to complete the task and gain better grades in class room.
With these skills I can better interact with teachers and ask question in effective manner related
to our task so we make good plan to meet the desired outcome in appropriate manner. some skills
in which I am poor at such as team working skills, time management skills and problem solving
skills which hinder my performance and decline my productivity in task (Saleem and Ashiq,
2020). I take huge tome to collect data and make plan which leads to delay in the task along with
generate workload and stress. There are various members which belong to the different
background and culture that leads to generate problems along there are also some uncertain
events which make difficult to complete the project on time. Poor problems solving skills make
difficult for me to reduce conflict and other issues to meet the target of project on time. It is
essential for every person to have better team working skills in order to make coordination
among project, it has been seen that I need to develop this skill in me to as I faced various
problems to work with team member due to my behaviour and non-adjusting nature (Salter and
Rhodes, 2018).
Conclusion- It has been concluded that form the above presented information that it is every
important for a person to make effective continuous development plan in order to develop
various skills to achieve the target on time. reflective learning helps the person for conduct their
overall development and built self-awareness skills in them so they use it at their workplace in
order to work with the team, technology and many situations for the achievement of the goals in
effective manner. I need to make effective action plan to develop all these skills which I required
to perform the job role as a marketer in leading company (Seif, 2019).
Action Plan – The action plan can be understood as the effective plan for overall skills or
personality development of a person. by using SMART objective, I can develop all skills which
ii lack in my learning process of marketing.
Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time limit
4

Teamworking
skills
It is measurable
by me through
working in ateam
without any issue
and problem and
achieve the target
without any
delay
Through
changing my
nature, behaviour
as well as
listening other to
work as team I
can develop this
skills
To meet the
personal and
organisation
goals
4 months
Problem solving
skills
It is measurable
as I capable to
solve various
technical and
conflict issues
among team
while working on
a project
By taking
initiative to think
creative make
effective
solutions by
continuous
practising.
To adopt the new
technology and
work with
variety of people,
culture and
environment
(Shavit and
Moshe, 2019).
6 months
Time
management
skills
It is measurable
as I can collect
data in time,
completing my
work before
deadline along
with help other
to meet common
group goals.
By dividing the
task as per
priorities along
with make
effective time
schedule or
follow it on
regular basis
To complete the
project on time
and save time to
bring innovation
for future growth
3 months
5

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Albrecht, J.N., Moscardo, G. and Dwyer, T., 2022. Learning about learning in tourism:
indigenous guide perspectives on their personal and professional development. Journal of
Hospitality & Tourism Research, 46(2), pp.320-343.
Baecher, L. and Chung, S., 2020. Transformative professional development for in-service
teachers through international service learning. Teacher Development, 24(1), pp.33-51.
Bond, M.A. and Blevins, S.J., 2020. Using faculty professional development to foster
organizational change: A social learning framework. TechTrends, 64(2), pp.229-237.
Brown, L.M. and Shaindlin, V.B., 2021. Not Just for Patrons: Book Club Participation as
Professional Development for Librarians. The Library Quarterly, 91(4), pp.420-436.
Caena, F. and Vuorikari, R., 2021. Teacher learning and innovative professional development
through the lens of the Personal, Social and Learning to Learn European key
competence. European Journal of Teacher Education, pp.1-20.
Coe, A., Natarajan, M. and Mahesan, T., 2022. Reflective practice. In Communication Skills for
Surgeons (pp. 133-140). Springer, Cham.
Coombe, C., 2020. Developing a personal and professional strategic plan. In Professionalizing
Your English Language Teaching (pp. 115-127). Springer, Cham.
Dali, K., Bell, N. and Valdes, Z., 2021. Learning and change through diversity, equity, and
inclusion professional development: Academic librarians' perspectives. The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 47(6), p.102448.
Farahian, M. and Parhamnia, F., 2021. Knowledge sharing through WhatsApp: does it promote
EFL teachers' reflective practice?. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education.
Fathelrahman, A., 2019. Using reflection to improve distance learning course delivery: a case
study of teaching a management information systems course. Open Learning: The Journal of
Open, Distance and e-Learning, 34(2), pp.176-186.
Gratton, P. and Gratton, G., 2020. Reflection. In Achieving Success with the Engineering
Dissertation (pp. 177-184). Springer, Cham.
Lahiri, M., Lucarotti, R. and Gortney, J.S., 2021. Engaging faculty advisors to promote students’
personal and professional development. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 13(10),
pp.1346-1350.
Makovec, D., 2018. The teacher’s role and professional development. International Journal of
Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education, 6(2), p.33.
Paulson, E. and Laverty, C., 2018. Leveraging learning outcomes to build an online information
literacy tool. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 12(1-2), pp.35-48.
Pugh, M. and Broome, N., 2020. Dialogical coaching: An experiential approach to personal and
professional development. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 72(3), p.223.
Quirke, P., 2020. Creating Your Own Professional Development and Lifelong Learning Plan.
In Professionalizing Your English Language Teaching (pp. 263-279). Springer, Cham.
Saleem, Q.U.A. and Ashiq, M., 2020. The facts of continuing professional development for LIS
professionals in Pakistan: a literature review. The Bottom Line.
6

Salter, M. and Rhodes, P., 2018. On becoming a therapist: A narrative inquiry of personal–
professional development and the training of clinical psychologists. Australian
Psychologist, 53(6), pp.486-492.
Seif, B., 2019. Metaphysical mentors: An existential journey of personal and professional
development. The Humanistic Psychologist, 47(3), p.262.
Shavit, P. and Moshe, A., 2019. The contribution of reflective thinking to the professional
development of pre-service teachers. Reflective Practice, 20(4), pp.548-561.
7