Preparing for Success: Self Development and Responsibility

This report explores key learning points from a module on self-development and responsibility. It covers three main tasks: 1) analyzing the performance of an individual in a group presentation, 2) outlining academic and professional development goals with an action plan, and 3) examining the global context of higher education and employment. The report highlights the importance of effective communication skills, time management, and confidence building for successful presentations. It also discusses the role of education in addressing global challenges and fostering economic growth.

FY027
Preparing for Success: Self Development and Responsibility

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
Task 1...........................................................................................................................4
Task 2...........................................................................................................................6
Task 3...........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion....................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The following report is discussed in “Self Development and Responsibility”. The
report is going to address three main tasks. The first task describes the performance
of an individual in the group presentation discussing key learning. Task second
describes the individual’s academic and professional development and creates
action plan to improve in self development. Task three describes the awareness of
the global context of higher education and employment.

Task 1
With the help of this module, it is learnt that communication skills are very necessary
for conducting the group presentation. It is the ability which helps to share their
opinion and perspective with others and understand theirs. It is the ability to
conveniently share knowledge and information with each other. Communication can
be conducted by speaking, action, behaviour, writing and sounds.
The key points which are learned in this module and are very necessary for
conducting the group presentation are listed below:
 While conducting a group presentation, it is very necessary to arrange the
groups.
 The second most important thing which needs to keep in mind is the
management of time, taking too much time will absurd other members and
speaking very less will not conveniently describe the subject.
 Preparation of the presentation is also very necessary speakers notes should be
added properly and proper practise should be (Fan, et.al, 2015) given before
presentation.
 Extra information which is not conveyed in the presentation should be added in
the speaker’s note.
 During group presentation, it is very necessary to keep the spirit of the teamwork.
Teamwork helps to give
 These all actions were the key steps which are necessary before the presentation
but while giving the presentation the points which should be kept in mind is to
maintain eye – contact with every member present. Focusing on individual will
give the sign of targeting particular individual.
 Deliver your point with confidence in front of the group so that people support
your opinion rather than objective. Speaking in dull and low voice will not make
clear your points to the audience and the person listening to it.
 The language which is used for sharing the information must be such that it is
understandable by everyone, using unfamiliar words and phrases will make
members lose interest.
 Pronunciation should be clear and loud. Speaking very fast will not make others
understand what you are speaking.
 Don’t provide with fake data and (Jackson, 2015) statistics, try to keep originality
in thoughts and points.
 While asking questions to others or giving answers to question, structure of
argument should be arranged properly that it does not seem your rude behaviour
and display.
 During presentation try to keep your posture and gesture align. Your body
language plays a very effective role in influencing the other. Shabby and sick
behaviour will make others to lose interest which might not influence others.

The effective communication skills which are necessary for both academic, as well
as professional style, are discussed below in the points:
 Communication is the way which helps to present ourselves in front of others. It is
not the set of words which comes out, it is more than that which include the way
you speak, intention of saying the things, the timings at which you say thing and
the body language including posture, gestures and expressions and actions.
 There are various points which hinder good communication like making
comments in between while someone is speaking and judging the person in front.
Not giving proper attention to what they speaking and using alternative things
which keeps you distracted. Deliberately (Fan, et.al, 2015) using the technical
word which is not understood by the person making them uncomfortable. Bad
communications also lead to unnecessary talking and giving advice even not
necessary. Not respecting the opinion of the individual speaking and keep
interrupting is also bad habit of communication.
 To cultivate the skills of good communication it is very necessary to actively listen
to the person speaking. Active listening means that paying full attention which not
only gives confidence but also makes you clear about the points they were
discussing and build respect & trust relationship between two.
 It is very necessary to practise empathy which means that respecting each other
feeling, opinions and thoughts.
 Good communication also comes with a stable tone and confidence in what you
speak.
 To improve it is very necessary to receive feedback from other people and open
to them so that they share your mistakes comfortably with you.
 Responsiveness is other characteristics which are necessary for good
communication which means replying the person in appropriate manner and time.
The new form of information which is provided (Evans, et.al, 2017) in this module is
to structure the arguments properly and manage the time of presentation adequately
not too long, not too small. It is also learned that it is very necessary to introduce to
other members and greet them to maintain a friendly environment.
The interesting part of the module is that it teaches about the basic information in a
much more broader sense which will be helpful in both academic and professional
lifestyle.
The information and teaching which is provided in this module will further help in
improving my skills during the presentations. The module taught me to have
confidence during the whole presentation which was lacking part in me and hence
help in improving so that future presentation can be personated with much more
confidence and eye – contact.

Task 2
The academic and professional improvements which need to be developed within
myself to develop the future capabilities for the presentation are described below.
 To be outstanding while giving the presentation it is very necessary to have a
good set of communication skills and hence
 Sometimes the topics and opinions are not clear to me, to solve such problems I
will use the method to keep notes of them to rewind at the time when I ask
question.
 In a professional career and development, it is very necessary to address every
member respectfully and greet them.
 Management of time while giving the presentation is lacking and hence it needs
to be improved so that I get sufficient time to discuss my opinions without being
cut down in between.
 There is a need to work on the postures and gestures during the presentation as I
keep on saying the thing with single expression which makes other people sleep.
 I need to create modulation and variation (Adler, et.al, 2016) in my pitch.
Maintaining constant pitch throughout the presentation will make other people
face boredom. A slight increase in pitch when crucial point is discussed will make
audience to pay attention towards it. The slight decrease in pitch will give add
extra force on the sentence to discuss the depth of the opinion.
 My presentation lacks in making eye – contact with every member. I got stuck at
one point and keep staring at one point which is not good practise and hence it
needs extra care to make eye – contact with everyone present in the room.
 Pronunciation of words and structuring of the arguments need more attention as
it is lacking while giving the presentation.
 While discussing the point in professional life, it is very necessary to remain stick
to vital points and keep ignoring unnecessary things. Hence it is very necessary
to keep the points and the arguments succinct. Professional lifestyle does not
have long and much time and hence it becomes necessary to discuss the thing in
such a way that it is short as well as understandable by others too.
 Usage of fillers after every sentence strictly (Dainton and Zelley, 2017) needs to
be avoided as these words give the message that speaker does not have proper
knowledge and in-depth detail about the topic and subject.
 I have this habit of moving my hands too much while discussing things which
need to be avoided as it is strictly prohibited in the professional lifestyle and
create inconvenience to the people listening to it.
 I used to get nervous when a large number of people gather to listen and hence
there is need to build self-confidence within myself to address any number of
people.

Task 3
The action plan required to improve the above-mentioned weakness are discussed
in the table below
Table 1: Action Plan
Activity Action Plan
Analysis of your skills Write about your strength and weakness
in a paper with respect to communication
skills
Eye – contact To make eye – contact with everyone, I
will ask my 2 -3 friends to sit in front of
me and practise in front of them and will
try to maintain eye – contact with each
one.
Listening capability To increase the listening capability start
listening to the online audiotapes and
make summary of the points discussed
after the completion of audio.
Gesture and posture management To improve the gesture and posture
stand in front of the mirror and discuss
the point with oneself which will help in
monitoring the body language.
Speaking capabilities To increase the speaking skills select any
topic and start preparing a presentation
and speak in front of the mirror which will
also build confidence.
Pronunciation To increase the pronunciation, collect the
words which face difficulty and listen to
the online pronunciation and repeat the
word again and again with the online
support.
Time Management I will prepare my own presentation and
set the timer and will (Fook, 2016)
prepare presentation according to its
which will help in managing the time.
Confidence Confidences are built when one has in-
depth detail regarding the topic and
hence I will increase my reading capacity
and will read about many useful factual
things and current topics.
Nervousness To overcome the problem of
nervousness, I will ask my friend to ask
different questions regarding the topic
and receive feedback which will help me

in answering the questions and
To avoid fillers To avoid fillers I will record my own
presentation and will listen to it, which will
help me in avoiding the fillers.
The following below discussion talks about the awareness of the global context of
higher education and employment. With the advancement in technology and the
Internet, employment in the world is decreasing. Replacing humans with robots and
machine learning as created unemployment due to their efficiency in completing the
task in much less time and with accuracy. Education plays very key role in changing
the world and solving the social incapability’s. The term globalisation means that in
context to the whole world and hence it is considered that higher education is not
given much value and consideration globally. This emerging and cutting edge world,
there is call for higher education responsiveness which is today’s need. Education is
the medium which teaches about the changes which are happening in the world.
Higher education is only responsible for (Jackson, 2015) impacting present as well
as future situation. If education is provided properly, then there will be no
unemployment. Education teaches about the ethics and morals and teaches oneself
to take the right actions and perform good deeds avoiding and stopping the wrong
deed. It also plays crucial role in increasing the economic growth of any country. It
gives confidence to build the solution to many social problems like drought, poverty,
unemployment, health issues and many more. The world keeps on changing and it
requires human capabilities to deal with those changes. And those human
capabilities come from education. Education teaches about the past and present and
helps to develop the future skills required to solve the particular work.

Conclusion
From the above report, I have learned about the various ways to improve the group
presentation. It helps to create an effective way for communication skills and helped
in improving the skills necessary to present in the future presentation. The report
also has helped to analysis the weakness in oneself and suggested a way to
improve it.

References
Fan, S.P., Liberman, Z., Keysar, B. and Kinzler, K.D., 2015. The exposure
advantage: Early exposure to a multilingual environment promotes effective
communication. Psychological Science, 26(7), pp.1090-1097.
Evans, D.R., Evans, D.R., Hearn, M.T., Uhlemann, M.R. and Ivey, A.E.,
2017. Essential interviewing: A programmed approach to effective communication.
Nelson Education.
Adler, R.B., Rodman, G.R. and Du Pré, A., 2016. Understanding human
communication (Vol. 10). Oxford University Press.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning:
Barriers and best practice. Studies in Higher Education, 40(2), pp.350-367.
Fook, J., 2016. Critical reflection and organizational learning and change: A case
study. In Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization (pp. 67-84).
Routledge.
Dainton, M. and Zelley, E.D., 2017. Applying communication theory for professional
life: A practical introduction. Sage publications.