Reflective Learning: Learning from Service, Critical Thinking, and Cultural Diversity

This report explores the learning derived from the research on the topic of financial planning. It covers personal experiences and learning derived while conducting the research, including problem-solving skills, presentation skills, learning about learning, critical thinking, and cultural diversity.

Running head: REFLECTIVE LEARNING
Reflective Learning
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
Introduction:
Reflection is a great way of learning because it helps students and professionals to learn
by reflecting on their own experiences. Experts involved in acquiring knowledge and
implementing them get the opportunity to contemplate on their own performances. Reflection
enables the students, especially the ones pursuing professional courses, involved in group
activities to ponder on their own performances as well as performances of their team. They are
able to point out their strengths and weaknesses which they as their groups showcased during the
learning activity. The projects often require students conduct thorough research to gather body of
data sufficient to present the projects assigned. These researches provide the students with
knowledge beyond the scope of their courses and enrich their learning. The report would explore
the learning derived from the research I conducted on the topic’ financial planning’. It would
explore my personal experiences and learning I derived while conducting the research.
Learning from the service:
Problem solving skills:
I learnt several things about myself while undertaking the project titled ‘Economic &
Finance Engagement Project’. The learning session I attended was a group activity in which I
participated with a group. I learnt to put forward my opinion supported by logical arguments and
how to handle contradictions. I can reflect that I learnt to handle challenging situations when the
audience question the validity of the information that is being served to them. For example, our
opinion describing NDIS as a function of demand was refuted which required my group
members and me to provide substantial evidence to support our claim. Failure to support our
claim would have put the accuracy entire report at stake. I can reflect on the entire incidence and

2
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
point out that I learnt to remain motivated during handling contradictions and interrogations from
the audience.
The second learning of mine from the experience was to view challenges as opportunities
to improve performances. I can point this out from the fact is applicable not only for me but my
team members as well. I can reflect that after facing contradictions the entire team including me
worked upon the report all over again. We indulged in critical thinking, group activities and
corrected areas which were wrong. I can point out that I overcame my initial reluctance and
started solving the problem. The third third I learnt form the experience was that, problems have
to deal with strategically and not shied away from. I analysed that challenges help us in
recognising our weaknesses and rectify them. I can point out that the interrogations regarding the
validity of the information regarding NDIS showed that there was serious lack of knowledge. I
rectified that mistake made in the report by reviewing the basics of theories in economics.
Presentation skills:
I can reflect on presentation of report in which my team and I participated pointing out
that I learnt several important lessons. I learnt that coherence is an important criterion required to
be maintained while preparing presentations. I learnt that clear and substantial data renders
strength to presentations, thus making them more authentic.
I can reflect on the second learning which I learnt while participating in the presentation
was that logical flow is an important part of a quality presentation. I can also point out that I
made error while preparing the presentation and made it lengthy. I learnt from this mistake that
maintaining proper timing and length, as far as content is concerned are two very important
aspects of rendering superior quality to presentations.

3
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
I can point out that I learnt to present arguments while giving presentations in a rational
way. I learnt that logical reasoning can prevent the presentations from being filled with
unnecessary facts. This enables the presenter to maintain another attribute of presentations,
brevity.
Learning about learning:
Working under pressure:
I learnt several things about my ability to approach a particular body of knowledge
during the course of my learning. I learnt how to handle pressure as well as keeping stress and
anxiety under control. The situation under which I derived this important learning was when it
was learnt that one of the members would not be able to participate in the final presentation. I
can recall that earlier my team members and I were not able to perform will. I can reflect that our
poor past performance necessitated us to put an excellent presentation. I can further point from
my experiences that importance of participation of team members is very critical to achieve
success in presentations. I can also point out that it is very important to maintain smooth
communication among team members.
I can further point out that I learnt from the learning project that I have certain
weaknesses which I required to overcome in order to be successful professionally. I can reflect
upon my behaviour and point out to my first weakness which is becoming overwhelmed with
exhaustion when acting under stress. The second weakness of mine under similar situations is
pessimistic attitude which automatically ate into my motivation. I can also point out that I have
also found out ways to deal with these mental challenges. When I lack confidence, I try to look
forward towards the objective I want to achieve which helps me to regain motivation. Similarly,
I learnt that instead of being overwhelmed by fear it is important to proceed with the different

4
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
sections of the report. This usually results in gradual completion of the task along with
simultaneous managing of challenges like interrogations from the side of the audiences.
Group dynamics:
I can reflect that I learnt about the essence of team work in achievement of success in
projects. I can recall that our team acted in a very well-coordinated way and that made adjusting
to changes easier. I can also point out in that in the initial phase there was lack of coordination
among the team members. I also realised that team work facilitates distribution of the functions
among the members based on their talents. I can reflect that one of my team members undertook
the responsibility of the proof reading the task and rectified certain sections that he considered
amendable. A second team members completed the referencing part. I can point out that I
contributed towards adding the conclusion and the recommendation sections to the report. I can
point learnt that I am adaptable to situations while working as a part of a team. I reflect that
during participation in the team work I discovered that I am strong in technical aspects and I can
lead team members towards achievement of common objective.
Learning from critical thinking:
I can reflect that I critical evaluation is a complex process and I faced difficulty in
preparing the report in the initial phase. I learnt that it is very important to participate in group
work in a proactive manner. I can point out that my team members and I found difficulty in
presenting the project in a coherent manner in the initial phase. We made several mistakes in
preparing the report and ended up incorporating the irrelevant details. I also learnt that
participation of all the group members can lead to better decision making. Thus, I can finally
point out that I learnt that continuous proofreading and analysis of the completed portions of the

5
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
report enable rectifying the errors already committed in the paper. This ultimately elevates the
standard of the final reports and attracts more positive reception from the audiences.
Cultural diversity:
I can reflect and point out that cultural diversity plays a key role towards ensuring
success of the projects, especially projects which require team work. I learnt cultural diversity
has two main areas namely, gender and cultural backgrounds. I can point out that while
performing group activities leaders should ensure cultural diversity in their teams. Teams can
consist of both male and female members. The leaders should be very sensible while addressing
the female members and abstain from using any rude expression. I can also point out that teams
can consists of members from diverse cultural backgrounds like races, nationality, country of
origin and religious. For example, team members can be diverse national backgrounds like
Australia, China, Singapore and the United Kingdom (Appendix). The United Kingdom and
Australia are western cultures while Singapore and China are eastern cultures. These two classes
of cultures have different opinion on aspects like power distance, individualism, uncertainty
avoidance and long term orientation. The team leaders need to exhibit due respect to the cultural
dimensions of respective team members. I can reflect on this ground that as a leader I have good
knowledge of cultural diversities. I have knowledge about different cultures like Chinese and
British cultures. I ensure that I speak with my team members respectfully. This helps me to gain
cooperation of all the team members which in turn makes decision making regarding the research
project more accurate. I can also point out that as far as diversity management is concerned,
management of diversity between old and new members is also very important. I can point out
that a new member joined our team a week after the initiation of the research project. We had
done some amount of research and the task has been already been distributed. The new member

6
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
in the initial phase faced some difficulties and did not show much interest in the group activities.
I as the team leader motivated the new member to participate in the team meetings and contribute
towards decision making. He felt motivated and started taking part in the team members. I also
encouraged the other members to communicate with the new member on regular base. I can
reflect from this experience of mine that I am good at management of members from diverse
backgrounds.
Conclusion:
I can finally conclude by mentioning that I learnt several aspects about myself while
participating in the research project and analysing my performance. I realised that research
projects often call for detailed research which can be very exhausting. I also learnt is there can be
situations in which the audience may not agree with the matter of the presentation being served
to them and may challenge the accuracy of the facts. I learnt that during such situations it is often
natural to lose motivation and confidence. I also learnt that leaders in order to deal with such
situations should proof read the entire solution and find out areas which may have some errors.
They must make the changes and ensure coherence in the flow of the report. Finally I can point
out that today leaders require to exhibit degree of cultural management skills while leading their
respective teams.

7
REFLECTIVE LEARNING
Appendix: