Academic and Professional Development: Reflective Report - NBS Masters

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's experience in the Academic and Professional Development module of the NBS Masters Programme. The report begins with an introduction defining academic and professional development, emphasizing their importance for personal and career growth. The main body of the report details the student's learning journey, highlighting key experiences such as group projects, research tasks, and communication challenges. The student reflects on the development of research skills, the improvement of communication abilities, and the enhancement of team-working skills. The report also discusses the application of various concepts learned during the module, including sampling methods and research approaches. The conclusion summarizes the key takeaways, emphasizing the importance of self-reflection for identifying strengths and weaknesses. The student also identifies areas for improvement, such as communication skills, and outlines steps to enhance these skills. The report is supported by references to relevant academic sources.

Academic and Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Academic development is defined as the professional or educational development of an
individual that includes that includes planned activities to improve all the dimensions of learning.
Professional development is characterised as a continuous education and training of a person in
regards to his/ her career (Cottrell, (2017). Academic as well as professional development, both
are important for an individual in order to grow and succeed in his/ her life. This is a reflective
report in which reflection is provided on my own experience in NBS Masters Programme
module. In this reflection, the learning that I gained from the module and how it contributes in
my academic, personal and professional development is discussed in the report.
MAIN BODY
Reflective statement is defined as the academic style in which a writer emphasize on past
events and their learning from it. The reflective statement requires an individual to discuss the
procedure of developing the related assessment task. Reflecting on own experiences and learning
encourage complex learning and insight. It is a systematic reviewing process that allow the
individuals to aware of their own actions and professional knowledge. Reflection on learning
helps an individual in exploring own feeling, experiences and events (Cushion, (2018). By
reflecting on own experience, individuals can gain insights on their learning, what they did well
or not well etc. I am a student of NBS Masters Programme and working on the academic and
professional development module. In this module, I learnt so many things. I was assigned with a
project by my tutor at the initiation of first semester which I needed to complete in group. While
working on the research project, so many new things I got to learnt in module. I was assigned
with particular topic, on which I needed to research and gather information on it. As my research
skills are good, I did it well. By researching on the topic, my knowledge got improved not only
on the topic, but on other areas also. Initially, I haven't any knowledge about research, how to
conduct it etc. But then, my tutor and group members guide me and provide me information
about how to perform a research in systematic manner.
At the time when I did work on the programme, there was a situation in which I needed
to communicate or present the gathered information in front of other people. At that time, I felt
very nervous and loose my confidence level at a point. This was due to my ineffective
communication skills. In the starting of module, I was not able to interact with others in proper

way due to my a weak communication skills. But then, my tutor and class mates insist me to
present information. When I started, I was not able to clearly communicate the information and
other people faced difficulties in understanding what I want to say. But still, they listen to me
patiently which somewhat increase my confidence level. While working on literature review
part, I got to know that in this part, the views and opinions of different authors needs to be
compared. By researching on the topic, I get knowledge on impact of East African import and
export on trade of United Kingdom after Brexit. By working on this part, I got knowledge about
how to collect authentic and reliable information on topic. Initially, I did not know that the
information gathered in research should be authentic (Wald, (2015). But, while working on this
module, I learnt about which source is authenticate and can be utilize and which can not.
Apart from this, my team working skills was also not so good which restricts me to work
collectively with others. But after some time, when I was continue to work on project, my team
working skill gets improved slowly and now I am able to work collectively with others in team
or group in an effective and efficient way. Moreover, besides all the learnings, I used various
concepts in my course of study during the module. I haven't any knowledge about the concept
before, but from working on this module, I learnt about various concepts. One of the concept
includes sampling method. I got to know about various types of sampling methods which can be
utilise in research to select sample size for getting responses from the respondents over the topic
(Winchester and Browning, (2015). I was learnt about two types of sampling methods including
probability and non probability sampling. By studying and analysing all the methods, I enable to
determined that simple random sampling is the most appropriate way to select sample size from
the overall population. Apart from this concept, an another concept about which I get knowledge
includes research approach. I got learning about two types of research approach, i.e., inductive
and deductive. So, from the overall experience that I gained from this module, it can be said that
my entire experience of working on the project is good. There are many things which go well
like I enabled to successfully completed the project with the helps of my tutor and other team
members. My skills gets enhanced from the group working (Wiley, (2014). But, there are some
areas on which I need to work upon. This includes communication skills. By working on module,
my communication skills gets improved, but still I think that I need to improve it more in order
to get success in my personal and professional career as well. For improving this skill, I will take
communication classes and attend seminars so that my communication skills gets improved.

CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that reflective statement is a
complimentary task or activity which will accompany other types of assessments. It provides an
opportunity to the individual to discuss on what according to him/her did well or not well. By
conducting the reflection, an individual can determine their strong and weak areas which helped
in taking measures to improve the weak areas in an effective and efficient way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Cushion, C. J. (2018). Reflection and reflective practice discourses in coaching: A critical
analysis. Sport, education and society. 23(1). 82-94.
Wald, H. S. (2015). Professional identity (trans) formation in medical education: reflection,
relationship, resilience. Academic Medicine. 90(6). 701-706.
Wiley, C. (2014). Academic leadership in learning and teaching in higher education: A personal
reflection on one programme director’s professional development. Learning at City
Journal. 4(2). 39-49.
Winchester, H. P., & Browning, L. (2015). Gender equality in academia: a critical
reflection. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. 37(3). 269-281.