MN3040QA Reflective Commentary: Strengths, Challenges, Growth

This reflective commentary delves into the student's journey of gaining knowledge and assessing their performance during their orientation for success in higher education. It highlights two key strengths: time management and teamwork skills, elaborating on how these skills were developed and the positive impact they had on academic performance and collaborative projects. The commentary also addresses two significant challenges: note-taking and creative thinking skills, acknowledging the difficulties faced and outlining actionable plans for improvement. The student uses Gibbs' Reflective Cycle to analyze each strength and challenge, incorporating feedback received during the foundation year. The reflection emphasizes the importance of continuous self-assessment and proactive strategies for personal and academic growth, aiming to enhance both existing strengths and overcome identified weaknesses to ensure future success in higher education and beyond. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

MN3040QA
Orientation for Success in Higher
Education
Project 3: Reflective Commentary
Student name
Student ID no.
Lecturer
Word count 1000-1500 words
Essay question:
Write a reflective commentary on your overall gained
knowledge and performance including two strengths and
two challenges.
 use Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle to explore each topic
 incorporate feedback received during your foundation year
 refer to sources and citations for advice using the reading list.
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Contents page
Introduction .…………………………………………………… 2
Strengths in Knowledge and Performance ………………… 2
Strength 1: Time management skill ………….………...
…………………..…… 2
Strength 2: Teamwork ………….………...…………………..…… 2
Challenges in Knowledge and Performance ………………… 2
Challenge 1: Note taking skill ………….………...…………………..….
2
Challenge 2: Creative thinking skill ………….………...
…………………..…. 2
Conclusion …….………………………………………………… 2
Reference List …………………………………………………… 2
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Introduction
Orientation is refers to a collection of the programs, experience, events and services
designed with the purpose to support the new students as they acclimate to the higher
education (Ince, 2022). It is a great opportunity for students to attend the college orientation
as it help them to know the other students and they also learn about their new home together
(Baikady and et. al.,Colleary,2022). Main purpose of the orientation in college is to make a
successful beginning of college session which assures to new students that they made a good
decision in their college choice, This report will be based on the developed skill ( time
management skill, note taking skill, team work, creative thinking and many more.) that
students gain during this time period. This report will also discuses about challenges faced by
the students with the help of Gibbs's reflective cycle.
Strengths in Knowledge and Performance
Strength 1: Time management skill
During the orientation year, I have developed my time management skill that help me to
enable to complete any task in hand by being organized. For every individual, time
management is a significant skill to have a better outcome and accomplishment that they can
have (Helman and Gibbs, 2022). I have done the working schedule to make sure that there is
higher performance which can be developed. This skill has also develop a confidence in me.
To develop my this strength more I have set short time period goals and fix a deadline to
meet them. It help me a lot in measuring my performance. Along with this I have also ask my
teacher to give their feedback on my time management skill, I have completed my all the
assignment and other project timely. Thus I have identified that I have an effective time
management skill.
 Description– In this individuals has an opportunity in which they can describe a
situation in details. It is significant to remain objectives- feelings, emotions, thoughts
and inferences can be explained later. During orientation I have identified my time
that I am good in managing time effectively. As it is most significant skill for my
career, therefore I have decided to improve more this skills so that I can become more
punctual and complete my work timely.
 Feelings- At this phase I have felt that I still had a lot of practices to make my time
management skill more better. For this, I had made a time schedule so that every task
can be done timely.
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 Evaluation- when working on the time management skill that it had been identified
by that every thing is going well as the time schedule help me a lot in doing my task
or other activities on time.
 Analysis- During this phase, individual understand that what happened using context
and theory. This step should comprise bulk of individuals reflection and should
consider any insights gleaned from the previous step. At this phase, I had analyzed
that the time making skill enabling me to perform good in my academic and it is also
preparing me to perform excellent in my future workplace.
 Conclusion- here, I had learned that to work timely, I must make a time schedule as it
help me to complete every activity on time and save my time in which I can finish
other acclivities. Action plan- in future, when I decide to divide the work according to the schedule
then I will try to plan out that what I expect from it beforehand. Along with this, I will
finish the significant task at first.
Strength 2: Teamwork skills
It is my another skill develop during foundation year. As in this time period I have learned
the how to work with others for an effective outcome. When working in team project, how I
have learned that every members have a different solution for every problems due to which, it
become easy to resolve any issue. It save the time as well as efforts of individual
(Richardson, 2022). I have also taken feedback from my other team members and find out
that I am very efficient in working with the others. As per my teacher's feedback I have
performed well during the project and contribution a lot in the success of the tasks.
 Description- At working in a group of team encourage the personal growth, reduce
stress and also increase the job satisfaction (Mekala and Geetha, eds., 2022).
Therefore, at this phase, it has been determined by me that I enjoy to work in a team
as it support to to learn new things form others. For this at this phase I had made a
decision to bring more improvement in my this skills and join other to become
habitual for working in a team.
 Feeling- At this stage I was excited to be a part of the group activities & eager about
my work hard. I had high expectation for my this teamwork experience. But at same
time, I was feeling some anxiety due to nervousness of working for a big task.
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 Evaluation- When developing teamwork ability, it has been evaluated that it is a
positive point that I was doing good efforts to develop this skills that will give me a
better outcome.
 Analysis- At this stage, it had been identified that now teamwork has become my
major strengths as now I can easily participate in any group task without any stress.
Apart form this, it also help me to gain knowledge form other members.
 Conclusion- I have learned that by working in a team then it develop diversity and
also help to any issue easily. Along with this, it also increase free thinking and build a
torus and respective among all individuals that gave a confidence to me.
 Action plan- When a will work in a group in future, then I will discuss to them about
what they should done or not. Along with this I will ensure to divide the role and
responsibility clearly in order to remove any kind of confusion.
Challenges in Knowledge and Performance
Challenge 1: Note taking
As note taking skill keep the students awake (Sorurbakhsh, 2022). But for me it is so
hard not only because my handwriting is slower than my live speech, but because of my
mental process which allow the students to take the effective notes are so demanding. Beside
it, my learning disability & attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, become another hurdle
for me in my note taking skill.
 Description- In orientation, I had realized that I had few difficulties with my note
taking skill. Reason behind this is that I am habitual to write without listening other.
and also not write down everything. Hence I have decided to overcome this issue in
order to make my note taking skill more better.
 Feeling- When I had moved towards this goal, and was also feeling nervous whether
I could improve this skill or not as it is a major challenges to improve my note taking
skill.
 Evaluation- It has been evaluated by me that when attempting to improve the note
taking skill, then I could not identifying that where exactly I need to improve my note
taking skill as there are various kind of the note taking skills that create a confusion.
 Analysis- At this phase, I have analyzed that I need to give more time to my note skill
. For this I have decide to work more on the this areas so that I can improve my note
taking skills successfully.
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 Conclusion- In this, it can be concluded that the practices of improvement in note
taking skill gave me a confidence as now I efficiently avoid the common note taking
mistake that create challenge for me. Action plan- At this phase I have decided that in future I will note down everything
that I thing it is important for me and my examinations. Beside it, I will be prepared to
take notes and will listen & focus on the essence. I will structure my note properly
and always try to review them.
Challenge 2: Creative thinking skill
During the foundation year, I have analyzed that my creativity skill is very weak as I
am not capable to think differently. It may impact my career in future as this skill become
very significant within every workplace. To improve my this skill, I have started to observe
others and work with them so that I can bring same improvement in this. When I take
feedback from my seniors then they have suggest me to to work more eon this skill.
 Description- When doing any task, then many time I have realized that I am lacking
in the creative skill in which I need to bring more improvement. It is because I being
afraid of failure that create a hurdle for me. So I have decide to work on this skill and
increase my creating thinking to perform efficiently.
 Feeling- At this phase, I was getting very confuse that how to improve this skill it is
very complicated skill but at the same time this skill required at every phase of life to
overcome an issue. This during this time,i was feeling very stressed.
 Evaluation- It means determination of all the negative and positive aspects of an
event- regardless of whether they consider the programs to be done or the other
(Schell, 2022). At this stage I have evaluated that process of improving my creativity
skill is going well as I had noticed some change in my thinking way.
 Analysis- I think the reason that my decision to improving creativity thinking skill
went well as during this time I was enjoying to work on this skill. It helped me in
improving my mentality as well.
 Conclusion- Here, it has concluded that due to working on creativity skill, now I am
become a little bit efficient to think creatively and work with new qualities or
abilities.
 Action Plan- At last, I have realized that if it is required to work on any project in
future, then I am so efficient that I can use my creativity skill to complete the task in a
creative way.
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Conclusion
From the above report it is concluded that skill that must be present in every
individual are present in me by I need to brush up these skills more. During the foundation
year, I have identified that time management and teamwork are my strength as I am
capable to work timely and enjoy to work in a group, but still I need to bring more
improvement to become good enough. Apart form this, I have also identified that I am
lacking in note making skill and creative thinking skill because I am not perfect in making
effective notes that can help me in my examination time.. Due to which it impact the
outcome. Along with this, when it comes about the creative thinking skill then I have
founded that I am not so efficient to think in a unique way. Therefore to improve these skill I
have decided to take some action so that I can improve these skill effectively. Therefore, by
taking feedback from my seniors or other individual in a formal or informal way, I have took
various initiatives so that I can develop these skills more. For this, I have practices a lot for
instance, joined others, set goals and many more, therefore it is suggested to every individual
that they should improve essential skill in them so that they can perform better in their career
in effective and efficient manner.
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Reference list
Baikady, R. and et. al., 2022. The Routledge Handbook of Field Work Education in Social
Work. Taylor & Francis.
Colleary, K., 2022. Ensuring a Better Future: Why Social Studies Matters. Gibbs Smith.
Helman, Z. and Gibbs, S., 2022. The Trouble with English and How to Address It: A
Practical Guide to Designing and Delivering a Concept-Led Curriculum. Routledge.
Ince, F., 2022. Creative Leadership: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Creativity. In Achieving
Sustainability Using Creativity, Innovation, and Education: A Multidisciplinary
Approach (pp. 30-49). IGI Global.
Mekala, S. and Geetha, R. eds., 2022. Contemporary ELT Strategies in Engineering
Pedagogy: Theory and Practice. Taylor & Francis.
Richardson, M., 2022. What are the possible barriers and benefits to the use of dental
therapists within the UK Military Dental Service?. BDJ Team, 9(4), pp.30-35.
Roberts, J., 2022. Professional Skills for Psychology. SAGE.
Ruben, B.D., 2022. Implementing sustainable change in higher education: Principles and
practices of collaborative leadership. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Schell, E., 2022. Social Studies Matters: Teaching and Learning with Authenticity. Gibbs
Sorurbakhsh, L., 2022. TRANSLATING SOCIAL SCIENCE SKILL SETS FOR CAREERS
BEYOND ACADEMIA. Practicing Anthropology, 44(3), pp.48-52.
Walters, C. and et. al., 2022. An Exploratory Study of Special Education Director
Experiences With Issues Related to Age of Majority, Guardianship, and Alternative
Options for Adult Dec
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