University Personal Development Planning Module Reflective Report

This reflective report details a student's experience in a personal development planning course, focusing on the development of academic skills, particularly referencing. The report explores the different types of referencing (book, journal, newspaper, trade magazine, online) and the importance of correct citation. The student utilized the Gibbs Reflective Model to analyze their learning process, including descriptions of experiences, feelings, evaluations, and analyses. The report highlights the student's positive experiences with learning referencing and presentation skills, along with challenges faced and lessons learned. The student concludes with an action plan for future courses, emphasizing the importance of consistent referencing and seeking assistance when needed. The report underscores the value of academic skills, critical thinking, and time management within the context of personal and professional development. The student expresses the importance of using Harvard referencing style.

Reflective report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Reflective report...........................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Academic skill is termed to core skill that encourages students for becoming more
effective learners (Cisco, 2020). With academic skills, students develop confidence for
participating in various courses. Effective skills enhances confidence, self esteem as well as
competence. Moreover, they improves potentials for improving ability for learning together with
retaining knowledge. Present reflective report is based on reflection on academic journey by
considering on academic skills that are developed by me in the course that is Personal
Development Planning. It includes building blocks as well as exemplars related to types of
referencing in the field of study. For this Gibbs Model is taken into usage for reflecting about
reference, how to reference and the ways to reference academic sources. It further includes
reflecting on presentation along with referencing development.
MAIN BODY
Reflective report
Personal development planning is the course in which I participated as course of study.
Personal development planning course have assisted me to reflect on my goals, career and
academic objectives together with developing plans for the purpose of supporting my
achievements addition to development. In this, I have learned about concept of references and
ways to reference academic sources. In the field of study, there are five types of referencing
which are as follows:
Book: It is written or printed work that includes pages which are glued or sewn together
with one side and bound in covers. To reference source, books are great type of referencing as
these includes information related to author name and title of the book. There are various books
which are used for the purpose of referencing a source. Students used them as these are
specifically designed to be used by students. Basic format for referencing a book includes author,
year, title, edition, publisher and place of publication. In this type of referencing, students have
earned that edition number for first edition of a book is not added as reference in citation.
Journal: It is said to a newspaper and magazine which deals with specific professional
activity or subject. It is learned that while referencing a source through Journal, name of journal
is stated in italics with upper case letter. Moreover, volume name is also in italics. References to
journal is done with author name via surname and initials, publication year, title name in italics,
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volume number as well as page number. A journal is retrieved from a library database which is
referenced as print journal. Using correct punctuation is also an essential element of the
referencing style.
Newspaper: It is delineated to periodic publication which comprises written information
related to events and is types in black ink with white background. Referencing of newspaper is
somewhat similar with citing journal. One of important thing to focus while referencing
newspaper is to include date of publication as there are multiple newspaper which are published
on daily basis. To reference a newspaper, structure of citation includes Author or byline,
publication year in round bracket, title of article, title of newspaper, day and month along with
page reference.
Trade magazine: It is termed to magazines or newspaper whose target audience is the
population that works in specific industry or trade. It also comprises editorials, photo essays.
Letter to editor as well as advertisement which target professional people. In the assessment or
projects, trade magazine are referenced or cited through Author middle initial. Date, month and
year or publication, title of article, name of journal, volume and number of page. In projects,
importance of using the reference style assist in adding information of new development. Its
function are related to the ways academic journal along with scientific journals serve to
audiences.
Online: It is described as a style of referencing in which information is taken from digital
techniques such as internet. Information from online reference are seen as authentic and acts as
source of representing true picture of what is included with the project or assignment. For
citation of online reference, link of website is essential. Online referencing includes name of
author, publication date or year, title of article, website name and link of URL. In case, when
there is no author then referencing starts by citing with title of article. Moreover, when page is
likely to change with time then retrieval date is added.
To reflect on my experience and learning in the course, Gibbs Reflective Model is
preferred by my. The model was devised by Graham Gibbs in the year 1988 with the aim of
providing structuring to learning achieved from experiences (Gravett and Kinchin, 2020). There
are six stages of the model that are defined below:
Description of experience: The course of Personal development planning have improved
my academic skills, especially referencing skill which permits to acknowledge contribution of
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various writers together with researchers in working. The term referencing is termed to a way to
provide proof or evidence for supporting assertions addition to claims in assignments. In the
course, I have learnt various styles of referencing that includes APA, Chicago, Harvard and
hence forth. Within the module, I have learned about presentation which is giving something
about a topic to others. In the presentation, key thing that is required to consider is font name and
font size as all slides are prepared with same font name and size. At same time, I have enhanced
my knowledge about referencing that is termed to providing a citation of sources to particular
information. Key types of referencing includes journal, online, book, magazine and trade
magazine. Referencing skill is cross cultural skill which is part of scope as well as sequencing
various academic areas. In this course, there were various students and professional teacher that
were involved in the course. In this, I have performed various assignments related to referencing
and learned to develop myself.
Feelings and thoughts related to the experience: In the course of personal development
planning, I was feeling happy as I have learned new academic skill that is referencing skill. Prior
attending the course, I was nervous as this was my first course related to personal development,
however, after completion of all classes of the course, I felt happy and encouraged for taking part
in variant courses that are associated to development of my personality. In this, other people
including tutor and student also felt satisfactory from the learning of referencing skill. While
learning about presentation and referencing, I was feeling extraordinary as these are key aspects
that helps a student to achieve good grades. Presenting something have developed my confidence
and communication skill. At same time, accurate referencing aids to achieving goof grades in
project or assessment that makes me satisfied to participate in the module. Moreover, I also
thought to apply my learning of referencing skill in real life that is in my assignments including
academic essay, report and paper.
Evaluation of experience: In the experience of Personal development planning course,
there are various aspects which went good and various which went well (Kumar and Singh,
2019). In my experience, learning referencing skill went well as I have learned about the concept
of referencing, ways to reference and the tactics to reference academic sources. At same time, I
have build good relations with my professor and other students that helped me to develop critical
thinking skills and communication skill. In contrary, there were situation when I got frustrated
and upset because of other people as they comment or ask unnecessary questions which were not
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relevant to the course. Moreover, the other thing that didn't went well was my assumption about
referencing on personal statements because of which I failed to achieve good graded in initial
durations of the assessments to reference. With changes in time or by taking more classes, I
learned new tactics and developed myself effectively to cite or reference academic sources in
proper manner. In the situation, I and other people have contributed through making notes and
collecting additional information from other sources together with exchanging all so to foster
great learning about referencing. In presentation, I have evaluated that things went good as I was
good learner and I have used my notes in proper format while preparing and transmitting my
views on a topic. My interest of learning something new was another reason for feeling good and
confident in presentation. Also, things went well in referencing as I have practised all types of
references huge time because og which I have achieved good marks in citation of references in
accurate information. Things didn't went well in referencing and presentation because of my
negligence in additional information that was provided by my professor or tutor.
Analysis: In this stage, people have chance for making sense of what has happened
(Sharp, 2018). According to me, I have gained effective knowledge about referencing because
my tutor of the course was professional in the field and was having unique and understandable
answers for confusions. I have never experienced the way to learn about any topic in such
manner as gaining knowledge about referencing was an outstanding experience. Further, I can
say that dividing the work and collecting information about referencing have saved out time.
However, it have resulted in costing huge to each student than what was expected and also
pressurised all for completing learning in as possible time about referencing. I have also searched
information or some literature to develop myself in order to reference all academic sources
properly. I felt that group work or class learning was the main reason of effective learning
academic skill as all students contribute widely in developing self and guiding others whenever
some issues are faced bot others. It is analysed that working of mine in presentation and
referencing have improved my knowledge to great extent. The key reason for working went well
was due to proper focus towards what is required to be completed at what time. It have saved my
huge time and efforts to complete the module. I believe that with strong time management skill I
could have handled the situation in best manner.
Conclusion: In the course of Personal development planning, I learned that when various
learners are influenced for learning new things that they ends at good working or learning. In my
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experience of the course, I can conclude that courses in education are best ways for fostering
learning about academic skill. I have learned about referencing skill and critical thinking skill
that will permit me to acknowledge contribution of other people such as researchers and writers
in academic work. I have also learned about gathering information from multiple sources and
properly referencing each work that shows adequacy and reliability. I have learned about all
kinds of referencing and ways to reference academic sources in working including assignment,
report and so on.
Action Plan: The stage includes planning about what an individual would do differently
or perform different activities in similar situation in coming couple of years (Corrall, 2017).
Next time, whenever I will participate in any course, I will talk to each involved student and will
take assist from them whenever required. In context to referencing, I will list out all references
and will follow the consistent format in future to reference my academic sources. Moreover, I
will improve my referencing skill in future through online classes and direct quotations. In future
or to ensure that I could act differently next time, I have to enhance my presentation and
referencing skill to higher level. For this, I will take part in another courses that will develop my
skills and will lead to best possible outcomes which will make me feel comfortable in the future.
In the whole experience of personal development planning, I have enhanced my learning
about referencing skill. Effective ways to reference a source is Harvard referencing style and this
is widely used in academic sources by students. To reference academic sources, key information
required is Authors name, Publication Year, Title of Article or Title of Journal. Volume and Page
number of Article.
CONCLUSION
From the reflective report, it have been concluded that courses related to study plays
essential role in life of a student as they guides them to develop themselves and gain insights
about some topic. In course of higher education, a learner develops various academic skills such
as referencing skill, critical thinking skill and many more. In this, referencing skill is also known
as learning skill that is a way for acknowledging different sources of information which are
utilised in assignments and reports. Referencing is a way that provide evidence about claims or
statements that are made in the report or assignment. Gibbs reflective model is an adequate
frameworks to examine experiences in cyclic nature. The reflective cycle also allow to learn
together with plan from various things that went good and bad.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Cisco, J., 2020. Using academic skill set interventions to reduce impostor phenomenon feelings
in postgraduate students. Journal of Further and Higher Education. 44(3). pp.423-437.
Corrall, S., 2017. Advancing the Reflective Conversation in Teaching and Learning.
Gravett, K. and Kinchin, I. M., 2020. Referencing and empowerment: exploring barriers to
agency in the higher education student experience. Teaching in Higher Education.
25(1). pp.84-97.
Kumar, A. and Singh, J. P., 2019. Location reference identification from tweets during
emergencies: A deep learning approach. International journal of disaster risk reduction.
33. pp.365-375.
Sharp, L. A., 2018. Reflective practice: Understanding ourselves and our work. Australian
Nursing and Midwifery Journal. 25(10). pp.48-48.
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