BA Business Studies: Reflective Journal on Personal Development

This report presents a reflective journal focusing on personal and professional development, specifically examining the experience of completing an individual presentation paper on leadership. The student utilizes Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze the experience, detailing the process of researching, preparing, and delivering the presentation. The journal reflects on the student's feelings, evaluations, and analysis of the experience, highlighting the identification of both strong and weak skills. Key strengths identified include research and time management skills, while areas for improvement encompass written communication, ICT, and problem-solving skills. The student concludes with an action plan to enhance these skills, outlining objectives, resources, and timelines for improvement. The report also includes a list of references to support the analysis and reflection.

Personal and Professional
Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Reflective Journal........................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Reflective journal is a document in which reflection of learning experience is recorded.
This reflective journal will involve my experience during completion of individual presentation
paper that was based on leadership. This reflective journal will also involve discussion and
experience related to achievement of different employability and study skills. Gibbs reflective
cycle model will be utilised for writing reflection. This model involves different stages that
involve description of the experience and further will also involve action plan for developing
different skills.
Main Body
Reflective Journal
Description
Study skills and employability skills both are highly important in success of respective
areas. There are certain skills that are important in both these areas. This reflection is based on
the completion of presentation paper (Markkanen and et.al., 2020). This was an individual
presentation paper and this is why I alone completed this, however sometimes I have asked my
peers and seniors regarding certain matters that I was not able to understand. In order to
complete the presentation I firstly determined leader for the presentation paper, as this was based
on leadership. Followed by this I made research on leader and their leadership style through
different sources. For the information regarding leader and leadership I used books and online
sources. Later I prepared a draft for the content that I will include in my presentation and finally
I created presentation paper. Completion of individual presentation paper was an important
activity that helped me in identifying important of these activities. This means that I realised that
there are few skills that I already possess but there are some important skills that I lack.
Completion of individual presentation paper informed me that I have good research skills. This
was identified when I was carrying out research about leadership and different leaders during
completion of individual presentation paper. This was also one of the important element in which
I did not experienced any kind of difficulty during completion of the individual presentation
paper (Sekarwinahyu and et.al., 2019). Other than this, time management skills are also good

however further improvement can be made with practice but I realised that I able to perform all
task of presentation paper on the basis of the schedule that I developed related to this.
Feelings
Concerned with this element, feelings during completion of the module were both
positive as well as negative. This is because I was having few skills required for the completion
of presentation paper but there were certain skills that I did not had. This contributed in stress
and negative feelings. This also made me realise that there is a significant scope in which I need
to develop. This is in terms of skills not only for employability but for study skills as well. In this
positive and negative both feelings contributed in my decision to work on improvement of my
skills. Earlier I did not considered anything regarding skills development and specifically for
those that I will need in relation with employability, but completion of this presentation paper
made me realise that for employability and success of employment it is important that I have
adequate skills. These are important while getting selected and later while performing job role.
Overall experience was good but sometimes I realised that I do not have enough skills this
mainly happened during my conversation with others regarding their presentation paper (Tanaka,
Okamoto and Koide, 2018). They seemed to be confident regarding their paper and that it will be
liked by everyone, whereas I was not confident like the. But I tried to make sure I am also
confident like them and my communication skills played important role in this. Incidents
afterwards were also both positive and negative, as some people liked presentation paper and
some criticised. However, overall experience was positive after completion of the paper.
Evaluation
The experience was good as I managed to complete the presentation paper on time and
with satisfactory effectiveness. But there were some elements in which this experience was not
good. This means that when I realised that many of others have made better presentation paper
than I have made. This made me realise that they are having skills that I do not possess mainly
written communication skills. Things that went well in this experience were timely completion,
paper involved all requirements and overall was based on guidelines provided. Something that I
believe did not go well was average quality of content written and average effectiveness of
written communication skills. However, I believe I made honest efforts to make this presentation

paper effective and this suggests that my contribution was positive in this experience. This
means that in order to improve quality of content I changed and improved content for around 4
times. This was average in comparison with others but my efforts were effective and positive.
Concerned with this, another incident that I can recall was that at the time of completion and
submission I experienced difficulty because of my ITC skills. This means that I only have basic
knowledge of ICT. Because of some wrong command my document had error in it which I was
not able to rectify (E-portfolio, 2019). Finally, I asked for help and somehow before completion
and submission I removed error in the document.
Analysis
There are different reasons and cause because of which few things went well and few
things did not. This means that it was because of my research skills, that I researched right and
accurate content regarding different subjects of presentation paper. But this was because of
insufficient knowledge of ICT, that at the time of submission my document had error and I was
not able to remove this error and required assistance from others. This can also be analysed on
the basis of cognitive theory. This theory seeks to explain how the mind works during the
learning process. This means that firstly my mind take information, processes the information
and then using knowledge for learning. This process is utilised in all learning. Mainly learning
that I have had from this experience was also based on this theory. This means that in different
incidences I observed situation later took information on the basis of these incidences and
processed information, in terms of its positive and negative elements of the situation and how
this affect my learning and learning requirements. I realised that having adequate skills would
have improved my presentation paper.
Conclusion
The experience overall was an effective learning opportunity for me in which I had
several experiences that were positive and few were negative (Arumugam and et.al., 2017).
However, completion of this experience helped me in determination of skills that I need to
develop. I realised that I need to improve and develop my written communication skills. This is
because even tough, I completed my presentation paper on time but content in this was not as
good as it should be and this was affected by my written communication skills. Other than this, I

also realised that I also need to diligently work on my ICT skills. This is because this skill is
highly in demand in employment. During completion of the paper I also experienced that
problem-solving skills should also be better. On the basis of these elements it can be concluded I
now need to improve my written communication skill, problem-solving skills and ICT skills.
Action Plan
On the basis of identified skills that I need in order to avoid situations that I have had in
this experience I have prepared a plan for developing these skills (Emery and Chang, 2017). The
plan for development of skills is as follows-
Skills Objectives for
Development
Development of
skills
Resources Required Time
Required
Written
communication
skills
Aimed at improving
quality of written
content also ensuring
quality of grammar
and writing
documents that are
completely free of
errors of all kind.
With help of this I
also aim to improve
presentation of
content and its
effectiveness.
This can be
developed by
different means such
as participating in
workshops that
provide assistance for
improving written
communication skills
Practicing at
individual level is
also an effective way
in which I can
develop written
communication skills
Books and Internet for
gaining knowledge of
written
communication skills
Workshops where
communication skills
can be practiced
6-8 Months
Problem-
solving skills
Getting effectiveness
in process of solving
different problems
Improve quality of
identified solutions
Increasing feasibility
in problem-solving
and process of
This can be improved
with help of experts
who deal with these
kind of situations.
Knowledge and
learning from
experience can also
contribute in this
Books and Internet for
getting adequate
information
Assistance from
experienced people
4-6 Months

problem solving skills development
ICT Skills Improving command
over information and
communication
technology
Ability to solve all
problems related to
ITC technology
This can be
developed by
participation in
different course
programmes that are
for development of
ICT skills there are
several courses that
can be taken to
develop this skill
effectively
Workshops and
courses with help of
which ICT can be
improved
Internet and ITC
technology resources
10-12
Months

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Markkanen, P and et.al., 2020. A reflective cycle: Understanding challenging situations in a
school setting. Educational Research. 62(1). pp.46-62.
Tanaka, M., Okamoto, R. and Koide, K., 2018. Relationship between Reflective Practice Skills
and Volume of Writing in a Reflective Journal. Health. 10(3). pp.283-288.
E-portfolio, A.K.S., 2019. How does the Gibbs Reflective model integrate with Evidence based
practice in veterinary medicine?.
Arumugam, B and et.al., 2017. Reflective writing–how a medical student can reflect?. Journal of
Education Technology in Health Sciences. 4(2). pp.47-53.
Emery, C. and Chang, J., 2017, July. Reflection in a new light: updating Gibbs' reflective cycle
on a foundation degree in healthcare sciences. In HEA Conference, generation TEF.
Sekarwinahyu, M and et.al., 2019, February. Development of problem based learning for online
tutorial program in plant development using Gibbs’ reflective cycle and e-portfolio to
enhance reflective thinking skills. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol.
1157, No. 2, p. 022099). IOP Publishing.
Online
Gibbs' reflective cycle. 2020. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-
reflective-cycle>.