University Reflective Journal: Personal and Professional Development

This reflective journal details a student's journey of personal and professional development, utilizing Gibbs' Reflective Cycle to analyze experiences and skills gained during university. The journal highlights improvements in communication skills, including listening, tone, and nonverbal communication, and discusses the importance of research, citing reliable sources and the CRAAP test for information evaluation. It also covers the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), teamwork and networking, time and self-management, and problem-solving skills, emphasizing the interconnectedness of these skills. The student outlines an action plan for continuous improvement in these areas, including specific activities and timeframes for skill development. The journal concludes with references to relevant academic sources.

Personal and Professional
Development

Continuing Professional Development
Continuing professional development is a planned ongoing and continuous process of
maintaining and documenting the personal and professional skills, experience and knowledge
that helps in one’s empowerment. These can be gained through courses or training which is a
formal way or by watching others and learning from them on the job, which is an informal
way. It helps to review, analyse and reflect on your learning and skills by continuously keeping
a record for the same.
To prepare this personal reflective journal, I am applying the Gobbs’ Reflective cycle which
was developed in 1988 by Graham Gibbs to analyse one’s learning by examining their
experiences. This is a self management and reflection tool that helps people to systematically
examine different experiences that they had during similar situation or activity and frame
conclusion. It has 6 stages which I will consider to form this reflective journal
 Description, in which I will describe the experience or the situation
 Feelings, in which I shall describe my thoughts and feelings and their impact on my
experience
 Evaluation, in which I will evaluate my experience as positive or negative and the
situation as good or bad
 Analysis, in which I shall make a complete and thorough sense and understanding of
the situation
 Conclusion, in which I would think about my leaning and things that I could have done
in different way to improve the result
 Action Plan, in which I shall describe how I would deal with similar situations in future
and improvements in certain skills that I need.
The various presentations, debates and even lectures held in the university were quite
helpful in improving my overall communication skills. I feel that one of the important skills
as a communicator is listening, it made listening an active process by helping me in being

attentive to understand what the other person is speaking. It made me realise the
importance of minimising distractions while listening and taking proper notes to help
remember everything in the future as well. I also realised the role of tone while
communicating as everybody has different tone of speaking while talking to various
people. For example, the tone I had with teachers and lecturers is different and the one I use
with friends and co-students is different. It also developed confidence as I had to write
various assignments, tests and give presentations in front of so many people. This
confidence will also help in improving my employability skills. The frequent interactions
with people of all types and status helped in reducing the shyness and improving the
friendliness to talk confidently with the interviewers and everyone. The various formal or
informal assignments, mails and other written or oral forms of communication helped in
improving my skills of communicating with cohesion and clarity which helped me in being
focused and specific about the topic. Nonverbal communication is as important as verbal
communication as the first impression comes not from talking but before that, through
facial expressions, eye contact, body posture, head movements, etc. Interacting with and
meeting so many different types of people in terms of their age, status, etc. for formal and
informal meetings, seminars, etc. definitely helped in enhancing my non-verbal
communicating skills. After reflecting on the improvements I made, it will not be wrong to
say that my communication skills improved by manifolds during the years in university
which will surely help me in various ways in my life ahead.
While talking about research, it will be safe to say that most of the assignments and
projects that I and all other students make involve research on the specific topic either
through books, newspapers or even through internet(Pramodini, 2022.). I think the more
one researches about a topic, the better knowledge they gain about it and the better they can
speak or write about it. I can evaluate that researching plays a very good part in gaining
knowledge. The most important aspect in research is finding a reliable source of
information and knowing how to use and handle the resources correctly. It is very essential
to find good quality texts and content that are created by experts in the specific field. The
best place for a college student to find good quality information is college library. I adopt
the new guideline called CRAP or CRAAP to obtain good information. Here, C stands for
Currency which means the material is modern and updated to recent changes , R stands for

Reliability which means it is Accurate and well written without any errors and loaded
language, A stands for accuracy which means the data is relevant to the topic and not
forged, A stands for Authority which means that does the author of the content have
degree, experience and is reputable , P stands for Purpose and point which means the that is
the publisher or creator trying to push their own agenda or persuade a specific audience.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes all the technology driven
communication devices like televisions, computers, radios, cell phones, satellite systems,
etc. In higher education and colleges, ICTs are used to develop better course material,
sharing content, student enrolment and facilitates us as students for communicating with
other students and learners, with teachers and other people, creation and sharing of lectures,
assignments and presentations, and academic and various research. ICTs are useful
everyday in all the aspects of life. For example, I use computers to collect data and research
about various topics related to studies, projects, etc. and to learn things through internet,
completion and online submission of assignments, see news and current affairs ; cell
phones are used to stay in touch with people and contact others when required. Internet
provides a vast range of content and study material that cannot be found to the same extent
physically through books or other sources. Although for me, there is still more to learn in
the area of ICT and its advance usages.
Teamwork and networking is also a very important aspect as most of the tasks have to be
completed in teams be it in college, workplace or any other field and without proper
coordination and cooperation, no task can be finished effectively and efficiently(Reeves,
Xyrichis and Zwarenstein, 2018). In college, we generally get group projects as properly
structured projects can help us learn and develop our skills faster when done in groups as
knowledge of all the members of the group is combined so everyone learns from each
other. Group projects also establish healthy team relationship and better criticism handling
as it gives openness to critique. Working in groups and teams also lead to better results and
outcomes as ideas from various people is compiled and positive and negative points are
discussed before finalising the content. And networking works in the same way, as by
interacting with a lot of people, I go to gain more knowledge and skills that I learnt from
them by watching them and working with them. I felt that teamwork and networking also
helped in enhancing my communication skills of listening actively and speaking

confidently in front of many people. But sometimes, we could not really cooperate with
others in the group due to various differences between the group members, which lead to
conflicts and delay in completion of the projects. So, I tried to stay calm and understand the
perspectives of the group members and learn from their knowledge and this helped me to
gain more knowledge as well as the group to avoid issues that wasted time and focus more
on the completion of the work.
Time and self management is the most important skill that one must possess. College
Schedules, deadlines, etc. all helps in enhancing the time management as well as self
management skills. Proper schedule to follow enables one to get the work done efficiently
instead of wasting time on procrastinating. This also helps to avoid the time consuming
distractions. But focusing on overall self management is more fruitful in the long run. Self
management means deciding what needs to be done, prioritizing goals and responsibly
completing the necessary actions. This ensures better work-life balance, reduces stress,
gives more freedom to utilise time in other necessary things, increases focus and thus
enhancing the productivity or a person. College life helped in improving these skills to a
great extent as the tight schedules and deadlines helped in managing studies, assignments
and personal life in a productive and effective way. This improved my academic
performance as I tried to reduce my time wastage of unnecessary things which also helped
in lowering my levels of anxiety. But, sometimes due to heavy load and pressure, I used to
miss the deadlines which only increased pressure for the next coming days. So I tried to
manage my time is an efficient way by trying to get things done on or before the right time.
Problem solving skills help in determining the reason behind an issue and the ways to
resolve these issues. It generally starts with identifying the issue, thinking of solutions,
executing these solutions and analysing the effectiveness of the solutions(Mathew, Malik
and Tawafak, 2019). Problem solving skills make a person more curious, determined and
encourage learning. There are several problems that a student needs to solve and also there
can be numerous issues in any field in the entire life that would need to be resolved to get
the work done. Thus learning these skills at an early age can be useful in the future too.
Improving problem solving skills help to look at challenges from a new and fresh
perspective. It also helps in developing greater social and situational awareness. Trying to
solve problems without taking them negatively also helped me in managing my time better

and improve my patience. While facing problems that I could not solve alone, I started to
understand the need for team as I used to look for others who could help me in finding
better solutions and was equally dependable for other who asked me for help as it would
only increase experience. However, there are certain issues that I could not successfully
resolve.
Every skill is related to one another as working on one skill usually helps in enhancing the
other skills as well. As while working on the teamwork and networking skills, I improved
my communication skills as well and by learning a thorough usage of ICTs, i could work
on my research skills as well. Problem solving skills also helped me in time and self
management.
The action plan for the skills that I need to develop and improve in.
Skills need to be developed Activities Time frame
Time and self management To improve time and self
management skill, I tried to
wake up earlier and plan my
schedule a day prior and
complete the assignment in
advance and submit them
before deadlines.
It took me 2-3 months to
enhance my time and self
management skills.
Information and
Communication Technology
I tried to use computer very
often and learnt ICTs from
teachers and in informal
ways by watching other
people making use of the
computers and other ICTs
It took me around 3-4
months to have a thorough
understanding of the ICTs.
Problem solving skills To improve problem solving
skills, I used to imagine
various issues and problems
that could arise in different
situations and would try to
Learning how to solve
various problems is a never
ending process, as neither
the problems end nor the
new solutions that could

analyse the problems and
think of possible solutions. I
also learnt from people who
resolved problems by
watching and analysing
them and the situation.
solve the problems. But it
took me more than 5 months
to understand and learn the
skills.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Mathew, R., Malik, S. I. and Tawafak, R. M., 2019. Teaching Problem Solving Skills using an
Educational Game in a Computer Programming Course. Informatics in
education. 18(2). pp.359-373.
Reeves, S., Xyrichis, A. and Zwarenstein, M., 2018. Teamwork, collaboration, coordination,
and networking: Why we need to distinguish between different types of
interprofessional practice. Journal of interprofessional care. 32(1). pp.1-3.
Pramodini, D. V., 2022. Evaluation Of Importance For Research In
Education. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE &
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ISSN: 2277-3630 Impact factor: 7.429. 11(01).
pp.33-37.