Personal & Professional Growth: Reflective Journal - Suffolk BABS

This report is a reflective journal detailing the author's personal and professional development within the context of a university module. It explores the concept of continuing professional development and its contribution to enhancing study skills and employability. The journal employs Kolb's reflective model to analyze various skills acquired, including communication, ICT utilization, self-management, teamwork, problem-solving, and research. The author reflects on experiences, analyzes their learning process, and formulates future plans for continuous improvement, aiming to develop analytical, adaptability, and leadership skills. The report concludes that CPD is essential for proactive learning and the development of crucial skills for personal and professional success.

PERSONAL AND
PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Preparing a reflective journal that discuss how the module has contributed to personal
achievement of employability and study skills with the help of Kolb’s reflective model..........3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Continuing professional development is a method used by people in order to describe the
learning and development activities and to improve the abilities and professional skills. CPD
plays an important part in improving personal skills even after completing formal education. The
present report will provide detailed information about continuing professional development and
how the module has contributed to achievement of study skills and employability. Furthermore,
the study will show how different skills has been achieved with the help of module by applying
Kolb’s reflective model.
TASK 2
Preparing a reflective journal that discuss how the module has contributed to personal
achievement of employability and study skills with the help of Kolb’s reflective model
Continuing professional development
Continuing professional development is helpful for professionals and individual to
manage their growth and learning. This is the technique used by people to enhance their abilities
so that they can achieve success in career (King and et.al., 2021).
Communication skills
Communication skills plays a vital role in professional and personal development, it is the skill
needed to speak appropriately with different types of people. Communication skills is helpful for
both workplace success and personal development, as it increases self-confidence and listening
skills (Claro and et.al., 2018).
During the study of module, I have learned that without communication one cannot
achieve clarification about task and work. For example- in the company, when managers provide
task to team and delegate their roles and responsibilities, it is important to maintain collaboration
within the team, this can only be possible with the help of communication skills. I have also
experienced that communication skills have a huge impact on your efforts and task, because this
will define how people convey and receive detailed information, how they interact with each
other and also how they handle problems like group conflicts (Kolb’s learning styles and
experiential learning cycle, 2021). Students and professionals needs to learn how to effectively
exchange data and informative things through digital platform such as emails, message, social
media and others.

In oral communication one needs to speak clearly and in simple language so that another
person can easily understand what he is trying to explain. This conversation should be in simple,
clear and true way, without misinterpretation, then one can establish rapport with people.
During the study of module, I have experienced that people needs to take time to analyse
the situation which needs to be improve. Always think about possible scenarios which can
impact the task or project in a positive or negative way (Allen and et.al., 2019). With the help of
research skills, one can demonstrate ability to assess various situation and create new ideas and
accept the challenges that may gain a huge profit and competitive advantages.
Use of ICTs
By learning the module, it has been noted that ICTs in education is important which
allows students and professional to manage their own and self-learning. I have learned that it can
be helpful for me to think creatively and solve my problems. This will ultimately helpful for me
to improve my strengths and work on my weaknesses. I have understood the importance of ICTs
in my career, it helped me in taking proper decisions and engage me towards team work. For
example- during my learning and development sessions, my manager told me to use information
and communication technology to complete my task. This has enhanced the quality of learning
and improve my self-confidence, also it has effectively created work collaboration.
Self-management
According to David Kolb learning style, learning and development is the systematic
process whereby people can improve knowledge level with the help of transformation of
experience. One can develop his learning style with the help of learning theory which includes
four stage of learning cycle. In the concrete experience- During the module, I have learned and
understand that communication skills and time management skills can be helpful to manage
teamwork at the workplace. I feel that team work is essential for business and personal success,
because it can create self-confidence and self-management skills. This can only be done with the
help of communication and active listening skills. For example- if employees of the company
work together, then it is necessary for them to communicate in effective way so that one can
easily understand about detailed information provided by other person.
This will not create any confusion among employees, thus there is no chance of conflicts
among them. I have also understood that with proper planning and setting target in particular
time period, will be helpful in time management skills. When a manager delegate task and

outsource responsibilities to their team members, they expect from them to complete task on
time. Therefore, with the help of these skills I can easily compete my own work without any
issue but I need to focus on improving decision making process and prioritizing my work before
proceeding for task or project.
Team work and networking
During the study, I have experience that with the help of team work and networking I
have successfully achieved study skills and employability. It is said that if people work together
and share knowledge, then it will be easy for them to complete their task on given time period. In
the abstract conceptualization stage, I have understood that with the help of new ideas or any
related modification of any existing experience, I can easily be able to achieve learning and
development session. In the diverging stage, people are able to look at different types of things
from different perspectives. I have learned that here they prefer to watch things and tends to
collect information and use them into solving their personal and professional issues.
During this study, I have feel people with diverging stage are best at viewing concrete
situations from different point of view. I think people want clear and true explanation in order to
understand wide range of information which needs to be logical. If people want to more focus on
ideas and abstract concepts they need to adopt assimilating learning style. Likewise, if managers
want to delegate task to their employees, if they need to focus on new ideas and techniques to
manage problem solving skills then it is important for them to use this style (Cimermanová ,
2018). I think when I have experience this formal learning situation during my first year in the
company, I use this style while reading, exploring things, and lectures in workshops. With this
style I have an immense understanding of problem solving to practical issues.
Problem solving skills and research skills
While learning the study, I have experienced that problem solving skills helps me
determine why an issue is happening and how to solve different issues by analysing the possible
outcomes. This can be only possible through my active listening skills, team work skills, and
research skills. I feel that I need to improve some of my problem solving skills such as need to
work on analytical and dependability skills. After analysing and research, I can gather more
information about problem by consulting more experience people via feedback. It is important to
know how to communicate the problem to other team members. Once, I find out about solution
method, I can easily communicate to solve confusion and implement it to make decisions.

During the converging stage, people can solve their own problems after analysing their
results and outcomes (McLeod, 2017). People with a converging style of learning, are more
focused on technical projects and problems related to task. This style enables technology abilities
of people which help them to experiment with new techniques, ideas and to work practical
application during the work.
For example- I have used this style once in my life when I realised that to solve problem
task related issue I can make decisions by finding great solutions to my problems. This was
successfully done with the help of my managers and team mates otherwise I will not be able
understand to about importance of these stages in my career (Khoiriyah and Husamah, 2018).
While in accommodating stage, employees or students are more focused on to take experiential
approach in which they are more attracted to challenges to carrying out business or plans. I have
realised that in accommodating stage people rely on other people for information that carry out
things their own analytical skills.
By evaluating the report, I have understood the importance of learning cycle which could
be used by anyone mostly teachers, managers and supervisor to critically evaluate the learning
provision and to improve more learning opportunities for them throughout the career.
For future plans, I will make a list of things that I want to achieve in my life such as
analytical skills, adaptability, interpersonal abilities. In order to be a successful person in my
future, I have planned to achieve some of management skills and leadership skills (Sarfraz,
2017). I will adopt situational and transformation style so that I can motivate my team members
to achieve common goals.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, continuing professional development enables learning to become proactive it
means it is a tool used by people to improve personal and professional skills. By evaluating
the report, it has been concluded that with the help of Kolb reflective model of learning
cycle people can evaluate the learning opportunities. Along with this, it has been
summarized that communication skills, team work, collaboration, time management skills is
really important for personal and professional development. These skills can be improved
through various methods like team collaborations, learning and development sessions,

worships and others techniques.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allen, L. M. and et.al., 2019. Categorising the broad impacts of continuing professional
development: a scoping review. Medical education. 53(11). pp.1087-1099.
Cimermanová, I., 2018. The Effect of Learning Styles on Academic Achievement in Different
Forms of Teaching. International Journal of Instruction. 11(3). pp.219-232.
Claro, M. and et.al., 2018. Teaching in a Digital Environment (TIDE): Defining and measuring
teachers' capacity to develop students' digital information and communication
skills. Computers & Education. 121. pp.162-174.
Khoiriyah, A. J. and Husamah, H., 2018. Problem-based learning: Creative thinking skills,
problem-solving skills, and learning outcome of seventh grade students. JPBI (Jurnal
Pendidikan Biologi Indonesia). 4(2). pp.151-160.
King, R. and et.al., 2021. Factors that optimise the impact of continuing professional
development in nursing: A rapid evidence review. Nurse Education Today. 98. p.104652.
McLeod, S., 2017. Kolb's learning styles and experiential learning cycle. Simply psychology. 5.
Sainz, M. A., Ferrero, A. M. and Ugidos, A., 2019. Time management: skills to learn and put
into practice. Education+ Training.
Sarfraz, H., 2017. Differentiated time management skills between leadership styles: simplified
with a cross-cultural approach. Development and Learning in Organizations: An
International Journal.
Online
Kolb’s learning styles and experiential learning cycle. 2021. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html>