University FY027 Preparing for Success Module Reflection Report

This report is a reflective analysis of a student's experience in the 'Preparing for Success' module, focusing on a group presentation and overall module performance. The student identifies key learnings, including the importance of time management, presentation skills, and the role of group dynamics in learning outcomes. The reflection highlights areas for improvement, such as communication and leadership skills, and proposes a detailed action plan. This plan includes strategies for enhancing communication abilities through training, developing leadership competencies, and improving functional skills. The student aims to address weaknesses in English language skills and group work dynamics, ultimately striving for improved self-development and professional readiness. The report emphasizes the application of learned skills in future professional responsibilities and career situations, using feedback and group work experiences as a basis for personal and academic growth. The student discusses the need to improve communication, leadership, and functional skills, including strategies like taking communication and leadership questionnaires, and using a leadership coach to address deficiencies. The report also emphasizes the importance of developing functional skills, particularly in written and spoken English, through various language learning strategies.

Name 1
Preparing for Success
Student’s Name
University
Date
Course
Instructor

Name 2
Preparing for Success
Reflection
From the presentation and feedback, I have learned several things that are important in
improving my abilities and even the way I need to present my issues. One thing that I learned is
that success is supposed to be determined at the individual level although there are other
measures of success that can be used to assess oneself. For example, I learned that success
should be measured by the ability of the individual to complete the tasks at hand to the
expectation. In this case, I rated my success as below average since I did not prepare in advance
by finishing the presentation and working on the presentation areas by practicing. In this case, I
rated myself as having failed since I did not present well due to a lack of practice. In this case, I
learned that success as a factor is related to other aspects that are beyond the task itself. For
example, important elements of success include time management, familiarity with the work in
the presentation and even gathering enough information to be included in the presentation task.
I also learned that I needed presentation skills which were supposed to aide in presenting
my task to the group. The first thing that I needed to work on is to identify my weaknesses and
develop strategies for dealing with them. Since my English functional skills are at level two, it
means that I need to revise the presentation well so that I can enhance my skills. Other important
presentations involve the way the task itself is organized. When the presentation slides are
organized with proper font and graphics, they are appealing to the person viewing them thus
eliciting concentration from the audience. Also, I have learned that when presenting, I needed the
skills of time management, eye contact, posture, and use of pause, humor, clarity and even an
understanding of the questions from the audience when answering them. All these areas were
important in the success of my presentation.

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The new information that was presented was based on the feedback received which
entailed the ability to have academic and non-academic skills. I learned that to be successful, I
need both academic skills like thinking skills, self-efficacy skills, people skills, and time
management skills. These skills are important in different areas of life which extends beyond my
academic abilities. For example, I can apply these skills in a professional environment like
during interviews. The presentation and preparation for the assignment were used to asses my
skills and the areas that I need to improve on.
What was interesting from the group task is the role of groups in increasing the learning
outcomes of the individual. Groups are used to break down large tasks into smaller tasks with
each member working on a task that is related to the whole assignment. This means that each of
the group members relies on the efforts of the group members and their ability to put their efforts
together for achieving the intended objectives. When working under groups, it becomes easy for
the members to learn from each other since instructor feedback was very instrumental in
appraising the work that we had done as group members. Group work builds individual abilities
which are defined by learning to work in groups while at the same time building individual
abilities which are defined by the individual learning how to relate within the team. This means
that the skills I have developed in the presentation and group work can be replicated in future
professional responsibilities that I will have.
The information developed in the group task is important since it will be applied in real-
life situations on the career issues that I will face in the future. The knowledge gathered from this
task form the basis of understanding my weak areas and what I need to address. The feedback
that I received in the task and the gained from working with other students is supposed to act as a
SWOT analysis of my abilities and the basis for building on my strengths and addressing the

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weakness that I have. This new information is supposed to form part of the action plan that I will
work on and improve my abilities. The action plan will be based on the new information that I
gathered and what I did not fully understand.
When working on the task, I realized that y presentation skills were poor due to my level
two functional English which made it difficult for me to communicate. Further, working in
groups presents different challenges and group dynamics that can affect the benefits that are
supposed to be derived from approaching tasks at the group level. In this sense, I lacked the
knowledge of group dynamics and an understanding that it takes time before group members can
work as a team. In this sense, I will have to work on my group work skills which will increase
the ability to deal with group issues. I did not also understand that communication was key to the
success of the group and that it defines the way members work together. Lastly, there was no
leadership in our group and when discussing, each person was speaking at any time even when
another member was presenting his idea. In this case, it became difficult to moderate the group
since a lot of time was wasted on the argument between group members rather than arguments
for the group.
Areas for further development
From the reflection, I want to work on my communication skills to build my verbal and
non-verbal skills. Nevrlova & Seitlova (2016, p. 320) suggest that communication skills are
important in team and groups situations since they aid in the sharing of information and easing
the progress of tasks. From the group work, I realized that I have difficulty working on the tasks
especially with group members since we were having difficulties communication. This skill was
also needed in the presentation since I required different types of communication skills. When
working on the group task, verbal and non-verbal skills are important I ensuring that the right

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message is communicated to the group. By improving this skill, I will have developed the ability
to relate well with others and the right message to the team members thus increasing the
functionality of the group. This entails choosing the right words, the right mode of
communication and even using the right body language to increase the intake of the message
(Kim & Han, 2016). When working within groups, communication skills are used to enable the
members to relate well with each other to increase the efficiency of the group work.
I will also need to work on my leadership skills as a way of working well with others.
Markovic & Ljajic (2016, p. 1012) suggest that leadership entails the use of different models to
guide the approaches that the individual chooses to deal with situations. Cansoy (2017, p. 68)
suggests that leadership entails achieving followership from others through giving direction and
making important decisions regarding the situation. Leadership is important since we lacked
proper leadership since no group member exhibited leadership qualities that could be used in
giving direction to the group. The important leadership areas that I will need to work on are;
communication, decision-making, inspiring others, integrity, empowerment, and creativity. Each
of these skills was appropriate for different leadership situations. Further, Murphy & Johnson
(2011, p. 461) adds that there are different models and theories of leadership that can be applied
in a variety of situations. In this case, I need to understand the use of each of them and the
specific areas that I have to apply them. As a leader, I will need to develop the required
competencies that will enable me to achieve followership success when leading others.
The last skill that I have to work on is developing my functional skills to improve
effective communication and understanding. The focus is on the areas of speaking, listening,
reading and writing which can be improved with time. My English language functional skills are
at level two, which means that I have to work on my skills to improve my English level skills.

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Functional skills are important in academic study and career progression since they are required
in different scenarios like presentation and doing of assignments where I have to communicate
adequately while in career life functional skills are important in executing different types of tasks
within the work environment (Onchera & Manyasi 2011, p. 843).
Action Plan
The first step in my action plan is to work on my communication skills by identifying the
communication areas that I have to improve. This will starts by taking a communication skills
questionnaire available on different websites like the Mind Tools where I will appraise my
communication skills to identify the areas that need further development. This tool acts like a
SWOT analysis with a set of questions that the student uses to assess the abilities. Once the
scores have been calculated, the student will be able to identify the areas that need to work on.
To develop the identified areas, a communication skills training will be used to improve these
skills and develop better competencies within the identified areas (Toro, Camacho-Minuche,
Pinza-Tapia, & Paredes 2019, p. 115). As a student, communication skills are important in the
course of education since they are required when working on different tasks. Communication
within this environment covers both verbal and non-verbal skills that are applied in different
areas of communication. After the training, the student is supposed to take another assessment
test to measure the achievements made in the communication.
The next step is working on my leadership skills by identifying the areas that I have
weaknesses in and ensuring that I put proper measures in place to address them. To identify my
leadership skills, I have to take the leadership questionnaire from the Mind Tools so that I can
assess my leadership skills to determine my weak areas and how I can address them. According
to Mind Tools (2019), leadership starts with the desire to lead and aspiring to become an

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effective leader. Since the leader is supposed to create the vision and set the direction for the
organization, then t means that the ability to lead allows pone to deliver, motivation and vision to
others. By identifying the leadership areas that I have and I will identify the weak areas that I
have to address as a way of becoming a better leader. Since there are different leadership
theories, the focus of my leadership style will be to develop transformational leadership
competencies since they offer the best leadership attributes within a tea or group environment
(Balwant 2019, p. 378). Transformational leaders are regarded as the best since the style is based
on the leader being close with the team and works by participating in the tasks with others. A
leadership coach will be used in training and developing ways of dealing with leadership
deficiencies. The leadership coach will offer training support
Lastly, functional skills are important in defining the ability of an individual to
communicate well since it focusses on all areas of communication. The skills are important in the
ability of the individual to express ideas through the use of different communication elements
like verbal and non-verbal skills to relay information (Dumitrescu, Coman, & Nulu, 2015, p.
170). The focus of functional skill development will be in both written and spoken English
abilities. Since language learning is a conscious behavior, then the methods used for acquisition,
storage, and retention of the new information through the use of a variety of ways. In this case,
Safranj (2013, p. 779) suggests that such strategies for learning functional language skills include
meta-cognitive techniques, affective strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies and memory
strategies that can be used to enter new information in the memory. However, the choice of the
language strategies varies based on ethnicity, the nature of the task and the language learning
purpose which will define the methods to be used in the development of functional skills.

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References
Balwant, P. T., 2019. Stay close! The role of leader distance in the relationship between
transformational leadership, work engagement, and performance in undergraduate project teams.
Journal of Education for Business, 21 (4), p. 376–393.
Cansoy, R., 2017. The Effectiveness of Leadership Skills Development Program for University
Students. Journal of History and Culture Research, 6(3), pp. 65-87.
Dumitrescu, C. I., Coman, M. L. & Nulu, I. –. C., 2015. Improving Functional Texts Writing
Skills in English as a Foreign Language. Social and Behavioral Sciences 2, Volume 203, p. 168
– 172.
Kim, M.-R. & Han, S.-J., 2016. Critical Thinking and Communication Skills in Nursing
Students. Advanced Science and Technology Letter, Volume 128, pp. 33-3.
Markovic, Z. & Ljajic, S., 2016. Leadership Skills and Training. Bansko, s.n., pp. 1011-1013.
MindTOOLS, 2019. The Leadership Motivation Assessment. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_01.htm
[Accessed September 2019].
Murphy, S. & Johnson, S., 2011. The benefits of a long-lens approach to leader development:
Understanding the seeds of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(3), pp. 459-470.
Nevrlova, K. & Seitlova, K., 2016. The Effectiveness of Teamwork and Communication Within
the Company. Olomouc, s.n., pp. 318-323.
Onchera, P. O. & Manyasi, B. N., 2011. Functional Writing Skills for Effective Communication:
The English Language Classroom in Kenya. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational
Research and Policy Studies, 4(6), pp. 842-847.
Safranj, J., 2013. Strategies of learning English as a foreign language at Faculty of Technical
Sciences. Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 93, p. 775 –782.
Toro, V., Camacho-Minuche, G., Pinza-Tapia, E. & Paredes, F., 2019. The Use of the
Communicative Language Teaching Approach to Improve Students’ Oral Skills. English
Language Teaching, 12(1), pp. 110-118.