University Success: FY026 Reflective Essay on Personal Development

This reflective essay, prepared for the FY026 'Preparing for Success at University' module, explores the student's personal journey of skill development. The essay details the acquisition and improvement of essential skills, including communication, listening, and management, through classroom activities and self-reflection. It highlights the importance of communication skills, time management, and leadership, supported by theoretical frameworks like Tuckman's team development model. The essay further addresses how the student plans to tackle future challenges and expectations of university courses, emphasizing flexibility and adaptability. The conclusion reinforces the necessity of continuous learning and self-assessment for personal and professional growth, referencing the importance of analyzing strengths and weaknesses. The essay uses examples from the module to support its claims, demonstrating an understanding of learning processes and the ability to apply theoretical concepts to practical situations.

Preparing for Success at University
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
There are a number of skills that are required by an individual as they are entering into
professional career from their academic field. Learning requires continuous focus from the
individuals. Skills and experience together help in defining clearly what are the major
requirements by the professional for personal growth (Lansdell, Marx and Mohammadali-Haji,
2020). Along with the professional career academic field also requires continuous learning of
various skills. The reflection is describing the journey to incorporate skills and various future
steps that will help to achieve all the objectives and achieve required goals.
REFLECTION
Explain how you have developed as a learner during this module, giving examples from your
experience on the module
Every individual requires to focus upon their individual goals and objectives so that they
can continuously grow the skills required for the field they want to work in future. Being a
learner I have certainly analysed that there are a number of skills that are to be developed by an
individual as they moving towards professional life. One of the most important skills includes
the communication skill in an individual. Communication refers to the way in which information
is moving from one person to the other. It is necessary that effective communication is created
between individuals so that the information does not get lost in the middle. I need to work on
various factors that include sound, speech, vocabulary, listening, pitch, body language and so on
in order to make effective communication. I understood the necessity of communication and then
made sure that I am effectively working on all these factors. I started communicating to my peers
more. I took participation in a number of activities in class. Reading was an important factor that
helped me to enhance my vocabulary. Some of the help was also provided by teachers who
guided me towards the right path. In order to communicate properly it is important for an
individual to first work upon their listening skills. Communication does not only mean
explaining what I am trying to say but I need to understand on how the other person is reacting to
the information I have passed. Presentation were a great way to develop listening skills as after
my presentation there were a number of queries presented by the audience and listening to them
and answering their queries were a help to improve my listening skills.
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` I also started taking responsibilities in my class which helped to improve my
management skills. It will be effective in future as well when I will need to manage teams in the
professional settings (Grugulis, 2019). There are also a number of different theories in team
management such as Tuckman's team development theory and Belbin's team roles models. These
theories and frameworks are effective enough as they have helped me to understand the ways to
develop effective team which have helped me in my classes an will also help me in coming time
as I enter into professional career. Leadership skill is also one of the important skill that I need to
work upon. It is an effective skill that will successfully help me to make sure that I can take
responsibility of a team. When learning about a number of different styles of leadership such as
autocratic, democratic, transformational leadership and so on, I came to a conclusion that
situational leadership is a great way to be a leader. It is an effective style of leadership as it
allows the leader to change as per the situation. They do not need to stick on a given agenda and
can change the style as per the situation requires. In this way a number of development were
brought in my skills and experience while completing my degree in university.
Explain how you will approach the future challenges and expectations of a university course.
There are a number of challenges that I will be facing in future as I start continuing the
course at University. There are a number of expectations from a student in University. One needs
to be good in formal communication. I needed to work on my stage fear ans also time
management as a number of different subjects were included in my course. The courses are also
very flexible as there are a number of different changes brought in external environment. This
demands for students to be flexible and quickly adapt any change in their teaching
methodologies. One of such changes can be the requirement for online classes due to the
pandemic of Covid-19 as we are required to maintain physical distancing.
The expectations of the lecturers and professors at the University from me were also
raised as I did good in my classes. They expected from me to make presentation and stage fear
was a great ability and skill that I needed to work upon. In order to work on this skill I started
presenting information first to my friends who provided me with honest judgements that helped
me to develop further. I analysed al of my skills and decided to work on time management skill
as well for which I started making schedules (Geesa, Stith and Rose, 2020). These schedules
helped me to successfully finish all my task in the given time period. Personal attention to every
subject was necessary and I made sure that I am allotting time to every subjects based on their
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importance and the credits allotted to them. In this way I made sure that I am equipped with all
the required skills and experiences to face future challenges and expectations.
CONCLUSION
With the help of the following reflection it can be concluded that the learning process for
individuals need to be continuous. It is necessary that individuals are contiguously working on
their skills in order to develop them successfully. It is necessary that they keep on analysing self
strengths and weaknesses that will allow them with various chances to develop and grow
professionally as well as personally in future.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Geesa, R.L., Stith, K.M. and Rose, M.A., 2020. Preparing School and District Leaders for
Success in Developing and Facilitating Integrative STEM in Higher Education. Journal
of Research on Leadership Education, p.1942775120962148.
Grugulis, I., 2019. Training, Development and Skills. The SAGE Handbook of Human Resource
Management, p.151.
Lansdell, P., Marx, B. and Mohammadali-Haji, A., 2020. Professional skills development
during a period of practical experience: Perceptions of accounting trainees. South
African Journal of Accounting Research, 34(2), pp.115-139.
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