Professional & Career Development: Reflective Portfolio & Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of professional and career development, focusing on the creation of a reflective portfolio. It includes a cover letter and a detailed reflective portfolio encompassing a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, along with a personal development plan outlining strategies for skill enhancement in areas like leadership and computer skills. The report further explores learning theories, such as Kolb’s Learning Cycle and the VAK learning theory (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic), to understand different learning styles and how educators can effectively implement them. The ultimate goal is to facilitate continuous professional growth and improved teaching practices. Desklib offers a range of similar resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to support students in their academic and professional journeys.

Professional and
Career development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
PART 2............................................................................................................................................1
Cover letter.............................................................................................................................1
Part 3 Reflective portfolio................................................................................................................2
SWOT analysis.......................................................................................................................2
Personal Development Plan....................................................................................................2
Learning Theories...................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Professional and career development is the process by which an individual work on their
improvement through learning new skills that could help them in getting success. professional
development helps a person in boosting their confidence and learning important abilities that
could assist them in enhancing their personality in their career. The following report consist of
two parts in which part one consist of CV, Cover letter and Job advertisement of teacher
profession. The second part covers SWOT analysis and Personal development plan along with
learning theories as well as Gibbs reflective model.
MAIN BODY
PART 2
Cover letter
XYZ
1234567890
[e-mail]
February 28, 2022
Respected Sir/Madam
I am feeling very excited to be applying for a position of a teacher at ABC university. This is a
perfect opportunity for me as I’m a personality who is interested in providing better education
platform along with possessing excellent organizational skills which could assist in connecting
with students. I believe that my passion and experience for teaching would be ideally suitable for
management position offered by your university. This opportunity will help me in continuing my
professional development and I will feel immense pleasure to join your team.
I have an experience of around 2 years where I was responsible for teaching business
management to my students. My students have passed there exams along with improving their
scores under my guidance. I enjoyed the challenges of providing effective guidance to students
academically along with helping them to gain success socially. I have also help my students in
completing their projects which could help them in developing better environment.
Thank you for considering me for this position and I hope that my attached resume will provide
your better guidance about my personality of a teacher. I also look forward to meet you in person
and sharing my experience of being teacher along with this job opportunity. I am also a
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committed lifelong learner and I will continue to grow as a teacher in my academic subject
throughout my time at your university.
Sincerely,
XYZ
Part 3 Reflective portfolio
SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 My strengths include strong
communication skills which helps me
in representing my views effectively in-
front of others.
 My another ability include effective
organisational skills which assist me in
managing all activities systematically.
 I am weak in leadership skills which
are very important in maintaining
disciple and providing direction to
students.
 My computer skills are also weak
which are essential to formulate lesson
plans, tests, study materials and other
works.
Opportunities Threats
 Effective problem skill abilities would
help me in resolving conflicts among
students and would provide me an
opportunity to make positive image
among them.
 My critical thinking skills would help
me in thinking innovative and generate
new ideas that could help me in guiding
students and ensuring safe environment
for them.
 My moderate patience skills would
become threat for me which might
make it difficult for me to maintain
balance between my personal and
professional working experience.
 Time management skills could become
a threat for me as I will not be able to
complete my tasks on time which might
create difficulty in managing my
prioritise.
Personal Development Plan
Skills How will I How will I Who will review Time duration
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improve? measure success
Leadership skills I will take
assistance from
my mentors and
try to observe
them.
I would measure
success from my
effective ability to
guide my
learners.
My supervisors
will review my
improvement.
5 months.
Computer skills I will take classes
and some online
courses to
improve this skill.
When I will be
able to operate all
basic computer
applications and
software
effectively than I
will consider this
as success.
My mentors will
review.
2 months.
Learning Theories
Learning theories help an individual in understanding how information is utilised, how
knowledge is developed and how learning process take place. Learning theories explains how a
learner process, retain and receive information or knowledge given to them by educators.
Educators could use or implement following frameworks according to various learning as well as
need of learners along with more informative decision about selecting the right instructional
method. Falling below are some learning theories that could be implemented by educator:
Kolb’s Learning Cycle
David kolb in the year 1984 proposed a learning cycle which is known as Kolb’s learning cycle.
Under the cycle key explain 4 stages which needs to be executed by organizations in order to
make their employees productive. These 4 stages of this cycle helps an individual in determining
what new abilities they have gained from their experience. These 4 stages of Kolb’s learning
cycle are also defined as continuous procedure of learning which are mentioned below in detail:
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Concrete Experience
This level of learning cycle helps an individual in determining what they have learnt from their
previous experience or could also improve themselves through new activity. As per this stage
each learner include their personalities in certain tasks that assist them in gaining new
experience. During this stage it has been examined that in an organisation or schools every
participant play a very critical role in improving their personalities.
Reflective Observation
This is the second stage of learning cycle which assist people in examining their own strength
and weakness along with determining what they have studied during learning process. This stage
also provide people an opportunity to share their learning and experience among others. At this
stage it is mandatory to have effective communication abilities in an individual so that no
misunderstanding could be developed between people.
Abstract conceptualization
This is the third level of learning cycle that assist individuals in executing innovative and
creative ideas that could help them in changing current affairs. During this level participants are
provided with an opportunity to draw assumption form what they have learnt and gained
knowledge.
Active Experimentation
This is the last stage of Kolb’s learning cycle where participants took active participation in new
projects through implementing their previous experience they have acquired from past learning
process. At this level people being to implement prediction, plans and their knowledge into their
future projects.
VAK learning theory
There are 4 learning styles in VAK learning process which involves visual, auditory, reading or
writing and kinesthetic. The explanation about all these learning styles are provided below:
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• Visual – This is a learning style in which participants grab information from visual
presentation which helps them in processing all knowledge in detail. Visual learners are
considered as better retainer as they are able to process information effectively when it has been
represented in front of them in graphical presentation. This graphical depiction includes symbols,
diagrams, arrows, charts and many more digitally created pictures
• Auditory – This type of learning style is associated with audio Technique which helps
students in processing information through listening. It has been observed that auditory learners
prefer to grab information by listening which has been represented to them vocally. These
learners perform better in groups where vocal association is represented and enjoy reading some
articles or books by themselves loudly.
• Reading & Writing – This kind of learning style is related with grabbing information through
writing or reading something which helps learners in taking short notes That they could use in
future. Reading and writing learners present their information in written formats Such as
presentations, worksheets another text related resources. Learners also focus on reading pitch
helps them in processing information effectively.
• Kinesthetic – This type of learning style is used by those learners who take active
participation through implementing practical application in learning process. These learners
believe in doing their work practically along with engaging all their senses and tend to work
effectively in scientific studies.
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CONCLUSION
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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