Professional Development Course Assignment: Weeks 1-8 Analysis

This document presents a comprehensive solution to a Professional Development assignment spanning eight weeks. The assignment begins with self-assessment questionnaires on adult learning styles, differentiating between 'doing' and 'watching' approaches, and 'thinking' and 'feeling' preferences. It then includes a time management exercise to calculate study hours and a detailed guide to essay writing, including structuring introductions and conclusions, with specific tasks to rearrange sentence orders and answer questions about essay components. Further, the assignment covers academic writing and referencing, providing examples of how to cite sources, including online materials and books, and questions to test the understanding of in-text referencing rules. Finally, the assignment touches upon a case study related to COVID-19, focusing on the impact on older people, ways to enhance care and protection, and analyzing healthcare models in pandemic situations, including patient-centered and community-centered approaches.

Week 1- Adult learning style Questionnaire handout
SECTION 1 (Doing & Watching)
Circle (or highlight) either "Doing" or "Watching" next to the statements below, depending
upon the part of the statement you most closely relate to.
1. Doing - I often produce off-the-cuff ideas that at first might seem silly or half-baked.
Watching - I am thorough and methodical.
2. Doing - I am normally the one who initiates conversations. Watching - I enjoy watching
people.
3. Doing - I am flexible and open minded. Watching - I am careful and cautious.
4. Doing - I like to try new and different things without too much preparation. Watching - I
investigate a new topic or process in depth before trying it.
5. Doing - I am happy to have a go at new things. Watching - I draw up lists up possible
courses of actions when starting a new project.
6. Doing - I like to get involved and to participate. Watching - I like to read and observe.
7. Doing - I am loud and outgoing. Watching - I am quiet and somewhat shy.
8. Doing - I make quick and bold decisions. Watching - I make cautious and logical
decisions.
9. Doing - I speak fast, while thinking. Watching - I speak slowly, after thinking.
SECTION 2 (Thinking & Feeling)
Circle (or highlight) either "Thinking" or "Feeling" next to the statement below, depending
upon the part of the statement you most closely relate to.
1. Thinking - I ask probing questions when learning a new subject. Feeling - I am good at
picking up hints and techniques from other people.
2. Thinking - I am rational and logical. Feeling - I am practical and down to earth.
3. Thinking - I plan events down to the last detail. Feeling - I like realistic, but flexible
plans.
4. Thinking - I like to know the right answers before trying something new. Feeling - I try
things out by practicing to see if they work.
5. Thinking - I analyze reports to find the basic assumptions and inconsistencies. Feeling -
I rely upon others to give me the basic gist of reports.
6. Thinking - I prefer working alone. Feeling - I enjoy working with others.
7. Thinking - Others would describe me as serious, reserved, and formal. Feeling - Others
would describe me as verbal, expressive, and informal.
8. Thinking - I use facts to make decisions. Feeling - I use feelings to make decisions.
9. Thinking - I am difficult to get to know. Feeling - I am easy to get to know.
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Week 1- Exercise Time Management
Skills Development
Exercise 2
How do I spend my time?
How much time do you have to dedicate to your studies?
There are 168 hours in one week. Calculate the amount of time you spend on the following
activities:
Activity Calculation Subtotal
Number of hours spent sleeping 8 X7= 56
Number of hours spent grooming ( bathing, washing, dressing) 1 X7= 7
Number of hours spent eating (preparation, eating, snacking) 2 X7= 14
Total travel time (weekdays) 2 X5= 10
Total travel time (Weekends) 2 X2= 4
Estimate the number of hours in lectures, workshops, seminars 6 X5= 30
Number of hours on leisure activities 1 X7= 7
Number of hours on other activities – collecting children from 3 X7= 21
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school/clubs, household chores, paid/voluntary work etc
Subtotal = 149
Plus 7 extra hours +7
Grand Total =
Now deduct the total committed hours from 168 to give you a
rough idea of how many hours you have to commit to your studies:
Grand Total hours ......... minus 168 = __12______ hours to spend
studying.
Week 6: Essay writing
Introductions:
An introduction is to show your reader what you are doing, why you are doing it and how you
are doing it. It should attract readers’ attention.
In general, the following three parts of information should be included in an introduction
However they are in the wrong order:
Task 1 Now rewrite the following three points in the correct order:
 Main topic, purpose, rationale, or your point of view.
 Most general or broad background information. It needs to be brief and clear enough for
your reader to understand your area
 Outline/structure of your essay or report. Which clearly demonstrates how you are going
to organise the rest of your essay.
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1 Outline/structure of your essay or report. Which clearly demonstrates how you are going to
organise the rest of your essay.
2 Main topic, purpose, rationale, or your point of view.
3 Most general or broad background information. It needs to be brief and clear enough for your
reader to understand your area
Task 2 Answer the following questions:
A) What percentage of the total length of your essay should your introduction be?
2%
5%
10%
B) Can you include references in an introduction?
Yes
NO
Task 3
The following sentences comprise an introduction. However, they are in the wrong order.
Your task is to read the sentences and to place a number in the sentence number box from 1 -3
with 1 being the first sentence that you think should appear in an introduction, 2 the sentence
that you think should appear next and 3 being the last sentence.
Sentences Sentence
number
This essay will consider the advantages and disadvantages of each
method. Based on findings a conclusion will be presented detailing
how future growth in this area might occur.
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Over the last ten years there has been a significant growth in the area
of Learning Development within universities (Zhang, 2012).
Specifically, more university now provide additional opportunities for
students to enhance their academic skills through online materials,
workshops and/or 1:1 appointment provision (Dobson, 2011).
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It is however, unclear which of these teaching methods is most
beneficial in terms of enhancing the student experience and improving
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attainment.
Conclusions:
A conclusion is to show your reader that you have achieved your aim at the end of your writing.
In general, the following three parts of information should be included in a conclusion However,
they are in the wrong order:
Task 1 Now rewrite the following three points in the correct order:
 Explain the overall significance of the conclusion
 Recall the topic / purpose of your writing
 Synthesise the main points that you made in the main body of your text
1 Recall the topic / purpose of your writing
2 Synthesise the main points that you made in the main body of your text
3 Explain the overall significance of the conclusion
Task 2 Answer the following questions:
A) What percentage of the total length of your essay should your conclusion be?:
2%
5%
10%
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B) Can you introduce new information into your conclusion?
Yes
No
Task 3
The following sentences comprise a conclusion. However, they are in the wrong order.
Your task is to read the sentences and to place a number in the sentence number box from 1 -3
with 1 being the first sentence that you think should appear in a conclusion, 2 the sentence that
you think should appear next and 3 being the last sentence.
Sentence Sentence
number
A range of factors including availability of time, family commitments and
belief that uptake of support would enhance final degree class were
found to influence upon uptake of support. Consequently, it was
suggested that such areas should be considered when designing
promotional material
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In summary, no single factor will determine uptake of support rather
multiple strategies are needed in order to increase student participation.
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This essay demonstrated that there a number of factors that can impact
upon student uptake of learning development opportunities
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Week 7 Academic writing and referencing portfolio tasks
1) Read the following excerpt and mark with an X where you think a reference should
appear in the following text:
Beveridge thought that after World War II men would return to work and, if they were married, their
wives would stay home and take care of the house. X Whilst earning an income, the husband was
expected to make contributions to the national insurance scheme. However, should he be unable
to work for any reason he was then entitled to state support but, as he was the one who had
made insurance contributions, the money would be paid directly to him and not his wife. Thus,
because all money went to husbands, married women were dependent on their husbands for
financial security , both during their husbands working life and after retirement .
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2) How would you reference the sources on the handout provided for you:
a) Inger Haltoy, 2011, How common are mental health problems [online] Available through
(link)
b) Oko, J., 2011. Understanding and using theory in social work. Learning Matters.
c) Randeep and Mark 2010, Housing benefit cap: council warn of flight to subhurbs
d) Campbell, S. and Markesinis, B.S., 2002. A review of anti-social behaviour orders. London: Home
Office.
e) John solomos 2003, P 230
f) Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, c.11. (2009). Available at:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/11/pdfs/ukpga_20090011_en.pdf . (Accessed 7 July
2016).
g) Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
h) Roberts, A.R., 2013. Bridging the past and present to the future of crisis intervention and crisis
management. In Social Work (pp. 188-195). Routledge.
i) Oko, J., 2011. Understanding and using theory in social work. Learning Matters.
3)Read the following statements and circle whether they are true or false:
Book titles form part of the in text reference. True/False
Authors initials always form part of the intext reference. True/False
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Whenever you are you are using a quotation in your text you should cite the page number where
the quotation can be found. True/False
The way that you reference in your text must be the same as the way it appears in your reference
list. True/False
You should only use ‘et al’ whenever there are 3 or more authors. True/False
Week 8-Putting things together and avoid
According to recent reports of WHO in European region more than 95 percent of deaths
due to Covid-19 have occurred in people who were 60 years or older than that (Carrieri,
Peccatori and Boniolo, 2020). It was observed that older people were facing discrimination in
terms of provision of medical resources due to their age in this pandemic situation. However, it is
still unclear that these deaths were only due to Covid-19 or older people’s current condition was
also responsible for it such as multimorbidity, disability, dementia, frailty etc. (Bianchetti and et.
al., 2020). This essay will focus upon ways in which care or order people can be enhanced in
order to protect them from drastic effect of Covid-19. Based upon findings of the essay
conclusion will be presented that will help in understand ways in which protection and safety to
older people in this Covid-19 pandemic can be provided.
Covid-19 has drastically impact each and every country in the world and this pandemic
has resulted in development of crises situation in healthcare system. United states and Spain
registered 222,140 and 31,106 cases of Covid-19 last year and were first two countries after
China to registered Covid-19 cases. Then Italy became third country to register these cases
(Bianchetti and et. al., 2020). In this crises situation older people were focused upon much more
and their health and safety were not given much priority as they do not contribute to the society
and economy of the country. But in order to deal with this situation initially government adopted
patient centred care model but this model was ineffective and death rate increased. More than 95
percent of death rate were observed to older people who were above 60 years of age. Due to this
situation older people were more vulnerable and were required to be protected (Carrieri,
Peccatori and Boniolo, 2020). As a result, patient centred model was replaced by community
centred model so that burden on healthcare systems can be reduced and this pandemic situation
can be dealt with easily (Bianchetti and et. al., 2020).
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This essay demonstrated that older people are served less priority in terms of accessing
high quality healthcare services because their contribution to overall economy of country is less
as compared to young generation who actively participate in society. In summary it was
concluded that despite of less efforts o older people towards society, society has moral
imperative to protect and respect the dignity towards older people as they find then a vulnerable
part of society and think that they can enrich the society. Due to this, government has proposed
appropriate care of older people in different settings of care in order to enhance effectivity of
community centred care.
References
Carrieri, D., Peccatori, F.A. and Boniolo, G., 2020. COVID-19: a plea to protect the older
population. International journal for equity in health. 19(1). pp.1-4.
Bianchetti, A., and et. al., 2020. Improving the care of older patients during the COVID-19
pandemic. Aging clinical and experimental research. 32(9). pp.1883-1888.
Week 9: Working with others
Task 1
In such case I will be focusing upon having one to one interaction with both the team
members who are not coming to the meeting and hasn’t produced anything yet. I will ask them
their reason of being inefficient and not contributing to the team work. If they are facing issues in
terms of contributing to the team or coming to the meeting then I will focus upon resolving the
issues so that they can feel comfortable with the group members and can effectively contribute to
the team. In this one- to- one interaction I will also explain importance of team work and ways in
which lack of contribution of even one member can affect or compromise hard work of all the
team member. So that both the members understand and again start contributing in the team
work
Task 2
Five positive things about working with others:
1.) It can help in increasing or improving productivity and targeted goals can be achieved more
effectively.
2.) Working with other inspire others to socialize and engage in team work and can help in
ensuring success in achievement of desired task.
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3.) Working with other enhances flexibility of task that further helps us in overcoming any kind
of challenge.
4.) Working together helps in learning faster and encourage team members to take healthy risk.
5.) Working together facilitates idea generation and creativity.
Task 3
5 challenges of working with others
1.) Building trust is one of the major challenges that working together can create.
2.) Lack of trust among team members can result in not sharing important information with
others because of which overall progress of the work can get impacted.
3.) Difficult to maintain optimal working condition for each and every team members because
some of us work in fast passed work environment and some of them do not.
4.) Self-awareness among team members is another challenge because many times if others are
frustrated then it will automatically reduce their self-awareness.
5.) development of common purpose of working together is another challenge.
Week 10 Presentation skills
Task 1 this week is to plan a presentation on how you would structure an essay.
Step 1 Find one of the articles that you read in week 4 and re read the article
Step 2 Now take some notes in your own words about the key points from the article
Step 3: using the notes that you have made in your own words plan in the following
presentation slides how you would structure a presentation on this topic
Title page- Covid 19- A plea to protect old people.
Introduction
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Due to pandemic old age people are suffering and
dying more as compared to young people. In US
the condition is worse. It is necessary to protect
old age people.
Main body 1
Initial signs of discrimination of older people?
There has been scenario of first come first serve.
Due to that discrimination is seen in treating old
age people.
Reviving ideas of a ‘duty to die’
There is need to provide duty of care to old age
people. This can be done by giving curative
treatment.
Main body 2
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The importance of protecting older people
There are many old age people doing suicide.
Also, they are also having equal right of getting
treatment.
Conclusion
It ca be summarised that covid 19 best example
of humanity. It allows to recognise vulnerability
and potential of all generation.
References
Kruse A. Benefactors or Burdens? The Social Role
of the Old. In: Scarre G, editor. The Palgrave
Handbook of the Philosophy of Aging. London:
Palgrave Macmillan UK; 2016. p. 401 –24
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Task 2 List 4 points that make a good presentation
1) proper structure
2) content
3) 5 R’s
4) right information
Task 3 List 4 points that make a bad presentation
1) use of slang words
2) improper structure
3) no consistency
4) lack of info
Week 11
Student goal and action plan
Goal- To gain knowledge about referencing and academic skills
Action plan
 Search on internet about how to referencing
 Learn the BREO guidelines
 Do attend more seminar class and sessions
Who will help
 Tutors
 Classmates
Evaluation
I reached my goal
I did not reach my goal
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Week 12- Numeracy and Understanding statistics
1. Express the number of females killed in England as a ratio to the number of males killed in
England in the age range 25-34
3:11
2. How many more males were killed in the 18-24 group when compared with males in the 45-64
group?
40 more males killed in the 18-24 group when compared with males in the 45-64 group
3. What group of children and adolescents are most likely to experience extreme obesity?
12-29 years of age group children and adolescents are most likely to experience extreme
obesity
4. What is the total percentage of all children and adolescents who are extremely obese in the
US?
21 percent of all children and adolescents who are extremely obese in the US
5. How many men were recruited on average from each practice ?
87.68 men were recruited on average from each practice
6. How many men reported experiencing negative behaviour from a partner
478 men reported experiencing negative behaviour from a partner
Week 13
INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1: Understanding the basic conventions of academic writing:...................................................3
LO2: Understand how to read effectively and for a specific purpose:............................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
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Introduction
This essay is going to highlight the basic conventions of academic writing which include proper
use of grammar, punctuation, and needs proper capitalization of words. It also needs the
individual to have a good grab on spelling skills as well. Here in this essay, I am going to address
the two academic skills that I aim to improve as highlighted by my teacher. It will also highlight
the important ways to read effectively which isn't only for the sake of reading but is for some
purpose. This essay will also highlight the ways I can improve my academic skills.
LO1: Understanding the basic conventions of academic writing:
The most basic and important conventions that should be kept in mind while penning down an
academic write up are the following:
Rule 1 is to always write in complete sentences and double-checking if it makes meaning or not.
Rule 2 that should be followed is that while writing the subject and the verbs should agree with
each other in the sentence. Rule 3 is to use proper punctuations (Akkaya and Aydin, 2018). Rule
4 is that the write-up must reflect that the author has a wide range of vocabulary, as all the
sentences should not be written in a monotonous tone. Rule 5 is to use the Apostrophes rightly.
Also, the other main points that should be kept in mind are that the write-up should use a formal
tone and shouldn't use emotive or slang. Also, rhetorical questions should be avoided when not
needed. Formal write-ups are mostly informative. Also I, We, You should not be used in
academic writings and the language should be kept impersonal. The write-ups should be specific
and come with references and shouldn't much generalize (Fazilatfar et al. 2018). Attentive
languages should be put to use. Another important fact is to not use a lot of quotations in a write
up only a handful of significant quotations might be used in sentences or it can be paraphrased.
And as mentioned earlier academic writing shouldn't be emotional it is advised to keep the write-
up emotionally neutral.
Recently my teacher highlighted two main academic skills that I need to follow to better myself
academically and can better my academic writing as well. I am trying to work on my
presentation skills since it is vital while I am doing some academic writing. The main part of the
focus goes to how the topic has been presented and I am trying to work on it because I lack many
of the basic conventions of academic writing. The second one is communication skills. I do feel
that I need to work on it as well. This skill in particular does not only help academically but also
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helps in the long run in a lot of other businesses. But my main focus, for now, is to improve my
communication skills in academics so that I can be more interactive in classes, ask about my
confusion and try to communicate what I understand or how much knowledge I have personally
acquired. This does play an important role in academic proficiency.
LO2: Understand how to read effectively and for a specific purpose:
Reading effectively has a purpose we read to enhance the ideas and knowledge on a page that we
already have a little idea about. If someone is clueless about a subject but just reads with his eyes
closed to pour words into his mind, it is as useless as pouring water into the palms. We all have a
structure or a framework in the brain that helps us to read, understand and store information.
Thus we should read daily with the purpose to get a detailed insight into some topic (HANIFI,
2020). I wish to start by reading eight pages a day and make it a habit. As for myself, I wanted to
improve my presentation skills. I am not very organized or rather I am a little confused about
how to present academic matters or academic writings in a well-presented manner. After
researching ways to improve it I found one of the key factors that could help improve it was
reading effectively. That is to read with a purpose and to understand why I am reading the topic.
I aim to pay attention to details that can help me improve my presentation skills by increasing
my vocabulary (Merga and Roni, 2017). Also according to the research, I made I want to make it
a habit until I create no more grammatical errors. Also, it will help me to write in an informative
way and my widened vocabulary might help me to make my writing interesting. In this way, I
can fully work on the presentation skills and I also plan to maintain a writing journal to improve
it. Daily reading and writing can help an individual to a great extent in improving their academic
skills and the various other activities related to it. Another thing that I got to know is that reading
effectively helps in communications as well. So I aim to read daily and interpret that material in
my way so that my vocabulary, understanding increases, because a good vocabulary and an
increased knowledge act as a catalyst in improving communication systems. Good
communication skills will help me to be more interactive in class and outside and the more
interaction it will reflect on my bag of knowledge (Mason et al. 2017). Thus I aim to improve
both my communication and presentation skills by reading journals, books, articles, newspapers
daily and not just for the sake of reading it but to read it with purpose.
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Conclusion
This essay thoroughly discussed the basic conventions of academic writing and their importance.
It also discussed in detail how to read effectively for a specific reason and a purpose. I identified
here that I needed to work on my two academic skills to improve myself and those were
presentation skills and communication skills. This essay discusses how improvement in both of
these skills can improve my knowledge and my academic writing and other academic activities.
It also discusses how I aim to improve these skills with more reading and ways to make it a daily
habit.
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Reference list
Journals
Akkaya, A. and Aydin, G., 2018. Academics' Views on the Characteristics of Academic Writing.
Educational Policy Analysis and Strategic Research, 13(2), pp.128-160.
Fazilatfar, A.M., Elhambakhsh, S.E. and Allami, H., 2018. An investigation of the effects of
citation instruction to avoid plagiarism in EFL academic writing assignments. Sage open, 8(2),
p.2158244018769958.
HANIFI, A., 2020. ACADEMIC WRITING LEARNING SKILLS: TEACHING FACTS AND
EXPECTED REMDIES. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education-July, 10(3).
Mason, B.A., Hajovsky, D.B., McCune, L.A. and Turek, J.J., 2017. Conflict, closeness, and
academic skills: A longitudinal examination of the teacher–student relationship. School
Psychology Review, 46(2), pp.177-189.
Merga, M.K. and Roni, S.M., 2017. The influence of access to eReaders, computers and mobile
phones on children's book reading frequency. Computers & Education, 109, pp.187-196.
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REFERENCES
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