Bucks Graduate Attributes: Reflective Commentary on Experiences

This reflective essay explores the relationship between theory and practice in work-related contexts, evaluating the implications of experiences, skills, competencies, and knowledge in relation to the Bucks Graduate Attributes. It highlights the application of learning from work-related experience...Read More

Reflective Commentary

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Critically reflect on the relationship between relevant theory and practice in work-related
contexts........................................................................................................................................3
Theory and practice of reflection.................................................................................................3
Relationship between theory and practice in social work............................................................3
Importance of theories to educational practice............................................................................4
Benefits of learning theories when developing educational strategies........................................4
Evaluate the implication of the experiences , skills and competencies and knowledge ............4
Demonstrate reflection on and apply learning from work-related experiences to future goals
and career plans. ..........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Personal development refers to the activities that develops the potential and capabilities
of an individual, builds the human capital , improvement of the employability skills and also
enhance the quality of life. It is necessary for an individual to continuously work on improving
their skills which helps in achieving the goals(Moreno, et.al, 2020. The reflective essay covers
the relationship between theories and practices related to the work -related, implication of the
experiences and skills in relation to the Bucks Graduate Attributes. The essay also highlights the
application of the leaning from the work related context for future goals and career plans.
MAIN BODY
Critically reflect on the relationship between relevant theory and practice in work-related
contexts
Theory and practice of reflection
Reflection is defined as the deliberate , purposeful and thinking action in which an
individual is involved in order to improve their professional practice. Reflective practices refers
to the practices that involves learning on the basis of evaluating one's performance in relation to
the experiences which helps in the professional and personal development. In the reflective
practices the learner identifies the values and beliefs and take action in order to develop and
improve them. They are two types of reflective practices that is Reflection-in-action and
reflection-on -action. Reflection--in-action refers to the cation that takes place during an action
and reflection - on –-action takes place after the event has happened. There are various theories
of reflection that is the Schon Reflective model, Gibbs reflective cycle etc.
Relationship between theory and practice in social work
Reflective practices is considered as and important concept in social work. These
reflective practices and theories helps in enhancing the effectiveness of the social work and the
improvements that can be made. I had a connection with the person who was involved in the
social work . Reflective practices is very important for social work as it helps in promoting
social change, development and also for the welfare of the society. With the helps of the
reflective practices it can be easily understand the human development , their behaviour. I
observed that how the social workers with their creativity and understand work with the
families , groups and communities.

Importance of theories to educational practice
With the application of Schon's model of reflection It can be realized that the reflection-
in-action teacher can constantly evaluate and monitor the progress of their actions which also
helps in analysing their teaching skills and performance that can improved in order to help the
students in enhance their learning skills with new and effective methods of teaching(Bassot,
2020). On the other hand that reflection -on- action helps the teacher to determine the impact of
their teaching patterns and also how they can make improvements to provide the students with
new methods.
Benefits of learning theories when developing educational strategies.
Learning theories refers to the theories that describes that how the students receive and
retain the knowledge . The factors such as cognitive, emotional environment affects their
learning. Educational strategies is defined as the preparing for the possible solutions and
finding the best and appropriate solutions for improving the learning of the students. With the
effective use of learning theories, teachers can design various new strategies that enhance the
learning and understanding of the students(Thompson, and Spenceley, 2019) . The application of
the effective learning theories will helps to provide students with new and advanced methods of
teaching and also helps me in analysing the knowledge that can be required for enhancing the
learning of the students. It will also help in building the knowledge of the students and also
helps me in improving my knowledge areas.
Evaluate the implication of the experiences , skills and competencies and knowledge
The Bucks Graduate Attributes lays emphasis on the development of the innovative
leaders in their professional and creative capabilities. The graduates of the Bucks are more
focussed on the leadership and self- development that will helps in their future development.
With the helps of my experience , it is very necessary for me to focus on my professional
development and continuous working on improving my time management and decision-making
skills as it will help to achieve my career goals (Sainz, et.al, 2019). Although from the
experiences I observed that I have strong communication skills which will helps me better
coordinate with my team members but on the other hand if I want to achieve my goals in the
future and pursue my career in teaching I have to improve my time management and decision-
making skills which will helps me take effective decision which can be beneficial for the
students. It is very important to have effective interpersonal skill helps an individual to give their

best performance and also maintain healthy relation with their fellows. In order to be successful
in my career it is very important for me to develop and improve my skills and focus on self-
development. I should develop and focus on developing my skills and improve my knowledge
area to be successfully. Every company or institution wants to hire the candidate who have
required skills and capabilities to perform the assigned job role. Various strategies are adopted
by the organization such as training and development programs for the development of the
employee (Hensel, et.al, 2021). In order to successful in my career I have to focus on building
my skills and knowledge in order to increase my efficiency and give better results which can
benefit me in the future. On the other hand, it is necessary to manage my work on time so that I
can balance my work and also maintain efficiency which can help in the future development for
my career. I should focus on improving my decision-making skill which will help me take
effective decisions and should be confidence about the decision made. I should develop the habit
of listening to the views and opinions of other which will helps me in taking decisions by
analysing the situation.
Demonstrate reflection on and apply learning from work-related experiences to future goals and
career plans.
The best reflective model that can be used for addressed the question is Gibbs model because it
is leading on the basis of six stage for exploring the experience by description, feeling, analysis,
conclusion and action plan. Reflection of learning help the student in order to analyse the simple
strategies that can provide meaningful routine. In context to reflect on learning experiences This
situation is related to when completing my internship in reputed company at that time analysed
that to uses the theoretical knowledge in practice one it is necessary to join any company
according to interest and chooses selected field. So, that it helps to enhance learning in order to
more focus on practical knowledge. On the basis of this internship I have learned a lot which are
as follows:
At the stage of feeling it has been analysed that it is necessary to face the situation in
more comfortable way by facings the challenging problems. Also, this is help for participates in
the work which is related to our interest such as to participate in decision- making (Powers,
Chen and Sheppard, 2018). For the career objective it is necessary for futures goals because it
helps to take advantages in interdisciplinary to take the decisions regarding different situation.

Also, it helps to solve the problem of employees in order to take tough decision. It is also
necessary to develop the knowledge regarding the work.
This has been analysed that in college we have maintained casual relation with friends
and family that helps to build good relationship with each other so that they can help in further
project and group assessment. During the internship I have analysed that this skill helps me to
face the situations for making good relation with colleague so that it helps to improve
communication skill as well as it helps to make people priority according to the work. My
colleagues are very helpful in order to develop the knowledge for making people more connect
by promoting professional team. This is one of best skill that helps to develop knowledge as well
as makes good relation (Abukhait, Bani-Melhem and Mohd Shamsudin, 2020).
In corporate every day is challenge because there are different perform in order to
enhance performance by their own. Also, faced very challenging situation which are impacted on
my internship such as excessive workload are affected me by working more than 15 hours as
days also in this situation this is analysed that’s it helps to improve my skill which is very
important for us. Further it has been analysed that it is also necessary to mores work on
challenges rather than opportunity because when the individual workings more on challenges its
help to provide more opportunity for enhance the work experience. It can understand the
situations and it will work for my future goals in order to focus more on development. This is
also helps for enjoying the late night works and project which are necessary for developing
knowledge also it is helpful for managing the work accordingly. This is important to look at the
positive side so that it help to create the positive relations with others in other to works mores on
that.
It has been concluded that it is important to focus on career development in order to
explain the profession by individual intended for pursuing through the year. This is also help for
job seeking in order to develop more interest in makings the effective action plan. My specific
future plan is related to enhance the knowledge regarding short term goals for getting good
positions in the reputed organization. For this will work more on developing my career which
help after completing my degree and so that will focus more on achieving the goal so that it helps
me in career developments for getting success and have the financial freedom. Then, career
development should be measurable in order to more focus on setting timeframe regarding
completing the short term goal that provide ultimate goal (Yuen,Tsang and Lee, 2019). This is

also necessary to visualise the success by managing the time frame which are related to develop
more success in order to facings the challenges so that its can affect the future planning.
Further, action plan is related to with the experience it has been analysed that it is
necessary to more focus on improving the skill that is interpersonal skill which is necessary to
more work on this. Also, it will improve my interpersonal skill by focusing more on academic
knowledge in order to focus on communication skill, verbal and non-verbal communication
which is help for solving the problem regarding team managing good relation with team. Then
this will be sharing my plan with my tutor so that they can provide me relent guidance in order to
improve the skill.
Gibbs model is used for easy to understand and easy to use also it allows for learn over
the time on the basis of experience in order to develop more balanced and accurate judgement.

CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that it is necessary to focus on career development regarding the
future, my career plan is related to getting good positions in repeated company such as Mark and
Spencer for the marketing manager because knowledge of marketing and for this will improve
my interpersonal skill that is necessary for focus on developing the skill of personal
management. It is important to know the career because it help to give the clarity for
development and improving the skills that can be help for achieving the goals. This will also help
for providing the nutrients of career development in order to focus on improving the quality,
higher self-esteem, job satisfaction, improved quality of life. Also, improve my interpersonal
skill by focusing more on academic knowledge in order to focus on communication skill, verbal
and non-verbal communication which is help for solving the problem regarding team managing
good relation with team. Study sharing my plan with my tutor so that they can provide me relent
guidance in order to improving the skill. Further, in life for every student it is important to set
career goals because it help to get the directions of achieving the goal.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abukhait, R., Bani-Melhem, S. and Mohd Shamsudin, F., 2020. Do employee resilience, focus
on opportunity, and work-related curiosity predict innovative work behaviour? The
mediating role of career adaptability. In Managing Knowledge, Absorptive Capacity
and Innovation (pp. 31-60).
Bassot, B., 2020. The reflective journal. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hensel, et.al, 2021. A small independent retailer's performance: Influenced by innovative
strategic decision-making skills?. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 6(4), pp.280-
289.
Moreno, et.al, 2020. Reflective practices in community development: A grounded
analysis. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 33(5), pp.501-525.
Powers, K., Chen, H. and Sheppard, S., 2018, January. Exploring How Engineering Internships
and Undergraduate Research Experiences Inform and Influence College Students’
Career Decisions and Future Plans. In Proceedings of the American Society for
Engineering Education Annual Conference, June 24-27. 2018. Salt Lake City, Utah..
Sainz, et.al, 2019. Time management: skills to learn and put into practice. Education+ Training.
Thompson, C. and Spenceley, L., 2019. Learning theories for everyday teaching. SAGE.
Yuen, M., Tsang, J.C. and Lee, B.S., 2019. Career education and vocational training in Hong
Kong: Implications for school-based career counselling. International Journal for the
Advancement of Counselling. 41(3). pp.449-467.
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