Personal & Professional Development: Reflective Journal & Skill Plan

This assignment presents a reflective journal detailing the author's journey in acquiring employability and study skills. It employs Gibb's Reflective Cycle to analyze experiences, focusing on descriptions, feelings, evaluations, analysis, and conclusions related to skills like communication, time management, teamwork, and research. The journal highlights the development process, challenges faced, and lessons learned. Furthermore, it includes a plan with specific objectives and actions to further hone these skills in the future, emphasizing continuous personal and professional growth. The document concludes that self-reflection is a useful tool for personal and professional development. Desklib is a website where one can find past papers and solved assignments for students.

Personal and professional
development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Achievement of employability and study skills with evidences......................................................3
A plan with objectives to hone these skills in the future..................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

TASK 2
Reflective Journal
INTRODUCTION
Reflective Journals are considered as the personal records of the learning experiences of the
students. This helps in learning as well as better understanding from a longer experience like a
course, time abroad or a placement. The process of reflective journal also facilitates in charting the
developmental process of an individual step by step along with looking back across the whole
period. In this project, a reflective journal is going to be prepared regarding the achievement of
employability as well as study skills (Hajisoteriou, Karousiou and Angelides, 2018). It also includes
the application of reflective model along with the evidences to achieve these skills. Furthermore, a
plan with objectives is also going to be discussed to hone such skills in future.
MAIN BODY
Employability skills are those transferable skills that are required by an person in order to
make them employable. These skills are about being capable and able of getting as well as keeping
fulfilment of the work. Study skills are those academic skills that helps in enhancing the ability of
an individual for learning, retaining and recalling the information or knowledge that facilitates
within the exams to pass them (Haslip and Donaldson, 2021). Within the existing module, I have
learnt various kinds of skills and some of these skills are communication skills, problem-solving
solving skills, researching skills teamwork and networking skills, time and self-management skills
and many more. The processes of achieving such skills is given below along with the evidences by
using the Gibb's Model of reflection.
Achievement of employability and study skills with evidences
Gibb's model of reflection is a tool that helps in identifying and examining the experiences.
This reflective model is specifically useful in order to help people learning from the situations that
are experienced by them on a regular basis (Julian and Ruiz, 2020). This model has helped me a lot
in achieving employability as well as study skills as it helps in making analysis of the situation by
exploring them. This reflective model has its five key stages and these are description, feelings,
evaluation, analysis and conclusion. The Gibb's model of reflection is described as under in relation
to the achievement of employability and study skills:
 Description: This is the first stage of Gibb's Reflective Cycle and at this stage I
accumulated the skills that were required to developed within me. When I was learning in
this module, I identified that I was lacking in communication skills, time and self-
management skills, researching skills, team-working skills and many more. So first of all, I
had thought to develop time and self-management skills and later I had developed the

remaining skills within me. For managing my time and self-management skills, I had
thought to prepare a time-table of myself which would facilitate me in showing what should
be done at a specific point of time. It would also help me in managing my family time, study
time and other activities in a proper manner. In order to develop communication skills, I
used to answer the questions of higher education that have asked within the classes.
Answering those questions involved putting opinions and thoughts together along with
making arguments. This has made my communication skills more effective and strong. For
developing researching skills, I thought to start writing on the different topics and these
topics forced me to think on the concepts as well as ideas which are related to those topics.
The process of thinking enabled me to search on the topics on the internet and from other
references. Another skill that I have developed after researching skill was team-working
skills. For evolving such type of skill, I took participation in the group assignment in which
each member of the team has assigned different roles. I had also set some rules of the team
as well as the purpose for sharing information. I have also solved different problems that
occurred in completing the assignment which has developed my problem-solving skills too.
Developing these employability and study skills within me facilitated me a lot in my further
studies and in the professional field too. These skills have built confidence in me that I can
do all the tasks and can face each situation.
 Feelings: This is second stage of Gibb's Reflective Cycle and at this stage I felt that my time
and the activities of daily-routine were not properly managed before preparation of
timetable. I also felt that I was not good in communication skills as I was not able to
communicate with strangers and even with friends and relatives sometime. Along with this, I
felt that I was not developed with team-working skills, problem-solving skills and
researching skills too. Before having such skills I felt nervous and thought that whether I
would be able to develop these skills within me or not. But anyhow I encouraged myself and
made efforts to develop these employability and study skills within me. After development
of such types of skills, I really observed that these skills would help me in my further
education and also in the professional field.
 Evaluation: This is the third stage of Gibb's Reflective model and at this stage I have
evaluated that making a timetable is a very complex thing and following it in a proper way
is more difficult than its preparation. So many papers got wasted in the preparation of
timetable but however, I prepared it and evaluated that if I would not able to follow it then
my efforts would go waste. For communication skills, I evaluated that I should read out the
content written by me in front of the mirror for knowing my body language at the time of
speaking. Also, I started to communicate with strangers too so that I would be able to

develop my communication skills. While developing researching skills, I evaluated that I
required to search more content in order to improve my researching skills. For evolving
team-working skills, I made an evaluation in relation to join the group work or assignments
so that I could feel comfortable in working within a team.
 Analysis: This is the fourth stage of Gibb's Reflective Cycle and at this stage I made an
analysis regarding the development of above employability and study skills. I analysed that
with the help of timetable, I was able to manage my time and my daily-routine activities
including the study and family time. By writing the content and speaking it in front of the
mirror and conducting communication with other people, I analysed that I was able to
develop communication skills within me. In relation to team-working skills, I made an
analysis that working in a team with various members and following the rules of team has
enabled me in developing team-working skills. By solving the problems while working
within a team has also developed my problem-solving skills. I also analysed that searching
a wide number of different topics on the internet and on other sources has also enabled me
in evolving researching skills within me. Now, I finally analysed that I was developed with
different employability and study skills in an effective manner.
 Conclusion: This is the last stage of Gibb's Reflective Cycle and at this stage, it is
concluded that the respective model of self reflection has helped me a lot in learning and
developing study as well as employability skills within me in a well-structured manner. It
has also facilitated me in analysing my loopholes so that I could improve them in an
effective way. This model has provided assistance to me in thinking critically and
analytically in a systematic way regarding experiences that I have gained.
A plan with objectives to hone these skills in the future
Skills Priority Action plan Resources Timeframe
Communication
skills
1 Having more
social meeting or
groups in order to
adapt learning
skills of one
another that
facilitate to speak
confidently and
get my point
access to
Reading books,
writing topics,
making use of
communication
applications such
as Slack, body
language,
communicating
with other people.
Within 1 week

everyone.
Time
management
skills
2 Working within a
specific deadline
in order to
manage the time
and prioritising
the task.
Scheduling the
task and the
deadline.
Alarms,
stopwatches,
prepared time
audits, making
use of right tools
such as calender,
time management
applications and
note-taking
software.
Within 1 week
Team-working
skills
3 Working within
the teams as well
as knowing the
behaviours and
the roles of each
member of team.
With the help of
taking sessions of
training, I can
improve my
team-working
skills.
Campaigns and
group members,
training sessions,
programs related
to teamwork
recognition.
Within 2 weeks
Researching skills 4 Verifying
information from
several sources,
reading library
books, staying
organised, using
advanced search
techniques.
Internet
Browsers,
Library,
magazines,
brochures,
journals and
newspapers
Within 1 week
CONCLUSION
From above explanation, it has been concluded that personal and professional development

facilitates an individual in developing various skills as well as abilities and also helps in enhancing
the base of knowledge. This project has been included a reflective journal on the achievement of
employability and study skills along with the evidences. This reflective journal has stated the
process and ways in which a person can develop its skills and abilities through the self reflection
model of Gibb's Reflective cycle. This model has helped in the development of various sets of skills
and capabilities that would be used in further education and at workplace also.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hajisoteriou, C., Karousiou, C. and Angelides, P., 2018. INTERACT: building a virtual community
of practice to enhance teachers’ intercultural professional development. Educational media
international. 55(1). pp.15-33.
Haslip, M. J. and Donaldson, L., 2021. What character strengths do early childhood educators use
to address workplace challenges? Positive psychology in teacher professional
development. International Journal of Early Years Education. 29(3). pp.250-267.
Julian, J. F. E. and Ruiz, F. B., 2020. Continuing professional development (CPD) among educators
in selected Colleges of Nursing: Perceived importance, impact, and challenges. Enfermería
Clínica. 30. pp.60-64.
Khayretdinova, A. K. and Narkulov, U. M., 2020. THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN
UZBEKISTAN. Мировая наука. (7). pp.142-150.
Ramani, S., McMahon, G. T. and Armstrong, E. G., 2019. Continuing professional development to
foster behaviour change: from principles to practice in health professions
education. Medical teacher. 41(9). pp.1045-1052.
Setiawati, S., Nurihsan, J. and Wardhani, N. S., 2019, December. Social Personal Competence of
Guidance and Counseling Teachers in Professional Development Program and the
Implication for Guidance and Counseling. In 5th International Conference on Education
and Technology (ICET 2019) (pp. 495-500). Atlantis Press.
Shinners, J., Africa, L. and Meyer, D., 2021. The Nursing Professional Development Role in
Fostering Professional Development, Leadership, and Academic Progression for New
Graduate Registered Nurses. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. 37(5).
pp.260-267.
Watts, D. S. and Richardson, J. W., 2020. Leveraging professional development to build
professional capital in international schools in Asia. Journal of Professional Capital and
Community.
Yurtseven Avci, Z., O'Dwyer, L. M. and Lawson, J., 2020. Designing effective professional
development for technology integration in schools. Journal of Computer Assisted
Learning. 36(2). pp.160-177.