Professional & Career Development: Reflective Portfolio Analysis

This report presents a reflective portfolio focused on professional and career development. It includes a SWOT analysis identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, along with a personal development plan (PDP) outlining strategies for skills improvement, particularly in leadership a...Read More

Professional and
Career development

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

INTRODUCTION
Professional development helps a person in boosting their confidence and learning important
abilities that could assist them in enhancing their personality in their career (Bridgstock, 2019).
This part of the report covers SWOT analysis and Personal development plan along with learning
theories as well as reflection of a person.
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.
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Personal Development Plan
Skills How will I
improve?
How will I
measure success
Who will review Time duration
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 (Dos
Santos, 2020). 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
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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:
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
(Kwon and Cho, 2020). 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 (Koo, Lingappan and Song, 2020). 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 (Osborn and et. al., 2022). 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.
Reflection
From my personal experience and learning, I can say that learning and acquiring new
things is very important in life, especially to make and build a career in the desired field. I would
like to grow and develop myself in teaching area. It is one of the most important and respective
field which helps to improve the knowledge of one throughout his or her life. I realised the value
of learning and acquiring knowledge as one can never know how things will help in the crucial
times. From my childhood, I always want to be teacher in the best and reputed university so that
I can give my knowledge to my students. In order to get a specific job I needed to acquire
various skills and knowledge so that I can be able to grab the job opportunities. As I want to
grow in teaching line, I was required to prepare myself for the job interview so that I can get the
desired employment. I prepared myself for the interview process for which I acquire some
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information or sample tests so that can be ready for the interview process. I researched what
questions or what type of questions I might get asked by the interviewer. I found some samples
such as most common questions that a interview can ask is “tell me about yourself”, “tell me
how you got your interest in teaching field”, “what are the basic subjects you can teach in the
university”, how much experience do you have in the teaching area” and many more. All such
questions helped to get prepared for the interview process. During my learning and module, I
was also get a chance to do an open book assessments. These kind of assessments helped to me
develop my various skills and knowledge and also made me to do tasks on certain and definite
time period. This assessments allowed me to access helping materials such as textbooks, notes
which are hand made, conclusions and other resources in order to answer the set of questions. I
also granted a definite time period in order to complete my tasks and activities. My mentors gave
me twenty-fours hours to prepare one of the assignment. Hence, this activity while learning
helped me to grow my time-management skills through which I am now able to perform my
duties on time and meet deadlines as well. While learning knowledge, I was able to gain the
information about the UK's employment laws and legislation. I realised that these laws helps UK
citizen to protect their rights in the job while living in country. It also make me obliged to
perform duties and responsibilities in certain circumstances in order to avoid bad implications of
such laws. Many significant laws I came to know such as national minimum wage act, 1998 in
order to get minimum wage rates by the employers, equality act, 2010, helps human to protect
from the age or gender discrimination, family and medical laws, 1993, will allow me take leaves
(paid or non-paid leaves) from the organisation to take career of family or even myself. There
were also certain things happened while I was learning module such as I realised the value of
preparing an attractive CV, cover letter which helps to demonstrate my abilities, skills,
knowledge, learning and many more. Learning module also helped me to know my key areas in
which I am good and on which I needed some improvements. Analysing my personal strengths
also helps me to work efficiently and effectively. I realised that I am good at communication and
understand other's point of view as well. It helps to make a strong bond and relationships which
further support to grab various opportunities. While I found that at some point I was weak at
leading and directing people and in teaching field, it reflects as the most essential skills which is
needed in me. Therefore, I also got a chance to build leadership skills within me. Overall, I can
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say that learning module gave me various chances to grow and develop myself so that I can get a
bright future for myself.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been evaluated that Personal SWOT analysis helps to find
the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of a person. It has also been observed that
learning theories helps an individual in improving their personalities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bridgstock, R., 2019. Employability and career development learning through social media:
Exploring the potential of LinkedIn. In Challenging future practice possibilities (pp.
143-152). Brill.
Dos Santos, L.M., 2020. Exploring International School Teachers and Professional School
Staffs' Social Cognitive Career Perspective on Lifelong Career Development: A Hong
Kong Study. Journal of Education and E-Learning Research, 7(2), pp.116-121.
Koo, J., Lingappan, K. and Song, C., 2021. National professional society augments career
development and leadership amongst neonatal fellows and early career
neonatologists. Journal of Perinatology, pp.1-4.
Kwon, K. and Cho, D., 2020. Developing trainers for a changing business environment: The role
of informal learning in career development. Journal of Career Development, 47(3),
pp.310-327.
Osborn, D.S. and et. al., 2022. Career practitioners’ response to career development concerns in
the time of COVID‐19. The Career Development Quarterly.
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