Academic and Personal Growth: A Reflective Portfolio Analysis

This report provides an evaluation of an individual's academic, professional, and personal development using portfolio evidences, including goal setting, teamwork, effective learning styles, and researching. It features a reflective statement on becoming an effective business management student through developing habits, creating a study timetable, and attending workshops. The report also explains models associated with academic and personal development, highlighting the importance of self-concept, will, perception, and self-esteem. Effective habits are discussed as essential for achieving goals, and the report reflects on how acquired skills assist in higher education and future success, emphasizing skills like time management, research, and teamwork.

Academic and Personal
Development

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Four portfolio evidences..............................................................................................................1
Reflective statement ....................................................................................................................4
Explanation of models of academic and personal development and how this has improved my
learnings.......................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Academic development refers to growth and progress of students in their academics.
Measures of growth can be done by comparing students last year scores to their current year
scores. It is essential for the prospering development of young students of community who have
the ability to do better and transition into successful adulthood by attaining occupational growth.
It assists an individual to utilise their experiences in their further plans to achieve great success
by reflection and development. The personal development is the growth of an individual by
reflective learning and which helps them to learn from their past mistakes and adopt better
methods. An individual should be aware of the various learning experience and different sources
from where they can improve themselves and enhance their skills. The aim of this report is to
evaluate the personal, professional and academic development of an individual with help of
portfolio evidences (Braxton and Francis, 2018). Various portfolio includes goal setting, team
workings, effective learning styles and researching. Next the reflective has been made about how
to be effective student of business management by developing habits, study timetable, attending
workshops. The last part discusses explanation of models associated with academic and personal
development.
Four portfolio evidences
Portfolio evidence is a accumulation of documents that an individual needs to collect to
demonstrate competence against measures of learning outcomes. Academic portfolio is summary
of important tasks and achievements, briefly providing the nature and degree of a student
contributions and accomplishments. The various type of portfolio are described below:
Goal setting- The plan for developing and motivating a student or a group of individual
so that they can attain their goal effectively is refer as goal setting. It can only be successful if the
person is dedicated about achieving that defined goal. Thus, goal setting involves commitment
and proper emotions as well as specified behaviour. Effective goal setting can be done through
analysing what is most important in one's life and it must create some benefits so that an
individual can stay committed to that throughout the time. Making a elaborate plan and setting a
timeline can also help in staying motivated. Goals are the elaborates version of dreams a person
wants to attain in future, thus they set potential and achievable goals keeping in mind all the
micro and macro elements (Burgess, van Diggele and Mellis, 2018). The set goals can only be
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transformed into action if an individual works hard to achieve it. To achieve my personal goals,
I am constantly working in that direction and tries to improve my skills and expertise in the
business management. My several academic, personal and professional goals are:
Short term goals- My personal goal is to study and learn effectively to improve my
academic grades. I have set goals for me to achieve academically so that they can help me
developing my professional life. For professional development, I want to be business executive
for which I enrol myself in business management studies (Pesut and Thompson, 2018). I learn in
deeply about all the aspects of business so that I can easily understand the tasks that will be
provided to me at my actual job.
Medium term goals- My goals for period of next three years is to get good gradings
academically so that I can get a job of business executive in a good company. Academic
development will further help me to maximise my performances and potential as well as
provides me with the experience needed to work as business executive (Cavanagh, Leeds and
Peters, 2019).
Long term goals- My goal for long run is to do my higher studies in business
management and to become an effective business executive. In order to achieve these goals I will
work with my full potential and do my best to became a successful business executive. For my
personal development, I will take on effective habits and skills which will always aid me in my
development.
Team working- It is characterized as the ability of people in a team to work together and
communicate things effectively by fulfilling each other demands as well as by inspire and
boosting confidence of all. It is considered important for academic and personal development of
students as it increases the rate of learning and motivates students to do better. When group of
people work simultaneously on a common goal then it result in timely completion of project
with maximise efficiency (Crow, Whitman and Anderson, 2020). Effective team working also
resulted in more encouragement, high productivity and less mistakes. Several team workings
skills that I can adapt to effectively achieve our goals are as follows:
Communication- It lays the foundation for individuals to work in an team. I will work on
my engaging skills with others so that I can effectively work in a team. I will talk openly with
my team members without any hesitations and I will be honest about my goals, expectations and
roles. It will create open line of communication between us and enable us to trust each other.
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Time management- It is important for us to be time bound to effectively carry out task
before deadlines. I will manage my time accordingly to keep my work up to date and ready
within given time. I will further help me to develop the skill of managing my time to various
duties in my professional life (Fox and Sease, 2019).
Problem solving- Working in a team will provide me various opportunities where I will
have to effectively solve problems. I will work on communication and listening skills to
effectively solve problems arising in my team. This method will help me to remove any
insufficiencies coming in between my team's success.
Listening- Team working involves listening to every individual's idea and opinions. I will
be open to listen to the perspective of my team members and their point of view in doing a
certain task. This will form the skill of good learner in me which I can further use in my
professional development.
Critical thinking- This allows everyone in the team to make more better and informed
decisions which can affect performances of team. I will contribute my efforts in team by
critically thinking about situations and by evaluating all aspects of an problem. It will further
develop my skill to have patience and to take necessary time to think before making any
decisions in my professional life (Helens-Hart, 2018).
Functions of self concept- It is the knowledge of individuals own abilities including their
beliefs, personality traits, values, goals, etc. Self concept is proactive, fluctuating and malleable
which can be change by social situations and motivations about own self knowledge. Academic
self concept is associated with and individual ability to learn and it can be highly impacted by
past academic performances. An individual's perception of themselves can have both positive
and negative impact on their development and efforts. It is essential for students as it enables
them to mange setbacks effectively rather than being demotivated by failure (Jones, 2022).
Through self concept they accept that failure is a part of life and there are enormous
opportunities they can have in future. The various functions of self concept are explained
underneath:
Will- It is the ability of an individual to being focused on their targeted goals. It can be
described as their aim to do or to achieve something. Will of an individual is a very personal
element which can be change by their current situations (Neves and Brito, 2020).
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Perception- It can be described as an individual's views or opinions about their pre
determined goals associated with academic or professional development. It allows student to
become more confident in their choices and make better career decisions. It provides students
with more experience of various things and provides them opportunities to explore.
Self esteem- It is a wide definition of the extent to which individuals value themselves. It
can boost confidence in students if they feel positive and get good grades academically. It also
refer to the beliefs of individuals that they can achieve great things in life. It provides students
with the motivation that they can accomplish any thing in their life by believing their worth.
Forming effective habit- Making and adopting effective habits is very essential for
achieving the set goals. Forming effective habit assists individuals to explore various areas in life
and then set goal in fields which are more attractive to them. Continuous practice of effective
habits can create enormous opportunities for students and can ease the process of achieving
goals. It can provide them with the outlines on how to do a particular task by effectively handle
problems (Leupold, Lopina and Erickson, 2020). Learnings of efficient habits is possible by
following several steps, first of which is examining the idea or interest that struck students mind
and analyse it to know that they wanted to pursue it further or not. If an individual thinks that the
idea is logical and it matches with their goal then they can act on that idea. One must observe the
changes in their development by adopting those ideas as it lays the foundation of effective
learning process. From analysing my past grades, I have understood which subject needs more
attention and give more time to that which aid me in getting better scores.
Reflective statement
Reflect on how acquisitions skills would assist me in my higher education
In my university module, I learned varied things that help me in excelling my differential skills
and competencies in the field of business management. Through my learnings which I have
attended in my university curriculum, I have excelled in the skill of time management. I have
improved my time management skills through preparing proper schedules for reading different
subjects. I have prepared a time table for analysing my knowledge in different subjects. I have
also set time for doing revision of subjects. This has done by me through consulting my tutors
about improving my time management skills. I have also attended various workshops for the
learning the time management skills apart from university curriculum. I have also attend team
working task which help me a experience of working effectively in team while maintaining my
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individual identity. Through my university learning, I had also learned how research plays an
important part in studies. It is important for me to have a brief understanding of varied subjects
that will help me in gaining knowledge which further aid me in higher education. It also helps in
learning the procedure for of setting goals for future life and helps me in getting knowledge
about varied other skills. I learned about varied types of goals such as long-term, middle and
short term goals. Through learning about research, I learned to make effective search of varied
topics and made it effective. Research skills are necessary for me to develop my insights about
varied topics. It is also helpful for me in higher education as there I have to do differential
projects. I learned that time management skills are compulsory as it helps me in gaining expertise
in managing my routine in an effective way. I can effectively manage my study time and time for
other activities in an effective manner. It is relevant for me as it helps me in gaining expertise of
varied subjects. Time management, leadership, team work skills are very helpful for me as they
would me helpful in having expertise in future life. This has helped me in having an expertise job
in an effective manner in my employability.
Reflect on how acquisition of skills would assist me to achieve personal and future success.
Acquisition of various skills that I adopted or will adopt in my academics will further
assists me to develop personal and professional life. I will work on my confidence as I am very
afraid of failure and does not take many opportunities for that reason. I will constantly motivate
myself to do better in academically and to handle situations effectively. This will aid me to take
better decisions about my personal life so that I would not feel like de motivated. As I want to
be a business executive in future so I will work on my leadership skills for which I will
participate in various projects. Leadership quality will further help me to lead a team of people
and deal with diverse minds effectively. The communication skills which I acquired by working
with a group of people as a team will help me to effectively communicate my ideas and opinions
to the people I will work with. Developing management skills will assists me to manage my
personal life with my professional life and which will help me to achieve great success in future.
I will work on my public speaking skill so that I can feel more confident about myself. It will
also eliminate the hesitations I have when I talk about my opinions or ideas (Magoqwana,
Maqabuka and Tshoaedi, 2019). The skill of critical thinking will allow me to make better
decisions for my future which will further provide me with more growth and success.
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Explanation of models of academic and personal development and how this has improved my
learnings
Academic model provides the outlines for students to have growth and development in
their personal life. It provides me with best opportunities to encourage my psychological
development. I have an extensive interaction with my learning environment which resulted in my
growth and progress. The model provides developing competence of students so that they
develop their both intellectual and social skills. It allows students to manage their emotions and
how to express themselves freely. This has helped me to improve my communication skills and
to broaden my critical thinking capacity. Academic development includes developing autonomy
in students so they learn to set their own goals and works towards achieving those. It created a
sense of direction in me and allow me to adopt new skills for problem solving. The model helps
in establishing a unique identity in students which allows them to see themselves differently
from others (McCune, 2019). This assists them to understand their identity, their relationship
with others and their talents. Through academic development model I get to improve my
relationship with other students and I also got the chance to explore my various talents.
Personal development model involves series of actions undertaken by an individual to
evolve into better person. It is a life long process that consists adoption of various actions and
skills until a person is content with themselves. The first stage of model involve exploration
where an individual can look into various measures that they think can result in better
opportunities. The major aim of this step is to provide an individual with choices of what all they
can do. By adopting various skill I got to know that my interest is in business management and
that I can effectively handle a group of people (Morris, Wood and Dang, 2020). Next part is
understanding which develop strong emotions and confidence in students that they can achieve
anything they desire. By understanding my desire to become a business executive I develop new
insights and learnings. In this way, I determine my goals which aligns with my strengths,
interests and values. Last stage is action which state that implementing everything into actual
actions that an individual learn. It helps me to take better decisions and to review what action
leads to what result. This allows me to accurately evaluate my personal development plan and
make any changes if necessary.
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CONCLUSION
As per the information presented above, it has been concluded that academic, personal
and professional development is essential for one's growth in life. It is a more structured and
organised process which is adopted by an individual to think about their own learnings,
performances, efforts and accomplishments. It provides measure to analyse one's own skills and
capabilities which they can consider to use in future and set goals according to that to maximise
their potential. Academic development enables students to acquire skills in writing, learnings and
readings as well as provide them with opportunities that involves critical thinkings. By involving
various activities in academic curriculum, students can be encouraged to pursue in more personal
development process. It further helps them to achieve an extensive understanding of their
learning process and enhances their study skills. It improves their ability to differentiate between
various opportunities so that they can choose what is best for them. Personal development is
refer to adopting skills which is require to improve one's talents and potential. When an
individual understand what they want to achieve, they effectively form various goals and habits
which aids them to achieve those efficiently. Professional development consists of evolving
oneself to understand and match job requirement with their skills. Good personal and
professional development comprises of understanding that an individual have proper knowledge
and skills of an area.
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REFERENCES
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