Reflective Report on the Benefits of the Module for Development

This reflective report provides a detailed analysis of the benefits derived from a professional development module, focusing on the enhancement of both academic and employability skills. The report explores various aspects of the module, including the development of traditional intellectual skills, personal attributes, and critical skills, all of which are vital for academic success and future employment. The author discusses the application of learning theories, particularly Kolb's learning cycle, and its impact on understanding different learning styles. Furthermore, the report delves into the importance of self-assessment, problem-solving techniques, and effective communication skills. It also covers the creation of a curriculum vitae, job application strategies, and the significance of academic research. The report also includes a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and concludes with a reflection on the overall impact of the module on the student's personal and professional growth. The report highlights how the module has contributed to the student's ability to critically evaluate information, communicate effectively, and prepare for future career endeavors. The report also emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, adaptability, and the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations, thus improving employability.

Running head: REFLECTIVE REPORT ON THE BENEFITS OF THE MODULE
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Reflective Report on the Benefits of the Module
Eddy Varela
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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Reflective Report on the Benefits of the Module
Throughout the semester, this module has developed my knowledge and understanding of
independent work experience, thus acting as an opportunity for academic and personal
development. The module's main gain was to aid students to analyze and reflect upon the various
learning styles critically, plan on how each student can develop them, evaluate one’s strengths
and weaknesses, and learn from the experience. Thus, it instills the knowledge and skills of
organizational structures, making sense of learning through self-awareness, formulating
curriculum vitae that are crucial credentials for job applications, as well understanding various
theories of learning such as Kolb's theory. Therefore, this paper will vividly provide a reflective
report about how the learning of this module has helped me develop myself both academically
and in terms of employability.
From the module’s readings, various skills were taught and these skills such as traditional
intellectual skills, personal attributes, personal and critical skills, and knowledge about how an
organization works, are vital to me as a student and also relate to my employability as a graduate.
Commencing on the traditional intellectual skills, I can critically evaluate discussions with facts
and evidence. Thus, I can argue logically by applying the skills into practice, approach both
quantitatively and qualitatively contemporary concerns, as well as challenge some of the
assumptions that are not based on facts. Academically, these skills have helped have a good
relationship with my fellow course mates as I frequently present useful arguments. Also, the
traditional intellectual skills help to increase the chances of acquiring job opportunities as I can
appropriately give my logical reasoning. This logical reasoning empowers societies to promote
their knowledge, manage their uses, as well as benefit from its commercial exploitation (Smith,

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2016; Amin & Hasbullah, 2018). The personal and critical skills have helped academically by
instilling the knowledge of excellent communication. As a student, excellent communication as
helped me manage my learning environment since I can avoid or solve problems that may lead to
disagreement. In terms of employability, personal and critical skills can help me work
appropriately with others by handling and managing oneself (Arnedillo-Sanchez & Tseloudi,
2017). Besides, this can be a factor of promotion as a leader in workplace situations. The
personal attributes that I learned from this module readings have helped me acquire the
knowledge on how to improve my self-reliance skills. Thus, self-reliance skills have improved
my adaptability, flexibility, reliability, and resilience in nature. Specifically, being adaptable
means that I can easily change from one work environment to another. Thus, this skill can
improve my employability as I can easily shift from any work environment so quickly (Rust &
Froud, 2016). Finally, from the module, I have accessed the knowledge of how organizations
work through understanding their various structures, programs, as well as their aims and
objectives. Gaining this knowledge, I can keenly evaluate the appraisal procedures of my
proposed workplace that acts as a tool for increasing one's productivity in the workplace
environment (Vidyullatha, Usha & Reddy, 2016). Nevertheless, each of the four skills is crucial
to work experience, but one should consider the central type of work that one is willing to do.
However, consideration, such as gaining knowledge on how organizations work through a
critical evaluation procedure, improves one’s performance.
Throughout the module's unit of making sense of learning through self-awareness, I have
gained knowledge on the various ways to learn. Notably, it is through understanding the way we
prefer to learn that we quickly develop and practice different ways of learning and hence
becoming active learners (Jackson, 2017). From the learning theory and styles model of Kolb

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that was formulated in 1984, I have learned that the learning theory works on two levels, i.e.,
four separate learning styles and a four-stage cycle of learning (Tomkins & Ulus, 2016).
Academically, I have gained insights that the active experimentation stage simply involves
planning or instead practicing what one has learned. On the other hand, the concrete experience
stage consists of the art of having an experience, and the reflective observation stage consists of
the art of reviewing or reflecting on the background, as well as the abstract conceptualization
stage that generally concludes the learning experience. This learning process can help me
understand situations in workplaces since I can face a new experience or circumstance with
much ease. I can do this by reflecting on the experience to understand any hidden inconsistencies
between understanding and experience, reflect the status to give rise to a new idea, and finally
apply the concept to the entire society. Thus, as Kolbs states that learning process is a necessary
process with each stage being supportive, then it makes it easy for me as a student to enter the
cycle at any stage and follow the logical sequence (Schultz, McEwen & Griffiths, 2016; Barker,
Lencucha & Anderson, 2016). Thus, the fact Kolb outlines that the various factors that influence
a person's preferred style, such as the basic cognitive structure of the individual, social
environment, and educational experiences, create awareness to me, thus improving my
employability.
Besides, this module has helped me gains insights on how to go about self-assessment.
Academically, through the practices that the educator emphasized to us, I can effectively manage
myself with no assistance from my educator. In a classroom environment, I have been able to
adapt to the various range of academic skills such as analysis and synthesis and manage my time
well through meeting the assignment deadlines and get to classes on time. This will also help my
employability as I will get to workplace interviews and appointments on time (Kyoung, Lattuca

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& Alcott, 2017; Sharmaet et al., 2016). Also, I have gained skills in setting realistic goals such as
the pass marks for my semester results, clarify personal values, evaluating my potential for
employability, as well as improving my intellectual flexibility. In the workplace environment,
this specific skill will help me realize the various ways of approaching and solving a problem.
The most crucial part of self-assessment that this module can help me both academically and in
terms of employability is the procedure of problem-solving. As the module illustrates, the most
commencing step is observing the critical features of the problem, think about the issues,
conceptualize the concerns, come up with the options, brainstorm the solutions, plan and
implement a course of action, implement solutions, and evaluating the solutions into actions. On
the other hand, the course module has improved my communication skills as I can present both
oral and visual information appropriately. Also, I have gained expertise in how to use appropriate
language in a range of assignments, such as interviews, reports, presentations, and essays.
Besides, I can effectively construct criticism and listen actively and effectively to my opponents’
arguments. Finally, I can format written documents with minimal punctuation and grammar
mistakes as well as use illustrations such as charts and diagrams to support my arguments.
Nevertheless, these skills are vital to my future employability, as I can present my arguments or
logical reasoning to my employers or employees. Therefore, these skills act as a tool for
increasing the chances of employability rate.
Additionally, the module has equipped me with skills in analyzing my strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Thus through these skills, I have been able to identify
some of my strengths that I had initially not realized. After conducting an honest SWOT analysis
of myself, some of these strengths that are so vital in both academically and employability that I
came to realize include analytical skills, research, and writing skills, attention to detail, ability to

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take the initiative, hardworking, reliable, and honest. Despite the numerous strengths, I realized
that I was poor in keeping time, lacked confidence when dealing with my fellow course mates
and the general members of the society, and I lacked the database, PowerPoint, and spreadsheet
skills. However, some of the opportunities that my strengths hold are the ability to gain
experience of dealing with people, working abroad as an educator, formulate as well as
strengthen good teamwork, get wealthy by earning more money, and get the knowledge of the
world of work. Unfortunately, some of my threats, such as language barriers, transport concerns,
and fitting into my dreamed organization culture, may slow down my progress. To develop my
strengths and weaknesses areas and minimize the threats as well as maximizing opportunities, I
am obligated to actively improve my personal and critical skills (Mueller, Vatter & Schmid,
2016). Besides, developing my own needs by being clear on what I want to achieve both
academically and in aspects of future employability will generally assist in improving my
strengths.
Furthermore, the module has helped me gain skills in writing and completing curriculum
vitae, job application letters, and academic essays. Notably, to come up with a professional
curriculum vitae, the module has mentioned several requirements. Some of these requirements
include a 2-page length paper, should contain zero errors, and holds my full contact details such
as my name, address, nationality, and others. Besides, the education details should be provided in
a reversed chronological order, workplace experiences, and a section covering my skills and
achievements (Hirst, 2018). Thus, this will aid my employability chances as a great CV creates
the right mindset and reduces the legwork in my future job search. Besides, a great CV improves
self-esteem and self-confidence during an interview, creates a buzz of excitement, as well as
offers a firm footing for the future (Lawson, 2017). Thus, the knowledge of formulating a good

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CV will increase the chances of creating a good impression during a face to face interview, and
thus making it worthy of spending a lot of time and effort on the presentation and the content
(Craven, 2016). On the other hand, the module’s reading on ways of writing cover letters as well
as supporting statements for a job application will create awareness on how to approach a real
graduate job application forms. According to the module's readings, some of the frequently asked
questions are not usually related to one's degree subject. Having noted that, I could be aware and
ready for such questions that aim at testing one's employability skills and attributes. Thus, the
fact that these questions are designed to reveal how manageable I can be or how willing I am to
learn and see if I can stand out from the crowd will keep me alert in future job application
interviews.
Also, the module has equipped me with skills in academic essay research and the
knowledge of formulating an excellent bibliography as well as in-text referencing. From the
module, I have gained the expertise to provide evidence through critical thinking and the ability
to transfer my academic experience from my educational program to the work experience. As a
student, I am obliged to demonstrate a critical awareness of the module’s learning process and
reflect on and evaluate learning from the work experience. Furthermore, I should be able to offer
an understanding of the critical contemporary issues arising from the workplace setting and the
learning acquired from the module. Academically, I can demonstrate the ability to provide a
linkage between the module's knowledge and the critical concepts learned in the general
academic curriculum. Furthermore, the course has helped me understand the facts about
academic in-text referencing and understand the definition of bibliography as a list of all the
sources that I have read and used in a paper. Also, I have realized that the works cited or
references should be placed on a new page (Perkins, 2016). Besides, the module has taught me

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the definition of plagiarism as any illegal behavior that might interfere with the general marking
assessment of assignments. Thus, I realized the negative implication of plagiarism as a severe
academic offense that might lead to expulsion from the university.
Conclusively, this module has helped me gain various skills that are crucial to me as a
student and improve my employability status. Thus, I have developed my personal and critical
skills, become a reflective practitioner as well as an autonomous learner, and use the transfer of
skills effectively. Besides, I have built my strengths and develop my weak areas as a measure of
increasing my employability skills.

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Arnedillo-Sanchez, I., & Tseloudi, C. (2017, September). ESCORT: employability skills content
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Barker, D. J., Lencucha, J., & Anderson, R. (2016). Kolb’s learning cycle as a framework for
early fieldwork learning. World Federation of Occupational Therapists Bulletin, 72(1),
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Craven, M. (2016). CV writing-getting it right. Dental Nursing, 12(6), 342-343.
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integrated learning. Higher Education, 74(5), 833-853.

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Kyoung, H., Lattuca, L. R., & Alcott, B. (2017). Who Goes to Graduate School? Engineers’
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