Individual Presentation and Reflective Journal: Personal Development

This report details a student's experience in a 'Personal and Professional Development' module, focusing on a presentation assignment and a reflective journal. The student reflects on their nervousness and lack of presentation skills, which were overcome through encouragement and teamwork. Using Gibbs' reflective cycle, the report analyzes the experience, including the challenges faced in communication, research, and teamwork. The student identifies strengths in time management and problem-solving, while recognizing weaknesses in communication and research skills. The report concludes with a plan to improve communication and research abilities through classes, online resources, and guidance from teachers and seniors, demonstrating a commitment to personal and professional growth. The report highlights the importance of self-reflection and the practical application of learning experiences to improve skills and enhance future employment opportunities.

Personal and Professional
Development

Contents
TASK 1 - Individual Presentation Paper.........................................................................................1
Covered in presentation...............................................................................................................1
TASK 2 - Reflective Journal...........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

TASK 1 - Individual Presentation Paper
Covered in presentation
TASK 2 - Reflective Journal
INTRODUCTION
A reflective journal is referred as the way of thinking in analytical and critical way regarding
the work in progress. It is the personal record of learning experiences of an individual which
provides a means to record personal thoughts, ideas and experiences and integrate them into day
to day experiences as well as future actions (Börjesson, Cedersund, and Bengtsson, 2015). This
will help an individual in improving his or her skills along with enhancing creativity and critical
thinking. This is a reflective report which is based on my personal experience that I gain in the
module and the way it contributed in accomplishment of employability and study skills. By using
Gibbs reflective cycle, I reflect on my own experience in this report which I gained during the
module.
MAIN BODY
Personal reflection is referred as an opportunity to reconsider feelings, thoughts and events from
a very new or fresh perspective. It enables an individual to emphasize on own experiences and
reflect on them. It helps in personal and professional growth of an individual as through this, an
individual is able to identify his or her own strength and weaknesses and provide them with the
opportunity to take future course of action to improve them. In this reflective report, I reflect on
my own experience that I again during attending the module. In this reflection, I make use of
Gibbs reflective cycle in order to perform the reflection in systematic way. Use of Gibbs
reflective cycle enables me to effectively reflect on the occurrences and events and learn from
them. This model enables me to think systematically regarding the experiences all earnings they
had during a particular situation. The model includes 6 stages; description, feelings, evaluation,
analysis, conclusion and action plan (Gibert, Tozer, and Westoby, 2017). By taking these six
stages as a base, I reflect on my own experience below in systematic manner:
I am a student studying in the module 'personal and professional development'. During
studying in the module, my teacher was assigned with the task to prepare an individual
presentation paper on the basis of my analysis of leadership style or skills of Jeff Bezos who is
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the CEO of Amazon Inc. When I was assigned with this task by my tutor, I felt very nervous as
this was my first time and I never give any presentation before. However, the task was assigned
to me to perform in a group, but still I felt nervous and thought about how can I perform it. At a
time, my morale and confidence level were also declined and I refused to give presentation. At
that time, my tutor motivated and encouraged me to perform and my team members also insist
me to give presentation. That was suddenly improved my confidence I take a step ahead to give
the presentation. As the presentation needs to be e present in group, the task of each individual is
divided. My task was to collect data on the topic and present that in front of the class room (Koh,
Hong and Tan, 2018).
At the time of giving presentation, I felt nervous and hesitated as my verbal communication
skills was not so good due to which I was not able to interact with others effectively and convey
information on the topic in front of class. When I have given presentation, my voice was
shivered and I felt very nervous which lower down my entire confidence level. I stuck in
between the presentation and not able to say a single word. Then, my teacher guided me and
motivated me to perform further and other classmates also insisted me to continue the
presentation. Their encouragement helped in improving my confidence level which enabled me
to give the presentation again. After giving the presentation, my classmates as well as my teacher
appreciated me for my performance which helps in improving my confidence level. My good
team working skills helped me in performing in team in more effective way. Due to my good
team working skills, I was able to work in coordination and cooperation with each other and
performed the assigned task in well manner. When I started to present on the topic, I felt that if I
am not able to perform effectively, what my classmates think about me. But after giving the
presentation, I felt happy and relaxed and all my team members, teacher and my classmates
appreciated me which boosted up my morale and motivation level.
At the time when I started researching on the topic, I faced difficulties due to my less effective
research skills. I haven't any knowledge about how to search, what keywords can be used to
search, which source is authenticated and which sources is not authentic, which type of content I
needed to include in the presentation etc. Due to all these things, I faced difficulty in collecting
content over the topic (Schmutz and Eppich, 2017). At that time, I take help of my group
members. They helped me in gathering data and prepare presentation in appropriate way. During
given the presentation, there are many things that went well including my team working abilities.
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I was able to perform effectively with my team members due to my good team working skills.
Apart from this, my time management and self-management skills are also good which help me
in performing the assigned task within specified time. In collecting data on a topic, a lot of time
what's required. But due to my effective time management skills, I was able to collect a lot of
information on the topic in very less time which helped me in preparing the presentation on time
and presented that in classroom on assigned date. However, some of the things was also there,
which didn't went well. It includes my ineffective communication skills. I faced many difficulties
due to ineffective communication skills. I was not able to interact with others appropriately and
convey them what want to say clearly. Apart from this, due to my less effective research skills, I
also faced problem in identifying the authentic sources from which i required to include
information in my presentation. But with the guidance of my team members and teacher, I was
able to perform well (Vanderhoven, Schellens, and Valcke, 2016).
If I possess good communication skills, then I was able to give presentation more
effectively and communicate all the information more clearly to others. While working in group,
some issues raised, which I was able to resolved due to my good problem solving skills. But, I
realized that if I have effective problem solving skills, then I was able to resolve the issues that
takes place in the group more effectively and perform the assigned task more appropriately.
From the overall experience that I gained by undertaking the module, I learnt so many
things which will help me in my personal growth and contributed highly in my professional
growth as well. It helped me in improving my knowledge base and competencies and also
enabled me to perform well. If I will get the another chance to give presentation on the similar or
other topic, then the experience I gained from this module will help me in performing the task
more appropriately and effectively. If I faced the similar situation again, I will be able to handle
that situation if more appropriate way.
By the entire experience that I get from the module, I realized that I need to work upon my
communication skills along with my research skills. In order to improving those skills, I will take
different measures so that I am able to enhance skills which will further help me in getting good
employment opportunities (Volkov, and Volkov, 2015). For improving my communication
skills, I will join communication classes and along with this I will take help of online sessions
and videos. This will help in improving my communication skill and enable me to interact more
effectively to others. In addition to this, for improving my research skills, I will take help of my
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teachers and seniors. I will also search more and more topics on internet so that I get knowledge
about that and able to enhance my I research skills.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it has been concluded that reflecting on own experience
will help an individual identifying strengths and weaknesses that helps in taking appropriate
measures to make them more effective. Gibbs reflective model helps in performing the reflection
systematically and provides the individual with an opportunity to express their feelings, thoughts,
ideas and experiences that they gain from a particular situation, event or accident.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Börjesson, U., Cedersund, E. and Bengtsson, S., 2015. Reflection in action: Implications for care
work. Reflective Practice, 16(2), pp.285-295.
Gibert, A., Tozer, W.C. and Westoby, M., 2017. Teamwork, soft skills, and research
training. Trends in ecology & evolution, 32(2), pp.81-84.
Koh, E., Hong, H. and Tan, J.P.L., 2018. Formatively assessing teamwork in technology-enabled
twenty-first century classrooms: exploratory findings of a teamwork awareness
programme in Singapore. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 38(1), pp.129-144.
Schmutz, J.B. and Eppich, W.J., 2017. Promoting learning and patient care through shared
reflection: a conceptual framework for team reflexivity in health care. Academic
Medicine, 92(11), pp.1555-1563.
Vanderhoven, E., Schellens, T. and Valcke, M., 2016. Changing Unsafe Behaviour on Social
Network Sites. Collaborative Learning vs. Individual Reflection. In Youth 2.0: Social
Media and Adolescence (pp. 211-226). Springer, Cham.
Volkov, A. and Volkov, M., 2015. Teamwork benefits in tertiary education. Education+
Training.
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