Reflexive Practice Report: Self-Awareness and Professional Development

This report examines reflexive practice, defined as a subjective understanding of reality based on critical thinking about assumptions, actions, and values. The report is divided into three parts: a literature review exploring the importance of self-awareness in developing professional identity, including the CIPD framework; a reflection on the research methods used, specifically action research and the Gibbs cycle for personal data analysis; and a creative writing section featuring storyboards to illustrate the concepts. The research aims to understand the role of self-awareness and reflexive practices in enhancing performance and fostering professional identity, utilizing theoretical frameworks and practical methodologies to analyze personal experiences and promote professional development.

Applying Critical Reflective
Practice
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CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Aim and research context............................................................................................................3
Literature review..........................................................................................................................3
Bibliography................................................................................................................................5
PART 2: REFLECTION ON RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA ANALYSIS......................6
Research methodology.................................................................................................................6
Method for personal data analysis...............................................................................................6
Personal data justification............................................................................................................7
Evaluation of research design......................................................................................................7
Bibliography................................................................................................................................7
PART 3: REFLEXIVE PRACTITIONER STORYBOARD..........................................................9
Storyboards..................................................................................................................................9
Bibliography..............................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
The reflexive practice is defined as the subjective understanding of the realty which is
based over thinking in a more critical manner regarding the impact of assumption, action, values
and others. These practices support in developing understanding about how one can constitute
the reality and determine rational way to remain collaborative and responsive toward work. The
current report is divided into three section where part one is consist of literature review, second
part detail about the research methods used and this part is a creative writing about story board.
PART A
Aim and research context
The main aim behind conducting this research is to develop an understanding about self
awareness as well as importance of reflexive practices within one’s life to improve their overall
performance and developing a professional identity. This is so because the reflexive practices is
one which allows an individual to look after their past actions performed and based on its
understanding from the right nod wrong actions the further improvement over the actions can be
improved (Jackson, 2016.). This in turn support in enhancing the quality of performance they
exert. But to develop a proper understanding about the way in which the self awareness quality
and practice create professional identity or professional self image. The first and foremost thing
is to implement the research points to develop understanding that can be done with the help of
literature review. This in turn further support in making exploration about reflecting over the
occasion which form up the self image and identity. From the above given two research context,
this report consider Formal professional identity by the behaviour or values framework by
making use of CIPD framework that will be discussed with the help of literature review.
Literature review
Each research required a set of theoretical direction in order to ensure that the better
understanding can be develop to clear the area of further investigation. In context of the current
aim of the research i.e. importance of self awareness within developing professional identity the
views has been presented by Kalet, A., Buckvar-Keltz, L., Harnik, V., Monson, V., Hubbard, S.,
Crowe, R., Song, H.S. and Yingling, S., 2017 That self awareness support an individual is
determining the gaps within their management practice that further support in promoting the skill
development. Other than this it also support in determining the situation which support an
individual in getting more effective and assistive within decision making which in turn further
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assist within stress management and motivation of oneself. The self awareness plays a major role
in directing the people toward taking better action by determining their true self as well as
getting clear about the best possible action they can take to deal with particular situation.
On the other hand according to Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G.A., Schaffer, B.S. and Leah,
J.S., 2018, self-awareness about the particular thing come from the experience and reflective
practice that a develop a sense of wise action to be taken by an individual to perform a particular
task. Addition to this it also supports in developing a motivation factor among individual by
directing them toward right pathway as well as supporting them in developing a better
enhancement in term of their skills and capabilities. This in turn further creates opportunity to the
professional development as well as personal growth. This can be better understood with the help
of CIPD framework which contain certain standards that assist in professional development and
plan the career path. The mapping of CIPD consist of three area such as
Professional areas: This part of the framework support within determining the set of
actions that need to be taken into consideration in order to enhance the skills and capability.
Other than this it also support within determining the pathway that an individual must adopt in
order to work over their professional area.
Behaviour: This is consider to be an essential part of professional development which
mainly focuses over determining the kind of behaviour that an individual must follow in order to
perform their work in more professional manner. This mainly describe about the kind of
behaviour an individual require to develop which suites their professionalism and help in
developing the professional competency so that they can deal with the challenges that are involve
within the professional role.
Band and transition: This consist of some major areas that are related with the
professional competencies that help in determining the contribution that every such area support
in development of professional identity. The main bands are developing fundamentals about the
situation, advising and managing the team, remain cooperative with partner and leadership to
execute the decision made.
These all are the part of CIPD framework or its stages which support an individual to
move through range of factors and be able to get themselves developed in term of professional
identity that further help them in getting guided over the pathway of getting professional and
personal development.
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Bibliography
Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G.A., Schaffer, B.S. and Leah, J.S., 2018. Self-awareness and
leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an
MBA leadership course. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1),
pp.1-13.
Kalet, A., Buckvar-Keltz, L., Harnik, V., Monson, V., Hubbard, S., Crowe, R., Song, H.S. and
Yingling, S., 2017. Measuring professional identity formation early in medical
school. Medical teacher, 39(3), pp.255-261.
Jackson, D., 2016. Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-
professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(5), pp.925-939.
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PART 2: REFLECTION ON RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA
ANALYSIS
Research methodology
The research methodology is defined as the main part of a researcher which represent
detail about the set of tools, techniques and methods that ae used to perform an investigation in
appropriate manner. This section of a research help the researcher in performing the set of
activiti8es within investigation in appropriate manner. other than this also support in guiding the
work in appropriate direction. The current report is about the research of personal data to
determine the importance of the self-awareness in developing the personal identity. In order to
conduct this investigation, action research is taken into consideration. The action research is an
interactive inquiry process which support in creating a balance within the problem solving and
actions implemented within the collaborative context along with the data driven collaborative
analysis or research. This help in developing an understanding about the underlying causes
which enables the future predication related with the personal as well as organisational change.
Method for personal data analysis
For ensuring appropriate findings toward determining the ways of personal and
professional development it is decided that I will use Gibbs cycle framework which support me
in presenting the most accurate data by assisting me over gathering data as per my experience
and what I learnt from that experience. The model is mainly consist of five stages where each
part move one after the another and support in developing learning from the experience that one
is having through a particular situation. The manner in which I will be using Gibbs cycle for
gathering my personal data is mentioned below:
 Description: This is the first stage of Gibbs cycle where I actually try to explore my past
experiences and try to conclude them in a meaningful manner by describing about the
situations that I have experienced. This in turn further help me in determining the detail
about actual situation what went right and wrong as well as what is the learning about the
strength and weaknesses of mine throughout the experience (Sekarwinahyu and et. al.,
2019).
 Feeling: At this stage I would try to explore about the feeling that I had at a particular
situation and while performing the actions within that situation. This must also consider
the evaluation of feeling that I current have about my past experience related with that
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situation. These all remain crucial to me in gathering the data about myself in term of
way I handle the situation, action I took and my feeling behind that particular situation.
 Evaluation: After both of the above stages considered and the information is being
collected the next in this stage I will try to evaluate all the gathered information. This will
support me in determining the positive and negative factor about the situation, along with
the information like what went right and what not as well as what I contribute to deal
with the situation.
 Conclusion: After evaluating all the gathered information on above stage the next I will
conclude my findings so that I can shortly present a summary about what actually happen
and manner in which deal with the situation, the experience I have, things I learnt and
what further action I could take at that time to better handle the situation all get shorthand
in the conclusion section.
 Action: After conclusion I get some of the recommendation or the possible action that I
can perform in order to deal with the situation and after determining this I would try to
implement this in my real life. This will support me in dealing with the similar situation
in future effectively (Ebenhöh and Spelberg, 2018).
Personal data justification
The main reason behind selection the action research as a method is that it an enquiry
based investigation that help in gathering the specific information about the area where it is
required to focus for professional development. Another reason behind selecting this method for
personal data research is that it support me in learning through the actions which in turn further
support me in determining the several actions that I can take into consideration that leads to my
personal as well as professional development.
Evaluation of research design
For this report the experimental research design will be taken into consideration as it help
me in the different condition to several different factors in order to determine the area of
development to be consider for creating a better professional identity.
Bibliography
Ebenhöh, O. and Spelberg, S., 2018. The importance of the photosynthetic Gibbs effect in the
elucidation of the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle. Biochemical Society
Transactions, 46(1), pp.131-140.
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Sekarwinahyu, M. and et. al., 2019, February. Development of problem based learning for online
tutorial program in plant development using Gibbs’ reflective cycle and e-portfolio to
enhance reflective thinking skills. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1157,
No. 2, p. 022099). IOP Publishing.
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PART 3: REFLEXIVE PRACTITIONER STORYBOARD
Storyboards
Throughout performance of my job role I found that I need to have certain improvement
in my skills and capability in order to develop a better professional identity so that I can pursue
big goals and also be able to achieve a better career in my life (Jha, 2018). For performing this I
realise that I need to firstly wet through my past experience and my overall performance as well
as the determination of strength and weaknesses that I have so that I can start working over it and
be able to develop a further personal and professional development plan accordingly. For this
first of all I decided to gather my personal data and then evaluate to determine these factors. So I
decided to conduct a research in order to develop an insight over the personal data so that I can
be able to determine my weakness area and be able to develop or improve myself to further
improve my overall performance. To perform this investigation, I firstly decided to gather the
information by performing a reflection over my previously performed work in order to determine
what things which I actually learned from past few experiences as well as the area which remain
unnoticed by me but I required to improve that for improving the professional identity. For this I
make use of Gibbs model so that I can be able to evaluate about my past situation which I have
experienced along with the things which went wright and wrong with me and what I actually
learnt from that situation.
The Gibbs cycle model is consist of five major stages that help me in evaluating my past
experience step by step so that the findings remain more accurate and I would be able to collect
better information which will support me in improving my skills and capabilities (Thudt,
Hinrichs, Huron and Carpendale, 2018). So, while implementing Gibbs model at the first stage
i.e. descriptive where I implement a situation of mine when I was assigned to perform a group
task where we are required to gather and present the data related with the overall analysis of
business performance along with the short some that was found through this performance in
order to develop further growth strategy. For this it is required to gather the information on the
basis of analytical data of the business performance as compare to market situation. For this I
was assigned with the team of 4 members and we were responsible to present this data within the
meeting so that the senior management can be able to evaluate it effectively and be able to have a
discussion over the future course of action (Maloney, Ng, Ross and Tsiares, 2019).
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When the project was assigned to me I was quite nervous and anxious at the same time as
I haven’t done this before to deliver a presentation in front of the seniors but as my team involve
the experienced person they tell me that everything happens effectively just need some extra
attention. I was also feeling a little bit of hesitation with the team mates as they all are
experienced then me I was worried how I would manage with them. After that when I started
working with my team mates I found that there are so many things which I actually need to work
over for working in more professional manner as there pattern of work, time management,
behaviour and coordination with one another was great. At that time I was feeling that the
management took right decision for providing me the opportunity to work with such talented
people who will also support me in enhancing my learning for being professionally good.
While this process of gathering data I evaluated my experience, learning and actions that
I performed during that situation in order to determine the overall scenario as well as the gaps in
term of strength and weaknesses that I am having. From the evaluation of overall situation I
found that my communication skills is not that much good as I quite hesitate in presenting my
view points which sometime restricting me in explaining things more clearly to the people. Other
than this I found that my data analysis skills are also required to be improve as it found sometime
difficult in interpreting the data effectively. But on the other side I found that my time
management skills and management understanding is good which support in performing my task
on timely manner and in effective way without any kind of hustle. When I was asked to gather
and present the data of sales to my team mates that I gathered a lot of data at that time and I
started discussing it with in detailed manner which make the whole conversation quite confusing
and irrelevant to the situation. Then one of my senior support in arranging whole of the gathered
data in well structured manner as well as also suggested me how to manage the data and present
it in form of graph and charts to make it more explanatory (Niebel, Leupold and Heinemann,
2019).
From this overall scenario I conclude in my findings that I was assigned with a team
work where I learn how to cooperate with team as well as develop personal knowledge and
learning with the help of other experienced persons with whom I am working. Other than this
while working the task assigned to me that is gathering of data i realise the mistake I made as I
collected all the information in more detailed manner and also presented it in the similar manner
which make even the informative thing more irrelevant (Ghosh and et. al., 2020). So from this I
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found that I need to work over my communication skills where I required to speak yup the
information in a manner that remain understandable to other people and also presenting the
crucial information in less possible time to keep the interest and attention of people. Other than
this I also learnt that the right manner to present the information is to add more graphics into it to
make it self understood and easy to explain in less possible time.
At the last stage of gibbs cycle i.e. action I decided to implement the things I learnt from the
above stages. The biggest weakness of mine that I found through this reflection cycle is
communication skills which I required to improve. For this I decided that I will started being
involve in group discussion, debates and meeting so that I can overcome my fear of hesitation as
well as also be able to express my views in effective manner (Ardian, Hariyati and Afiyanti,
2017). Other than this I also decided to take the tips over discussion and presenting views with
my seniors so that next time can express my view in effective manner. other than this I also
decided that whenever I asked to speak in front of team I will try to keep my speech more
concise and informative at the same time for this I will prepare it in advance so that my
confidence level get increase. Despite of this I also decided to work over my presentation of data
by making use of more graphical characters and develop my analytical skills by being involve
within the work of my senior so they teach me with basic tricks to consider for data analytics.
These all will surely help me in developing my professional identity and support me in
enhancing my skills and capability.
Bibliography
Ardian, P., Hariyati, T.S. and Afiyanti, A., 2017, September. The Development of an
Implementation Case Reflection Discussion Based on the Graham Gibbs Cycle on
Nurses’ Critical Thinking Skills: Case. In The 6th Biennial International Nursing
Conference.
Ghosh, S. and et. al., 2020. Thermochemical Evaluation of Standard Electrode Potential and
Gibbs Energy of Formation of PuCl3 in LiCl-KCl Eutectic Melt. Nuclear
Technology, 206(4), pp.587-608.
Jha, S., 2018. Self-Reflection for Personal Effectiveness: Insights from Literature. Asian Journal
of Management, 9(2), pp.1015-1019.
Maloney, A., Ng, G.S., Ross, S.F. and Tsiares, I., 2019. Generalized Gibbs ensemble and the
statistics of KdV charges in 2D CFT. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2019(3), p.75.
Niebel, B., Leupold, S. and Heinemann, M., 2019. An upper limit on Gibbs energy dissipation
governs cellular metabolism. Nature Metabolism, 1(1), pp.125-132.
Thudt, A., Hinrichs, U., Huron, S. and Carpendale, S., 2018, April. Self-reflection and personal
physicalization construction. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
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CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned information it can be concluded that [professional identity is
consider to be an essential factor for a individual which support them in performing well within
their work practices. The behaviour that a individual have helps a lot in improving the
professional identity, so one must always focuses toward considering the reflective practices for
regular improvement in their performance. This is so because regular reflective practices help in
creating self awareness that further support in uncovering the area of improvement and actions to
be taken for that which in turn ensures the personal and professional development.
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