Report: Skills Reflection and Development During University Studies

This report provides a detailed reflection on a student's skill development throughout their university coursework. The student discusses the improvement of various skills, including presentation, critical thinking, communication, reading, reflective thinking, academic writing, group and team skills, plagiarism awareness, referencing, and research capabilities. The report highlights how these skills were acquired through lectures and coursework, and how they contributed to academic success. Specific examples are provided for each skill, illustrating the student's growth and understanding. Furthermore, the report delves into the importance of graphs, academic writing styles, and the research process, emphasizing their role in effective learning and academic performance. The student also reflects on the practical application of these skills and their impact on overall academic life, concluding with a summary of the key learnings and their implications for future projects.

Knowledge and
creativity part 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SKILL REFLECTION.....................................................................................................................1
Presentation skills..................................................................................................................1
Critical thinking.....................................................................................................................2
Communication skill.............................................................................................................2
Reading skills........................................................................................................................2
Reflective Thinking ..............................................................................................................3
Types of Graphs....................................................................................................................3
Academic Writing.................................................................................................................3
Group and Team Skills..........................................................................................................4
Plagiarism..............................................................................................................................4
Referencing skill....................................................................................................................4
Research skills:- ....................................................................................................................5
Research process and methodology:- ...................................................................................5
HOW SKILLS HELP IN ACADEMIC LIFE.................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Portfolio is set of student's academical work and related form of evidence related with
education in order to review the quality of academical performance, coursework, learning and
development progress (Struyven, Blieck and De Roeck, 2014). The documents involve in
portfolio provide an evidence that student has fulfilled the requirement of getting graduate and
achieve their grade promotions. The following report is based on reflection of students where a
student talk about the learning experience of university as well as skills that get improved
through this coursework.
SKILL REFLECTION
Throughout my coursework at university, I came to learn about several things and also
become able to develop my skills and capability. Among these skills some are inherited which
get sharpened up throughout my journey at university and some of them get learned through
lectures that are given by my tutors. There are several skills that I have learnt from my
coursework which supported me in academic life at university for improving my performance.
These skills are explained below:
Presentation skills
Presentation skills is defined as the set of skills and abilities which enable an individual
in transmitting the message with clarity, gain attention of audience, interpret and understand the
mindset of audience (Chade, Lewis and Smith, 2014). The presentation skills mainly include the
effective combination of pitch of voice, body language, clarity in speaking etc. At the starting
stage of my college days, my presentation skills are weak as I was not clear about the basics that
support in gaining the attention of audience toward presentation. But throughout this coursework
I become able to enhance my presentation skills by getting advices and guidance from my tutors.
I came to learn that there are some things to be consider while presentation that is slide must not
be over-texted and it must be kept simple with concise information, eye contact should be
maintained properly and use of body language for explaining the message. Hence, it can be said
that the lectures supported me in improving my presentation skills that supported me in gaining
higher score.
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Critical thinking
Critical thinking is defined as the ability to evaluate the information objectively by
analysing several sources such as facts, data and observation phenomena for reaching up to a
valid decision (Kim and Yazdian, 2014). This skill play a crucial role within the journey of
student by support them in understanding the concept and learning the course effectively.
Throughout my tenure at university, this skill help me a lot as I got chance to share my views
while working in a team and I also came to learn the manner of deciding best solution out of
available. In addition to this I also came to learn that how to weigh opinion provided by others
with mine to arrive at better solution. Critical thinking supported me to a large extend by
providing me an understanding regarding the judgement of number of view points and
determining the best way to perform a particular task.
Communication skill
It is defined as the ability of conveying the information to another individual in more
efficient and effective manner. The communication skill basically includes speaking, observing,
listening and empathizing. While taking admission in university my communicational skills was
not much good and I also hesitate while talking in public. Through my lectures I have learnt that
an effective communication skill help not only in education but also in personal and career
growth. From my lectures I have found that communication are of three type oral, written and
visual and the session over this and several activities that get performed throughout them
supported me in improving my grades.
Reading skills
Reading skills is refers to as a ability of person that represent how effectively they can
read or interpret the information in right manner. This skill is very crucial for a student as it help
them understanding their course work much effectively. By comparing my current performance
from past I found that previously I was good as a reader but not able to interpret the information
much effectively and vocabulary was also very weak. But with the change in time by reading my
course book and other I become able to improve my reading skills. This in turn also supported
me in enhancing my knowledge which make it easier for me to get good grades in my college
tenure.
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Reflective Thinking
It is defined as a analytical thinking practices in which a person eventually analyse the
situation and on the basis of which make decisions regarding what happen and what must be
learned through this situation. During the lecture I came to learn about Gibbs reflective cycle that
represent some step that can be followed by an individual while executing reflecting by thinking
and writing. I also used this model in order perform reflection over my projects and also get
appreciated for the work that I have performed. By getting improved over this skills I become
able to deal with my future projects much effectively and also become able to associate my ideas
with a particular event that help me in identifying the major actions that I can take in order to
deal with such situation for future perspectives.
Types of Graphs
Graphs are refer to as a tool that support in representing the statistical information in
pictorial form to make it more clear and understandable. The lectures that I got during my
coursework helped me in getting guidance regarding the manner in which graphs must be
prepared and used to represent the information. Before this coursework I don't hold any kind of
knowledge in this regard but after getting lectures I become able to learn manner in which data is
represented within a table or graph and manner in which it get interpreted. This supported me in
creating a attractive and more meaningful report by specifying information with the help of
graph which also supported me in getting good grades in my coursework.
Academic Writing
It refers to a kind of writing style that utilised in formal assessment or essay of a
particular coursework (Burner, 2014). Academic writing make use of well devised and logical
structure along with formal language in order to support it with evidence. From the learning that
I got through lectures, I found that there are basically four type of academical writing such as
descriptive, analytical, critical and persuasive. In addition to this I also learnt that each of these
type have their own specific language feature or purpose. This academical writing skill
supported me in performing well within my assignments which lead me pass my test with good
grades.
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Group and Team Skills
A person can become successful in life whether it is academic or professional, when he
have an ability to maintain positive group dynamics and be able to maintain proper coordination
with others to get desirable outcome. By taking lecture I came to know about the benefits that
coordination among team will provide while accomplishment of particular goals. In my lectures
I learnt Belbin's theory which state about the role that each individual have to play and their
contribution toward the accomplishment of team targets. This supported me in working within
team effective and achieving higher marks by performing better in group that are formed for
particular assignment. This skill also supported me in improving my personality in a manner that
now I am comfortable to work in a team in which whether are members belongs to me or not.
Plagiarism
It refers to the act of presenting other person's view point as well as opinion by giving
own name, but from my lectures I cam to learn that it is a crime in academics. These are
basically of two type unintentional or intentional. From the lectures I found the ways to avoid
plagiarism. For this we have to only read the view point of other authors and then convert it in
own language to rewrite it. In addition to this I have also learned that only few information of
another person must be consider and it must be supported with writer's point of view to avoid the
chance of any plagiarism. In addition to this the author name and year must be in-texted for
giving credit to that author over supporting the findings of project.
Referencing skill
It refers to a skill which focuses over evidencing the work written by writer in order to
make it more authenticated by adding the name of author and year of information publication in
order to avoid the indulged of plagiarism. By getting lecture I get to know about different style of
referencing and manner in which they are mentioned and cited fro making information more
authorised. This referencing skills support me in ensuring that I haven't indulge in unethical
crime of plagiarism. In addition to that, this skill will also provide me guidance for performing
referencing in context of future projects which provide an authenticity and validity to my project
by presenting the sources to which information belong that I have presented.
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Research skills:-
It refers to the type of skill in which a person have the capability to investigate over a
particular project and then critically evaluating the information in order to represent the outcome
of particular investigation to add volume to the data which is presented (Burner, 2014). The time
when I take admission in this university, my researcher skill was not much good. But as the time
passes I interact with my batch mates and attend lectures provided by teacher I came to learn
about tactics that are used to perform an investigation effectively. In addition to this I also
become able to enhance my knowledge regarding several tools and techniques that are used to
gather, evaluate, interprets and conclude the findings with the help of information gathered.
Apart from this I have also learned that there are two method of collecting information such as
primary and secondary data collection where primary research include new and fresh
information. On the other side secondary research is one which include information which is
already gathered by other and that require to be referenced in order to represent the validity or
reliability of product. By enhancing my researcher skill I become able to raise my coursework
marks and as I have perform research over several topics and evident it with the help of
referencing and improving its presentation by adding graphs which help in satisfying teacher
with my work and getting good marks.
Research process and methodology:-
It refers to a skill or capability of individual to perform a research in effective manner by
adopting the valid tools and techniques from its methodology (Hutchings, Kinzie and Kuh,
2015). During my coursework I learn several things about performing an investigation and one
of them is research methodology which was very much weaker. But after attending lectures and
guidance from my teacher I came to learn about the importance of methodology and number of
tools and techniques that are usually described in this section of investigation. From my learning
I have identified that reserve methodology is most crucial part of investigation which contains a
description regarding number of tools and techniques that are used to perform investigation and
among them which tools is used by investigator. In addition to this I also came to learn that for
performing an investo9gation effective research process must be followed effectively. This
process starts up by deciding the topic and formulating aims & objective on the basis of that,
after that literature review must be perform to develop understanding regarding topic and then
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perform primary investigation and interpretation of data collected to conclude finding and
recommend over issues.
HOW SKILLS HELP IN ACADEMIC LIFE
There is huge importance of skills in improving the academics of a person. This will
provides an opportunity to be come successful in future and get the desired results. Through
overall experience of mine I learned out that there is huge importance of the different skills in
my life to shape my academic life. Some of the skills have by me from very staring point but
some are developed over the course of period. This will allows me to be more successful in may
future. There are many professional skills which are developed over the period of learning which
help in strengthening my personal characteristics and made my future bright. The main skills
which played the main role in the development of the academic life includes communication,
presentation, team development and problem solving skill. All these skills not only help in to
build my personality better but allows have the contribution in building my future more secured
and impactful. Through assessment of the mine own past experiences ascertained that my
communication skills are improved because of the adherence of the common pattern which
provides me strength to present their views effectively in front of others. The contribution of this
skill in building my academic life is ascertained from the aspect that this will allows me to
interact with my tutor and to discuss the confusions to get the reliable and accurate justifications.
On the other had, learning skill allows me to learn new things as academic life and develop the
knowledge in the new areas. This will enhance my career opportunities and to represent myself
in appropriate manner. Another skill have by me is presentation skill which allows me to present
the matter in front of the tutor properly and getting the support of others. This will enhance my
internal strength and help me to represent myself in professional manner. Presence of these
skills not only help in getting help in academic part but also having huge importance in the future
professional career. The other skills which are required to develop to made future more secure
and better includes problem solving and interpretative skills. This will help me to work
effectively without any mistakes by understanding the requirements of others too.
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CONCLUSION
From the above given information, it can be summarised that there are various skills or
capability which get developed within a student during their academical life. These skills
includes communication, presentation, academic writing, research, referencing skills etc. which
contribute toward forming up the personality of person in order to provide a better career life.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Struyven, K., Blieck, Y. and De Roeck, V., 2014. The electronic portfolio as a tool to develop
and assess pre-service student teaching competences: Challenges for quality. Studies in
Educational Evaluation. 43. pp.40-54.
Chade, H., Lewis, G. and Smith, L., 2014. Student portfolios and the college admissions
problem. Review of Economic Studies. 81(3). pp.971-1002.
Kim, Y. and Yazdian, L. S., 2014. Portfolio assessment and quality teaching. Theory Into
Practice. 53(3). pp.220-227.
Burner, T., 2014. The potential formative benefits of portfolio assessment in second and foreign
language writing contexts: A review of the literature. Studies in Educational Evaluation.
43. pp.139-149.
Hutchings, P., Kinzie, J. and Kuh, G. D., 2015. Evidence of student learning. Using evidence of
student learning to improve higher education, pp.17-50.
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