Importance Of Personal Reflection For Learning In Professional Fields: Gibbs Reflective Model

Learning outcomes assessed:

1. Demonstrate the ability to relate to academic theory to the work environment and recognise the contribution of practice to the development of theory.
2. Confidently apply work related skills in a professional context.
3. Demonstrate a critical approach to evaluation techniques and reflective practice.
4. Produce a career and personal development plan to support their level 6 studies and entry to graduate employment.

Learning Through Personal Reflection in Professional Fields

One of the best ways of learning things is through personal reflection. This is because we learn best through our experiences. It is one of the best ways to transform the work based experiences into learning. One of the very common features in the professional fields is that, while the employees are working within the office environment, they tend to learn things through their activities. In other words, they know that they must operate within the same environment and will have to face many challenges within the due course of time. The workers are bound to face many external and internal challenges in their work life. So, it is through the assistance of their experiences and their self-reflective methods that they will either find some ways to either fight and overcome those challenges or get succumbed to it. Self-reflection also helps them to develop the attributes of self-control and self-surveillance (Travers et al., 2015). So, it can be said that the employees at the work fields are usually plating a double role that of workers and of learners as well. Using the self-reflection and the self-regulation methods also help in making the individual aware of his or her own personal strengths and benefits. This, in turn, is very helpful as the individuals get to know one's own limitations and one's own strengths as well. They are then able to nurture their strengths and start working on improving their negative points. I have selected the Gibbs Reflective model as I feel that it is the most simple and useful model that will help me to earn through experiences.

I will get to know about my own traits from the events that I have passed through. This is because I believe that one can best learn from the situations that one has been through (Lucas and Leng Tan 2009). I find this model to be different because it is the method of learning by doing. I have seen this from my own experience that I am very empathetic and caring in nature. I cannot really see people in pain. I always try to make sure that I am extending my helping hands towards them and helping them with all the possible resources that I have. However, there are also many weaknesses in me that I want to overcome. As per my perception or my inferences from the from the PPDI modules, some of my weaknesses are lack of patience, lack of proper time management skills an also losing my self-control over my anger. I aspire to work on them and solve them within a given time.

Double Role of Employees in Professional Fields

Figure1: Gibb’s self-reflective model

Source: (Potter 2015)

One of the things that I learned from the PPDI is that I am empathetic in nature.

Description

Once, one of my colleagues was unable to do the project that we were assigned to the office. I could understand that he is having a lack of concentration and he could not really work like the other normal days. Though he was not willing to share I asked him and got to know that he was having some financial problems at home.

Feelings

I could feel that he was sad and tensed. I placed myself in his own position and realized that he was in a tough time.

 I felt very sorry for him and I made up my mind to help him. I did his work for him and did not take any money in return. He was offering me his salary as I did the work for him but I didn't take it as in wanted him to use it for himself and his family. However, many of the colleagues said that this was unethical and unprofessional and I must not help anyone in this way (Thong, 2015). However, I could not really stop myself from helping him.

Analysis

 Analyzed that I cannot really restrain my care and affection for someone around me who is in need. So, if someone is in need I will use all may resources to help him out.

Conclusion

So, I conclude that I will continue being empathetic towards people around me who are in need but at the same time I will also have to abide by the office ethics if the person I am helping is any of my office mates.

Action

My actions would be to keep in mind that I also must abide by the office ethics and I must not do something unprofessional. So, if such situations happen in future, I will try to help people in different ways (Travers et al., 2015)

The other thing that I learned was that I often become extremenly angry and cannot control the anger.

Description

One of my juniors took a leave without informing the management. A very important meeting was scheduled on that day. So, when I came to know that he took an uninformed leave I could not keep my calm.

Feelings

The feelings that I had was that of  that of extreme anger. I immediately called him up and talked to him in a rude manner. I misbehaved with him for his action. Though I never wanted to hurt him for the moment I could not really keep my calm. It was after misbehaving with him that I came to know that he had a sudden attack of asthma and so he could not turn up. After knowing this, I felt sorry for him and was ashamed of my behavior. So, I personally met him and cleared the confusion. I also extended his leave so that he could get better and take rest at home for some more days.

Importance of Self-Reflection and Self-Regulation

Evaluation

My evaluation was that this event had both positive and negative effects. The negative effect was that I lost my control over my temper and behaved with him in a very rude manner..

Analysis

This created a very bad impression about me among my colleagues and my co-worker. The positive impact was that I could make him understand that though he was very sick for which he needed a leave, it was also a kind of a lesson that no employees must break the official rules

Conclusion

They are the employees of the organization and so it is their duty to make sure that they are abiding by all the official rules and regulations (Boud and Walker, 1998).

Action

My action in the future days during such situations will be to keep a control on my anger and handle the situation in a calm manner. I must not lose my control over my temperament

The other thing that I learned was that I suffer from lack of patience.

Description

Once there was a very important project that had to be completed in a week’s time at my office. I had to make a huge preparation in order to complete the work.

Feelings

 I was suffering from this feeling that I will not be able to complete it within time. So, I wanted to finish it before the deadline itself. I worked hard all day long and even worked after my shift timings. I did overtime and somehow finished it within three days. However, when the project was checked, there were many mistakes and errors that had hampered my performance and my appraisals as well.

Evaluations

I had both positive and negative evaluations of this event. The positive evaluation was that I had more confidence in my speed. I knew that I could finish my work fast.

Analysis

The negative evaluation was that I have the chances of hampering my own performance due to this impatience. It is because I hurried so much that I did many mistakes in the project.

Conclusion

So, I concluded that I must not make haste and must deal with all the things very patiently.

Actions

The actions that I will take in the future days are thatI will always try to maintain my patience level. I will never be puzzled or impatient. I will make sure that I am taking time and then proceeding with my work. I am a good observer and a good listener, I have the speed and the potential to work with accuracy. The one thing that can obstruct me is the lack of patience. This will ruin all the hard work that I might put into the work. So, I will have to deal with all my works patiently

Gibbs Reflective Model for Self-Reflection

Conclusion

Thus, I can conclude that I have gathered some new knowledge from this. One of the special qualities that I have is my empathetic and caring nature. This is a positive aspect that I must always nurture the same. I will make it a point that I am always being able to care about the interests of my friends, family and my co-workers as well. I will make sure that keep a control over my temper. I will thus incorporate several changes in my behavior. I will take frequent breaks from work and take a walk outside the office whenever I feel angry and frustrated. This will help me to divert my mind and to refresh myself for some time. This will help me to restore my mood and I will be able to control my anger as well. I will also take some physical exercise classes like yoga and jogging that will help in checking the anger. Apart from this, I will also have to work on my patience level. I will have to become much more patient. I will have to give up my anxiety and my lack of patience. I will make a rough sketch before starting with any work. This will help me to carry on with the work in a step by step and systematic manner. This will also help me in proper time management skills and I will no longer have this feeling that I will be unable to finish work within the assigned time. Thus, if I bring these changes within my routine and within myself then I will be able to work on my drawbacks and improve them.

References

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Thong, V. (2015). Rediscovering the Self Through Self-Reflection and Transformative Learning. [online] Ojs.learnquebec.ca. Available at: https://ojs.learnquebec.ca/index.php/learnland/article/view/755 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2018].

Travers, C., Morisano, D. and Locke, E. (2015). Self-reflection, growth goals, and academic outcomes: A qualitative study. [online] Blog.lboro.ac.uk. Available at: https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/teaching-learning/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2017/01/Travers-self-reflection-growth-goals-and-academic-outcomes.pdf [Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].