Reflective Essay On Learning Comprehension.

Goals achieved in the course of the unit

Explain Reflective Report and Learning Comprehension?

Learning is the comprehension of taught information and the ability to apply it in real life. This essay shows how I have grown as a learner and lists the barriers I faced in learning and how I overcame them. I have listed four goals as my main focus and explained how I have been able to achieve them. This unit has taught me how to write proper academic work and avoid plagiarism and how to have a growth mindset in learning. It also contains my reflections and review of the strategies that I employed as well as finding which worked best.

This unit has enabled me to create a variety of goals in my learning that I have strived to achieve. The personal learning goals I set to achieve include; expanding my skills in academic writing mainly in writing reports as well as doing case studies (Turner, et.al, 2011), gaining a growth mindset, developing academic integrity and being a good time manager. I believe I have achieved these goals because; first, I have received positive feedback about my writing skills from professionals as well as from my fellow students. Second, I have gained a growth mindset regarding my learning and other aspects of life. This has shown in my comprehension of various concepts much better than before. I have put in a greater effort in my studies and am also very highly motivated in my studies. Am also much more open to challenges, and I embrace them and do my best to work on them.(Dweck, 2008). Initially, I was much more prone to plagiarism in my academic writing assignments, but I have been able to avoid this in the near past by being more original, paraphrasing, and also citing my references. (Turner, et.al, 2011). Thishas, therefore, enabled me to become a better academic writer. I have also been able to manage my time well by organizing various activities based on their levels of urgency (Covey, 1997).

About the content in this unit, I have learned various things. First, I have learned to be persistent in my learning. Certain things seemed hard at first, but due to persistence, and continued studying on them, it was evident that they were not even as hard as they seemed to be. I also received very important information required to apply to my writing from which I have grown my academic writing skills. ((Turner, et.al, 2011).

I have also learned that the Felder-Silverman learning style model is the one that shows the style of learning that describes me now. I was determined to be more verbal and active. This model deals mainly with the personality of the individual. It is divided into diverse methods of learning. One of the goals I set to achieve was to become a verbal learner by being more outspoken as well as a sensing learner by taking into consideration the facts in doing various things. The other goal was being more practical in my way of doing these things, and lastly, an active learner by trying out new things and taking advantage of group work.

Lessons learned from the unit

The strategies that I employedto achieve my set goals include; practicing on being better at academic writing and having various people check my work for constructive criticism, and I took it into consideration the next time I wrote. I also took it upon myself to read as many writings as possible to learn from others and incorporate what I learned in my work. I also joined various group discussion forums, where together with my fellow students, we discussed on what should be done and the rules that should be followed in writing to produce high-quality work. Through this, I have been able to achieve a better standard of my writing skills. I have also practiced on the analysis of case studies and how to write them. The reasons why these strategies worked are because I was open to change and was diligent in my work.

In the future, I want to make personal goals that include; increasing my self-confidence, improving my networking and interpersonal skills as well as being more aggressive in pursuing opportunities that will help me grow as a person and also in my career. To achieve these goals, the strategies I want to employ include; attending more group discussions which will enable me to interact with other students so as to get over my shy personality and be more outspoken. I also plan to use these discussions for the improvement of my networking skills. Due to my lazy behavior initially, working hard for what I wanted didn’t come naturally, but now it does, and this will enable me to pursue many opportunities that I see and not being able to get some of them will not deter me since I’m now determined to achieve my goals.

In my learning process, I have faced various barriers which I have tried very hard to overcome to achieve my goals. First, I have had financial constraints which were not anticipated. To overcome this barrier, my first reaction was an application for financial aid as well as doing overtime work to be able to cover school fees as well as maintenance fees required. Another barrier was a lack of mental concentration which was mainly due to various issues that preoccupied my minds such as thinking about jobs and an overall lack of interest. This barrier has constantly made me be left behind in class work and overcoming this it was integral in my growth in learning. I overcame it by studying course work in advance so that when it was taughtin the class I could be in a position to participate in class discussions and this helped me gain comprehension of content that I felt was hard.

My third barrier was alack of motivation and not being open to change. During this unit, this has greatly reduced. My motivation is very high coupled with much perseverance. This has made me not to give up whenever obstacles come my way and to work as hard as possible to maximize my potential. My openness to change has also developed. Instead of having a fixed mindset, I have embraced a growth mindset where I now take on challenges, and I also embrace criticism and strive to change and improve from where I am every day. (Dweck, 2010). The final barrier is the fear of failure. I was always very afraid of failing and disappointing myself as well as people who expect better results from me. Therefore, not even trying became my comfort zone and that way I didn’t feel disappointed because no hard work had gone into trying to succeed. To overcome this took much more from me than the other barriers because I had to get out of my comfort zone and produce results as well as believe in myself.

Strategies employed to achieve my goals

Learning strategies that I plan to adopt in the future for each of my learning goals include;to expand my skills in academic writing, the plan to continue practicing as much as possible. To gain a growth mindset, the strategic plan is to continue learning from critics as well as always keep asking for advice especially in cases where I do not understand. I also know that I haven’t faced the hardest of challenges yet, but I’m prepared to tackle them head on and not let them intimidate me. To do this, I’m determined to break down the challenges I face into various goals that could be easier to achieve and solve each goal independently.  Also, whenever situations that seem to pull me back arise, the plan is not to let myself give up but to be persistent untill am excellent at academic writing and all other things I may partake in. Lastly, to ensure that I have a growth mindset in the future, hard work will come in handy as I put in the most effort that I can in various scenarios to get the best results possible. Finally, the last goal is developing academic integrity. To do this, my plan is to learn how to paraphrase the content that I come across as well as using the right method of referencing. (Turner, 2011)

There are some academic skills that I have learned in this unit that are relevant in my course of study. Currently, I am studying Diploma of Business. This course requires a lot of interaction with other people and in this unit; I have learned how to develop my interactions with other people, and my confidence level has increased considerably following the principle of a growth mindset. Additionally, my work and studying ethic have improved since am now able to study seriously without losing concentration. Business courses also require the writing of reports and case studies. Additionally, learning proper academic writing, using diverse styles, is very beneficial because I will apply these skills in basically any course I study and later on in my professional work. Case studies will also be much easier to comprehend. Critical reading was also an integral part of the unit, and since various financial statements requirebeing reviewed in business, this will be considerably easy for me to interpret and comprehend them.

My recommendations are; first, it is very important to have a plan and learners should adopt plans even in their learning where they break down information into smaller goals that they can be able to achieve. It is also important that they identify the style of learning that best suits them and work on it to become more productive in their learning. Moreover, learners should persevere in learning as this will help them understand even the content they thought was not easy. Lastly, a growth mindset is very important as it will enable the learners to keep growing and developing their skills day by day. In the future, I plan to adapt the strategies I have mentioned as I continue with my studies and in my professional career by being hardworking, tackling challenges head on, perseverance as well as always striving to grow.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this unit was beneficial to me and taught me some things such as to always have a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset and to take on challenging tasks. Moreover, it taught me to be persistent both in my learning and in my career and to also manage my time properly to be more productive. Lastly, it has enabled me to grow as an academic writer and use planning in all my learning to be able to set goals and have a set deadline to achieve them.

 References

Covey, S. (1997). Habit 3 put first things first: Principles of Personal Management. In S. R. Covey (Ed.), The seven habits of highly effective people (pp. 150–162). Thorndike, Me: G.K. Hall.

Creme, P., & Lea, M. (2008). Chapter 13: Learning journals and reflective writing. In P. Creme & M. R. Lea (Eds.), Writing at University: a guide for students (3rd ed, Vol. Open up study skills, pp. 195–210). Maidenhead, Berks: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press.

Dweck, C. S. (2010). Mind-Sets and Equitable Education. Principal Leadership, 10(5), 26–29.

Kurland, D. (2000). How the language works: The fundamentals of critical reading and effective writing.

Turner, K., Kraus, B., Ireland, L., & Pointon, L. (2011a). Chapter 1?: Thinking about learning. In K. Turner, B. Krenus, L. Ireland, & L. Pointon (Eds.), Essential academic skills (Second Edition, pp. 1–16). South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.

Turner, K., Krenus, B., Ireland, L., & Pointon, L. (2011b). Chapter 8?: Doing case studies and writing reports. In K. Turner, B. Krenus, L. Ireland, & L. Pointon (Eds.), Essential academic skills (Second Edition, pp. 169–192). South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.

Turner  Brenda; Ireland, Lynette; Pointon, Leigh, K. K. (2011a). Chapter 5?: Basic academic writing skills. In K. K. Turner  Brenda; Ireland, Lynette; Pointon, Leigh (Ed.), Essential Academic Skills (pp. 96–128). Oxford University Press.

Turner  Brenda; Ireland, Lynette; Pointon, Leigh, K. K. (2011b). Chapter 6?: Further academic skills: Working on an assignment. In K. K. Turner  Brenda; Ireland, Lynette; Pointon, Leigh (Ed.), Essential Academic Skills (pp. 129–148). Oxford University Press