Personal Development Plan and Reflective Analysis of Mental Wealth Core Competencies

Prepare a Personal Development Plan and make a Reflective Analysis of the Mental Wealth core competencies in evaluating how you have developed/used them. In your analysis you are required to reflect on your use of the core competencies and how you have utilised and developed them. Examples may be drawn from academic or professional experiences. 

You are required to prepare a personal development plan that will include a set of five personal learning/professional objectives for the improvement of the skills that you have identified in your SWOT analysis, with an alignment to the Mental Wealth core competencies and their link to the Experience Economy

Your objectives should consist of five short-term objectives, to be actioned by the end of the academic year.  

Each objective must include:

•The SMART Objective.

•A deadline (date) for achieving the objective.

•A detailed (bullet point) action plan to describe how you will achieve the objective.

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Timebound

Written reflection 

1.Self-reflection and evaluation – how well do you feel you have coped with the semester? 

2.An evaluation of skills learnt, such as using the VLE, time management, academic writing, Harvard referencing and presentation skills.

3.Will your approach to work and study change in semester 2 compared to semester 1?

4.What would you do differently in the future (Year 2)?

5.Put together a bibliography of books in the Harvard style of the books, journals and website you have used to help you with this module.

The purpose of reflective thinking:

We reflect in order to:

Consider the process of our own learning

Critically review something – our behaviour, that of others or the products of our behaviour (e.g. a group presentation)

Link theory to practical observations from our own experiences

Engage in personal, professional or self development

Make decisions or resolve uncertainty

Empower ourselves as individuals  

1. Self-reflection and evaluation – how well do you feel you have coped with the semester? 

2. An evaluation of skills learnt, such as using the VLE, time management, academic writing, Harvard referencing and presentation skills.

3. Will your approach to work and study change in semester 2 compared to semester 1?

4. What would you do differently in the future (Year 2)?

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

Gibbs’ reflective model (1988), based on Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle, has six stages:

1.Description: what happened?

2.Feelings: what were your feelings? How did you react?

3.Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience?

4.Analysis: What sense did you make of the experience? Reasons for point 3?

5.Conclusion: What have you learnt from reflecting on the experience?

6.Action Plan: What will you do next?

Irrespective of the model you follow, reflective writing includes the following key elements:

Description (short!)

What happened? What is being examined?

Analysis/Interpretation

What is most important/interesting/useful/relevant about X?

How can it be explained, e.g. with theory?

How is it similar to and different from others?

Outcome 

What have I learned from this?

What does it mean for my future?

Particular features of reflective writing:

-Written in an academic style: formal, objective tone, cautious

-General conclusions drawn from specific examples (in this case, from your own experience/practice)