Critical Reflection

 Module learning

At the beginning of this module, I aimed to be an eloquent speaker where I can be confident in public speaking as well as improving on my articulation of words. Having to improve these skills within a short period of time will be challenging for me but with the help given by Professor Blackstone and my peers, I was confident that I will be able to achieve my goals. There were a few activities in class where Professor Blackstone used which I felt was effective in helping me achieve my goals. For example, one activity involved splitting the class into small groups to discuss about certain topics and having to give a short presentation on what we have come up with. Through this activity, it taught me how giving a good presentation is essential in what we do today. 

 

One of the outcomes of this module which I learned is to be able to paraphrase effectively. I believe that paraphrasing is important in enabling me to understand the context of a sentence better and therefore, avoid diverging into something else. To add on, using APA citation standards for writing a report is also necessary as it provides more clarity on certain topics making it easier to read and understand. 

 

I feel that I have improved on my speaking skills but there is always room for improvement. What I would like to further improve on after this module is to be able to nail my public speaking skills and to be able to write professionally. In a nutshell, this effective communication module was very effective for me as it showed me that communication is the key to my personal and career success.

 

Project learning

For my research project, I appreciated how Professor Blackstone gave us guidance in doing up our technical report. The approach to tackle the various components of the report were analysed, making the direction of the report that my group were headed clearer. I am lucky to have teammates who are cooperative and responsive who were also supportive in the allocation of responsibilities for the project proposal. The mini group activities held in class that required us to peer evaluate others gives me the opportunity to interact and receive feedback which enables me to learn from my mistakes. 

 

I learnt that having good teamwork is essential in a group, being able to communicate with each other openly and having to compromise for one another. My team came from diverse backgrounds and I would say that my team did a really good job in understanding each other’s flaws and managed to work around it. In the beginning, we all had disputes on coming up with the final proposed idea, but I am relieved that my team managed to voice out any uncertainties before making a decision which will help prevent any potential disputes. After working as a team throughout these thirteen weeks, we managed to learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

 

All in all, I learnt that people function differently. Working with people requires the need to compromise and adapt to certain situations and I feel that any problem can be fixed with the support from my peers I am thankful for the constant support that Professor Blackstone and my peers has given me which motivates me to do better in my future endeavors.