The Importance of Reflection in Learning and Professional Development
Discuss about the Reflecting On Professional Experience.
The science behind reflection is captivating. The most important teacher in life is experience and we all know that. We learn from our experiences and also from our mistakes. Learning does not happen without questioning ourselves about what the experience mean to us and additionally actively thinking about experiences we had in a professional setting. To completely understand the true nature of refection, we need to have experiences and experiences can be good or bad. We need to ask ourselves simple questions such as- “What I did well I that situation?” and “What could have I done differently?” Reflection always provides critical and deep learning (Moon, 2013). We need to look through different lens at situations and ask ourselves searching questions. These questions challenge the very assumption about the world around us. As a human being, we all have tremendous tendency to look at the negative things first. We need to exercise reflection to mitigate that. A self assessment will provide us safe and structured way to think and ponder about the positive aspects as well. There are many forms of reflection and many activities are encompassed by it. Let’s take the example of working with a coach. Here, a coach will help us in guiding our reflection with the help of questioning. This can be touted as one of the effective ways of learning through reflection. Additionally, self assessment will help us to think about our effectiveness in the activities we carry out as part of our role. In a more simpler way, if we write down or create learning logs about our experiences in a professional setting, it will actually help in clarifying and also to understand our owns interpretation of events and after that we can put a meaning to it. Additionally, after working hours are completed we can put only five minutes for ourselves and this will help to put what we have done into context. Since it is very easy to think about what happened the entire day, it gives us a wonderful opportunity to ponder about what has worked for ourselves. There is another critical element of inner work life which is linked with reflection and is called progress principle (“The importance of reflection”, 2018). It is the ability to achieve small wins by making small changes. As an individual, it is fair to believe that progress in professional work which is meaningful would boost motivation to an unprecedented level (Baldwin, 2016). From my personal experience in working with the team, I realized that small incremental achievements while working in a group a project were just as effective as achieving significant goal in boosting inner work life and this gives immense satisfaction. Therefore, it can be said that for us to be able to reflect on our own achievements is a great motivation booster and provides a learning curve (Murdoch-Eaton & Sandars, 2014). We also need to take setbacks as an opportunity to reflect and ponder upon and to continuously improve ourselves.
The Benefits of Group Work in Enhancing Learning and Productivity
It is very important for an individual to work in groups. For an individual the learning is immense. Contrary to the belief that there is no quality in group work is just absurd and false. There was an incident where I was ill I was not able to push through. Team members took the utmost care and helped me on my part. Irrespective of disciplines team members as united force helped me and this made me to ponder upon lot of things (Lyons & Kuron, 2014). My experience and learning that I received was immense. It does not matter whether we are discussing case studies, answering questions about a reading or working on a specific problem, we are able to work on the content and master the basics. The benefits of working in a group is that we do not need a mentor for problems that arise, we will be able to solve the problem on our own. Additionally, I have learnt that interaction between members also clarifies certain things and reduces doubts in one’s mind. To take an example, there was a problem with our project and it required clarification and admin assistance. However, there was no one around to help us in that difficult situation. So we discussed about the problem, argued about the facts and in the process of justifying conclusion, we were able to clear our doubts and clarify our own thinking. We were also bale to learn how to function productively in a team environment. We learnt that in order for the team to function productively, each member of the group has to fulfill individual responsibilities (Maryellen Weimer, 2018). The task of each member would be to support each other, contribute to group interaction and then deliver good work on time. I have observed that my group values individual contributions and this is a critical element in increasing a group’s productivity. Personally, when my contributions are valued, I feel acknowledged and a core part of the project. I feel that this feeling of being acknowledged is very important and works in a great way in increasing the productivity of the group. Additionally, when the work is divided among members equally, this aspect also promotes productivity in the group (Mencl & Lester, 2014). Additionally, from my personal experience I have learnt that a group as a unit makes better decisions. Questioning, critical analysis, perspectives and constructive deliberation can result in better performance and solution. From my personal experience I have seen that when we take an exam individually we score lower but when our group takes the same exam, the score is higher. This just goes to show the fact that a group can take better decisions. The most important thing that this group taught me is that how to work with other members from different cultures. This helps us in fostering friendships with people from other backgrounds and this will ultimately help in our professional growth.
Professional Identities – An Essential Component in Differentiating Individuals and Groups
Set of understandings, attitudes and beliefs about my professional role which is a direct result of my work activities can be termed as professional identities. A professional identity can be formed in various ways. Within the context of social identity professional identity can be framed. It is also a systematic way of organizing, indentifying and evaluating the perception of self (“Professional identities — E-Learning Modules”, 2018). A professional identity would also help me to differentiate and compare from other professional groups in the workplace. Personally, by knowing the true meaning of professional identity it has helped me to gain a realistic view of the profession. A group member is seen as an active participant of formation of professional identities because the formation consists of committing so some goals or choices and exploring available alternatives. Additionally, we also need to perform skills audit to know the skills gap in us and to take measures to upgrade skills or the fill the gap temporarily. A skills audit must be performed within a group. There are reasons as to why skills audit is important. It determines whether the group can meet its goals and objectives (“What is skills audit?”, 2018). The reason that this information is critical since the members needs to know the areas where they can improve. Internal analysis and development and training is targeted when performing a skill audit. After completing the skill audit, I learnt that one of my core strength is interpersonal skills. I can quickly gel with other members and in turn increase the productivity of the group. Apart from that I need to improve my technical aspects so as to bring in more value to the group. While working on the project to create a machine learning app which will predict survival rate of a person in disaster situation based on age and sex and other data’s, we gained an insight into the industry and how everything works. Since we are working on a project on machine learning we need to look into the industries where machine learning is bringing benefits. Awareness in that will bring benefits for our project. Based on few sets of data an application or machine can process that data and based on that data it can produce an output. The use of artificial intelligence in education sector is increasing. With the help of smart classrooms, we are able to know how artificial intelligence is being incorporated in the education sector. Probably, the transportation industry has seen the greatest influx of AI. With the advent of autonomous vehicles and self driving cars, the transportation sector emerges as a key player is adopting artificial intelligence (“5 Industries Machine Learning Is Disrupting Right Now – Disruption Hub”, 2018). There is another sector where the influx of machine intelligence is growing which is the health sector. We have often heard of robotic surgery. A robot surgeon can be operated by a remote human surgeon. A robot that performs surgery offers greater dexterity and allows interventions through tiny incisions. Additionally, the business and marketing sector is also incorporating artificial intelligence. It is very useful for us to know the industries because our application also incorporates machine intelligence.
References:
5 Industries Machine Learning Is Disrupting Right Now – Disruption Hub. (2018). Retrieved from https://disruptionhub.com/5-industries-machine-learning-disrupting/
Baldwin, M. (2016). Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization. Routledge.
Lyons, S., & Kuron, L. (2014). Generational differences in the workplace: A review of the evidence and directions for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(S1).
Maryellen Weimer, P. (2018). Five Things Students Can Learn through Group Work. Retrieved from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/five-things-students-can-learn-through-group-work/
Mencl, J., & Lester, S. W. (2014). More alike than different: What generations value and how the values affect employee workplace perceptions. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(3), 257-272.
Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. Routledge.
Murdoch-Eaton, D., & Sandars, J. (2014). Reflection: moving from a mandatory ritual to meaningful professional development. Archives of disease in childhood, 99(3), 279-283.
Professional identities — E-Learning Modules. (2018). Retrieved from https://faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/interprofessional-education/professional-identities
The importance of reflection. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/develop/talent/the-importance-of-reflection
What is skills audit?. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.cognology.com.au/learning_center/sawhatis/
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