individual report

UGB115; Learning From Practice And Reflection; Michael Winship

Individual Essay

In this report I will reflect upon my own experiences and learning throughout the planned event, I will also evaluate my own development and examine some of the issues that were encountered in the progression of the planned event. The importance of this essay is to reflect upon the role that I played in the event that took place, referencing the learning styles, my learning, improvements that have been made and improvements that still need to be made.

In terms of reflecting upon the event that was planned and took place I would say that the way in which I undertook my part of the event was a success. I would class the part that I played in the event to be a success based upon the various skills that I was able to use during the planning and implementing of the event and through the use of using my different learning style when choosing a team role.

In order to find out my learning style a number of different questionnaires and surveys were used, the use of undertaking these questionnaire and surveys meant that I would be able to find out which team role would be suitable to me in order to make my part of the event a success.

One of the questionnaires that was used to find out my preferred learning style was the VAK (Visual, Audio, and Kinesthetic) questionnaire. Prior to using the VAK questionnaire to find out my preferred learning style I thought that I would be the audio learning style this is because I think I learn best though the use of audio. The results of the VAK questionnaire indicated that my learning style was audio followed by visual and then kinesthetic. Learning from the VAK questionnaire that I was more of an audio person did not affect the overall team roles in the event to start with this is because there was no main role that involved the use of audio, however the use of the VAK questionnaire enabled me to be able to think of myself being able to undertake the visual team role which would include the marketing of the event and the researching for the event via the use of the internet.

Another questionnaire that was undertaken was the use of the Honey and Mumford questionnaire, this questionnaire was undertaken to see which of the four learning styles on the questionnaire most applied to me. The learning styles that appeared on the questionnaire were activist, reflector, theorist, pragmatist, the main result from the Honey and Mumford questionnaire indicated that I was a moderate activist followed by a reflector pragmatist and lastly a theorist. The result indicating that I was an activist indicated that I like to do things on my own and that I like to do things here and now and think of the consequences later. The results of this questionnaire were not considered to be a surprise to me as I consider myself to like to do things on my own this may be due to me being an independent person on my own.


The use of the Belbin survey was informative to me, this is based upon prior to undertaking the survey I would not have said that the results would have been applicable to me. The Belbin survey enabled me to be able to see which team role is most suited to me, the options included implementer, coordinator, shaper, plant, resource indicator, monitor evaluator and team worker. The results indicated that my main team role should be that of an implementer followed by a coordinator, my least team role should be that of a plant as this was the lowest score that was recorded from the Belbin team roles survey. Being an implementer indicates that some of my main team role contributions would be being disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient and that I can turn ideas into practical ideas.

A further survey that was carried out was the Johan’s window survey this was used in order to find out what other members of the group think about me and whether this was different to what I thought about myself. If the members of the group thought different about me then what I did about myself this would indicate that I’m not an open person and that I tend not to let people get to know me. As a result of using the Johan’s window survey the results indicated that other members of the group had 4 of the six things that I had described myself as indicated that I’m quite an open person and that I do allow people to get to know me. The answers that others gave me included being quiet and confident which were the same as what I thought of myself.

From the use of the survey’s and questionnaires that were carried out these helped me to be able to identify some key learning styles that applied to me. Some of the results of these learning styles I already knew prior to carrying out these questionnaires and surveys this was because of some of the group work that was carried out in semester one. Undertaking these surveys and questionnaires enabled me as part of a group to be able to see which role I should play in planning and implementing the event to Flamingo Land, this is due to me wanting to be able to choose a role that I thought would be suited to me in order to get the best out of the event.

When choosing my role within the group, the results from the surveys that were carried out where taking into consideration this was because as mentioned I wanted to be able to take a role in the group that would allow me to be able to contribute effectively. My preferred role within the group would have been the audio role this is because I felt as though I was the strongest member of the group in this area, however as I trip involved going to a theme park there were no audio roles for the team to consider. As there was no audio roles within the group I wanted a role that involved visual this was based upon the VAK survey that was carried out as behind the main result of audio was visual, undertaking a visual role within the group meant that I could benefit from undertaking the survey as I would be able to use one of my preferred learning styles.


My actual role within the group reflected what was discovered from the questionnaires and surveys as I was in charge of marketing for the event which was more of a visual role through the use of the internet to try and ensure that everyone knew about the event that we were planning. The marketing of the event that we had planned was my main role for the event and meant that it would be able to be a success as a result of me being able to use one of my preferred learning styles to conduct the role. A further role of mine within the group was to look at some of the researching for the event such as emailing people to see whether there would be a way of using their services this role was given to me as this was more of a visual role and meant that this would be applicable to one of my learning styles and encourage the use of my learning styles. The role for me within the group was confirmed within the team agreement which set out the particular role that everyone within the group should play.

I believe also that during the course of undertaking this module in learning from practice and reflection that I have developed some of my behaviors and also changed some of my behaviors this includes the likes of working with other people as prior to this module I thought that I did not like working within groups and preferred to work on my own this was because I believe that when you are working on your own you can get more of the work done quickly and efficiently, this is one behavior that I believe I have been able to change since the start of this module based upon now I feel that I can work within a group as this means that I can work with other people in order to achieve a set outcome. Working within a group has also changed my behavior as this now allows me to be able to share out different roles and allow myself to learn things I did not know about myself prior to working within a group.

The majority of skills that have been developed through the course of the module can be classed as some improvements that I would like to make, during the module a number of skills were developed these include listening skills this is because working within a group implemented the need to be able to listen to others and be able to take advice from what others were saying. Development of listening skills meant that I was able to ensure that all of the group could listen to each other and what they had to say the importance of developing this skill is that once I have finished my degree and go to look for a job my skills in listening will benefit me as I will be able to effectively hear what jobs are on offer to me and also be able to listen to people when they are trying to offer me help advice and guidance. Another skill that I would say that has been developed included that of communication this is because undertaking the module in learning from practice and reflection I was able to learn about the fundamental importance of working within a group and that communication needs to be strong in order to ensure that everyone within the group was able to understand what was going on and what they could do if they were not happy with something within the group. Developing the skill of communication within this module I thought was important as


during the next two years of my degree this will allow me to be able to communicate effectively and also allow me to be able to continue to develop and build on the skill of communication. Another skill that I would say that has been developed through the course of undertaking the learning from practice and reflection module is that of researching, this is because during the event there was a lot of researching that needed to be done in order to ensure that everything that we needed to do could be done to make the event a success. Developing skills in researching means that I can use this to my advantage in the next two years this is due to researching skills being needed during the next level and beyond of my degree, development in researching skills will also help my when I have finished my degree as I will be able to search effectively for a job that will appeal to me. A further skill that I believe I have developed over the course of this module is that of presenting, presenting on the event to flamingo land allowed me to be able to enhance some of the skills that I already had in this area. The way in which the skills in this area were enhanced was through speaking, as I had to speak clearly and confidently to allow the audience to hear what I was saying this allowed me to be able to build on some speaking skills that I previously had, and also allowed me to get some new skills when it came to answering questions about the presentation.

Throughout the course of undertaking this learning from practice and reflection module I have learnt a lot about my learning and what the best way that I learn is. The module in learning from practice and reflection has made me understand myself a little bit more then what I did before I undertook the module one of the main ways of this is because of the use of the surveys and questionnaires. The surveys and questionnaires enabled me to be able to see what the best ways I learn are such as visually audio and kinetically which will be able to help me when working in groups as I will be able to use these styles to adapt myself to various roles within the group. I also understood my learning in the form of which team role would be most applicable to me such as in the case of being an implementer this is because this meant that I was able to learn that I am more of a doing person rather than thinking of the ideas. Overall from the use of this module I would say that I understand myself and my learning more then I previously did this is because I can say that I now know what my best learning styles are which would be the styles of audio and visual this style can be applied to me as a person as I enjoy the use of music which was evident in the personal development plan. I can now also say which team roles are the best for me to take which would be the roles of implementer and coordinator. Further progress can now be made as a result of knowing my learning styles and my desired team roles this is due to the next time I’m working within a group then I will be able to use the results that were obtained to make sure that the work that I’m doing within the group is relevant to what my skills are.

Improvements that I have made I would say as a result of undertaking this module is that I can now say that I can work effectively within a group to achieve a set outcome.


The improvement of working within a group is a major improvement as this means that in future times of working within a group I will be able to enhance on the skills that I have learnt and be able to use these skills again in order to ensure that the team work can be stronger that it was from this time in arranging for the event. Another improvement that has been made is my communication skills this is evident in as much as when working within the group there have been times when good strong communication has been needed in order to ensure that every member of the group could be heard as to what it is that they wanted to say also to keep members of the group updated as to what was happening in terms of arranging for the event. The improvement of communication is important as this again means that I will be able to use this improvement in future group work and tasks it is also important as it means that I can use these skills outside of my degree in order to communicate on a larger scale. A further improvement that has been made is that of researching this is because during the course of the module there has been a few times where the use of researching has been needed in order to find out whether we could use certain forms of transport and also to look into the costing and marketing for the event. The improvement of researching I would say is an important improvement this is because throughout the course of my degree researching is a key skills that I will need and therefore improving it will mean that over the course of time I will be able to apply this to my degree and be able to maximize the full potential of having the skill in researching.

Some improvements that still could be made include listening this is because I think that the skills I have in listening are not as good as they could be, this skill was highlighting as being one of my weaknesses in the personal development plan that was undertaken in semester one. Improvements being made to this area of listening will mean that in future I will be able to listen more attentively to others and be able to make suggestions and ideas based upon what others have said. Another improvement that could still be made is that of reading this is because when I was working within the group there was times when I did not bother to read certain things which meant that I did not fully understand what it was that the group was doing, an example of this was when one of the minutes of meetings was written up and I didn’t read it to see if it made sense. This improvement was mentioned in the personal development plan last semester, this was so that I could try and improve this as I felt that this was one of my main academic weaknesses. A last improvement that could be made is that of taking my time to finish things rather than trying to get things done as soon as possible, learning to take my time when finishing things will allow me to be able to ensure that what I have done makes sense and allows others to be able to understand what the group has done and where the group is up to in terms of the event.

In conclusion to the essay on learning from practice and reflection I would say that a number of lessons have been learnt that highlight some things that I wasn’t aware of


prior to undertaking this module such as the learning styles. The learning styles allowed me to be able to find out that I am more of an activist person then a theorist person, the learning styles also allowed me to be able to see that I’m a audio person and not a kinesthetic person, one of the main things that I think that I learnt from undertaking this module was that I’m more of an implementer as a person then a plant of a person. From what has been learnt from this module will allow me to be able to go into level two of University and use these styles to get the most out of my degree, these learning styles will also allow me to be able to ensure that when they are needing to be used then I can be able to use these styles. Another lesson that I would say has been learnt from this module is that of working within a group, working within a group has told me a number of things that I should do better the next time. Some of the things that I believe I should do better next time is to listen to members of the group more attentively rather than just thinking that my ideas were the best, allowing myself to listen to other members of the group will allow me to be able to see that my ideas may not always be the best. Another thing that I believe I should do better next time is to not rush to think of ideas this would be based on if the ideas can be thought upon this may generate the best idea rather than going for the idea at the time that seems to be the one that is the best. A last thing that I believe I should do better at for next time involves presenting, the next time I undertake a presentation I should try to ensure that the presentation slides do not have a lot of information on them and that I try to make these concise as possible. The next time I undertake a presentation I should also seek to try and ensure that I speak as slowly as possible rather than trying to speak fast and resulting in the audience not being able to understand what I’m saying.

References

Learning Styles

Vak –

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection lecture week 30 session three learning styles preferences, J,Arnott 2010

Honey and Mumford

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, Honey and Mumford learning styles questionnaire.

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, Honey and Mumford learning styles, General descriptions

Belbin


UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, week 32 session five, team roles, belbin survey

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, week 32 session five, team roles, belbin survey, belbin’s team roles profile

Johari Window –

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, week 39 session seven, reflection through Johari window,Johari window objectives J Arnott 2010

Personal Development Plan

UGB 103, Core business skills, Personal development plan, 2009

Team Agreement

UGB115, Learning from practice and reflection, Team Agreement

Minutes of Meetings

UGB115 Learning from practice and reflection, Minutes of meeting one, 2010

individual report

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