The processes of reflection happens in many accounts of our lives; whether it is professional or personal, a recent problem or a weekend event and how we could have managed the situation differently. Cross (2018) say that from a professional point of view, reflection means critically reflecting on how we can improve our experiences, performance or how we can cope up with given conditions or even how we can engage with the people we meet. Accordingly, reflection learning has been embraced in learning centers to allow students reflect on their experiences while learning. Kolberg in his learning cycle says that the process of reflective learning not only enables learners to reflect on the activities they have involved in, but it also allows them the chance to explore why they are engaged in such activities. Actually, Kurt (2022) says that Kolberg’s cycle of learning proposes that for there to be effective learning, students have to progress through four cycles of learning: concrete experience, active experimentation, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualization. Thus, this report gives an account of my experiences on what I have learned during the course of semester 1 and semester 2 in the modules of academic skills, business plan, and poster for business plan, supply chain, presentation for my business plan, literature review and Eco-friendly business presentation.
Dimochkino (2022) argues that many think to succeed in academics, one must be hard-working. But based on my experiences in the academic skills course unit in semester 1, I learned that hard working alone may not guarantee you success in academics. It goes a long way; aspects such as time management, critical thinking, reading comprehension, research skills, presentation and public speaking skills, plus group work are all but important in helping you succeed at school.
As is the case with many other professions, even academics require team work and communication with your colleagues and educators. More than once, I found myself needing to participate in group work projects, discussions with group members and get instructions from my tutors. This learning activity was advantageous in many aspects to me. Firstly, group work helped to improve my communication skills as every member discussed in front of the group. Moreover, my conflict resolution skills were improved; as a group, there were always conflicts arising from conflicting submissions by the group members. Expectedly, conflicts ensued as we all labored to prove to the audience that their submission was what is correct. Yet again, we had to reach consensus on what view was beneficial for the learning of the group members and such members were always tasked to negotiate their points to members to prove them worthwhile for consideration. In due course, this enormously not only improved my discussion skills but it also largely improved my negotiation abilities a skillset I believe will be requisite in my future vocations.
The academic skills of writing are prerequisite in many fields. I am glad that attending the academic skills unit in my semester 1 helped me to hone my skills even the more. Throughout the course, I was able to take notes, write quality reports, plans (business plan) as a result of my improved writing ability. Our lecturer always emphasizes the need to be persuasive and informative in our writing. He mentions that the informative and persuasive style of writing is archetypical with leaders and it also helps to improve our collaboration skills. This unit opened my eyes to the fact that while one may not need to write notes on paper, the skill of writing is one that individuals need in their everyday lives. As an intending practitioner, I could not have asked more as I understand I need to be persuasive to create memos, write emails, and reports all which I acknowledge need strong knowledge to write.
Critical thinking is a necessary trait of everyday life. It is this skill that helps us analyze information and ingeniously resolve problems. My experience in this unit helped me confirm that with proper critical thinking, even complex tasks and problems are easy to navigate. Academics has helped me rare this knowledge and shape my reasoning abilities first in attempting my course assignments and debate sessions held at school. I believe this intrinsic knowledge will be vital for me as in virtually every work environment, there are hardships and setbacks which will necessitate my critical thinking abilities to overcome the challenges. I will be able to address mistakes and inefficiency using my critical thinking abilities. Overtime, I have seen myself innovate in a diverse set of field; I now acknowledge my ability to think has bred my innovation knowledge which is helping me maintain a competitive edge over my colleagues at school.
Whether you are starting, you are a business founder, or you are working as a business manager, you will need to have a business plan to act as a roadmap for your business operations. To put simply, a business plan helps business practitioners to clarify business strategies, mark out the possible roadblocks, and determine what you need as resources to lunch the business and to assess the overall viability of the business idea. Though not many businesses lunch with a business plan, my experience in this unit reinforced my value in business plan writing as both an expert and intending business manager. Many a time, people have ideas but lack the financial resources to implement these ideas. On the same note, investors and business financial institutions always need to assess the feasibility of a business if they are to fund it. Writing a business plan is one step close to accessing credit or funding from investors. Business funders base on your business plan to understand the idea, business scope, the amount of time and resource you need to efficiently run the business. Also, considering that sometimes business practitioners are at odds of many business ideas, writing a business plan can be a feasible method to use to resolve such riddles. A business plan can help you evaluate multiple business ideas by writing a plan for each business thereby being able to focus your resources, energy and time on the most feasible of ideas per your evaluation.
When I think of my high school years especially my literacy classes, my minds are drawn to the arduous, long and complex research assignments I always wrote. First, this was as part of my academic writing course unit in which we were expected to exhibit high level research skills to get better scores. Academic research entails searching for credible resources, data reading and analyzing the data found, understanding the assignment requirements and knowing where to obtain the sources to help you in answering the question. But my knowledge in research was enhanced even the more in the business plan writing class. Having been assigned a case study company onto which to write a business plan, I was required to research about the company’s competitors and ideal customers to suggest tailored strategic decisions for the firm. In addition, I was required to research about the company’s background, goals and objectives, mission, vision, evaluate the company’s position in the market all which required me to carry out both primary and secondary research. All in all, I learned that careers in business require advanced research skills for a myriad of reasons; research about your competitors, prices in the
Limited supply of beef and chicken, void shelves of paper towels and toilet paper, packets of cans and tuna that became hard to find, not many had anticipated that the outbreak of COVID-19 would upend our trips to grocery stores. Above all, not many expected that the coronavirus would draw our attention to one of the most negligible but important aspect of supply chain management. I have since appreciated the importance of supply chain management since the COVID-19 pandemic and my learning of this unit was a boon. It is not often that the supply chain is interrupted to the point that customers cannot find on shelves the items they need to buy, but when that is the case, many notice. This is what COVD-19 did; then people learned how important the network for the manufacture of items is important. RIT (n.d) notes that supply chain management involves an interconnected web of players that range from raw materials, suppliers, purchasers, track inventories, warehouses, retail operators, databases, distributors name it. It needs saying that every manufacturer whether manufacturing sweets, aero plane parts or toys uses a supply chain. The theory in this subject enlightened onto the fact that properly managing supply chains commensurate with efficient supplies, high profits and low costs and better management of the demand and supply needs of consumers. Hence, I believe gaining the valuable knowledge about this dynamic sector in this course unit will be handy to me as an expecting manufacturer.
According to the University of Illinois Springfield (n.d), despite the surge in scholarship publications, and an increase in the number of journals that publish education journals, the acceptance rate of manuscripts continues to fall by the day. Unfortunately, this has mainly been attributed to the insufficient practical knowledge among researchers to carryout accurate, thorough and up-to-date literature reviews, determining the underlying problem and putting the research in context. As an educationist, the sky is the limit; whether it is churning out a career in publication, education research or business, my knowledge of literature will be as important or more. I appreciate the opportunity to delve deep into literature review as a subject in my first semester. From my class, I learned that literature forms the basis of the research topic by helping a researcher/reader to find areas of earlier publication to avoid replication and giving credit to others as well as finding inconsistences (research gaps), conflicts in early researches and the questions unanswered (to fill the gap). To put in a lay man’s understanding, a literature review is more like piecing together with colleagues. After eavesdropping what is being conversed (the talk equivalent of a literature review), you join the conversation and contribute relevantly as someone who bears interest in the talk. In my own reflection, a literature review is first learning information about the topic to enhance your knowledge and quality of research. Therefore, researchers and data analyst need to come to terms with the underlying importance of literature to be able to write relevant and content rich research papers.
Dimochkino (2022) comments that employers, employees and students alike all need to give presentations at some stage in their lives. Public communication skills are what are required at this point in life. Public communication knowledge is what allows us to calm our nerves, appear confident and pass on well our messages. I could be more thankful for the public communication skills bestowed to me in the course of my business plan writing project and the Eco-friendly business presentation assignments in which we had to present. As a team, we knew to obtain our desired score, we had to prepare each member of the team to present with exemplary oral skills. Determined on achieving this, we had to hire an experienced public speak to train us on public speaking skills like communication style, tone, body language, and word choice. Above all, we were trained to be persuasive to achieve the goals for the nature of document (business plan) we were presenting. This whole process taught me that speaking assertively and giving the audience appropriate visuals is key to grabbing the attention of the audience as it increases your authority while presenting.
Reflecting back to my course units in semester one and two, I have been honed in a number of skills and prepared for the practical professional world. I am all round in communication, presenting, self-aware, and above all I can work or manage a group of people. The business world is affected by a number of factors which makes sense that practitioners should possess the necessary skills to survive the dynamic strategies and changes within the practice. Now more than ever before, my knowledge in the field of business operations is extensive and I hope that with my now understanding of business operations, I can succeed running my own business or as an employee in any organization.
Cross, L. (2018, August 28). Why reflection encourages a better learning experience. Learning Pool. https://learningpool.com/why-reflection-encourages-a-better-learning-experience/
Dimochkino. (2022, June 2). Academic skills: Definition, examples, how to improve them | HIGH5. HIGH5 TEST. https://high5test.com/academic-skills/
Kurt, S. (2022, September 25). Kolb’s experiential learning theory & learning styles. Educational Technology. https://educationaltechnology.net/kolbs-experiential-learning-theory-learning-styles/
RIT. (n.d.). What can you do with a supply chain management degree? https://www.rit.edu/articles/what-can-you-do-supply-chain-management-degree
University of Illinois Springfield. (n.d.). Literature review. https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/literature-review
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