Critical Reflection

Starting the module with minimal knowledge of Critical thinking and communication, my goal was to improve both my ability to actively listen and my ability to communicate with others succinctly. Over the course of 13 weeks, I feel that I have achieved these goals that I had set for myself through the ample opportunities in the forms of various assignments tasked to us. Not to mention, by actively engaging with the course materials, participating in discussions, and responding positively to feedback, I was also able to further advance my research skills which helped me extensively with my assignments.

During the drafting of the reader response, a key milestone of the module, one of the challenges I faced was crafting an essay on a topic that I had no background knowledge of. This gave me an opportunity to enhance my reading and research skills. Through the use of paraphrasing and critical thinking, I was able to then form my own opinions on the subject and reinforce them with my research through the use of citations. These skill sets proved useful once again when I was crafting my report for the design proposal.

I believe that this set of skills will prove invaluable throughout my school life and when I return to the workforce. One of the ways to further improve and utilize these skills is to adopt a continuous learning approach and practice constantly, be it report writing for school assignments or a critical reflection.

Since the inception of our group for the design project, we have had quite a few obstacles that hindered our progress. Due to our small group size, each of us had to undertake additional taskings which was rather demanding and required us to have a proficient use of time management and prioritization in juggling our schoolwork.

Despite such daunting adversities, we managed to successfully match up with the other groups in terms of the deadline and coursework requirements. One key factor that contributed to our success was our communication skills. We established our objectives clearly and delegated our taskings based on our individual strengths. This helped us streamline our research and report-writing processes while covering each other’s shortcomings.

From this project experience, I’ve learned that when commencing a task or a project, it is crucial to establish one’s strengths and weaknesses. While it is paramount to work on the individual’s weaknesses, it is also very advantageous to capitalize on one’s strengths. I feel that even though our group only consisted of three members, we each had very diverse skill sets which allowed us to be flexible in the undertaking of the various topics for report writing. I’ve also learned that ‘less is more’ in the context that being direct and unambiguous in our writing style and presentations will allow the audience to have better clarity of the intended message.

All in all, I feel that I have learned plenty from this module and I look forward to applying these skills in my future taskings.