Critical Reflection

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them,” Quoted by Aristotle. This quote is something that I took away from these past 13 weeks. Through all the assignments and the design proposal project, I felt for the first time in my education journey, I felt the freedom to create and express myself in writing and speaking. However, these come with many mistakes and ambiguity. My ultimate goal was to experience valuable lessons which can help develop my interpersonal skills and critical thinking. Technical wise, I hoped to be able to improve on my writing and public speaking.

One of my key takeaways of the module is the breakdown of critical thinking and applying it to communication and writing. We were exposed to the Paul-Elder Framework which has helped me broaden the perspective and given a structure to critical thinking. With that, we were given opportunities to apply the framework into our writing and speech with the written assignments and presentations throughout the module. The framework has given a clear direction in the process of developing our thought and research process. A noticeable difference can be seen from my writing and speech as it portrays characteristics of clarity, concision and straightforwardness. However, application of the framework needs to be refined and that comes with practice and repetition.

Another key takeaway from this module is applying critical reflection in our learning. We were taught the process of learning, unlearning and relearning. The process has enabled me to subdue my fear of mistakes and instead reflect and learn from it. This has heighten my learning capabilities and pushes me to express my creativity in the best possible form. We were also given opportunities to conduct peer evaluation and this has given an insight to different perspectives and criticism which I can use to further improve my writing and presentation skills. A significant difference was seen in my public speaking as I was able to express myself with confidence and speak in a structured manner to deliver a speech effectively. I hope to be able to apply critical reflection in the future as I can see a positive impact it can make to my life.

One of the most insightful experiences of the module is the design proposal project whereby I have to learn to coordinate with peers as a leader. As this project was designed for us to work with newly met peers, it poses a challenge of communication. As unfamiliarity among group mates was a new experience, I had to learn to communicate effectively to ensure that the group were on the same wavelength. As the group leader, I learned that it was important for me to instate a direction of the project. As I had to delegate tasks to my group mates, it was my responsibility to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This comes with learning to open up our conversation and be vulnerable with one another so we can complement each other with our strengths and cover each other's weaknesses. We also took this chance to learn from each other's strengths such as in writing or speaking skills. I believe that this is a turning point for me to be more confident in taking up leadership roles and doing right by myself and the team.

As I have mentioned at the beginning with the quote by Aristotle, throughout this module, I took the opportunity to take the leap of faith and tried my best to apply what was taught through the assignments and the project. Although there may be mistakes, I was able to learn from them and build on my strengths and work on my weaknesses. I will take this new learning experience and apply it to my education journey and even my career in the future.