Critical Reflection

Language has never been my strongest suit as an international student from Myanmar. Over the years of different education levels, I have managed to improve my language significantly. Applying my language skills to this module allowed me to receive constructive criticism which has further allowed me to refine my language and critical thinking skills. 

I have never had any difficulties presenting in front of a crowd as I am a strong communicator. However, a quarter of a way through the module, I quickly realised that I lacked presentation skills. I was tasked to present critical thinking skills and I received feedback that I was a fast speaker. This made it hard for my peers to catch onto the points that I was making. From that day onwards, I began to concentrate on slowing down my speech. A good example that I mirrored was my professor. I tried my best to imitate the pace at which he speaks as I was able to understand him clearly in class. Over the course of this module, I can confidently say that I have developed full control over the pace and tone of my speech, thus enabling me to further engage deeply with the audience. 

At the start of the course, I set goals to improve my writing skills and I finally achieved it. Reading my peers’ reports and summaries have allowed me to increase my vocabulary range by carefully observing their choice of words. I would recall and apply these skills to my future reports to ensure that I am always improving on my writing. 

My next biggest takeaway from this module would be the usage of different critical thinking frameworks to add structure and depth to my writings. I frequently refer to the Paul-Elder critical thinking model to ask myself questions such as “Do I need to look at this from another perspective?” and “How does that help with solving the issue?” This has made it easier for my readers to understand my written content. I applied this to my summary readers response and received positive feedback from my peers. 

However, I still lack confidence in my writing skills. Too often, I would rely on my team members to double-check my writing. I have significantly improved my writing through the summary readers responses and tech report. Unfortunately, I am just not as confident about it as I would like to be. I do believe that my confidence would increase by applying the skills I have acquired in class to my future reports. 

As the leader of my project team, I was tasked to steer the team towards greater success. For this project, I was given the chance to polish my management skills. We kicked things off by picking our team members. I quickly identified their strengths and made sure to take full advantage of their individual skill sets to achieve the best results.

Along the way, I found out that I was micromanaging tasks and I was burning myself out. I had to take a step back to clear my head and place my full trust in my teammates to complete their tasks without me having to barge in. I learnt that people are generally more self-driven to complete tasks on a tertiary level. I also realised that my tendency to micromanage derived from dealing with very stubborn team members in the past. 

We were faced with challenges such as conflicting schedules and miscommunications. Fortunately, they were easily resolved with full cooperation from my team and showing empathy for each other. I found out that modelling my leadership style after a “football captain” is much more effective than a “boss”. I can positively say that a proper management style is now second nature to me. I am now ready to apply my leadership skills if I am given the opportunity to lead projects in the future.