Reflective Writing

Reflective Writing


Here is a piece of reflective writing about my learning style results, skills audit outcomes, my personal tutor meeting and how far I have come since starting university.

Learning Style Results

Firstly, from my learning style results, I could clearly see that I am in fact a kinesthetic learner. This means that I prefer to carry out practical exercises and learn from my own experiences. For example, if I went to buy a phone, I wouldn’t listen to someone talk about it before I bought it, I would actually rather test it out myself, get a feel for the phone and go from there.

On the other end of the scale, the learning style which came out lowest for me was aural, meaning that when listening to a speaker e.g. a lecturer, I wouldn’t take in as much information compared to if I was carrying out and researching about a task myself. Just like the ‘buying a phone’ example that I spoke about above. I don’t want to hear someone talk about it before I buy it, I want to try it myself.

I understand however that this could become a problem for me at university if I do not improve my listening skills as a lot of university time is taken up with lectures meaning I need to be able to listen effectively to take in as much information I can. To improve this, I feel that if I get more involved in lectures and start answering/asking questions, I will feel more engaged and which in turn should mean I take more information in when listening.

Skills Audit Outcomes

From the skills audit, I found that my three highest scores that I need to develop further are:

• Ability to collaborate effectively within a team
• Ability to express self well in writing
• Listening – ability to attend actively to others’ views and ideas and understand their point of view

Firstly, I need to be able to collaborate better when in a team as this will be vital for future university work and my future career. I also need to express myself better in my writing as sometimes I feel I take too long to explain a point. I need to get to the point quicker so I don’t bore the reader. Finally, just like my weakest learning style suggested, I need to improve my listening skills as this will be beneficial throughout my career and life in general.

Tutor Meeting

I have been at university since January and I can safely say that I have improved massively not only as an academic but as a person as well during my time here. I feel I have become much more independent in my work which I feel was reflected in my personal meeting as we discussed how I haven’t missed any deadlines for work so far and that my attendance was good, especially the amount of time I spend on canvas doing extra research.

As well as this, thinking back to when I started in January, I feel I have been approaching lecturers more often about work and the topics to get a better understanding of what I have been learning. I believe that I didn’t do this when I first started as I wasn’t as confident in doing so but due to character building, meeting new people and becoming a more independent person, I can gladly say that I do this now.

Finally, one thing that was actually mentioned in my previous meeting with my tutor was that he thought I looked happy. This was great to hear as this wasn’t the case when I was at my old university and makes me feel like I have made the right decision in coming to Anglia Ruskin. I put this down to the course content, commute time, fellow students and all round enjoyment.