Critical Reflection

At the beginning of this course, I had set two goals for myself. The first goal was to achieve more confidence in my spoken and written communication so as to effectively convey my thoughts with clarity. The second goal was to be introspective so that I can recognise areas for improvement to enhance my thought processes to communicate more efficiently as well.

Throughout this course, I found myself gaining confidence through assignments that provided me with opportunities to practise my verbal presentation skills in front of an audience. The presentations required preparations that involved sharing of ideas and familiarising myself with the subject matter via mock presentations. Mock presentations gave me the space to learn how to fine tune my presentation skills with the help of my groupmates. Furthermore, the presentation provided a platform for me to receive additional feedback from my peers. According to the feedback, I was able to project my voice and present my knowledge clearly. Unfortunately, I was unable to fully convince the entire audience of my confidence as my tense facial expressions and use of filler words hinted at my nervousness.

I also had the opportunity to practise writing for assignments in different styles. I had written a formal letter on my blog for Professor Brad and my peers to peruse so that they can comment on my writing skills. My peers had commented constructive criticisms that I benefited from because I learned my strengths and weaknesses. From there, I learned how to vet my own work by noting my observed shortcomings. Drawing up multiple drafts for the essay with feedback taught me to constantly revise on and rectify my linguistic flaws.

As such, I believe practice and proper planning of my time will aid in improving my communication skills. Practise will help me hone my skills in each aspect of communication while planning my time well will give me ample space to improve on my writing and check on my work.

With regard to research, I always remind myself “Begin with the end in mind”. Similar to the concept of constructing buildings, a solid foundation will buttress any project. The research we conducted separately and together as a group laid the foundation to form ideas to solve the issue of the lack of clean energy implementation for public transport. Individually, we brainstormed ideas and then discussed our ideas to choose the most feasible option. Collectively, we decided on the implementation of solar energy panels on the rooftops for monorail depots.

However, our final decision was made by factoring in all the information obtained via our extensive research. We had to seek opinions from people in the monorail industry on the feasibility of our projects. We also had to be receptive to the criticisms and suggestions that these people provided. Through this process, I understood that learning is not always smooth because there were instances where I had to take a step back to internalise the criticism. Moreover, as groupmates, we supplement each other’s learning journey through honest peer evaluation and encouragement.

It was sorely evident that having groupmates who share the same attitudes toward research itself determined the steadiness of the direction of our project. We have different personalities and take different approaches, but our willingness to cooperate guides our research project.

I now understand that learning is not a journey that I have to embark on alone, but it is a journey that can be ameliorated with mutual support.