What on the module had the greatest impact on you? Why was it impactful and in what way did it develop your critical thinking skills and/or your insight into being a university student?

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17 Apr 2022 Homework Help

What on the module had the greatest impact on you? Why was it impactful and in what way did it develop your critical thinking skills and/or your insight into being a university student?

Portfolio Task 4: Reflect on your learning journey

The assignment brief asks you to answer _ of the following questions in your reflection:

1 What did you find most useful on the module and why? How has this impacted you (or will it impact you) as a student or member of society?

2 What did you find most challenging – say why it was challenging, how you overcame it and how will this impact you in the future?

3 What aspect of the work on the module needs further development? Why do you think that and how will you improve for UGT study?

4 What on the module had the greatest impact on you? Why was it impactful and in what way did it develop your critical thinking skills and/or your insight into being a university student?

NB the word limit is 300 words (meaning 315 is the absolute maximum). When writing the reflection, please make it clear which question you are answering.

Read the following examples I created. What do you think? Does it fulfil the task completely?

1. I think the most valuable thing I learnt on the module was the ability to start to think critically. This is a hugely important skill where ideas, concepts, theories and beliefs are analysed deeply and not simply accepted as being true and completely valid. Being critical was difficult for me at first because in high school, I did not use to question the topics that we were taught. I simply tried to understand them and remember them for the exam. For Business and Society, I realise that I need to be more critical, for example, see things from business and societal perspectives, say which economic theory is most appropriate or whether the lecturer’s belief that more worker ownership of industry is practical. The lectures and seminars often included arguments for and against certain theories and systems as well as examining a topic with various stakeholders in mind. I remember when we looked at the lecture and seminar about free market capitalism, I started to question what I learnt about it being beneficial for the most talented people regardless of wealth and family background. I can see now that messages about poor people being lazy or not intelligent were said by people who were already wealthy and powerful in order to persuade people not to change the system. This whole process helped me to develop my own analytical skills and engage better with the concepts, and it also made the topics more interesting for me. I can see how this will help me engage better and fully understand the topics in my future studies and especially the wider implications of them. At KBS, I will need to apply theories, select the best approaches and evaluate strategies within the business world and critical thinking will help me enormously.

2. If I am completely honest, the part of the module I liked the least was seminar discussions because I found it really difficult to take part and very stressful. In seminars, I did not want to say much at first because other students seemed to be more fluent and have better knowledge about English grammar. I was a little embarrassed to speak up and it took me quite a lot of time to be ready to say what I wanted. Often, by the time I was ready, the discussion had moved on. In addition, I was not accustomed to speaking in class without being asked and it was easier for me to stay quiet while the louder students spoke. I knew I had to improve because I was worried that the teacher thought I did not know anything about the topics or do any of the asynchronous work. This was not true, so I tried to say a little more each week by asking a question or saying if I agreed or not. By getting used to speaking more and more, I grew in confidence and by the middle of term 2, I performed significantly better than before. Another key thing that helped me was that I tried to predict what we would discuss in class and in term 2, we were given the discussion questions in advance. This all helped me build my confidence and be better prepared. I think these strategies will make me a better student at undergraduate level and the teachers there will recognise my knowledge, preparedness and hard work more. I actually also think group discussions and speaking in front of people will be really useful for me in my future career as I can see that in many cultures that being able to do this leads to success and effective leadership.

3. Overall, I think I improved in almost every way during the academic year. However, I still find it difficult to take notes in lectures and follow everything that is said. At the end of the lecture, my notes are not as complete as many of my classmates, and I often perform less well in the seminar as a result. This is because the lecturer speaks very quickly sometimes, and the words and concepts used are complicated. Also, it is very difficult to write what is on the slides and listen to the speaker. Often, I am not sure what the key information is and what is just extra and less important. My IELTS listening score is not particularly low, so I think it is just a question of strategy rather than language ability. I spoke to some classmates, and they gave me some good suggestions for UGT study. Firstly, I will make sure I am familiar with the topic by reading about it more beforehand and seeing if there is any preparatory work to do on KEATS. If I am being completely honest, this year I did not always do all the asynchronous lessons, and this meant that the lecture topics and concepts sometimes felt very new to me. Another good piece of advice that I was told about is to use lecture capture recordings to check my notes and see where the gaps are. I will watch the lecture again online and with subtitles on, and hopefully I will see an improvement in how much I understand and am able to note down. I understand that much of the knowledge we gain from academics is given to us in large lecture theatres in UK universities, and I need to develop this skill more to gain a better experience of studying in this country.

4. The module taught us many very interesting concepts, theories and opinions about the effect of business-as-usual practices and processes on society. It helped me to consider the viability of alternative approaches that potentially had a more positive social effect. With this in mind, hearing real-life stories really touched me and helped to make the topics real for me to fully consider the implications of concepts that I assumed were the best way to do things. By looking at individuals and groups affected, I was able to better understand the impact of economic systems and business practices on wider society and not just the business world. The story about how Eid travelled to the UK to escape war and how he nearly drowned in the Mediterranean Sea getting here made me wonder why many governments choose war so quickly and what the benefits of this are for corporations are. The Rana Plaza disaster also made me reconsider my former assumptions. I now think that increasing worker rights is essential and that maximising profits at all costs is completely unethical. By looking at the human cost of big business, I am able to see the bigger picture now. I think that being able to identify impacts for all stakeholders will help me with studying Business Management at KBS because it not only helps me to challenge what is seen as the way things are done in business but also develop alternatives for more future-proof and sustainable business. I think that by hearing about the lived experiences of those affected by the business structures, practices and processes that I had previously accepted as normal, I have developed the ability to think more critically, and I expect that this is something that good university students will need to do.