Write a reflective paper on the experience you had an individual during the course
At the beginning of the semester, I was not eager to interacting with the community in the process of my course. I felt more inclined to the favour that the course should have been presented within the university in and practicing it in the community would come much later after attaining enough level of competence.
I found myself not motivated to engage in this course. I struggled with the travelling and countless the activities that the course involved. I however had to struggle with changing my attitude towards the course and learning to enjoy the activities in order to have an intrinsic motivating for working on the course. I managed to change these two needs and was able to be comfortable with the course.
Our topic was the right to education as a social justice issue. The topic required us to interact with young learners in a program in order to impact knowledge to them and get their point of view towards education. I got an opportunity to impact knowledge to the children that is important in changing their view of education and empowers them to look forward to pursuing education since it’s a social justice right.
I feel that I was able to develop my public speaking skills. I was able to communicate with the learners in a session, pass information and keep my audience motivated throughout the process. I also was able to develop a positive attitude towards working with children. I also developed a strong sense of pride in teaching and impacting knowledge. The topic on education as a social justice issue also posed a challenge and required a lot of research. In the process, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge on the topic and facts that help deal with the issue.
The course gave me an opportunity to learn how to facilitate a seminar or an educating program by actually doing it. The research knowledge I acquired on right to education as a social justice issues is also very important for my career. In addition, the value of giving back to the society and the realization that the community really is very ignorant and that there is need to share knowledge at all opportunities I get is also very crucial.
The course was an important aspect of the learning process. The practical approach to the course provided me with an opportunity to interact with real audience in the community and meet them in their natural habitat where I am supposed to be working. The experience gave me an opportunity to develop my oral and written communication skills, learn the importance of team work and develop creative and critical thinking skills.
In future, I look forward to work on programs that give back to the society. In also set a goal to always share the correct information with people and also work more on my public speaking skills. I also will invest more time and resources towards working in a team and maintaining cooperating, sharing chores and time management.
Part two
Define critical thinking and how it gas helped you throughout the course
Critical thinking is a skill that teaches how to intellectually conceptualize information, to analyse and process the gathered information before applying it. In critical thinking information, can be obtained observation, reflection experiencing communicating and reasoning which informs on the nature of a belief to follow or an action to effectiveness
The course was an opportunity to develop reasoning skills before making a decision. I was able to improve on the nature of decision I make by following a logical process before acting on a decision. I have adapted this skill that is very helpful and it helps me avoid making poor choices that I would realize they are poor when it is too late and I couldn’t do anything to change the situation.
Define critical reading and explain how it has helped you in the course and how you will develop it in future.
Critical reading involves the process of reading the context in text with the main aim of understanding that context. It is not merely skimming. The reader aims at understanding the content written, the logic behind writing it and the context of the information. This helps the reader to acquire information, process it and decide on its objectivity, professionality and level of academic competence of the writer. This way the writer is able to choose the best information which suits their area of research and also have different approaches a perspective towards the topic of research.
At the beginning of the course my group was charged with the responsibility of handling the topic on the right to education as a social justice issue. At the moment, I had little information on the topic and so I had to indulge in massive research. When doing research, I had to scrutinize information in order to better understand the perspective of the writer and the issues surrounding them at the time of writing. Using this approach helped me to be able to pick the part of the information that was objective, understand the issues from different specific perspectives and develop an academic paper with quality and content. I have set a goal to be reading a scholarly book every semester which help me improve on my reading skills and broaden my knowledge base.
Define information literacy, its importance and the skills learnt in the course. Explain on how to improve them in future
Information literacy is the ability to realize when informant is required and the ability to locate it with accuracy. After locating it the information is evaluated and the and its effectiveness if used is analysed. The information is chosen for use if the information is presented and communicated in simple, competent manner. This sill was quite difficult for me and I really struggled with it. I searched internet and was not able to locate much information that suit my area of research. I therefore resolved to use the library sources. Although there were materials on information about education and social justice I had to go through numerous challenges in finding out which materials would provide meaningful information for my topic. This was the longest period of my research. Later I had to choose the materials that had the most information on education and social justice and ones that had justice issues surrounding education.
In future, I plan to first divide the topic of research into key components then research materials with the information so that by reading through these contents I will be able to develop a professional academic paper.
Define oral communication, its importance and the skills learnt in the course. Explain on how to improve them in future
Oral communication is the skills of sharing information, thoughts and ideas using spoken words. Oral communication is important because the skills facilitate communication. During the course, we were required to share information by word of mouth which required that the speaker be competent in oral skills, have skills to communicate in public and have skills to connect with the audience and sway them to his way of thinking. Some of the important skills I learnt during the course is the importance and connecting with the audience, speaking in an audible manner and involving the audience form the beginning so that they do not feel like you are imposing your values on them but feel that you understand where they are and your aim is to share more important information with the them. This way the audience cooperates and supports the facilitator and seek to learn more.
Define team work, its importance and the skills learnt in the course. Explain on how to improve them in future
Team work can be defined as the process in which participants in a task bring together their efforts in order to accomplish a given task successfully. Team work requires that people cooperate in their efforts despite their personal difference for the sake of the task and its outcome. During the course, I had the chance to learn the importance of team work. The team I was working with was cooperative and dedicated. These two skills are what I learnt that are most important in team work. Failure to be dedicated and work together would cause more difficulties and overwhelm some members which would result to late completion of the task and submitting substandard work.
My team had difficulties with sharing out tasks. Some members were being overwhelmed by their tasks while others would have very little to do. We also to struggle with time management which we solved by requiring that every member be present and submit their task some time before the groups deadline ad be present before time. The course taught me that it is important to have a competent group coordinator and establish some norms for all team members to adhere to in order to avoid conflicting interests.
Define written communication, its importance and the skills learnt in the course. Explain on how to improve them in future
Written communication involves passing information in documented form. These include papers or online platforms that require the person in need of the knowledge to read them. Written communication proved important when I was carrying out research on my topic. It provided me with the information I needed. In addition, written communication facilitated our process of report writing. I have improved on written communication by learning how to write an academic paper in the correct format and using the right sources.