Seeing this module, my first thought was “Will the module do any good for me to attend?”, and I felt it was not as important to focus on the lessons. After going through a few lessons, I realised my communication skills were not good thus I felt like it might be a good choice to try to acquire some knowledge from the lessons. My goal was to improve my critical thinking and critical reflection skills. Throughout the course, I have gained much knowledge on critical thinking concepts such as using the Paul-Elder Framework. I have also gained knowledge on critical reflection concepts such as Dewey’s model of reflective thought and action, Carol Rodger’s reflective cycle, the thinking process as it was outlined by Mezirow 1990, Schon 1983 and Brookfield 1995, and Natasha Kenny’s critical reflection process. In terms of communication skills, I have improved my ability to express my thoughts clearly and concisely. I have also learned how to actively listen to other's opinions and ideas, which has improved my ability to collaborate with others effectively. To further improve my critical thinking and communication skills, I plan to continue practicing these skills outside of the classroom. Additionally, I aim to practice presenting my ideas and arguments in front of others to improve my public speaking skills.
My research project focused on edible food containers, and through this project, I have learned various skills. With the other three individuals on my team, we work collaboratively to conduct research, analyze data, and present our findings. As a team, we faced various challenges, such as a limited amount of time, divided opinions, and different levels of knowledge in the subject matter. I learned the importance of teamwork and collaboration plays a big part in the overall achievement we make as a team. I realized that effective teamwork requires open communication, active listening, and mutual respect. Sometimes, during our discussion sessions, some misunderstanding might happen to cause the work to be delayed or even done wrongly. Our team had an online chat group to discuss our progress and divide tasks among us. We even created a shared document to keep track of our progress, which allowed us to work efficiently and stay on top of deadlines. At first, when I was selected by my group to be a team leader for our team, I was unsure how to exactly lead them. But as the team leader of my group, I was tasked with leading the team with an open-minded mindset and have to help distribute the workload equally among members with the strengths and weaknesses in mind. This helped me to understand and gain skills for becoming a better leader in the future when I am tasked to be the leader of a group again.
Having gone through this communication skill module, I have gained much knowledge on communication and writing skills that I had not learned in the past. This module has helped me to improve significantly in the way I write my reports and how I present in front of a crowd. From the first lesson, professor Brad Blackstone who is the professor that taught me this module caught my attention with his enthusiastic personality which made me more intrigued to learn more. Overall, I am really grateful to have gone through this module as it was a great opportunity for me to learn much knowledge.