UCS critical reflection

This reflection essay highlights my takeaways from this module, such as being able to apply critical thinking which has helped me achieved one of my goals mentioned at the start of the module, as well as how to critically reflect, by being open-minded to ideas suggested by my teammates.

One of the aspects of critical thinking involves the ability to process information before presenting the best suited solution to the problem. The goal I had set for myself before the start of this module was to better improve on my ability to sustain a discussion/presentation in front of an audience with little to no preparation. Having numerous discussions where we had to spontaneously present to the class our findings with short amounts of time to prepare has improved my ability to skim through content-heavy paragraphs before being able to summarize the main message of such texts. Therefore, critical thinking has helped me achieved my goal as I had to be concise about the information, I am presenting to engage my audience and not digress from the scope of the presentation with short amounts of time to prepare. I view having the ability to critically think to be essential in future, especially in a workplace context such as during my internship. Critical thinking enables me to be able to better communicate with my colleagues by improving clarity and getting my message across which reduces potential misunderstandings from happening.    

One other takeaway I have from this module, is the ability to critically reflect. For the technical report assignment, I was tasked to work with two other groupmates where we had to conduct research on an existing product, and provide suggestions for better mechanical improvements of the product. As we had different working styles from one another, we had disagreements with one another as to how our report should be written which resulted in tension amongst teammates. To resolve the problem, we had decided to meet in person to address our concerns about each other’s working styles before unanimously deciding whoever’s working style best fit the report. Being open minded to criticism is part of critical reflection. Being open-minded opens up my perspective to new ideas and insights that I am unaware of which creates a new learning experience. A technical report has to be detailed in terms of the improvements of the product’s mechanical aspect. However, the research I had provided for the product’s mechanical improvement was deemed to be too general by my teammates. Therefore, with critical reflection, I am more receptive of ideas provided by others as well as how I can improve on my weaknesses. This is advantageous in future, when working with colleagues as should we have group projects to work on together, the work I produce may be limited to my own perspective. Therefore, with the input from others, this can help fill up any gaps I have in my work.

In conclusion, I believe the critical skills I have gathered from this module such as learning how to analyze information to be more concise and being able to critically reflect when working in a team, by having an open mind to new ideas and suggestions to broaden my perspective which provides me new learning opportunities. I am certain that honing such critical thinking skills will benefit me in the long run in future where I am placed in different environments where I have to apply them.