Individual Reflective Account Essay Example

in action learning sets at first there is no need to be worried as it is only the start so it was a good experience to learn from.I can adapt this to when I will be working in a health and social care setting not to let first experiences worry me. According to McGill (2004) action learning becomes increasingly relevant, bringing life experiences to the fore as the single most important resource in enabling the individual to move and learn and develop with the support of others.

Further into our meetings we looked at different types of presentations and what materials we should use for our presentation. Together as a group we had lots of different ideas, ideas that I never thought of like for instance role-play.Also read about my first day at work experienceTogether we agreed on using PowerPoint this was great for me as I had the confidence using it where as some other members of the group had never used it before.

We agreed this would be the best method as it was a good visual aid and as I explained to the group it was easier to change throughout our meetings. Using PowerPoint made me feel like I gave a big contribution to the group using my skills to help other members develop a new skill and made me feel more at ease with the whole presentation.I can see that having diverse abilities in action learning sets, highlighted that as a group can share skills and gain knowledge from other peoples experiences. I learned that in groups new ideas

can be discussed and used, ideas that I have never thought about before like the role-play idea but soon gain knowledge through help from other group members. As Lyon, L.

(2008) stated Learning Sets are one of a range of personal development tools which can be used to learn new ways of working, share experiences and help with problem solving.As a group we agreed to meet up about once a week to share our work and ideas to improve our first draft of the presentation. For many of our meetings not all group members attended. We carried on even with members absent and emailed the members that were not present. This made me feel annoyed and angry as meetings were agreed as a group.

It was hard to move on from the stage we were at knowing that it was about group contribution. Feeling held back by absentees because I felt that I could not get on and do work by myself because then that would have then defeated the whole object of action learning sets.This frustrated me. This is was a big part of the whole experience that did not work well. In the future I would properly enhance the importance on agreed meetings to the group as in my past experience it jeopardises the possible outcome of the task delaying you from moving on and cutting down time to improve work before the scheduled deadline.

I have learned that looking at applying this to a work environment people will sometimes not be reliable and they will be times you will be short staffed but I have to overcome it and work to my

best ability and even maybe carry somebody else's work load.Near to the end of our task we all met together and performed our fist run through. There were many things that needed altering, we all had individual work to explore but still between us overlapped other peoples categories so we had double of the same information. Also it was the first time we had gone through the presentation with a narrative, so people were reading off their sheets. After researching tips on good presentation like Bowman. D (1998) said in her presentation book that a public speaker cannot deliver an effective presentation from a prepared text on paper.

It is delivered in uninspiring monotone and often not listened too. I knew we had a big problem. We needed to revise our narrative parts and keep to the work we first agreed on. It was good doing a rehearsal as it gave us an insight on how the finish product would look and in doing this we still had time to work on the problems that we came across. It was not good that we left the rehearsal so late on. I felt anxious knowing we were running out of time.

In the future I would like to do a rehearsal earlier on than we planned because it made me feel stressed at the time and giving myself more time to make final alterations would help.I have learned that planning is a big part of a task done well and I can adapt this in a work environment because being organised in advance is a good way of being prepared and help you feel more relaxed about

a situation. The day we gave our presentation it all started as planned but then a group member carried on speaking more than we had previously rehearsed so then I was really conscious of the time so I played the next slide to try and discretely give a clue to move on but instead I got told publicly out loud to slow down.I was mortified I felt so embarrassed and just wanted to shout to everyone and explain myself.

I was the last to speak and was worried I would not have time and show in the presentation my contribution that I worked hard at. It got to my part and the online tool that I had planned to use did not work. Luckily as a group we had already considered the possibility that technology may not work on the day. In replace of the tool I had a leaflet copy that came with the resources I ordered from the National Health Service (NHS).

The presentation was over and considering the nervous emotions running through the whole presentation, I felt relieved that we did it and we put across what we aimed to and because of back up preparation we covered everything as planned. If I could have changed anything, at the time I didn't think it was relevant but working in groups with people can be very unpredictable even when you think you have planned. I would have made some ground rules at the start including after the final rehearsal do not add more work unless it has been discussed and agreed with the group.I have learned that action learning sets are a challenge and

they can create problems that you work together to resolve and learn from mistakes. After analysing my work I can relate to the purpose of action learning sets.

During our time we worked out our problems together, like breaking down the vast information of the subject and also sharing our knowledge of personal skills and experience as shown in our first meeting with using PowerPoint. Then overcoming the problems that arouse throughout the meetings like absent members and to then learn from these experiences at the end.As Jasper, M (2003) stated, once we see barriers as a challenge it becomes easier to overcome them. To the use of reflecting thinking, and working out alternatives to the ways we usually see and do things, is the first step in this process. To use writing reflectively within our learning and professional practice we need to see it as a positive strategy from our development. There are many models for reflection, I have explored and incorporated into my work Gibbs, G (1988) Reflective Cycle which uses description, feelings, evaluation, description, conclusion and action plan.

I have used this in my reflective account to critically analyse key points from our meetings and presentation. I compared Gibbs cycle to Johns, C (1994) Structured Reflection John uses cue questions and I felt that his reflection was more for a health or care environment because he uses influencing factors and external factors such as guidance from professional bodies and policy and procedures. I felt that Gibbs related more to action learning sets because we did not have any managers or policies directing our decisions or actions in any way other than group contribution

and decisions.In using the Gibbs model I have reflected on the meetings and presentation. This has helped me to evaluate what I did to contribute to group and question what did go well and what did not. It has also helped me to think of other ways I could have done things.

This has helped me learn from action learning sets and made me think of ways to overcome challenges in the future. It has made me realise that I am actually learning from the experience be it a good or bad one.