Reflection on Learning

What I really appreciate from this module is the intercultural environment and the chance to self-evaluate.

This course provided me with opportunities to practice to speak up more, in class discussions, presentations, mock interview, and group meetings etc. I feel that to express myself and my thoughts comprehensibly is really important, even more so when our class consists of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Because of the different levels of understanding of language, social norms and values, perceptions of a particular issue by each of us may be different from one another’s. The sharing in class from the exchange students were interesting and opened up my perspective to a certain extent. The importance of intercultural knowledge is made even more relevant to me as my group had to present this topic for peer teaching. As such, I learnt a lot both from the class environment and the research which is required of me.

Initially I took up this course as I had to overload this semester and this was the only module which could fit into my timetable. In addition, my seniors recommended me to take this module, quoting that it will be useful especially since we will need to do up our application letter and resume for Industrial Attachment by end of Year 2. I did not check out what the module is about and went ahead to bid for it, thinking that this was my only choice. In the past, I often research if there’s any project work or emphasis on language in the grading of the module before considering for bidding as English Language has always been a barrier for me. I try to refrain from group work as it often means the need to spend a lot of time on getting everyone’s agreement before proceeding. Indeed, both peer teaching and research proposal involved and required much of my time and effort, especially since I always expect the best out of myself in work. I began to regret taking up this module as my work starts to pile up due to most of time spent on these group works. In fact, as some of the deadlines clashed with my test dates, I did not have sufficient time to study for my CAs because I had to consider that my group mates will be affected if I don’t finish my part in time. However, this only made me more conscious of the need for me to manage my time more effectively. It was hard to prioritize as my core modules were of heavy content. I learnt that insufficient management on my part will cause me to make sacrifices. It may not be a pleasant experience, but it definitely served as a good learning experience. 

It is better to experience failure now than to fail when we are out in the workplace. Only through failure will we find success.

Reflection on Oral Presentation

The whole of the Research Proposal process was a good learning and self-reflecting experience. From brainstorming to submission of research proposal followed by presenting our ideas, the process involved teamwork which presented problems that made us paused to think what went wrong.
The deadlines were quite close to each other and we had to balance the workload of other modules. Personally I had 4 other modules that require consistent efforts in terms of lab reports, weekly tests and CAs, and some even clashed with the deadlines of research proposal which almost made me suffocated from the workload. Furthermore, it was hard to establish priorities since all of these were graded and will contribute to the final module grade significantly. However, I chose to sacrifice other modules for the research proposal as I feel that it will not only affect my grade but also my groupmates'. I had to consider the fact that I should be putting the same amount of effort, if not more, as my groupmates, especially since we placed emphasis in equality of work.
One of the greatest challenges which we faced was communication breakdown. I felt that it was due to lack of understanding, in terms of literally the meaning of the messages and being considerate. More often than not, we had to repeat ourselves again and again to the same questions or to get our points across. Conflict occurred as we were not on the same page at some point in time. However, by the time we realised the problem, I felt that it was too late to correct it. In fact, if we were to dwell on it, we would be wasting time and nothing constructive will result from it. My take was to move on and complete as we have a deadline to follow. What can we do if the amount of work required to be done stays unchanged, but the manpower we have has decreased? Differences in thinking and handling of problem were obviously an issue since we do not know each other beforehand. As such, the lesson learnt would be to establish a common ground and reach a consensus at the start of the project.
Despite the problems faced, there were some good points noted, such as the teamwork shown in wanting the result to be as ideal as possible. Individualistic was not an issue as we helped one another even after the splitting of work. We would make sure every parts of the proposal and presentation were linked and helped one another to improve on their parts. Such efforts were significant in making the final product possible.
All in all, I would say I am satisfied with what we have came up with, although there is of course, room for improvement. Given the amount of time we had for this research proposal and the amount of effort we have all put in, the product has exceeded my expectation for it.