Blog 2: 08/02/2018

08/02/2018

Lecture:

I had my second lecture on the 5th February 2018 with Hiader Bilal. His lecture was focusing on reflective writing. In the lecture we were taught about what is reflection, why we need to do it and the main purpose of reflection. From my perspective I did not know how important reflection really is. I had learnt that reflection develops the understanding and gives me a path to move forward. This had made me realised how important it is to reflect as this way we can think of what we understood and keep a reminder so this way if we forget about what we did, we can look back which would assist us in the future. Haider had told us that 'people who reflect and keep a plan on what needs to be done for the day are one of the most successful people in the world'. This had shocked me as i had agreed with it as if we have a plan on what needs to be done by the day and we tick it off then that would mean we get more work done and move forward. This is because we reflect on where we are and what needs to be done and we give us small goals for the day. Having consistent small goals and completing them would motivate us to move forward.

Haider also had taught us about Borton's (1970) cue questions and the three elements of Borton. The elements of Borton are:

• Experience: What?
• Reflection: So what?
• Action: Now what?

When Haider was explaining about the three elements, I had thought that I can interpret this in my group work for my assignment as this way I would be able to set goals on what needs to be done.
I had found this interesting as with the first element was 'experience' it would be based on describing event or process. This would mean describing on what happened so this way in our group work, we could have a meeting to let us know what we have done and to know what the others have done in the group for the week.

'Reflection' is the second element which would be about thinking and drawing conclusions. This would mean thinking if the things that have happened, were they done according to plan? This had mad me realise how important reflection is as this way we would be able to see what exactly has happened and if it didn't happen to plan then what could we have done differently. This way it would avoid problems that may have occurred.

This would lead to the third element 'action' where the future goals and actions are done. This element is based on what we can do next time and the possible consequences of your actions may be. These three elements really made me think on what I can do within my group work and how I can include this into my group work.

Haider had explained to us about focused free writing and reflective writing. I had realised the difference between the two which made me think that I do keep a diary which is more based on focused free writing as this is based on the experience I had and I would write without stopping for 5 to 15 minutes. Whereas a reflective writing is more based on the Borton's 3 elements and Gibbs Reflective cycle.

Above the the Gibbs model that Haider had explained to us. This was useful as I wanted to have a more detailed cycle that I could follow in my group work. Once Haider had explained this, I understood the cycle and decided to discuss this model with my group. This lecture was very useful and interesting as I was given example of a bad reflection and a good reflection in order for me to see the difference. This had given me an idea on what I should include in my reflective writing. Another aspects that was interesting was that we were taught the difference between a descriptive writing and a reflective writing.

Seminar:

On the 8th February 2018, I had attended my second seminar. Firstly in the seminar we had discussed on the Business tools. We were given a sheet to do for homework so in the first part of the seminar we had discussed on our findings. We had discussed on what is a business case, what is the role of an analyst, what typical steps that are required to analyse a business. We had also discussed on our Role and what possible steps we need to do. This had given me an idea on what I would need to do within my team.

Another aspect that we had learnt within the seminar was Excel. We were taught beginner skills that were needed in order to find out total, average, count, largest, smallest, equal, multiple, divide, percentage on Excel. This was interesting as I am not familiar with Excel. Susie was very helpful as she come round each and every one of us to see if we have done it and then would move onto the next step.

Group work:

Everyone in the group had attended to seminar which was the best opportunity to have a small meeting at seminar session on everyone's ideas on what type of company we should focus on. I had then discussed with my group about this as we still have not chosen the company that we are going to be focusing on. It was difficult for us to choose a company as we were unsure that we may not be allowed to get information. For that reason I had suggested to my group that after our seminar we go to our local superstore near Elephant and Castle and we could go to several shops and ask them if they are willing to give us information. Viorica also suggested that we should email businesses about this as this would be easier. I told her that we could do that too but we should also go in store as this way they would see us in person. If we had more than one company who would be willing to give us information that could then choose the store that we can get information from. Some of my team members had agreed to come with me to ask stores but some group member were busy. They wouldn't be able to make it as they did not have free time.

I told the group about the Gibbs model that we learnt in lecture with Haider and they seemed very interested. I told them we could follow the cycle in order for us to reflect on if we have achieved our objectives for the week. Everyone had agreed on this concept and as we still had time we had thought of the possible questions we can ask to the stores as this way it would look professional. As our main objective for the week was to find a business that would allow us information. I had told the group to think of more questions on what we can ask so this way if we have a business by this week, we can have a meeting with the business by the end of next week. We could have a meeting on Monday where everyone would contribute on the questions we can ask. Everyone had agreed to this and I told them that if we do find a business this week then I would let them know by our Whatsapp group chat.

Suman Tanveer