Critical Reflection

Module learning: 

During the first few weeks of this module, I set myself goals to accomplish before the end of the module. I set these goals to drive me towards becoming a better presenter and incorporate critical thinking skills to help me do so. During the subsequent weeks of the module, I have learnt to use the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework to help me analyse problems through the elements of reasoning and come up with solutions for them.

For critical thinking skills, using the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework helps me understand the problems faced, analyse the data available and come up with the most appropriate solutions for them. Understanding the problem is the first and most important step, as this allows me to see the full picture of what I'm dealing with. Next comes the ability to link information available to me with my thought process, which allows me to analyse and come up with potential solutions to the problem. To better prepare for my presentations, I made use of the Primacy/Recency effect, which is an observation that information presented at the start and end of a presentation is retained better. With that in mind, I will try to focus more on creating a strong opening to hook the audience and a meaningful closure to keep the audience thinking even after the presentation. 

To sum up what I have learnt, being able to use Paul-Elder’s framework to analyse data and come up with solutions allows me to make informed decisions and come up with more impactful solutions. Using the Primacy/Recency effect helped me with my oral presentation because I found myself putting constant effort into establishing eye contact and giving natural hand gestures to keep engaging the audience for as long as possible. However, I still need to improve on making use of the space given to me as I tend to stand too far away from the audience.

Project learning:

For my research project, I worked in a team of 4 to come up with an edible food container to help fight against plastic waste pollution.

For the report, I have learnt to use Paul-Elder's critical thinking framework to do research on all the possible ways an edible food container could be created. First I need to understand the need to have an edible food container. Next, I used the elements of reasoning to help me analyse and make a weighted decision before finalising a solution. For working in a team, I learnt that splitting the workload according to one’s strength is key to a better experience. Everybody's good at different things. The quality of work can be expected to be better if everyone is playing to their strengths. This has really changed my perspective of team projects because when I was still in polytechnic, the team would do our parts on a first come first serve basis. 

For the team presentation, I learnt how to give a proper transition to the next speaker which does not break the flow of the presentation and helps set the audience up for what the next speaker is going to present. I value the feedback given to me by my peers as they show me exactly what I needed to do to improve. Now, I am aware of what I need to improve on for my presentations in the future, such as standing too far away from the audience and having more expressive facial expressions.