Critical Reflection

  

In the formal letter written in the first lessons, the goal of improving my speech and presentation skills were set, as well as learning more about critical thinking skills. Over the weeks, by doing research on the research topics, critical thinking skills had to be used to evaluate the articles. And especially now, as we are writing our critical reflection, are looking back on the past lessons and experiences during this module to reflect on what we have done to achieve our goals.

The lessons tasked us to read and understand the resources before explaining the knowledge to the rest of the class. By doing so, the concepts had to be understood before we would share them with the class, and with that, we also had the chance to continuously present to others. The first few presentations were based on whatever little knowledge I had of presenting from past modules back in my polytechnic days, where I learnt to be clear and articulate when speaking for others to be able to understand the words and concepts I am speaking, but I could not suppress my nerves, causing stuttering and stammering during presentations. However, as the module progressed, it was felt that my speaking and communication skills improved. There were still nerves, but it was much better handled for me to not stutter as much. One of the methods I had picked up was to speak at a slower but not too awkward pace, as it allows me to gather and collect my thoughts to be able to present and speak without much stuttering. Another improvement to my presentation skills is the etiquette, as it was common for us to remain speaking even while moving offstage or using distracting movements that takes the focus off the presentation itself. Although my presentation skills have improved, it still has another gap to overcome as I would have to conquer my nerves before presenting to a larger audience.

During our technical report project, I was unfortunately appointed as the group leader. Planning the meeting around each member schedule was tough, especially when the object of research had to be shifted three lessons into writing the report. However, as the topic had remained the same, there was no need to change our scope.

While writing the report, it was found to be difficult to look for articles related to problems for our research topic, as the research object was considered to be new, and not many problems were detected regarding our research topic. However, our team decided to look at problems related to the predecessor that the current object couldn’t fix and come up with a solution from there. During the lead up to the presentation, we were initially confused at the standard that slides had to follow, as the reports had the APA standard we had to adhere to, and we had decided to only include talking points and reference our images.

The rehearsals were spent on improving our speech and pacing, as well as understanding our parts in the presentation. The first mock presentation went off without a hitch, and feedback was given to improve on the report and add more comparisons between our solution and the current object. This proved to be easier as we were now researching the materials, and there were more research papers regarding the materials used. However, with the addition of the new section and with only two weeks left to the actual presentation, the nerves had gotten to us, and we had miscommunicated on the sections each of us were presenting, therefore leading to a clash and repeat of a section during the actual presentation.

Regardless, the project was a learning experience in writing a formal technical report and presenting the research in a presentation.