Week 5: Reflective domains and SMART goals

4th July 2021

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Week 5 content discusses the reflective domains model and SMART goals.

Reflective writing is a new experience for me. Having worked in the marketing industry for many years focusing on brand and design, I felt rusty in my writing. I was uncertain about structuring a reflective post and whether my blog sounded interesting.

Reflective writing helps to improve life-long learning in both personal and professional growth (Ryan, 2010). The process is complex to achieve unless students approach it systematically. Ryan’s approach to academic reflection is to recount, describe, explain and discuss. A recount is recalling the event with your thoughts and emotions. Describe is to explain the event by making comparisons to your experiences. Explain is to express the reasoning behind the decisions and use evidence and research to back them up. Discuss is to talk about hypotheses about possible actions and your future goals and ideas.

I have learnt that the key aim is to write analytically rather than descriptively. Learning about the reflective domains has allowed me to understand the need for exploration, my limitations and possible weaknesses that I may encounter in a project. With practice, it will help me to build my personal and professional development.

Dispositional domain - This involves time management, motivation and discipline.

Affective domain - This covers emotional health which can impact your focus and work performance.

Interpersonal domain - This involves the interactivity between you and your peers and course leader, verbal/non-verbal, listening, problem-solving skills, assertiveness.

Cognitive domain - This is strengths and weaknesses in learning and identifying the path of learning that is relevant to your ambitions and career.

Procedural domain - This is about evaluating the skills you have and identifying ways to improve them.

The challenge brief is to review my current blog posts and analyse which reflective domains are included. Looking at the results in the table, I can see where I have lacked reflectively in a specific domain and where I need to improve.

I need to include procedural domains and discuss my potential improvements. Although I discuss the cognitive domain quite well, I would like to discuss my learning path relevant to my ambitions and career goals.

Furthermore, I would like to improve the interpersonal domain by becoming more interactive with my peers and listening to webinars.

[Reflective domains image by Lehang Tieu. 2021]

Peer reviewed journals

A key element in my blog is to improve my reflective writing by researching and reading peer-reviewed journals. Peer review is a process that involves experts in the same research field having an in-depth analysis of the scholarly journal (Ware, 2008). It helps to improve the quality of the content. At the start of the module, I used books and general websites to look into the topics presented each week. I didn't have much validity of my research from professionals and experts in that field.

I want to research and read more peer-reviewed content to further my knowledge of the topics presented each week. I attended a Falmouth library webinar that taught me how to use the library services by searching for specific topics and filtering peer-reviewed journals. It gives me credible sources to better my research and understanding that I will apply to my reflective blog.

SMART Goals

SMART goals is an effective project management tool that allows you to create and achieve realistic goals.

Specific - Each goal needs to be specified using the five W’s, what, who, where, when and why, which can help you create them.

Measurable - The goals will need to be measurable so you can track your progress.

Achievable - It needs to be achievable and realistic so that you are challenging yourself but not so far that it becomes impossible.

Relevant - Create your goals based on your ambitions and career path.

Time-bound - Give yourself a time-limit so you can organise your goals.

Goal 1: I will learn and improve my skills in Figma so that I can create interactive prototypes. I will do this by completing the Udemy Figma beginner course in my own time by watching and practising the tutorial. I will commit to 3 hours each week to complete the tutorial chapters.

Goal 2: I will manage my time to do more reading using a mixture of books and peer-reviewed journals so I can have a better understanding and further my knowledge of the topics presented each week. I will do this by committing one hour each day by using the Falmouth library services and researching material online.

Goal 3: I will practice creativity techniques so I can adapt to being more flexible and step out of my comfort zone. I will do this by applying and practicing a range of methods in my future modules in the UX Design Masters.

Goal 4: I will interact with my peers and course leader so I can improve my interpersonal skills. I will do this by attending and listening to all webinars and spending one hour each week reading the responses in the forum and responding to my peers' comments.

References

Parker, A. 2021. Reflective writing, SMART Goals. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/912/pages/week-5-smart-goals?module_item_id=54108> [Accessed 25 June 2021].

Libguides.cam.ac.uk. 2021. LibGuides: Reflective Practice Toolkit: Reflective writing. [online] Available at: <https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/reflectivepracticetoolkit/reflectivewriting> [Accessed 30 June 2021].

Ryan, M. 2011. ‘Improving Reflective Writing in Higher Education: a Social Semiotic Perspective’. Teaching in higher education 16(1), 99–111.

Ware, M. 2008. Peer review: benefits, perceptions and alternatives. London: Publishing Research Consortium, pp.4-12.