All entries for Thursday 15 December 2011
December 15, 2011
An Introduction to Critical Thinking (A5) – First entry
Workshop: An Introduction to Critical Thinking; Tutor: Austin Griffiths
Date: 13/12/2011
Critical thinking has always been the weakest chink in my academic armour. Hailing from India, where I have NEVER once been expected to critically think (maybe because our only mode of assessment was written exams!), I find this concept extremely elusive! For this very reason, and the fact that a chunk of my assessed coursework (for MSc. Biotechnology and Business Management) is essays (which rely on the concept of critical thinking), I decided to attend the 'Introduction to Critical Thinking' workshop on 13/12/2011 at 10 am.
As expected, I was not at all disappointed by the workshop, which involved loads of activities like analysis of pieces of writing or solving puzzles or picking out the logical and valid arguments from the not and others. We also learnt the important concepts of questioning and challenge and logic and argument. I daresay that this was by far the BEST workshop amongst the four others that i have attended for the Masters Skills Portfolio Awards.
The main reason why the workshop was so good, according to me, is because of the brilliance with which the tutor, Austin Griffiths conducted it. He showed us an interesting video (my favourite part) and was constantly interacting with us, patiently answering all queries as we went along. He even took the time off after to help me with a few queries regarding my essay.
At the end of the workshop, we were asked to come up with a few things that we would consciously want to make an effort to improve. Since I am an absolute zero at critically analyzing anything, I literally have to start from scratch! So these are the few Action Points that I came up with:-
- I will, firstly try to critically assess EVERY piece of text i read and try to figure if there was a scope for the author to say something better/more/with more references/proof. This will help me analyze text better and enhance my critical thinking as well.
- As Mr. Griffiths suggested, I will not take for granted any text for my coursework, just because it has been written by an established name. I will reason it out and be more opinionative.
- With respect to my essays, I have one due on the 10th of January, 2012. It is titled "Has gene therapy come of age?" I had no clue how to approach such a topic until i spoke with Mr. Griffiths and, based on his guidance, I am going to try to look at it from a critical perspective and change my entire outlook to the essay, i.e. be more critical and add my opinions wherever i think appropriate. This will just be the start to a the fresh perspective that i will try to add to all my essays or any other written/read work, from here on forward.
- Another very crucial thing which i will implement is critically analyzing my own essay after writing it, in a manner the assessor of my work would. This would help me logically reason out and validate my work and find loopholes, if any, to correct before making a submission.
So these are the action points i took home from the workshop and i will strive to achieve each and every one of them, to make myself a better person and make it all worth it, in the long run.
Have a lovely week.
Regards
Abbas
Abbas Siraj Deesawala
15 Dec 2011 23:40
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Leading a Group Project (P8) – First entry
Workshop : Leading a Group Project; Tutor: Mary Sage
Date: 12/12/2011
The "Leading a Group Project" workshop conducted on the 12th of December, 2011 at 1:30 pm was a very interesting workshop. It was an eye opener for me because i always thought that i was pretty good at leading a group project, and just leading in general. Infact, i had just lead a group project for my course MSc. Biotech and Business Management for the Marketing Management module and though i thought that we had done a pretty good job managing ourselves, along the course of the workshop, i realized how much better we could have done.
The workshop consisted of a lot of activities which helped me actually think of the finer details of leading a group project, following which we were taught about a few leadership styles and methods to effectively keep track of our projects' finer details so as to always be ahead of deadlines.
Ms. Mary Sage is a great tutor and she encouraged us to give our opinions and sorted out all our questions before moving on, despite the time constraint. I remember being involved in quite a few discussions myself.
At the end of the workshop, we were asked to come up with a few things that we would consciously want to make an effort to initiate/improve. So these are the few Action Points that I came up with:-
- Firstly, I will make a conscious effort to change my leadership style to Participative, from my natural Authoritarian style, in ALL future leadership roles (as the SSLC Rep for my class,for starters, by interacting more with my classmates and taking their opinions of the problems we are facing, before attending the SSLC meetings (next on Jan 21, 2012), rather than just giving my own inputs), as i feel it will be more useful and produce better results. This does not mean that i will stick only to this style, but adapt my leadership style to the situation. I aim however, to mostly be a Participative leader
- Set up ground rules for everyone to see and know - I found this to be a very useful piece of advice to avoid confusion and that is the first thing i'm going to do for the group assignment of my next module 'Finance and Accounts' which begins on January 3rd, 2012
- Use a GANTT chart to closely monitor task completion by different members, within the Accounts group project due on 13th January, so as to help finish on time
- Use the MindManager Software for all future projects and presentations, starting today, to help better organize all my ideas
So these are the action points i took home from the workshop and i will strive to achieve each and every one of them, to make myself a better person and make it all worth it, in the long run.
Have a lovely week.
Regards
Abbas
Abbas Siraj Deesawala
15 Dec 2011 17:32
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