Last semester started off as I imagine most people’s first semester at university does – quiet, shy, lack of confidence and nerves from being thrown into situations out-with your comfort zone. This was something which I really had to work towards overcoming in my first few weeks at university in order to be successful as a learner. It didn’t occur to me at the start of the semester how independent university was and how true the saying ‘you get what you put in’ was. Out of both modules we carried out in first semester, the one which helped me to achieve this the most was the Working Together Module.

Initially, my working together group was awkward and for a while, this limited our progress. On reflection, I believe this can be linked to us not knowing each other or much about the course and everyone having nerves about their first semester (Schön, 1983). However, this was something we had to overcome.  Gradually, as the weeks went on, members of the group started to contribute their ideas more which helped us to have proper discussions about our tasks and complete them to a higher standard. This, in particular, gave me the confidence boost I needed last semester as it enabled me to share my views and opinions without feeling the nerves that I might be judged. This was the most important moment for me from Semester One as it is where, I believe, my professional development started to grow. Throughout the working together module we were strongly advised to peer assess or evaluate the people we were working with. Initially, I found this to be very hard because I didn’t really know any of my peers and didn’t want to criticize them. After a lot of reflecting at the time, I soon realised that it was more beneficial for myself and my peers to be honest and critical of our work as, inevitability, this was how we would be successful and achieve our goals.

I believe we could’ve used our time more effectively rather than assume there wasn’t anything to do and as a result leaving things till last minute. However, I believe that this is something which I would use as a future goal in my learning. This semester has proven to me the importance of being able to critically reflect on my work thus allowing me to understand how to improve my learning.