The Skills And Knowledge I Learned Through The Course

leader. The following definition has been chosen as it reflects the overall stance of the inquiry:

Within critical thinking I have learned critical thinking skills such as how to communicate appropriately through the use of writing. some of those skills include writing to discover patterns, find new ways of tackling a project, even to improve a new way of thinking (The Craft of research p.14). Some

Critical thinking has an important role in learning and development because if properly executed it allows me to see the entire situation instead of the individual task. I plan to take the necessary actions to determine the task with open eyes and an unbiased approach. Remembering the facts about the situation can help in resolving the issue. Understanding by reiterating the problem can help me further comprehend. Applying then analyzing the tasks and or situations so I can prepare the steps to come to the evaluation. I can see if the resources are accurate and thorough. The last thing I should be able to do to assure my critical thinking skills are complete is a form of creating. I take all the information of this situation, and use it in my final resolution. These steps are crucial in the ability to think clearly and not be clouded by biased information.

As a student, I am constantly having to view my studies with objectivity, analyze and evaluate a given task using critical thinking, and come up with a solution. Effective communication is one area I need to improve on. Since I have been a stay-at-home mom for the last 13 years, I have had limited experience with business and professional dialogue, and therefore, I am out of practice professionally communicating with

Leadership means the period during which a person occupies the position of leader. A “leader" is someone who brings a group of people together, and directs them toward a common goal. Someone can easily

I have learned several valuable skills over the course of my 8-month co-op term. Organization and attention to detail are two important capabilities required in any job, which I have been able to develop as I faced a variety of tasks that challenged me to improve these skills. Through my commitment to learn I have come a long way since my first day on the job.

Education plays an imperative role in developing these skills. Young and Warren (2011), in their review of the education literature, stated that a number of cross-sectional research studies have shown that a student’s critical thinking ability can improve while at college. While Parcarella and Terenzini (2005) approximate that a student can improve their critical thinking skills by 63% by the end of their sophomore year. According to Hurt (2007) these skills must be developed consistently, purposefully and rationally over time to enable students to appropriately respond to the intricate issues that the working environment

Before this class, I had a very primitive and vague definition of leadership. Not only did I define it as per my views and ideologies, but I also said that each individual has their own definition of leadership. My initial belief was that leadership does not have a clear cut definition, but there were well defined leadership traits which made an individual. I also initially believed that personal traits did not translate into leadership traits with no strong correlation. After going through the various modules this class offered, it is safe to say that I have significantly redefined leadership and underwent a strong personal assessment. This paper talks what I took back from each of the class activities, assignments and how my self-assessment compares to the perception of others.

Every day as an instructional aide I use my critical thinking skills when deciding whether an impending conflict will escalate to violent behavior, deciding on how to approach a student Everyday many employees of organizations use their critical thinking skills in countless decisions, critical thinking skills are not the only skills used by employees, but they are the most important. As an employee I use my critical thinking skills when applying to the policies and procedures of my organization, making determinations, making predictions and problem solving more so on-the spot decision making, and

The intellectual virtues which are needed for the development of fair-minded critical thinking skills include being humble, courageous, empathetic, honest, perseverant, confident in reason, and autonomous (Elder & Paul, 2012, p.21). Critical thinking allows one to make rational decisions without being impulsive, which ultimately leads to bad decisions. Critical thinking also helps to ensure the decisions which are made demonstrate positive decision-making behaviors (Elder & Paul, 2012). Furthermore, critical thinking skills enable one to utilize disciplined thinking strategies to analyze all possible outcomes before arriving to the final conclusion.

Research can be a very scary topic when it is first introduced to a class, and I was that scary student. Research to me was like learning how to swim for the first time with a life vest on, and my heart beating 100 miles per hour because I’m so afraid. Taking off my life vest and diving into this research course has been very rewarding for me. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. It has open my eyes up to a variety of ways I can start and conduct my research. Research is not so scary anymore. In this paper, I’m going to tell you about the things that I have learned and perfected while taking this course.

I also believe that an effective leader plays a significant role in promoting and molding individuals’ readiness as it relates to motivation and commitment. As such, I developed my leadership assessment with these points in mind. The assessment focuses on 14 attributes that I believe are important not only for a leader to be successful within the parameters of the SLT, but for most any leadership model adopted by a successful leader in the modern business environment. The assessment was completed by Bobby, my manager of nearly six years, and by Katrina, my highest-ranking direct report of nearly four years. Each was asked to assign a candid rating to each attribute using a one-to-ten (worst-to-best) scale as well as to make notes or offer any suggestions so that I may incorporate it into my leadership style in an effort to improve the areas of weakness and become a better leader. In addition, I did a self-assessment using the same criteria. It should be noted that while Bobby offered both a ranking and narrative feedback, Katrina completed the assessment using the numerical ranking only. The results were consistent in some areas and mixed in others, but revealed some valuable information that I can use not only within the context of this course, but also as my career is better defined over time.

One of the biggest lessons learned from this course is that to be an effective leader, you must have a diverse skillset. I’m not sure if there is any one magical component or characteristic in being a great leader. One influence during my review of the literature was that; although easier for some, I see leadership as something we must continually improve upon. This is in contrast to my belief during my first day of class, when I thought leaders just

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower This quote from Eisenhower rings true on many levels. During my career in the military and the private sector, I have been subjected to many different styles of leadership, good or bad. In my leadership roles I have attained, I tried to model leadership abilities by taking bits and pieces of previous leader’s styles and forming them into my own model. This has proven to work well as dealing with people from all different walks of life there is no one size fits all approach. In writing this paper, I will detail my own leadership platform drawing from the course material and various other sources. The goal of this paper is to show a solid understanding of the course teachings and perhaps give the reader a new found perspective on leadership.

I feel like I learned a lot from this course. I think, overall, this course was very eye-opening and made me understand, and want to better understand, issues involving gender and how they effect society. I would say the one of the most important pieces of information I learned was just how much the idea of gender and gender roles influences everyday life. I had never really thought too much about the determents of gender or traditional masculine and feminine ideals before this class, and how we as a society promote and encourage the belief that a person’s gender or sex creates different innate, natural attitudes and attributes. Learning about how important society’s views of gender is, and how it affects the way we learn and think, makes me look at our culture in a different way. For example, before this class I never realized how much women are objectified and put under intense Photoshop in advertisements. This better understanding of the way society is helps me take a step back and look at our culture in a different way, and allows me to become more aware of the issues surrounding gender, sex, and the ideals of masculinity and femininity.