Dig Deeper: Reflect on the Specifics of Your Progress
Filling out Figure 14.1 gave you an overall view of how your abilities on key skills have changed over the term. Now you’ll have a chance to reflect on your specific accomplishments in this class and what you’ve learned about yourself in the process. We’ll revisit the key elements of college and career success, consider the impact they’ve made in your life, and celebrate everything you’ve learned during this term. Why? Because focusing on what you’ve accomplished strengthens your self-confidence and helps you stay motivated — and it just plain feels good!
What Did You Discover about Yourself?
In this class you’ve had many opportunities to strengthen your self-awareness — for example, by clarifying your interests, values, skills, and learning preferences. Self-awareness empowers you to take advantage of your strengths and address weaknesses. It’s also a cornerstone of critical thinking and personal responsibility and an important first step in setting goals.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to create a top ten list of lessons they’ve learned in this class. They can use this list as a quick reference during later academic and career experiences. As a discussion component, have students share some of the items on their list with the class.
To prompt your thinking about self-awareness and the specifics of what you learned this term, let’s begin with a quick exercise: Using Table 14.1 as a model, identify the three most important insights you’ve gained about yourself in this class. Then write down why you consider each insight valuable and how you’ll use it in your future classes and your future career. For example, perhaps you discovered how much you enjoy working with others in small groups. Now you can look for courses and volunteer opportunities that involve working with others, and you can investigate careers that involve collaboration. Concrete reflection like this — which you’ll have a chance to do throughout the chapter — gives you a way to process all that you’ve experienced over this busy term.
ACTIVITY: Depending on the size of your class, you might want to write a paragraph to each student identifying the growth and accomplishments that you, as the instructor, have witnessed in each individual over the term.
This reflection is a great first step, but do remember that gaining self-knowledge is an ongoing process. You’ll continue to learn more about yourself as you progress through college — and through life. In the coming terms, for example, you’ll gain more insight into your academic and career interests as you take different courses or try out different jobs. You’ll get better at interacting with various types of people as you work on group assignments for class or participate in school organizations. If you’re working while going to school, you’ll learn about yourself as a professional and a coworker. And once you’ve graduated, you’ll continue building your self-knowledge as you face new opportunities and challenges in your professional and personal life. This course is only the beginning!
| What I learned about myself in this class | Why this knowledge is valuable | How I’ll use this information in the future |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
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What Goals Did You Establish — and Achieve?
By now you’ve used the Personal Success Plan (PSP) many times to define goals and create action plans for achieving them. What did you think about this activity when you first tried it? Did simply setting a goal seem like a lot of work, or did it seem too easy? How do you feel about the PSP process now? Do the steps come more easily to you, or less so?
As the next step in your reflection, take a few moments now to review the PSPs you created and to consider the progress you’ve made toward your goals. Then, using Table 14.2 as a model, record three goals you’re most proud of achieving, how achieving each goal helped you, and why you’re proud of achieving it. For example, perhaps you became skilled at taking notes using an outline, which helped you stay organized when it was time to study for a test. And perhaps you’re proud of achieving this goal because you practiced over and over before getting it right — which showed you the power of persistence and how good it feels to improve at a skill through hard work.
| Goal I achieved | How achieving this goal helped me | Why I’m proud of achieving this goal |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
What Kept You Motivated and Positive?
Motivation and positivity are key ingredients in success. Motivation keeps you moving forward — striving to reach your next goal, live your next dream, and build your next skill. Of course, motivation fluctuates depending on the goals involved, the rewards you expect to reap, and your academic and career priorities. It can also ebb and flow with the passage of time.
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Now that you have some college experience, think about your motivation over the term. In which classes did you feel most motivated to work toward your goals? Why? Were they related to your major? Did they appeal to your interests? Did you believe those courses would best prepare you for your chosen career? Also think about times when you felt decidedly unmotivated, and consider how you handled the situation. Overall, do you think you’re better at staying motivated, regardless of the task, than you used to be?
ACTIVITY: Divide the class into groups of three or four. Ask students to share with the group their top three strategies for staying motivated. Have a spokesperson from each group share with the class a favorite strategy, without repeating what another group has shared.
Using Table 14.3 as a model, list three strategies that helped you maintain your motivation this term. Then describe why those strategies work so well for you and how you’ll use them in future courses. For example, perhaps you stayed motivated by connecting your short-term goals to a long-term goal, such as landing a rewarding job. Each time you achieved a short-term goal and celebrated your progress toward the larger goal, it kept you energized. Now, if you’re ever unmotivated to work on an assignment, you’ll know that connecting it to a meaningful long-term goal will spur you on.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask students to consider the chapters in this book and respond to the following questions: Which chapter was your favorite? Why? Which chapter did you find most challenging? Why? How were you able to overcome these challenges and stay motivated to succeed in this class?
As you consider what motivates you, don’t forget just how powerful a positive attitude can be — and how much it can drive you to succeed. To consider how positivity impacted you this term, think back over the last few months: Did you experience a setback during that time, such as performing poorly on a test or handing in an assignment late? How did you respond to the setback? Did you turn it into an opportunity for improvement, and if so, how? Now think of a time this term when you had a success. Maybe you achieved a PSP goal or received praise from an instructor about a project. How did you respond to this success? Did you gain confidence in your skills? Did your motivation grow? Consider what your responses to these questions suggest about how you’ll handle setbacks in the future — and how you can use positivity to your best advantage.
FURTHER READING: Read the Positivity blog by Barbara L. Fredrickson in Psychology Today. It includes several entries dedicated to achieving positivity every day.
| Strategy for maintaining motivation | Why this strategy works for me | How I’ll use this strategy in future courses |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
What Skills Did You Build?
Knowing yourself, establishing and achieving goals, and staying motivated and positive are all vital elements of success — but in themselves they’re not enough. You also need to develop additional skills that will help you excel in college and beyond. The good news? During this term, you’ve done just that.
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You’ve developed critical thinking, decision-making, and metacognitive skills. All of these helped you reflect on your own values and interests, master course content, understand your learning preferences, and figure out which strategies are most effective in which learning situations.
You’ve developed specific academic and life skills: managing your time, reading, taking notes, studying, taking exams, working with information, interacting effectively with others, and maintaining your personal and financial health.
You’ve developed valuable transferable skills. You may already be using skills you’ve developed in this class to excel in your other classes, and you can apply those same skills to a job you have now and to your future career. (See the Appendix for tips on crafting résumés and cover letters that spotlight your key skills.)
Of all the many skills you’ve developed this term, list the three most important ones, using Table 14.4 as a model. (For ideas, revisit Figure 14.1 or the Connect to Career skills you recorded in each PSP.) Describe how you developed each skill and why it’s important to your success. For example, maybe you strengthened your public speaking skills by volunteering to deliver a group-project presentation in your world cultures class. You prepared your presentation in advance, rehearsed it until you knew it by heart, and then practiced delivering it to a family member to get feedback. The next time you have to present — either in future classes or at work — you’ll be confident that you know what to do.
ACTIVITY: After students have filled in Table 14.4, have them visit the O*NET. Which occupations list the skills that students have listed? Does this information help point them in a career direction? If so, what other skills should they begin building now?
| Skill I developed this term | How I developed this skill | Why this skill is important to my success |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
Who Supported You?
Everyone needs help at times, and as you’ve learned in this class, getting help is a major component of success. Think back to all the campus resources you explored during this term, including tutoring programs, academic advising, counseling and career centers, and the financial aid office. Which of these resources did you find most useful? Why?
In addition to campus programs, consider especially helpful individuals who supported you during the term. For instance, think about your instructors. Who was your biggest supporter? Why? How did you secure his or her support? And think about family members and friends who helped you this term. How did their encouragement differ from the help provided by your instructors or campus resources?
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Using Table 14.5 as a model, create your own supporter Hall of Fame. List three people who provided you with the most support this term, describe the support they provided, and explain how you benefited from their support.
For example, Tito doesn’t make friends easily, but he knew when he met Matt at the campus gym that they’d get along. An excellent student, Matt freely shared tips on how he kept his life organized, managed his time, and handled stress — tips that Tito used to stay successful all term long. By being positive and encouraging, Matt snagged the top spot in Tito’s Supporter Hall of Fame. Who gets the top spot on your list?
ACTIVITY: Have students write a thank-you card to one person who supported their success this term. If you encourage handwritten notes, you may want to bring stationery to class for students to use.
| Name of supporter | Support he or she provided | How I benefited from his or her support |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. |
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voices of experience: student
THE POWER OF UNDERSTANDING
YOURSELF
| NAME: | Jennifer Field |
| SCHOOL: | Dixie Applied Technical College |
| MAJOR: | Drafting Technology Certificate |
| CAREER GOAL: | Residential Construction Consulting |
“I plan to maintain my success by taking what I know about myself and what I love and turning it into a successful career.”
High school was challenging for me, and I chose not to go to college right after I graduated. I tried going to college a few times over the years, but I always approached those attempts with a fear of failure and ended up leaving. Deep down, though, I knew that I really wanted to get my education. I wanted to show my family that I had what it takes to graduate from college. I also wanted to show our boys how important school really is. That’s exactly what I did. I focused on what really mattered. I put my fears aside and I did it: I went back to school.
I’m so glad I did! Even though college is difficult for me now that I’m in my thirties and have a family to consider, I’ve found a school and a program that fit my style of learning and my career goals. I love the open learning and communication environment in the Drafting Technology Program. I’m able to interact daily with other students and instructors and to work at my own pace. The work is challenging at times and a breeze at other times. Being in this type of environment allows for hands-on and applied learning styles. We’re encouraged to collaborate with other students on just about every project, and I think that’s excellent training for my career field, where projects are almost always collaborative.
Knowing that I value collaborative work environments has helped me establish some longer-term goals related to my career. I know I want to be on the front line, work with people, and feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives.
Now that I’ve experienced success in school, I plan to maintain my success by taking what I know about myself and what I love and turning it into a successful career.
YOUR TURN: How has learning about yourself this term impacted your goals and your decisions? Like Jennifer, do you have a better sense of what you want to do for a career and why you want to do it? If so, what gave you this clarity?