Year 3 E-Portfolio
My background
Education is cited as the foundation of life. In these modern days, it is not possible to achieve your goals without having good education. I must say that in almost every sphere of human beings interactions, it involves the mind in creating understanding. I must say that since I was a child I always yearned to grow up and become a respectable member of the society. I had dreams and ambitions I wanted to achieve. Accomplishing these dreams could not happen like a miracle rather through hard work and committed. Motivation and encouragement form my parents helped me to succeed at various levels of my education. Reaching at the 3rd level of my education at the university has been through their encouragement and support. My father was a surgeon and my mother was a teacher. They influenced me and encouraged me at my tender age to study and always endeavor to work hard in all my duties. I therefore, developed a spirit of hard work and determination at this tender age. I aspired that one day I was also going to be a doctor even though I had no clue of what it took to achieve this dream as my cognitive abilities and thinking scope was not wide enough. However, as years went on my scope of knowledge begun widening and I begun to understand what it is required of me to be the person I want in life. I became aware of the requirement to become a doctor through my interactions with my parents and teachers at school. They have always advised and mentored me all through until this far I have gone. One of the major things was to excel in my academics, always be committed and believe in the goals and dreams. Likewise, my parents always encouraged me and they motivated me to work hard. I remember they used to buy me lots of gifts when I emerged at the top of the class. I really appreciated their love and support and even their encouragement, which made me to put concerted efforts in my education to enable me, achieve my goals. I therefore, improvised strategies to ensure that I achieve these dreams. I worked closely with parents; teachers and my colleagues at school.
My learning experiences
My learning experiences all through my early schooling to this level I have reached can be described as awesome. Even though, there have been some challenges here and there, I must say that I have enjoyed the experience. I have plans to complete this psychology degree and proceed on to study a clinical doctorate. The far I have reached, it has been through determination and setting up realistic goals and coming up with appropriate strategies. Even though, I have faced some challenges, they have molded and strengthened me even more. One of my goals that I wanted to achieve in my 3rd year was to become confident and achieve high level of self-esteem. I must say that I have managed to fulfill this goal. I have also managed to achieve my academic goals I had earlier set and I have hopes that with the grace of God and through my determination, I will come to study for my doctorate degree and later work as psychiatrist doctor. The strategies for achieving these goals make up my learning experiences as a student. Success must be evaluated to determine whether the set objectives are achieved or not. My levels of socialization helped me during my learning process to remain committed towards achievement of these goals. At the college, I met many friends from different backgrounds who helped me in nurturing my self-esteem. I learned and shared many things about life. This exposure allowed me to have high level of self-esteem. It also impacted on my career as well as my academics. My teachers also motivated me through their encouragement and guidance. The courses offered at the university were also relevant and interesting. They have nurtured and instilled wide scope of knowledge in me all the way to my 3rd years at this university. Furthermore, for the three years, I have been involving in various tasks that enable me to have wide scope of knowledge. We did various assignments that expanded my thinking capabilities and expanded my psychology knowledge. Furthermore, my own motivation and determination helped me toward achievement of my goals. I always attended classes and participated actively in class discussions, which helped me to achieve these goals. I also participated in various conferences and seminar organized by department of psychology and went to various colleges for exchange programs. These opportunities were a motivation to me as I got an opportunity to share several success stories from professionals that enabled me to remain committed to my goals. My relationships with my fellow colleagues were also positive. I collaborated with some of my colleagues to discuss various topics that seemed difficult for our individual reading. I must say that these discussions contributed to my success at this level of my education. Through these collaborations, we exchanged skills, knowledge and socialized. Challenges are part of our daily life and it is these challenges that provide us an opportunity to work hard and realize our dreams. One of the challenges in my learning experience was illness that caused me to fail to attend some of my classes. Nevertheless, I thank God for giving me strength to overcome these illness and making me reach this far.
My learner development
Learner development is a long process of the continual progress of a learner. As the learner advances, they experience various situations and challenges but most important is that they develop their skills and knowledge on various aspects they are pursuing. As it is normally stated, a journey of a thousand steps begins with one-step. When I entered in the university I have gone through various learning processes. Reaching at 3rd level seemed to be like a dream but I have managed to reach this far. Even at my 3rd years at the university I am I am still optimistic that my dreams of becoming a psychiatrist doctor will be attained. Just a recap of my learning development; I attended my secondary school at the London N15 from 1999-2004 where I studied various subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science, Geography, French, Drama and PE. These subjects gave me general skills in various areas. They expanded my scope of knowledge that enabled me to secure a place in the college. After my college education, I joined BTEC where I studied National diploma in health studies between 2004- 2007. In this course, I merited. Immediately I enrolled for my bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2007 and, completed in 2013. The reason for this extension was that I had to suspend my studies for two years to look after my baby.
Going through all these levels have been a good experience when I reflect. I believe that my background in health will ground my skills and knowledge to become a psychiatrist doctor. I got an opportunity to participate in various events at the college, which opened my knowledge and attracted me towards studying psychology. I realized that, many people are affected by psychological problems and this impairs their ability to function well and to carry out their duties.
At my third year, I have done various courses that have developed my skills and knowledge. These courses includes; Occupational and organizational psychology, problem solving, a typical child, and adolescent development: theories and applications. In occupational and organizational psychology, I have acquired skills on operations of systems and understood various interests and needs of human resources. In problem solving I have learned and acquire requisite skills of managing conflicts and problems in different settings. I also learned how the organization functions and the ways to socialize and work together as a team. Therefore, these are some of the values that have contributed to my success. The course and colleagues helped me to develop good communication skills and appreciate effective communication as a means of solving problems or conflicts between parties. I must also acknowledge my friends and colleges at the university. Through their support, I was able to learn many new things that helped me to realize my goals at my 3rd years as a student of psychology.
I am still optimistic, I believe that I have come from far, overcome challenges in reaching this far. However, I have not yet achieved what I aspired and dreamed. I therefore still use various strategies to achieve my objectives. My dream career of becoming psychiatric doctor is still under way and I believe that my motivation, industriousness and dedication are going to make me realize my dreams. My 3rd year experience has been awesome and has elevated my desires and commitment of becoming whom I want to be.
My employability
Getting employment is one of the key achievements that many people yearn for after they successful complete their education. However, to be able to increase your chances of employability, it is fundamental that an individual always endeavors to improve in his/her skills and knowledge. Education does not only enable an individual to get a good paying job but it also contributes to development of skills that enable a person to work well with other members of the organization in trying to achieve the objectives of the organization.
I believe I have acquired enough skills that make me an eligible candidate to perform various tasks that relates to psychology and health care even with my 3rd year education qualifications. I have amassed different skills through the various positions that I have held since 2003. In 2003, I was employed by Body shop in Wood Green as a sales assistant. This opportunity allowed me to interact with many people in the field. It also contributed in enhancing my skills and my socialization skills. In 2006, I was also employed at John Paul house 7-9 pound lane, London NW 10 2HS as a home care for the elderly and people requiring special needs. This position enabled me to understand the needs and the psychology of elderly people. I therefore gained additional experience in service delivery as I had to read the psychology of the elderly and provide solutions that helped them to cope up with their lives well.
In 2008 to 2009, I was also privilege to work at Currys, Chaul End lane, Dunstable Road, Luton, Bedford LU4 8EZ as a sales assistant. The position further, gave me an opportunity to gain experience on how to work with people. Therefore, having gone through my 3rd year in psychology, I feel that I am an all around individual who is able to fit in every organization to impact on the lives of many people. Even with these qualifications, I am optimistic that I will be able to get good paying job when I acquire my clinical doctorate degree. I believe I will also serve people better in the capacity of psychiatrist doctor. I have enough skills, knowledge, experience and skills to provide services to many clients. Therefore, I feel that my hard work, determination and my motivation is coming to limelight. The journey has been long but the fruits are worthwhile. The goals set and the strategies I used have proven to be beneficial to me as an individual and have impacted to my academics and my career.
Works Cited
Mendoza-Calderón, Marco and, Ramirez-Buentello, Joaquin. Handbook of Research on ePortfolios. Facilitating Reflection Through ePortfolio at Tecnológico de Monterrey. Hershey, USA. Ali Jafari (Ed), (2006):484-493. Print.
JISC InfoNet. Learning process. Retrieved from: Web. 4. 5. 2013. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios/purposes/learning-processes/
JISC InfoNet. Reflection: Retrieved from: Web. 4. 5. 2013. http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios/purposes/reflection/
JISC InfoNet. Employer perspectives. Web. 4. 5. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/e-portfolios/perspectives/employer/
Teacher taps. Electronic portfolio: students, teachers and life long learners. Web. 4. 5. 2013. Retrieved from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic82.htm
