Personal Development

Personal Development
Module title Personal Development Planning II Level 5
Module originator

Module Leader
Credit value 10
ECTS* Credits 5
Module type Core Notional learning hours 100
1. Module aims
This module aims to enable students to apply the experiences gained at PDPI to build knowledge for the area of business and reflect upon which area of business they will be wishing to enter into. In addition, this module aims to develop student understanding and use of employability skills for their personal development across the BA Global Management degree programme. To enable students to record and reflect upon their vocational and academic experience the PDPII module will aim to demonstrate acquisition and further development of the relevant skills. Ultimately, this module places great focus on celebrating and showcasing the skills and knowledge obtained so far by students (through module content and output to internships and external project examples) to begin building up a strong foundation for their professional profile. This will enable students to gain greater awareness of skills, both strengths and weaknesses, and increase self-confidence in terms of being able to improve in the required areas and form an identity for the real world of global business.

This module is intended to provide students with a platform to showcase their skills and knowledge and adapt their portfolio of examples to the relevant area of business they wish to enter into. The global landscape of business and development is highly competitive and ever-evolving. Students need to be aware that to identify themselves as candidates for success they must apply their knowledge and skills gained throughout their journey at Regent’s University and create a coherent pitch that presents their skill-set with clarity and responds to the competencies required in the professional environment. The module is an advancement of the PDPI module at Level 4 and provides for students the opportunity to further identify weaknesses in their employability skills and reflect on ways to develop these. Students will take stock of their achievements to date including any internships, extra-curricular experiences and academic achievements across their course of study in order to reflect upon their professional profile and begin building up a concept of a potential professional portfolio, which they will add to throughout their professional lives.
2. Pre-requisite modules or specified entry requirements
Personal Development Planning 1

Research Methods
3. Intended level learning outcomes
a) Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the module, learners will be expected to:

A10. Demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of the relationships between the five perspectives of business practice as captured by: business management, design management, sustainability management, financial management and marketing management.
b) Cognitive skills
At the end of the module, learners will be expected to:

B12. Adapt and combine prior knowledge and new information in order to arrive at a solution to a given problem.
c) Personal Transferable and Practical Skills
At the end of the module, learners will be expected to:

C10. Analyse and evaluate the impact of business decisions and formulate strategies that are appropriate for the short, the medium, and the longer term, within a global business context.

C12. Demonstrate ability to negotiate and influence others during discussion to achieve mutually satisfactory resolution of contentious issues.
d) Key transferable skills
At the end of the module, learners will be expected to:

D9. Take responsibility for their own work and utilise appropriate tools of evaluation to improve said work.

D10. Demonstrate initiative by taking unprompted action in semi-autonomous contexts.

D12. Demonstrate self-management through ability to work in an efficient and structured manner.
4. Indicative content
· Employability Skills

Reflecting upon the employability skills which make up the intended skills outcomes of the BA Global Management programme in particular the pathway choice and how it contributes and affects the development of students’ professional profile.

· Reflective Writing

Exploring what it means to create reflective narrative, what are best ways to capture and present information through reflective writing, and what it means to self-reflect through the process of writing.

· Extracurricular Activities

· Building on the Personal Development Planning I experiences of extracurricular activities obtained at Level 4, participation in activities that further develop the employability skills and contribute to students’ reflective writing assessment.
5. Learning and teaching strategy
The module will be delivered through a combination of teaching sessions and distance learning using Blackboard. Following the format of the Personal Development Planning 1 module students will be expected to work independently, however they will be supported through the virtual learning environment of Blackboard through reading materials and quick exercises/tasks based around skills development and reflective writing. In order to facilitate the personal reflection and development required in this module, the format of the delivery will include distance learning facilitated by teaching and supported through participation in extracurricular activities. The autonomy and self-directed nature of distance learning will suit individual learning styles and needs with regards to pace and external influences students will have the freedom to better develop their self-awareness and explore their individuality. In addition, the autonomous teaching and learning strategy benefits students by encouraging the development of self-management skills one of the essential abilities of the employability skills. The module builds upon the learning from PDP 1 and Research Methods modules and leads the student to apply a higher level of analysis and self-awareness in the context of their pathway and its associated career destinations.
6. Assessment strategy, assessment methods and their relative weightings
Assessment Strategy

To give students an opportunity to truly consider the value of personal development planning in the academic context the assessment strategy is focused on development of reflective writing skills. Reflective practice and in particular reflective writing is key to personal development planning and combined with the review of employability skills can form a powerful tool in this process. Thus, the formative assessment will provide student with a platform to try out this process by developing a draft reflective review. Through feedback (both peer and from the lecturer) students will be able to build upon this experience and develop greater confidence in the process in order to submit the summative final version of the reflective review. The key to this assessment strategy lies in the positioning of the module itself which is at the mid-point of students’ studies and right after they have made their final commitment to their pathway choice. Thus, the assessment offers an opportunity to consider much more holistically the relationship between students’ academic and vocational experiences to date and their employability skills whilst building towards a future professional portfolio through personal development.

Assessment Methods

Formative Assessment

Draft reflective review (individual submission)

To give students an opportunity to develop and hone their skills of reflective writing they are asked to produce a brief draft reflective review which covers two key aspects of their summative submission, that of their pathway choice and employability skills. As the summative assessment is a single individual piece of independent writing, which is based on a record and reflection upon students’ vocational and academic experience and will aim to demonstrate acquisition and further development of the relevant skills, the draft allows students to practice how to generate a reflective narrative and gain feedback in order to improve the final submission.

Summative Assessment

Reflective Review: 100% TMM (individual submission)

This assessment is about learning how to develop a structured reflection. The process of reflection is there to help students consider if they were to describe themselves to others what story would they tell to describe their professional profile. The assessment allows students to reflect upon: 1) their motivations, choices, and their behaviours and their relevance in terms of career building; 2) what they wish to achieve; 3) how to take action in order to achieve it; and 4) how learning can benefit this process. Through reflecting on their module content to date and their output as well as internships and other external activities they took part in, students are given an opportunity to consider their achievements to date, but also to generate a narrative that allows them to reflect how far they have come and what additional skills or achievements and experience they need to build upon to develop a professional profile. This reflective narrative becomes a ‘record of achievement’ showcasing their professional profile obtained both in and out of the classroom and forms a foundation of their professional portfolio they can keep adding to as they continue through their studies and beyond.
7. Mapping of assessment tasks to level learning outcomes
Assessment tasks
Level Learning outcomes
A10 B12 C10 C12 D9 D10 D12
Reflective Review ü ü ü ü ü ü ü
8. Teaching staff associated with the module
Tutor’s name and contact details Contact hours
39
Extracurricular activities (2 hours) / Distance learning (26 + hours)
9. Key reading list
Bassot, B. 2013. The Reflective Writing Journal. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
10. Other indicative resources (e.g. websites)
BOLTON, G. E. J. (2010) Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development. SAGE Publications Ltd; 3rd edition

FORD, L. (2007) The “Guardian” Guide to Volunteering. Guardian Newspapers Ltd.

LEES, J. (2010) How to Get a Job You’ll Love. McGraw-Hill Professional

SCHERER, A. (2011) Brilliant Intern. Prentice-Hall

THOMPSON, S. & THOMPSON, N. (2008) The Critically Reflective Practitioner. Palgrave Macmillan

TROUGHT, F. (2011) Brilliant Employability Skills. Prentice-Hall