Introduction
For anyone to be a successful student, there are skills that are required of them. These skills will enable the students to complete their studies successfully and get the expertise they wanted. It is important, therefore, to possess some skills that will enable the student to make maximum use of their study-time. This paper will focus on a skills assessment for my skills and what I need to do in order to be successful in my studies.
Skills required
Listening skills – this skills is required in order to get the facts and lessons that are taught while in college.
Critical thinking skills - required in order to be able to question the ideas that are presented while having discussions
Research skills – these are the skills that are required in order to carry out research and add knowledge on my own
Presentation skills – skills that will enable me to present my facts and knowledge that I have learned.
Note taking skills – these are the skills that will enable me take important notes
Communication skills – these are skills that will enable me communicate with others when passing my knowledge or when seeking for assistance
Time management skills – these are the skills which will enable me manage my time while undertaking my studies.
Teamwork skills – this will enable me to be a team player in my studies
Why the skills are need
As a student the skills that have been mentioned are needed in the entire learning process. The first skill is that of listening skills. This is an important skill because I will be required to listen to what the instructors are saying. Without good listening skill, I will not be able to get important information from instructors(Hauer et al. 2005). I will also be required to listen to my colleagues. Without this quality, I will not be regarded as a team player while in group discussions. Listening to others and giving other people the chance to put across their points is an important quality of learning(Saine 2013).
Critical thinking skills are important in learning. It is one sill that helps students to be able to question what they are being taught. They should be able to understand through thinking through the facts that are presented by the instructors. Students at college levels should not take in information as they are presented without asking the hard questions. They will be required to add knowledge as they advance with their learning process. This is one quality of knowledge creation. For this reason, I should be able to be a critical thinker in my entire course(Mathis 2010).
Research skills are an invaluable skill for college students. As learning advances, students will be required to make their own contributions towards learning. Research is an important skill for students. With this, I will be able to carry out investigations regarding the knowledge that have been existence and add to this pool of knowledge. Together with research skills, I will also be required to have presentation skills which will enable me to present the information that I have been able to research. This is an important skill that goes with research. It will be useless to have the data and information but not be able to present(Topping 1998).
Note taking skills is also required of me. This is because in college, I will not be given notes like high schools. This means that I should be able to take notes as the instructors are teaching. This is an important skill because I will be able to get important notes(Carr & Harris 2001).
Communication skills are an important skill that I will be required to have while undertaking my course. This is because I will be required to know how to communicate with rest of the class members. This will enable me have exchange of ideas regarding what I am learning(Baumert & Demmrich 2001). I should be able to communicate with the instructors when I am seeking for some information. This makes this skill an important one for sharing and getting new information. I will also be required to have team work skills together with the communication skills. Teamwork skills go hand in hand with communication. Having the ability to get along with other team members is an important skill(Savery & Duffy 1995).
Time management is another skill that I will be required to have. There are many tasks that are there in the learning process and I will be required to handle the tasks basing on priority. I will have to manage my time well so that all the tasks assigned to me will be handled well and on time. This will also enable me account for the time that I have in my course(M. Graves et al. 1998).
Skill gap analysis
Another limit that I have is research skills. I still do not know what to undertake and how to find quality information. In research, it is important to have research skills and know what content to base research. I also am not able to get peer-previewed journals that will help me get the right information and the content that has been previewed by other researchers. One way in which I will be able to correct this is to attend theses presentation sessions and look for research papers. This will help get a grasp of scholars undertake their research(Bringle & Hatcher 1996).
I still have a problem with critical analysis skills and questioning knowledge. This is because I still have the mentality that what is presented in class is perfect. As a student, I have to have critical analytical skills. This will enable me get the right knowledge concerning the course that I am learning(Demaray & Ruffalo 1995). One way in which I will learn how to criticize what has been taught is to ensure that I have different views about an idea. This will mean that I spend many hours in the library and learn as much about a given topic as possible. This will enable me have different views about a given idea. I will have what to argue about(Topping 1998).
Action plan
- The first thing I will do is to make friends with my learning mates. This will help me be free with them while communicating. It will enable me get the required knowledge and have an environment that is good for communication. This way, I will be able to present my research without fear(Schmidt et al. 2013).
- I will have to know what is being learnt in a semester. This is done through getting all the learning materials. I will have to get the curriculum of the activities and the units that will be taught throughout the course. Having this will enable me to learn the content that will be taught in class. This will also enable me to understand the different perspectives about a topic(Boulet et al. 2003).
- I will also make to-do tasks everyday that will help me manage my time effectively while in college. This is an important tool that will be required for learning to be smooth. It will also enable me factor in the time for doing assignments(Salvia et al. 2004).
- I will be attending research presentation sessions in the department that I am so that I get to learn the way information is presented. I will also be able to learn how to present knowledge that I have already gathered(Facione 1991).
- I will also be interacting with students who are ahead of me so that we exchange information about how to gain knowledge. I will identify the students who are willing to share information and interact with them so that they know what I intend to learn.
- I will ensure that I have discussion sessions with my friends so that we discuss on the content and what needs to be done. It will also help me build my critical analytical skills.
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