Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Portfolio - Essay Example 79). Managing and Developing Self Before joining the university and undertaking bioscience courses, I was not able to manage my schedules and so I had to depend on what had already been planned by teachers. However, my life in the university enabled me to understand how to manage myself, plan my time for different activities and manage my work in a professional way to ensure optimal use of financial, academic and time resources. The professional attribute of the university has assisted me in understanding how to manage my work, follow instructions closely with minimal supervision, plan my work schedule well in advance and ensure that all tasks are completed in a responsible and professional manner. For example, when conducting biological experiments, I ensure that I have read all procedures in advance before commencing the real practical work unlike in the past when I used to conduct experiments without reading all instructions. However, although I am able to manage my schedule well, the only problem that needs a lot of effort is in categorizing issues on the basis of priority. In many instances, I have been giving priority to relatively less difficult issues, thus ignoring higher priority but difficult issues. The consequences have been dire. For example, when choosing elective courses, I have been choosing less difficult courses at the expense of highly competitive ones, which are in most cases difficult (OHLSSON & BORG, 2010, p. 67). University education has given me various opportunities for self-development through constant learning and being a critical learner. I have come to understand that learning is not only about gaining knowledge about a specified subject but also to develop critical skills that would enable one to solve problems, make use of the available opportunity to develop the society, and be a continual learner through a number of avenues such as the Internet or part-time education programs. Further, university education has changed my notion from being a job seeker into being a job creator through a number of business courses that have enhanced my entrepreneurial skills (POSTMAN, 1995, p. 68). Communication Communication is an essential aspect of professional development and human interaction. Through good communication strategies, it is possible to develop positive relationship with people in the learning institution, places of work and the society in general. One of the important aspects of communication I have learnt from Staffordshire University is the use of information and communication in getting sufficient information within a short time and passing messages promptly and efficiently. Since I joined the university, I have learnt many aspects of using the Internet to get information that would have been cumbersome to search through conventional means such as physically looking for a specific topic among a variety of hard copy journals. I can easily surf the Internet and get information within a shot time. Further , online libraries have assisted me in learning different topics in biology within a short duration of time and use the