My Identity, Values and Strengths
Explain a situation where you have made an ethical decision. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made, and how you reflect on the decision now.
I would say getting the covid vaccinations was one for me. The values that went into this decision for me would have been contribution, doing my part to mitigate the spread of covid at the time, courage as the vaccines do not have longterm safety data, this was a big one for me as I was against getting it for quite sometime for this reason. Freedom. Due to the unethical way non-vaxers were treated (I believe in the personal choice and the right to unrestricted movement as a human right), I did not want to be restricted in my freedom to do things, like going to a gym, taking part in activities that are part of normal day life, being able to travel out of Auckland if I wanted etc. And lastly safety, not for me, but for those around me, my family, collegues and society. I would hate to think that I could possibly pass it on to someone and for that to have dire consequences. These values were a big contributing factor in my decision to get it. I reflect on this with mixed feelings if I am honest. I do not want to go down a rabbit hole with this topic, Anyway, I feel I made the right decision at the time based on the info we were told.
Describe how your culture and the people around you have influenced your values and identity.
I come from a small family and we live on a lifestyle block so there is lots of upkeep to do. Being cooperative was always something my parents have instilled in me and my brother since we were young. A task can be a lot smaller if everyone helps out and does their part. Another one that is a big value of mine is honesty. It really surprises me when people say one thing and do the opposite, I am a big believer of keeping your word. I can't really pinpoint where this comes from, I guess it is the people I have grew up with but I know it's a big part of my identity and a core value of mine. Authenticity, I believe in being a genuine good bloke and true to myself. Not acting like someone I am not. I feel like this is one of my main values I pride myself on, again an influence from the environment around me and how I was raised.
Identify your strengths and how they will support you during your learning journey.
I am reliable and keep my word. I think this will be helpful during collaboration with others in the course. I can be counted on to do my part and welcome the collaboration part of the course. I would say I am conscientious and a perfectionist. This can also be a limitation of mine, but overall, I like to think I get tasks done the way they are asked and to the best of my ability, tackle them with pride and not just doing the minimum, going above and beyond. I feel this will help me develop good relationships with other people on this journey and make me a good team player in the collaborative tasks. Curiosity. I find if I enjoy something I am eager to know the ins and outs of that particular thing. In terms of supporting my learning journey, I am already hooked on how rewarding web development can be, this I feel, will help me get a lot out of this courses content. I think these strengths lend themself well to the coding environment and am eager to put them to the test.
Evaluate your limitations in terms of your learning and career development. How might these affect your learning journey?
One limitation would be engagement. I find if a work task isn't engaging/fun (same for learning) I tend to zone out a bit. In terms of affecting my journey here, I would say the flipped learning model is going to quell this behaviour but in saying that I guess I will find out. I have always had a passion for tech, so curiosity is on my side for this course. I would say I am quite spontaneous and a risk taker. I can change my mind a lot when it comes to certain things. For this journey I strive to slow down, break things up into smaller steps so I don't miss things trying to charge full speed for the end goal, having a plan and structure in place to help with my time management. I do lean more towards an independent nature, in saying that I am still a good team player. I like knowing that if something has not been achieved/the outcome, it's on me. Problem solving is part of coding which I welcome and will do my best to solve myself but at the same time not feel afraid to ask for help if I am truly stuck. Im a perfectionist at heart and with this comes the idea of time management. I find I will sink a lot of time into things to perfect them. With this course I need to stick to the learning outcomes and what is being asked and not sinking a lot of time into something that isn't going to help me progress/get me a better mark.
Share an example of when you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss strategies you tried at the time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now and why.
One of my past jobs was replenishment supervisor with Mitre 10 looking after a team of about 4 full timers and 10-12 part timers. This role came about during a restructure in the business due to covid. A lot of peers in my team were a bit bitter about having their hours changed/cut by the company and were not in the mood to work productively, this is where I met some resistance. In efforts to keep people motivated I would always commend good work and good work ethic, there was a cafe in store and us leaders were given coffee cards to reward our team with where we saw fit. I would use those as a little reward for people I saw who were putting in the effort. I also had people working in peers and taking responsibility for certain areas of the store. Giving them a bit of responsibility I feel helped and working in peers helped build a strong team. Looking back I probably would have pushed for more 1 on 1 meetings with the team, this would have help me figure out everyones strengths and weaknesses more and helped me adjust my approach individually. At the time this wasn't really fesiable due to team members only working 4 hours and being overwhelmed with a big work load and not many team members being allowed rostered on at one given time. I was following advice from given from the store managers, the structure was all new to us at the time but yeah looking back, more 1 on 1 time would have been a good strategy. This leads to my next strategy which would have been to try and motivate individuals who didn't want to give an honest days work, try and tweak there perspective a wee bit, and to see the big picture of what we were trying to achieve as a team.