Friday 9 December 2016

Critical Reflection

Last two weeks, my group had to give an oral presentation on our ideas that would possibly help to solve the engineering problem. It is about reducing overcrowding in our public buses. My group decided to brainstorm the above engineering problem as we can relate it closely to us. My group mates and I are a victim of the few passengers that are unable to board the bus occasionally as we are public bus commuters. This is due to overcrowding at the entrance door leaving the rear part of the bus empty.

The presentation was held at a small tutorial class where there were about 18 students. Most of them are my classmates. Before the start of the presentation, the other groups were assigned to act as the authority attending our presentation.  Example since my group is proposing to Land Transport Authority as well as public bus companies, expected audience will be from Land Transport Authority, Singapore Bus service, SMRT and Tower transit. Our group decided to prepare the PowerPoint slide. Each one of us contributed one part of the whole presentation. I choose to present on the benefits of the solution as well as the conclusion of our possible solutions. Therefore, I was the third and last speaker for our group to present. Without knowing the second speaker had already finished explaining his final points, it was my turn. Feeling nervous, I went up in front of the audience and began my presentation. My mind suddenly went blank and started panicking. I realise that I forgot all the points that needed to be presented. I felt that my presentation was not smooth as I did stop for few seconds trying to recall my points on the slides. As I looked through the slide, I started to remember some of the points, but the ideas did not flow in sequence as what I have planned. My voice became less confident, and I realise that I came to the end of the slide. There were two questions asked by the audience related to conclusion and recommendation. Through the questions posed by the audience, I realise that my presentation was not clear and most of the audience did not understand my conclusion.

However, I felt pleased as I was able to deliver all the necessary points during my presentation even though I felt anxious. On the other hand, I was quite disappointed with my overall performance as I think I did not explain the points clearly and in detail to the audiences. Because of this, questions asked by the audience during Q&A sessions are mostly related to our group's conclusion. The reason was probably that the audience was slightly confused by the disorganise flow of points mention on the presentation slides. The sentence structure was another factor that could contribute to the uncertain speech delivery. As a result, I felt very unconfident with my presentation.

I think that I should consider making an improvement to my vocabulary space and plan out the points in sequences. Nevertheless, I will probably always be a little nervous during the presentation. Because of this, I would encourage myself to participate public speaking to strengthen my confidence. I also need to make sure that I will have enough practice with my group so that all this minor error can be rectified before the actual presentation.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, Ahmad, for this expanded discussion of the analytical reflection. You complement that effort here by giving more details on your presentation experience and by projecting into the future and imagining what you need to do to become a better presenter.

    I really appreciate your effort throughout the term.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Ahmad!

    Quite a personal and detailed take when it comes to your critical reflection. Much like reading a diary. Haha. Anyway, It is good to know that you can express openly on your struggles during the presentation as I believed most of us could relate to it. Learning is a lifelong journey and it can never stop. I admire your determination to improve and hope that you will have more opportunity to the public speaking (hehe). Ultimately, I do wish you all the best in your future! :)

    ReplyDelete