Learning Goals

I used the questions 1 till 6 on the pages below and my online portfolio to write the learning goals.

Learning goal - Self-assurance

What is the quality that I need to improve?

Something what I really like to improve is my self-assurance in making exams and in presentations.

 A situation where this quality showed?

I started in secondary school at the level VWO +. In this class I sat with only very smart people who were not very socially skilled and competed with each other to get the highest possible grades. This is where the uncertainty about my own ability started and I started to feel anxious about getting bad grades. Before a test came, I was convinced that the rest would get higher grades and that I could not do something right. So here I have already started making myself automatically insecure and therefore nit self-confident. Although I still got my VWO diploma after my HAVO diploma, this has always been a problem. The feeling of uncertainty is most evident when I give presentations or stand in front of a large group, but also during multiple choice tests, where I have to trust my own abilities and then I am doubting so much about my own knowledge and if it is good enough. For example in the first block with the exams, I thought that I had many questions wrong because I couldn’t look back on the questions because of the fact that it was an online exam. Normally I check everything twice, so this was really hard for me. But when the results came back, I knew that I have to trust on my own knowledge and skills, instead of always doubting about myself and changings correct answers into wrong answers.

When do I want to achieve this?

I want to be more self-assured at the end of the first year.

What obstacle might get in my way?

In order to improve my self-assurance in giving presentations, I have to give some presentations in real live. But due to corona I wasn’t able to present in real live, only in an online environment and in these situations I don’t have any problems with my self-assurance. In addition, my perfectionism and the fact that I am very critical can be a problem in achieving my goal. I always set expectations so high that it is sometimes just very difficult to meet my own expectations, which makes me feel bad again. I have to learn that not everything has to be perfect, but that sometimes something has been good enough for a long time and I shouldn't keep pushing it.

How can I improve my chances of meeting my goal?

I can improve the chances of achieving my goal by learning to trust my own abilities more and ask for feedback from other people. Giving myself clear boundaries and that I have to learn to accept that there are boundaries. An example is that I want to develop certain points, a kind of step-by-step plan, where I can fill in my final goal and write down the maximum steps I can take and keep it at hand when I am working on assignments. This way I don't keep busy with things and I no longer torment myself to continue to the end, and I learn that I must have more confidence in myself when I hand in something. In addition, before presenting, I can ask the people to whom I am presenting a number of feedback questions to see how I was doing and what they found what I did right and which points I can still work on to present better. I will also follow the HT3 course, which will help me to become a better leader. Not only on the hockey field but also outside the hockey field you learn presentation skills here.

Where can I go for support?

I can always go to my parents, my sister and my friends for support. They know my own qualities but also the points that I want to work on. They know that I am struggling with these things and especially my parents and sister know me really well and help me in this process. For example, when I have to give an important presentation, they always help me practice and give me some good feedback.

Reflection: how am I doing?

I already started on working on my self-assurance because I am struggling with this for a long period already. When I give presentations I am always well prepared and know what to say. The fact that I know what I am going to say, gives me less pressure when I am presenting and help me chill down in certain situations. I couldn’t use the presentation tricks because we only had online presentation on this point, but with my personal uncertainty I could already work on that. I is maybe a bit weird, but the fact that the exam’s in the first block where only and multiple choice helped me in my process. Let me explain, normally in high-school I always checked my answers so many times that I changed some correct answers to wrong answers. Since I noticed that in the online environment that not possible is, I scored higher that I thought. In this way I knew that my first thought is most of the time the correct one, and that I shouldn’t change answers that much anymore. This gave me some confidence about making multiple choice exams for in the future. Something that I was almost my whole live struggling with. I experienced by reading books about self-reflection and uncertainty, that it will take time to change my total self-assurance but when I am working on it my process will go on and every step I am taking at this moment is one step forward.

 

Learning goal - Over-critical 

What is the quality that I need to improve?

I need to improve the fact that I am over-critical and want to become less critical.

A situation where this quality showed

I often pay too much attention to things that are good enough. This stems from the fact that I like to do everything right at once and therefore forget the actual assignment. An example of this period is the writing of an essay for Sport & Ethics. Because I am always not satisfied with the result of my text, I am writing over and over again and just keep busy with it. In this sense, I spend too much time on something that might have been good the first time, but that I only had to make some adjustments. Even in group assignments, I normally don’t trust on the knowledge of my group members and want to read everything over, just to be sure everything is good. That is one bad quality, because I frustrate myself with it but also my group members. But I have to accept that there is little that can be changed and that I have to release everyone in their own way of working.

When do I want to achieve this?

I want to start with this in the third block and finish this learning goal within the end of the first year.

What obstacle might get in my way?

My own ambitions and my helpfulness. When I am helping someone I only have to help them, but sometimes I want to take the lead and do something in my own way because I think that that should be the correct way. These two things strengthen the fact of me being over-critical and can get in the way of my process of my learning goal.

How can I improve my changes of meeting my goal?

I can improve my changes of meeting this goal, in taking different roles in group project just to see how others will do things and how they approach things. To make sure that they don’t think that I am distracting from them, I have to tell my struggles to my group members, so that they can set an hold on me and help me in my process. But this is only for group projects. For me as an individual, I want to set some boundaries for myself. Almost the same as for me becoming more self-assured, because these two point make a connection. I started with this already for block 2. I made some schedules for the assignments that we had to hand in on certain times, because if I didn’t do this, I can work on some assignments in a way that it seems like an addiction. When I was on the end of the planning I made for a day, I couldn’t work on it for more time at that day and had to quit working for that day. I want to make some specific boundaries for myself for each course for the next period, so that I can keep an eye on each course without doing to much and keep working and working on things that are already good enough. I asked my mother to help me with this, because she is really good in these things. She will help me with making boundaries and a planning for each course.

Where can I go for support?

I can always go to my parents, my sister and my friends for support. They know my own qualities but also the points that I want to work on. They know that I am struggling with these things and especially my parents and sister know me really well and help me in this process. For example, my mother who wants to help me improve in the over-critical learning goal.

Reflection: how am I doing?

Being critical is good, so you get the best out of yourself. But being too critical is counterproductive. I often pay too much attention to things that are good enough. This stems from the fact that I like to do everything right at once and therefore forget the actual assignment. I have to learn to settle for less in the future, so accept what it is like now and be satisfied with it. I can say that I was more over-critical in the first block than in the second block. This is because the first block was totally new for me and I wanted to do everything right. Now that I know everything and every teacher, I know what they expect from me so I don’t have to do way more than that. This helps me to set my goals and this will really help me with making my planning for the third block. Take for example the Sport & Technical framework assignment of the second block and then the Sport & Identity assignment of the first block. One part of both courses where almost the same, but because of the fact that I knew how everything went in the first block and what the teacher expected from us I was way more relaxed for the second block. This also helped me to do a better job and helped me to feel more confident about the end result. Again a combination of me feeling more confident and less critical.

Conclusion + reflection of both learning goals and block 1 and 2.

When I look at the bigger picture of myself, I can see that made a big progress in the last few year. When I was working on this assignment, I had different talks with my mother. She told me that the fact that I can look at myself in this way, with my learning goals etc, shows that I am already aware of my place in the world and that I can look at myself in a professional way. When I look back on the first block of this study and you read the reflection of me in the first block, I am happy with the things I already learned in a few months. I learned how to work with international people, make online friends and show the best of myself in an online environment. When I look back at myself a few month ago, a wasn’t this kind of self-assured that I would do great in an online environment with international people and the kind of assignments we have. To conclude, there is still a lot to improve, but I never thought that I would be so happy to be in this class today and learn so much things from my fellow students. I am happy with the progress I already made and this makes my expectations on the upcoming years positive. 

In the following questions you will find an description of me as a person. Who am I? What can I do as a person?What do I want? What do I think? What do I do and where do I apply? 

1. Identity à Who am I

How do I see myself? I see myself as a woman who has a positive look on life. I am someone who thinks a lot about life and has many dreams for the future but also for now. I am someone who has a positive look on life, but often has difficulties with how other people interact and treat the world. For my age I am quite advanced in that. I am very aware of my influences on this world and would to contribute something positive later on. I am a very sportif person, who is enjoying life and shows that to other people with share knowledge to kids and stimulate people to sport.

What are my strengths and weaknesses? I can describe my strengths as: being driven, hard worker sporty, my commitment to justice, being purposeful, keeping my promises, being helpful and my perseverance. I can describe my weaknesses as: to critical, perfectionist, low flexibility, most of the times I am not happy with the results I got, but sometimes it is already good enough.

What makes me unique? What makes me unique is the combination of my strengths and weaknesses. The combination of my perseverance, being sportif and being a perfectionist makes me unique in my own way. When I look at the combination of my strengths and weaknesses I can say that I am far in my development as a person. I am extrovert in my behavior with people that I know good, but with people that I am introvert with people that don’t know really good. I have to feel comfortable in a group to really show myself. That’s why I am really specific in what kind of friends I have and I am proud of that. I am not someone

How do I see someone else and how does someone else see me? I see every individual as someone who can achieve things in their own way in this world. I respect the fact that every person is unique, and has his contribution in this world. In my opinion people are made to help each other to make everyone succeed in this world, because without help from other persons we are all individuals. Someone else may see me as a person wants to help others, a sportif and strong person and with my commitment to justice people may see me as a person who knows what she wants most of the times. For example when I am travelling by bus and I see someone stepping in who is older than me or has physical problems, I always ask if I can help and if they want to take my seat. What I hate about this thing is that last year I was walking with crutches and came into to buss and all the seats where taken, nobody asked me if I wanted a seat. I really hate that in the Netherlands, people are becoming more individual than ever, especially the young generation.

2. Qualities à What can I do?

What knowledge, skills and personal characteristics do I have? When I look back on the different educations that I followed, I can say that I have gained a lot of knowledge in different kind of areas. I am proud of the knowledge what I already achieved from different educations. When I look at my knowledge in the field of a sport professional, I can say that have gained a lot of knowledge just by doing things. You mostly learn how to give practices just by doing it. I also followed some courses especially for me as a hockey professional. When we look at the skills that I have, I am proud of the different languages I can speak. Mostly about the Spanish and English part because that are international languages. I can work with computers, have insight on a lot of things, and I am really good at reading body language and feeling emotions of others. About my physical skills, I can say that I am strong, in good shape and have a good reaction time.

Is the knowledge you need for a specific professional situation already sufficient? I know a lot about hockey and with the education that I followed a few years ago, I can say that the knowledge I need for a giving practices is already sufficient. I use my knowledge a lot and can help other trainers If they have questions. So not only for myself is the knowledge sufficient, but also for the other professional trainers at the hockey club. I used the knowledge also in the courses we had already in this educational program. For example in Sport & Technical Framework, where we had to design our own online sport lesson.

What do I want to work on?  I want to improve my Spanish skills, because later on I want to do an internship in Spain. My Spanish is already good, but not good enough in a professional way. I also want to improve my presentation skills. In front of big groups of people I can become really shy. I want to change this behaviour because I think presentations are very important. This is important for my current study career, because some subjects depend on these presentations, also online. Also later on in the internship and workplace I find it important that I can present myself neatly and in a professional way. The last thing I really want to work on is the point that I am not flexible at all. When I know what I want, it has to go that way. But for becoming a professional I have to change that part of my behaviour. Sometimes there are things that you can’t influence in your live, and you just have to deal with that. I am working on it already, but it is something that I have since I was younger so it’s a longer process than I hoped.  

3. Involvement à What do I want?

What is important to me? The most important to me is that people are honest to each other and that you do what you want in your live. People should say what they think without being rude. In sports one of the most important thing to me is fair play, because without fair play the whole idea behind sports is gone. Equal rights to man and woman and no discrimination in any kind of way. My family and friends are really important to me, and also doing the things I like to do.

What am I enjoying? At this moment in my live I am enjoying every little positive thing during corona times. From walking with my dog and my family to driving through the Netherlands and still exploring new things. In normal live, so without corona, I enjoy a lot of things. For example being active and playing hockey with my teammates, winning games etc. But also helping kids with learning hockey to play hockey and give lessons to a lot of teams. I enjoy the small things in live, something that my parents learned me and what I am very proud of. For example watching a Barcelona match with my father is something that really makes me happy. But because of the fact that my parents learned me to enjoy the little things in live, I enjoy the special things in live even more.

What do I get energy from? Really hard to say it in small words, but I get energy from that fact that I get the opportunity to watch children develop in the way the play hockey and in social aspect. I get energy from being with my family, friends and teammates. Due to corona, I experienced how much I actually mis the fact of being with teammates and people who really get you. I get energy from performing good, but also from little things. An example of that, is that at my parents’ house I maintain a vegetable garden and when the sunflowers have come out in the summer I can really get energy from it.

What is my drive / passion? My biggest passion is sports. That sounds really vague, but let me explain. Sport is important in the way of health, economic, and social aspects. In this area I really feel inspired by the Cruyff Courts which is made for children who don’t have access to real sport fields and stuff like that. My drive is that I want to win everything and do everything as good as I can. But loosing with a good feeling between my teammates, that’s also a drive for me. Winning together is one of the most important things in sports to me. You never win games alone. You play with others and achieve things with others.

Why do you get up every morning to go to the training / internship? We actually didn’t have any live lessons or internships but when I look back on the last blocks, I can say that my perseverance and my motivation to succeed in this program makes me encouraged to get up every morning. I want to work hard and help my fellow students with their progress. Because I am a very busy person, I have a lot of things on my schedule so the days go really hard and every day there are new amazing things to discover. I also get up every morning to work on myself, and to get some new experiences. I work a lot because I want to make my own money and learn how to deal with it.

What difference I want to make? I want to be? What do I stand for? I want to be an example for children and inspire people. You can think of that regionally, but also national or international. There are no limits for that. I stand for fair play, working with others and learning things to others. I want to be proud of myself in the future, and proud of what I have achieved. The school shows this perfectly with the sentence ‘Move to make a difference’. The real difference I want to make is to get children back outside and play sports. A lot of children don’t get the opportunity to play sports, because of money, because of the place where they live or because of the wrong environment where they live in.

4. Moral Compass à What do I think?

What do I think of it myself? I see the moral compass as something which distinguishes what is right or what is wrong, functioning as a ‘compass’ for morally appropriate behavior. I think that every sports professional needs a moral compass, especially in times of social media. In this age, misconduct is emerging quickly. As the result of that, we often have to adjust we often have to adjust our compass and ask ourselves the question, how do we show decent behavior and conduct that to our moral compass? A good quote what points this out is: ‘The only way to do great work, is to love what you do! If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, don’t settle!’ – Steve Jobs                         

How do I think about this myself? In a moral dilemma, you always have to make a choice. Not making a choice is also a choice, even if it goes right or wrong. You need a moral compass for this situations. Because sometimes you come in this situations where you, as a sports professional, have to make a choice. Neither if you make a choice or not. The compass may have to be changed due to certain and unexpected life events. It can take time before you can get the compass to point in the right direction again, it takes time to adjust. So in my opinion, people need a compass for situations where the ethical values are lost and people need something to look at it to make a choice.

What do I find and why? Sincerity, honesty, straightforwardness, and justice. The main points of my moral compass. The combination of these points ensures that I can make my choices on my own feeling. I feel good about these points, they were formed during my life and taught by my parents. They shaped me into who I am today and I am proud of that.

5. Behavior: what do I do?

What behavior do I show? I am always on time and most of the time way to early. People know that from me. I also how that I am responsible, hard working and show that I am confided in from of groups. In the different jobs that I have, I show different behavior. For example at the sport field I where other clothes and speak with a other language, than when I am at the office.

What is the effect of my behavior? The effect of my behavior is that people trust me and give me responsibility’s. Children know how to behave around me and know that they have to listen. From talks with parents and with my mom and dad, and they all say that I have a position influence on the children and their development.

Let mee see who I am? When I look In the mirror, there are some things I have to change in my behavior. Sometimes I can think a bit to much and they I am so full in my thoughts that my attention is somewhere else. There are some situations that my behavior changes in some work places. For example at the sport field I where other clothes and speak with a other language, than when I am at the office. That fact that I know that I have to behave differently in certain situations, shows that I know what I am doing and why I do that.

6. Environmental awareness: Where do I apply?

What possibilities do I have? In the environment where I live in, there are a lot of possibilities. I got the opportunity to work in different kind of jobs, there are a lot of places where I like to work at in the future and because of the fact that there are a lot of sport clubs nearby, I can switch clubs without any problems with travelling etc. I got the opportunity to follow this study, what is one of the biggest possibilities for me as a person at this time. I also got the opportunity from the sport club where I work, to develop myself further and get to follow the HT3 course. I have to possibility to learn new things, get to know new people and show my own knowledge with others when I give practice. I am aware of the fact that I am lucky with all the possibilities in my environment, so I want to do my best to grab all those possibilities and make myself succeed in this environment.  

Do I see opportunities? Because of some relations and connections that I have in the world of sports but also in different areas, I see a lot of opportunities for me in the future. Because my environment is rich of knowledge, is see the opportunity to learn from everyone in my environment and to become a better person now and in the future. I think you can always improve yourself every day, even if it is just a small thing. And in my opinion, when the opportunities come to you, you have to grab them and go all the way for it and give 100%.

Do I experience obstacles? The fact that I really had to think about this question shows that there are not any big obstacles in my live. You can think of COVID-19, but that relates to everyone and not only my personal environment. You can see this as a obstacle, but my environment became creative and showed that together we can handle this kind of problems.

What am I part of? I am part of a really lovely and inspirational environment. My parents give my all the love that I needed as a child and they gave me all the opportunity to try some things. Without that, I think I would be a whole different person. Because I had a lot of energy when I was a child, I needed to move and my parents helped me with some distractions and solutions on that. Also the fact that we could go on vacation, and visit place like FC Barcelona, made me as a person. The different cultures and the different countries where an inspiration for me as a child. The environment where I live in, has a lot of knowledge. Knowledge in different kind of ways. From dentist to teacher. I always have someone around me who I can ask things.

What is my place in society? At this moment I am a student at the Hanze Hoge school in Groningen. I just moved to Groningen to be nearby the school and also nearby my work. Because of my different kind of jobs, my place in society switches. I have a lot of good connections and an environment around me with a lot of knowledge. I learn people things, and people learn things to me.

Who can I contact? Because I was born and raised in Zuidlaren, a lot of my connections and friends still live nearby Zuidlaren and Groningen. Because Zuidlaren isn’t really big, a lot of people know each other and we help each other as a person. My relation with my parents and sister is really good, something we are all very proud of. I can always ask my parents things and get help from my sister. We are just there for each other.