Assessment Task
From your experience, evaluate real-life scenarios where you have demonstrated that you have acquired the behaviour, skill or knowledge in each of the selected assessment criteria below. Inform your answer with wider reading to critically analyse your performance. You may identify a different scenario for each assessment criteria or use a scenario to demonstrate up to any two assessment criteria. You could consider adopting the STAR approach when structuring your answer. If this approach is adopted the follow areas should be covered:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Result
The majority of words are likely to be allocated to the ‘action’ and ‘result’ parts of your answer.
LO3 Be able to apply learning to enhance personal effectiveness.
AC 3.2 Demonstrate continuing professional development that involves both planned learning and reflection.
Continuing professional development (CPD) is on demand for employee effectiveness in the retail sector at Tesco (Tesco Careers, 2025). I have engaged in formal and informal learning to improve my performance. In this approach, I applied planned learning and reflective practice to keep skills relevant in an industry defined by shifting consumer trends and new technologies. My experience confirms that planned learning develops a theoretical basis, and reflection on real-life scenarios transforms the theory into practical and applicable skills. This focus will enable me to fulfill my present job needs, as well as, equip me to respond to future business opportunities and challenges. The combination of these learning strategies will make me grow in professional positions and build a successful company. Therefore, the experience of using this continuous development tool helped me to realise how competitive control may be maintained in a challenging market.
My professional development areas were guided by Tesco’s planned learning opportunities and my own reflective practices. The structured nature of Tesco’s training programs provides the foundation for planned development. Specific scenarios demand critical reflection to apply effective learning. The Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) has been instrumental in structuring my experiences (The University of Edinburgh, 2024; Jayatilleke and Mackie, 2013). This model organises reflection into description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan stages. This approach helped me in performing tasks to understand why certain actions were successful and how I could improve future challenges. The Gibbs cycle helps in self-reflection and continuous improvement in practice-oriented professions. The model cycle takes us through the six-stage framework for post-experience analysis. This is to demonstrate the core requirements of this assessment criterion and supports my argument about personal growth through reflective practices. It allows for a structured model for learning from positive and negative aspects of an experience during learning and development.
One specific scenario that clarifies my planned learning and subsequent reflection involved a new role in the online grocery section during a peak trading period. The situation was my transfer to the online team, which required different skills from my previous in-store position. The task was to learn the new order-picking system and achieve the required picking rate and accuracy. This online-picking system worked as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for this Tasco business. Tesco offered planned learning through its online learning platforms and on-the-job shadowing. This job shadowing is a company workplace learning and training program that helps to attain job satisfaction and higher employee engagement (OECD, 2022). I completed several e-learning modules about the systems and shadowed a top performer. This was my initial planned development activity. This intended learning was the theoretical base that was required to begin the work. Nevertheless, it did not equip me with the practical demands of the job.
The reflection started when the shift was rather difficult, and my picking rate was low, and I had many mistakes. Gibbs Reflective Cycle helped me to go through the Description and Feelings parts where I realised that I was frustrated and stressed during the shift (Jayatilleke and Mackie, 2013). The assessment was the objective analysis of what fell wrong. Not knowing how the system works was not the problem, but my poor physical performance and poor planning on choosing several orders at a time. This Analysis stage enabled me to find the cause and the e-learning covered the system mechanics. That analysis did not capture physical efficiency methods that were applied by colleagues who had been in practise. This reflection led to the conclusion that I had to adjust the way I applied the training to my personal model of working. This was needed in the area of Experiential Learning Theory. Experiential Learning Cycle developed by Kolb constitutes learning as a four-stage process including Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation. It confirms that knowledge is formed as a result of experience transformation. This theory helps me in arguing my case on practical application and reflection when learning. This is because new ideas (Abstract Conceptualisation) are formed based on a new experience and subsequent reflection (Reflective Observation).
My reflection informed my next steps to take an action to observe a different colleague and ask questions about their route planning using an informal learning-from-others method. This involved self-directed learning, where I took ownership of my development needs beyond the formal training. I then developed a personal plan to implement these physical strategies during my shifts, concentrating on mindful movement and pre-planning my picking routes. This self-initiated action presented a proactive approach to skill acquisition and personal effectiveness. The Self-Directed Learning (SDL) theory supported my approach because it posits that individuals take initiative and responsibility for their own learning to make professional development best fit and effective (Lemmetty and Collin, 2019). This works in connection with Schön’s Reflective Practice to differentiate between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action (Tan, 2020). Reflection-in-action helped me to think about the discussed situation while I am engaged in it, while reflection-on-action assisted me to think back on an action or workplace experience after it has happened and plan for the future. My recognition and adaptation of my movement during shifts is an example of reflection-in-action, allowing for immediate adjustments and improvements in the moment. The subsequent detailed review after my challenging shift is a clear example of reflection-on-action. This enabled me to analyse the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind my performance and develop a future plan.
The result of my planned learning with the help of critical reflection and self-directed action was a measurable outcome. The evidence showed that over the next two weeks, my picking rate (20%) improved above the store average and within the top quartile of performers in the online team. My accuracy also increased, reducing the number of customer complaints related to order errors. This was a quantitative data on my improved personal effectiveness, which I reflected in my annual performance evaluation meeting with my line manager. The line manager provided positive feedback that supported my skills and recommended me for future opportunities that would link CPD and career progression within Tesco. This experience solved operational problems and provided a methodology for future learning and development challenges.
In conclusion, my improved performance and the resulting career opportunities resulted from my ability to engage in a learning cycle of experience, reflection, and action, as Kolb, Gibbs, and Schön explain. The structured approach of the Gibbs Reflective Cycle illustrated a process to follow when analysing a negative experience to ensure that no part of the situation was not analysed. Kolb’s model helped me understand that learning is a continuous process where knowledge is created through experience transformation. Schön’s concepts of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action explained how I would adapt instantly and learn from my experiences later. Thus, these different models have explained how I managed to transform a professional challenge into a personal and professional development success through theoretical knowledge and reflective application.
