02 September 2021
Foundations Reflection
This blog post is a reflection on the core skills component of Foundations. This aspect of the course has given me a deeper understanding of myself and has been a great help in my learning journey.
Three things I have learnt about myself and my ego throughout the core learning exercises are
- Development of a more positive outlook towards facing challenges – research into the growth mindset has helped me become aware that when you come up against a challenge the way in which you respond to it can have a huge impact on your belief in your abilities.
- To be more patient with myself. Making that decision to go on this journey of learning something completely new was a huge step. It’s obviously going to take time to understand all this new information and that’s okay. The important thing is that I continue to put in the effort to get better instead of just giving up and giving into the self-critical thinking.
- I really enjoy taking time to reflect. Having tried reflecting and journaling in the past, it never really stuck. I found that it was very useful for core learning and it helped with technical learning as well.
Being more self-aware, understanding your values, strengths, weaknesses and having empathy gives you are greater sense of who you are and provides you with a framework of creating a vision of who you want to become in both professional and personal aspects of life. You are able to develop a better attitude towards learning, know what drives and motivates you to excel, build stronger relationships and communicate more clearly with others, and help with achieving goals.
The thing that has surprised me the most about the core learning is how much it has helped going through this learning journey. My outlook on learning has improved and I have a better understanding of how what I think, and feel can have a great impact on my success not only in relation to this course but in all aspects of life.
The most challenging aspects of the core learning for me, was self-reflection. It challenged me to explore my emotional and mental behaviours throughout this learning process. I always though that I had a growth mindset, but it wasn’t until I took the time to reflect, that I realized that there were a lot of things I actually had a fixed mindset about. Taking the time to learn about neuroplasticity and growth mindset helped me understand that I needed to change my way of thinking in order to grow and improve in order be more successful.
I think EDA focuses on core learning in their web development bootcamp course because they understand that the core/human skills are vitally important. Future employers don’t just look at your technical abilities, they also look to see if you possess the core human skills that will allow you to be successful in a role and enhance the culture of their team.
The time spent studying core skills at EDA has not been a waste of time at all. Although there have been times when I have been doing the core content and thought that I really should be practicing programming instead, I found that the core learning has enhanced my ability to learn the technical skills. I have become more aware of my emotions and thoughts while learning the technical aspects and found I was able to ignore the self-critical voice in my head more than when I started. Learning the technical skills and putting them into practice has often been challenging and difficult, and I think that without taking time to focus on the core skills during this learning journey so far, I probably would have given up.