Self Reflection 1 - Adaptability

Topic 1 : Adaptability

Based on what I have learned from this topic during the class is that adaptability is the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions (Oxford Dictionary). For me, it means that one person can amend his or her attitude and action following to the new culture and environments. In addition, adaptability in the area of organizational leadership can be seen as the ability to change something or to adapt to changes that arise. In ecology, adaptability has been defined as the ability to cope with unforeseen environmental disruptions ("Adaptability", 2019).

Adaptability is important to be develop by every person in the world. It is because the world nowadays is changing, life and the environtment at the work place will need more better thinking skills and content knowledge. Adaptibility have two concepts which contain a two-part of the process. The two-part of process is about one’s flexibility and versatility. Flexibity in adaptability is about someone’s willingnesss to adapt into something. Next, versatility is the ability of someone in order to adapt something or environments.

I have been taught that adaptability have three dimensions which are intrapersonal, interpersonal and technology dimensions. For intrapersonal aspect, adaptibility is focused in dealing with uncertain and unpredictable events that can happen to anyone in this life. It is about your ability to solve the problems in a creative ways, which means that everything that occur has their own solutions. It just us who need to try find and figure out the answer by using anything that is suitable for the situations that we faced. Intrapersonal also make us to learn how to manage stress that can come in many kind of conditions such as in dorm, classes or any club. In other words, we have to handle emergencies and crisis in a calm manners so everything will come out smoothly. So basically, intrapersonal involved physical, emotional, cognitive and behaviors elements of people.

In addition, for interpersonal aspect, adaptability is probably more to social interactions with other people. It is involving elements like race, ethnicity and nation. Interpersonal is about how we as a human being that live in the Earth to develop a good relationship and bond within others. It is also involve culture adaptability among the people we have to hang out with. We should respect each other in many aspects in life so that everyone will live a better life.

Furthermore, for technology dimension of adaptability is actually about the acceptance of new technology and innovation that currently evolving in the world nowadays. It usually about how people can accept the new changes in our daily routine with all the technology things. It is either for the better outcomes or it can bring more disaster to our life.

Now, it is about how adaptability could be applied for my survival at UTM and my own current life. As we all know that adapting with university life can be difficult. It means we have to learn how to work independently, typically with less support than we can use, and for many students it means living away from home for the first time. There is a few of Sabahan people in my class, imagine the struggles they had here in university because they have to live far away from home. It is also hard for them to go home frequently but yes as a student, they also will try to adapt the reality from the beginning.

Furthermore, the most important thing we have to adapt in university is how we manage our time. It should be balanced in every aspect so that everything can be settled in a good results. Time management is not just a matter of getting to lectures on time, reading and submitting assignments on time. It is about how effectively we handling all aspects of our life which means from preparing our healthy meals and doing laundry and making sure we actually have time to relax and spend time with friends or classmates can help you cope with our new routine of life. A good balance between academic work and other activities is very necessary and important. For example, independent study is a big part of what students are trying to do at the university. It is really depend on the individual’s efforts if they want to study or not. We need to know the time we can learn the best and comfortable of day or night that can help us structure your research, reading and review.

We also can jot down every tasks in one place in order to easily organized all the things. It's easy to lose track of what we have to do, including classes schedules, activities, club meetings, laundry time and some time for us to relax. And lastly for time management in university, to be successfully adapt, we have to focus on our real goals. Yes, I admit that there is really a lot of things that is going on such as assingments, quiz, test, class activities or events and so on. Sometimes it can make us become distract from what we are actually need to do in the university. Choose clearly what we want to do and get this year and try to reflect on what will help us get there.

Next, in order to adapt to university environment, this topic taught me that we should try getting to know all of our lectures. It may be hard for them to remember us all of their students especially by remembering our names. So if we have a good impression that we can show to them, they may know who we are actually. We should involve ourself in their lectures by answering questions and ask some of our own if you are struggling and having difficulties in their classes; just need to feel confident that we can do so. We do not have to be afraid to ask for help from others or to others whom we trust or university’s counselling centre for some guidance.

And last but not least, I think that by getting engaged with something outside the class is one of the way for us to adapt to university life. This is because university is not just something about reading books and write assigments. It is beyond that, there are varies opportunities that student can access in order to enrich our life as a student here. If you like netball? Then just join any netball club or whatsoever. You loves to sing? Consider yourself in university’s choir club then. This can help contributing to a something greater cause while you can enjoy yourself and doing something you love. The activities that we took place outside of the classroom actually taught us many valuable knowledge and lessons to be use after we have been graduated later. Soft skills is really important in the world out there especially at the work place.

University is more advanced and fast-paced than previous education; the key to success is to find a good balance between study and recreation and believe in yourself. Adaptability refers to the extent to which individuals are able to set up their thoughts, behaviors, and feelings to nicely respond to and can handle the changing, new, and uncertain demands of the university itself (Collie, Holliman & Martin, 2016). Given the new experiences that first-year university students often face, we believe that adaptability is particularly relevant and can play a role in assisting first-year university students with favorable educational outcomes. Be confident!

References

Adaptability. (2019). Retrieved 11 November 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptability

Collie, R., Holliman, A., & Martin, A. (2016). Adaptability, engagement and academic achievement at university. Educational Psychology, 37(5), 632-647. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2016.1231296

Rubin, I. (1979). Retrenchment, Loose Structure and Adaptability in the University. Sociology Of Education, 52(4), 211. doi: 10.2307/2112402