Challenges that Affect My Tertiary Education

Tertiary Education in Australia requires students to have characteristics that are positive in a learning environment. A student needs self-efficacy, resilience, adaptive-help seeking and self-regulation. I commenced studying at Griffith college in trimester 1 of 2018 I have completed a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats analysis to find out challenges that affect my tertiary education. This critical reflection will explore two challenges I have faced while studying at Griffith College of low self-efficacy in high pressure and time management and to find a way of improving on these weaknesses.

Understanding Self-Efficacy

My first issue I have faced in tertiary education is self-efficacy when under pressure. Self-Efficacy is defined as a person's ability to perceive themselves succeeding in specific challenges, it also affects the persons choices and determination in life. This affects the choices I make in tertiary education, I do not put myself in the position where I am uncomfortable because I have low self-efficacy. This has an adverse effect on my grade as I get overwhelmed with school workloads and tasks such as public speaking. Bandura (1993) says "seeing oneself gain progressive mastery strengthened personal efficacy", this shows that to gain self-efficacy one must feel like they are able to succeed. By practicing public speaking, I would be more confident that in future speeches I will perform better. This can also be applied to my school workload, by slowly increasing my workload I won't feel overwhelmed and anxious, because a great self-efficacy towards an individual allows them the confidence to perform well.

Time Management Challenges

The second challenge I have faced since study commenced at Griffith College is managing my time between lectures and tutorials, at home study, work and personal leisure. Zimmerman (2002) states "Self-regulation is not a mental ability or an academic performance skill; rather it is the self-directive process by which learners transform their mental abilities." I do have to work in order to pay bills which takes up a large portion on available study time, but to be successful I must be strictly organized. Fortunately, the student advisers at Griffith Collage have provided me with a weekly planner template so I can organise my study and leisure times efficiently. Self-regulation is significant not only for education, but it teaches skills to use throughout life. I can also use self-regulation skills to arrange with my manager to do work shifts on days that I do not have class. Freeing up my schedule and regulating specific study time will allow me to achieve the best at tertiary education.

Reflection on Key Skills

This critical reflection showed that self-regulation, time management, and high self-efficacy are crucial to success in tertiary education. To increase my chance of success I will build myself up with small successes of challenges in order to be more confident and successful in my school work. I will also continue to fill out my weekly planner and organise work around school, in order to maximise my study time. These minor changes to my life will not ensure success at tertiary education but they will allow me to head towards successful study.