Foundation Reflection

What are three new things you have learnt about yourself and your ego due to the core learning?

The first thing I learned was that I try to integrate growth mindset into my learning journey. From core part, I have learnt brain neuroplasticity. It develops our brains and ability. Mindsets play a significant role in determining life's outcomes. I will try to view challenges as opportunities to overcome something difficult and grow as a result. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the opportunity for learning and growth.

The second is thinking like a programmer. This thinking develops my problem-solving skills. When I start code now, I will understand the problem first, plan my approach and use problem solving skills such as pseudocode, reading error messages, console.logging and Googling.

The third is trying to help others. We are the learner, and the learner also is the teacher. When I help other people to deal with technical problems, I also learnt some new. When you can teach other people, it means you full understand these concept. In addition, pair programming is helpful. I can get new ideas from peer.

What are the role of values, empathy, and self-awareness in learning and programming?

I feel that personal values encompasses all parts of my learning. The values have great influence on my motivation and my goal. As I love coding, I can keep learning 8 hours everyday. Empathy allows me to try my best to help others. Self-awareness plays an importance role in my learning journey. I will reflect my study everyday and I will look back the failure I made every week. I can constantly strive to improve on the things that I see as deficient at that stage and learn from my mistakes.

What has surprised you the most about the core learning?

I'm surprised that Devacademy has put so much thought into actually teaching this aspect of human values and behavior in the course. The contents are both interesting, relevant and frankly quite fun to navigate through. I understand that these core concepts are useful in all job types, but to invest so much time in also teaching this has outlined what I can expect from myself at the end of my learning journey here.

What were the most challenging aspects of the core learning?

The most challenging aspect for me was listening and looping. I try my best to listen other people, it hard for me to loop back what I heard in details.

Why do you think we, a programming school, are spending so much time focusing on core learning in a web development Bootcamp course?

I think that Devacademy is taking the time to focus on human skills because these skills can help us to understand our values and motivation and prepare us enter workplace. Being taught to be aware of the core skills early on will make it easy for transition from training to work and make us more desirable as a potential candidate.

Does the time you spent studying core learning here feel like a waste of time? Should you have just used that time to practise programming instead? Justify your answer.

I do not think like that. The core part is interesting and relavent. I have learned a lot more about myself and it makes my study plan clearly. This is most effective way for me to engage the study. These concepts change my thinking and my mindset.