Developing Future Leaders: The Role of Reflection in the Classroom

Abstract

Leadership development continues to be a topic of conversation, education, and research. Reflection has been named as one of the key competencies needed for effective leaders particularly as the workplace grows more complex and multicultural. But how does one develop reflective skill in college students, the leaders of the future? This paper reviews the concept of the "reflective leader," the importance of reflection as a key component in the development of future leaders, and suggests strategies for incorporating reflection in leadership education as well as mechanisms for its assessment.

Promoting Service Leadership Qualities and Well-Being among University Students through an Online Course during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The original service leadership subject adopted the pedagogy centering on students' in-classroom learning, characterized by multiple interactive in-class activities (sharing, drawing, role-play and debate), self-reflection exercises, collaborative learning (e.g., group discussion, group sharing and group presentation) and critical thinking practice (e.g., critical evaluation of leadership qualities from multiple perspectives). It is expected that by "experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting", students can be more engaged and perform deep learning [38,39].…”

Reflection in Learning

“…However, it is also necessary to reflect on private issues since through reflecting on private issues and sharing each other's personal experiences, learners will find more connections and a sense of safety and belonging, and they can also provide each other social support in this process (Nilsson, Andersson, & Blomqvist, 2017). Roberts (2008) reminded us though, that reflection may veer off into too emotional and uncomfortable topics, which can cause ethical issues if the information is misused.…”

Using Guided Critical Reflection to Discover Deepened and Transformative Learning in Leadership Education

“…Critical reflection involves examining one’s experiences, and examining those experiences is crucial to the development of leaders. Critical reflection, as defined by Mezirow (1998), can be used as an approach for integrating leadership theory and practice, enabling sense- or meaning-making and provoking self-awareness (Roberts, 2008). White and Guthrie (2016) refer to reflection as “meaning-making” or “processing” (p. 61) and offer that it includes a variety of actions that lead to learning that results from experience.…”

“…Importantly, “[t]he process of leadership is intrinsically connected to learning” (Roberts, 2008) or education, and leadership educators must employ critical reflection to help students make sense of their new experiences and reframe how they view problems to develop better solutions and relate better to those whom they lead (Densten & Gray, 2001). This reframing suggests double-loop learning as it is a loop back to the problem to view it from a different perspective.…”

“…Class preparation reflections, metacognition (thinking about thinking), note reflection, and observation reflection are methods of helping students move to deeper levels of learning (Stover & Seemiller, 2017). Though verbal reflection might prove to be more difficult to assess, it is still presented as a viable reflection method for helping students synthesize theories and convert them into practice (Roberts, 2008; White & Guthrie, 2016). These forms of instruction should be used throughout the leadership course rather than tacked on at the end of the course as a final assignment (Roberts, 2008).…”