Measuring Significant Learning through a Personal Leadership Transformation Assignment in an Undergraduate Leadership Course

Abstract

Leadership educators should strive to promote deeper learning within their students. Fink's (2003, 2013) taxonomy of significant learning is a framework for intentionally grounding leadership curricula in the principles and practices of evidence-based learning. The purpose of this study was to measure undergraduate students' significant learning after the completion of a PLTA in a personal leadership course and reflection about the experience. A content analysis of 24 student reflections was used to analyze the six domains of learning: foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn. Evidence of all six domains of learning were found within the student reflections and it was observed that students who had definite contexts in which to apply and well-defined goals for the assignment could better articulate their learning.

Measuring the impact of strategic design learning experience long after the classroom delivery

“…The application domain "… allows other kinds of learning to become useful… " (Fink, 2003, in Odom et al, 2017. Participants were asked to recall the implementation of design thinking models in module projects, consider the use of the design thinking in their current circumstances, and comment on how the module fostered their creative skills.…”

“…This domain refers to the learning experience prompting broader connections. "The act of making these new connections gives learners a new form of power, "especially intellectual power" " (Fink, 2003, in Odom et al, 2017. The questions prompted participants to comment on how well the module enabled them to connect strategic opportunities, creative choices, financial decisions and management principles.…”

“…The responses also resonate with the transferable skills embedded in the module curriculum, such as confidence in decisionmaking, motivating others to contribute effectively, and the need to adapt to the different circumstances as the learning journey progresses. Fink (2003) explains, as students learn something new or important about themselves or others, they become prepared to function and interact with others more effectively (in Odom et al, 2017). The question that asked participants to reflect upon what they learned about themselves as team members during the module offered confirmation of Fink's focus on the importance of learning something new about themselves.…”

“…What is also insightful is that despite the varying time lag of two to ten years since taking the module, in all cases but one, the responses offer personal reflections such as "That I'm more creative than I thought and that I have an eye for detail and choosing creative, trendy things" (P4). Responses also captured discourse on how participants conceptualised teamwork in general as the result of the module learning: "I have discovered that leading a team is not always very easy because one or the other will not work" (P3) 3.5 Caring Fink (2003) outlines "[s]ometimes an outcome of learning is a change in the degree to which a student cares about or finds significance in a matter, resulting in new formed feelings, interests, or values" (in Odom et al, 2017). Here, we focused on participants' relation to creative and strategic thinking, helping us observe the change that Fink refers to.…”

“…As our nine-year longitudinal study into this module comes to an end, we wish to assess the impact of the learning experience some years after learners took it. Educational literature outlines that the focus on transformational learning takes place during the curriculum delivery (Cohen, et al 2015, Odom, et al 2017. However, we argue that it can only be fully assessed after the initial experience of learning, leading to the current focus within our broader study.…”