Work in Progress:Enhancing Student Leadership Competencies through Reflection

Dianne Grayce Hendricks; Ken Yasuhara; Alyssa Catherine Taylor

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Publication Date: June 26, 2016
Start Date: June 26, 2016
End Date: June 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-68565-5
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Biomedical Division Poster Session
Tagged Division: Biomedical
Page Count: 5
DOI: 10.18260/p.27048
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/27048
Download Count: 610

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Dianne Grayce Hendricks University of Washington

visit author page

Dr. Dianne G. Hendricks is a Lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. She earned a BS in Molecular Biology at the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in Genetics at Duke University. Dr. Hendricks’ teaching interests at the University of Washington include developing and teaching introductory and honors courses in bioengineering, tissue and protein engineering lab courses, and capstone projects. She is committed to creating opportunities for undergraduates to engage in K-12 education and outreach. At both Duke University and the University of Washington, Dr. Hendricks has developed and taught summer camp curricula for middle school and high school students.

visit author page

biography

Ken Yasuhara Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching (CELT)

visit author page

Ken Yasuhara is a research scientist at the Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching (CELT), a campus lead for the Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education (CPREE), and an instructional consultant in the Office for the Advancement of Engineering Teaching & Learning (ET&L) at the University of Washington. He completed an A.B. in computer science at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. When he finds the time, he plays with bicycles and knitting needles.

visit author page

biography

Alyssa Catherine Taylor University of Washington

visit author page

Alyssa C. Taylor is a lecturer in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. She received a B.S. in biological systems engineering at the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia. Taylor’s teaching activities are focused on developing and teaching core introductory courses and technical labs for bioengineering undergraduates, as well as coordinating the capstone design sequence for the BIOE Department at the University of Washington. Taylor currently pursues educational research and continuous improvement activities, with the ultimate goal of optimizing bioengineering curriculum design and student learning outcomes.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

In this work-in-progress paper, we describe the use of reflection to enhance student leadership competencies in two different bioengineering courses at the University of Washington. Leadership is an essential professional skill for bioengineering students. However, leadership is not taught explicitly in many programs for a variety of reasons, including the challenge of defining leadership in concrete terms and the lack of buy-in by both instructors and students. Our aim is to make teaching leadership to undergraduates more manageable by providing educators with leadership-focused exercises that leverage a teaching tool whose importance is becoming increasingly recognized in engineering education: reflection [1, 2].

Reflection is often used to promote cognitive development [3] – e.g., immediately after an exam, students articulate what they did that helped them do well on the exam and what they could do differently to improve their performance on a future exam. The innovation of our work is that we explore the effectiveness of reflection in promoting development of professional skills – specifically, to help bioengineering undergraduates improve their understanding of and capacity for leadership.

To facilitate reflection on leadership, students in the two featured courses are introduced to the “leadership competencies” identified by Seemiller [4] including ethics, analysis, conflict negotiation, communication, providing/receiving feedback, problem solving, decision making, and listening. Promoting familiarity with these leadership competencies is intended to provide students with a vocabulary to articulate their leadership abilities, and a lens with which to reflect on their past experiences.

The reflection activities are being implemented in two bioengineering seminar courses with different learning objectives and student populations. The Bioengineering Honors Seminar is a leadership-focused discussion-based seminar comprised of senior bioengineering majors in the departmental honors program at the University of Washington and includes a team service project. The collegium seminar, Bioengineering: Advancing Human Health, is for first-year students and provides exposure to different research areas in bioengineering through guest speakers and a team project in which students research and lead a class discussion on a biomedical innovation of their choosing. The reflection exercises (to be described in detail in the extended abstract), such as the Letter to Future Self, include both course-specific and general activities that can be modified to be suitable for any bioengineering course.

Assessment in both courses will include student self-report data obtained by quantitative survey examining 1) how reflection (and the class as a whole) contributed to identification and development of their individual leadership competencies, and 2) the impact of reflection on the students’ ability to utilize and refine their individual leadership strengths in their team projects. We anticipate that the reflective activities themselves will yield qualitative data regarding self-reported student development of particular competencies. In addition, students in the Bioengineering Honors Seminar will evaluate how their perception of leadership was affected by reflection. Student feedback will be obtained through surveys immediately following reflection activities and end-of-course evaluations.

In conclusion, in this work in progress, we describe reflection activities implemented in two bioengineering courses and assess their impact on enhancing student leadership competencies.

Bibliography

1. Ambrose, S. A. (2013). Undergraduate engineering curriculum: The ultimate design challenge. The Bridge: Linking Engineering and Society, 43(2). 2. Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 3. Kaplan, M., Silver, N., LaVaque-Manty, D., & Meizlish, D. (Eds.). (2013). Using Metacognition and Reflection to Improve Student Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. 4. Seemiller, C. (2014). The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook: Designing Intentional Leadership Learning and Development. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Citation
Format

Hendricks, D. G., & Yasuhara, K., & Taylor, A. C. (2016, June), Work in Progress:Enhancing Student Leadership Competencies through Reflection Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.27048

TY - CPAPER
AB - In this work-in-progress paper, we describe the use of reflection to enhance student leadership competencies in two different bioengineering courses at the University of Washington. Leadership is an essential professional skill for bioengineering students. However, leadership is not taught explicitly in many programs for a variety of reasons, including the challenge of defining leadership in concrete terms and the lack of buy-in by both instructors and students. Our aim is to make teaching leadership to undergraduates more manageable by providing educators with leadership-focused exercises that leverage a teaching tool whose importance is becoming increasingly recognized in engineering education: reflection [1, 2].

Reflection is often used to promote cognitive development [3] – e.g., immediately after an exam, students articulate what they did that helped them do well on the exam and what they could do differently to improve their performance on a future exam. The innovation of our work is that we explore the effectiveness of reflection in promoting development of professional skills – specifically, to help bioengineering undergraduates improve their understanding of and capacity for leadership.

To facilitate reflection on leadership, students in the two featured courses are introduced to the “leadership competencies” identified by Seemiller [4] including ethics, analysis, conflict negotiation, communication, providing/receiving feedback, problem solving, decision making, and listening. Promoting familiarity with these leadership competencies is intended to provide students with a vocabulary to articulate their leadership abilities, and a lens with which to reflect on their past experiences.

The reflection activities are being implemented in two bioengineering seminar courses with different learning objectives and student populations. The Bioengineering Honors Seminar is a leadership-focused discussion-based seminar comprised of senior bioengineering majors in the departmental honors program at the University of Washington and includes a team service project. The collegium seminar, Bioengineering: Advancing Human Health, is for first-year students and provides exposure to different research areas in bioengineering through guest speakers and a team project in which students research and lead a class discussion on a biomedical innovation of their choosing. The reflection exercises (to be described in detail in the extended abstract), such as the Letter to Future Self, include both course-specific and general activities that can be modified to be suitable for any bioengineering course.

Assessment in both courses will include student self-report data obtained by quantitative survey examining 1) how reflection (and the class as a whole) contributed to identification and development of their individual leadership competencies, and 2) the impact of reflection on the students’ ability to utilize and refine their individual leadership strengths in their team projects. We anticipate that the reflective activities themselves will yield qualitative data regarding self-reported student development of particular competencies. In addition, students in the Bioengineering Honors Seminar will evaluate how their perception of leadership was affected by reflection. Student feedback will be obtained through surveys immediately following reflection activities and end-of-course evaluations.

In conclusion, in this work in progress, we describe reflection activities implemented in two bioengineering courses and assess their impact on enhancing student leadership competencies.

Bibliography

1. Ambrose, S. A. (2013). Undergraduate engineering curriculum: The ultimate design challenge. The Bridge: Linking Engineering and Society, 43(2).
2. Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., &amp; Norman, M. K. (2010). How Learning Works. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
3. Kaplan, M., Silver, N., LaVaque-Manty, D., &amp; Meizlish, D. (Eds.). (2013). Using Metacognition and Reflection to Improve Student Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
4. Seemiller, C. (2014). The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook: Designing Intentional Leadership Learning and Development. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley &amp; Sons, Inc.
AU - Dianne Grayce Hendricks
AU - Ken Yasuhara
AU - Alyssa Catherine Taylor
CY - New Orleans, Louisiana
DA - 2016/06/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress:Enhancing Student Leadership Competencies through Reflection
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/27048
DO - 10.18260/p.27048
ER -