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

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 analysisof 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.