I currently teach an undergraduate student leadership development course at Michigan State University. Throughout the semester, students use Kouzes and Posner’s (2016) book, 5 Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership to learn about theory and exercises to address common leadership programs. The lesson plan below outlines the major assessments (assignments) and innovative technology used at the end of each Unit.
Innovative Technology Lesson Plan Overview
The course assessments lead students through inward-focused reflection to external opportunities to apply their leadership skills. For me, leadership is not something that can be solely studied in the classroom, but something learned through a practical application over time. Therefore, I used LinkedIn as my guiding innovative technology where students will post their assessments at the end of each Unit.
image credit: LinkedIn Logo. (2021). Wikimedia commons.
Each assessment provides students a high level of autonomy to account for students' specific interests and skills. Though there is an overarching goal for the assessment, students can decide the format of their assessment (i.e. written essay, photography, podcast, video, etc). If I adopted a traditional approach to assessments with a set type of format, I could limit students in their learning and skill development that may or may not be relevant to their future roles (Black et al., 2015). Later I learned this instructional strategy aligns with the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines for (1): providing multiple means of perception, (2) language and symbols, and (3) comprehension. This variability is beneficial for all students but particularly important for students with differing abilities and cultural backgrounds.
After creating my first draft, I received feedback from 2 peer educators who provided important considerations around UDL, English language learners, and immigrant students. Because leadership in the United States often emphasizes Western, White, and male perspectives of a “good” leader, my peers’ feedback provided important questions on how to engage students with disabilities and diverse cultural contexts.
What I Changed
Change #1: A peer questioned whether an immigrant student should discuss leadership experience in the United States or if they could discuss their experience in Sudan. This feedback encouraged me to provide clear framing in my course that leadership does not have to be bound to geographic and organizational barriers that may limit students’ voices. Having more perspectives that are non-U.S.-centric are particularly important for de-centering Western perspectives on leadership. As a course that enrolls many international students, I want to offer more clarification on this in the future. This feedback is also important for U.S.-born students who may be working with international companies or colleagues due to the increased globalization of work that necessitates them to develop cross-cultural learning (Kiewer & Ndirangu, 2019).
Change #2: In my original lesson plan, the final reflection questions were unclear in how students were to reflect upon their leadership development using the innovative technology. I revised the questions with more detail and provided opportunities to reflect on how the technology contributed to their learning. A question I enjoyed in my revision was “if you had to give feedback to the LinkedIn team about how to utilize this technology for students, what would you share?” Though students are using the technology, it is also necessary for them to provide feedback as LinkedIn is increasingly important for career development and networking.
What I Retained
Given the positive feedback I received on UDL, I did not change the format of my assessments. Rather, I wrote notes on how to provide scaffolded instructional strategies supporting students in meeting the assessment outcomes regardless of format. This is not represented in the lesson plan itself, but on my summer to-do list.
The exercise of using an innovative technology within a lesson plan and receiving peer feedback was highly effective. By sharing my plan with others, I was alerted to my own assumptions about my learners and areas of improvement. As I mentioned earlier that leadership cannot be learned in isolation, I also do not believe that teaching should be conducted in isolation. Ultimately when we develop stronger teachers, we benefit our increasingly diverse learners.
References
Center for Applied Special Technology (2021). About universal design for learning. [Website]. https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl#.XFBpZi2ZOL9
Kiewer, B.W. & Ndirangu, B.W. (2019). Advancing reciprocity in cross-cultural leadership coaching. Journal of Leadership Education, pp. 178–187 doi:10.12806/V18/I4/A4
Black, R.D., Weinberg, L.A., Broadwin, M.G. (2015). Universal design for learning and instruction: Perspectives of students with disabilities in higher education. Exceptionality Education International, 25(2), pp. 1–26.