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ePortfolios for Leadership Identity Development with OSP: Some Very Preliminary Findings Darren Cambridge George Mason University [email protected] Lives We Lead • Three-year project at George Mason University • Co-curricular leadership portfolio development using Open Source Portfolio • Research as part of the third cohort of the Inter/National Coalition for Electronic Portfolio Research I/NCEPR • Institutional research teams examining the impact of electronic portfolio practice on learning • 46 institutions in four cohorts • Third cohort focuses on student affairs -academic affairs collaboration • US, Canada, England, Scotland, Netherlands • Book to be published by Stylus in 2008 Methodology • Design research – Intervention design informed by theory – Evaluated for effectiveness and contributes to further development of theory • Grounded theory – Collaborative coding of portfolio, video, and interview data by inter-disciplinary team – Theoretical sampling Leadership theory • Leadership Identity Development – Based on research on undergraduate student leaders at the University of Maryland – From positional leadership to multi-dimensional perspective • Identity • Relationships • Community • Evidence in leadership portfolios – Leadership portfolios in Ohio high schools – Products, reproductions, attestations Theories of Reflection • Kolb’s stages of reflection – Description – Analysis – Judgment – Planning • Yancey’s types of reflection – constructive reflection – reflection-in-presentation Program Design • • • • Semester-long, co-curricular portfolio keeping experience Three face-to-face, day-long meetings Faculty, staff, and peer mentors Students who self-identify as leaders and students who don’t, first-year to graduate student • Sequenced use OSP tools with r-smart CLE – Hierarchical wizards – Matrixes – Portfolios Beginning of Semester • Expanding thinking about evidence • Reflective writing in response to selections from a large number of prompts • Organized around identity, relationships, community • Hierarchical matrix Mid-semester • Reconceptualizing as leadership • Organizing evidence and reflections in relationship to shared conceptual framework – Matrix thinking • Matrix End of Semester • Presentation portfolio for an audience of their choice • Identity, relationships, community, future directions • Portfolio using template Very Preliminary Findings • First iteration ended in May 2007 • Analyzed so far – Evaluation surveys – Selected final portfolios • Coding of additional portfolios, video data, and conducting interviews with students through December 2007 • Key themes in student leadership identity, rather than impact of portfolio process Evidence, Audience, and Mentoring • Despite honorarium, significant lack of retention (From 33 to 16) • Broader conception of and new value placed in evidence in relationship to leadership-related activities • Strong sense of pride in final product • Peer mentoring invaluable – Mirrors research as LaGuardia and other I/NCEPR campuses Strong Perceived Impact Strengthened ability to connect learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom 73% Stronger sense of self as a leader 87% Stronger awareness of my leadership potential 88% Enhanced awareness of how to present ideas to different audiences 75% More confident in ability to use reflective practice 82% for self-discovery and learning More confident in my ability to use electronic environments for my learning 87% Greater awareness of how to select evidence that demonstrates my learning 100% From Position to Integration • Students see their identities to be inseparable from multiple kinds of relationships and community memberships – Family relationships, friendships, academic and professional community membership – Navigation between cultures and putting them into conversations – Portfolios as a sight of integration • Shift from positional definition of leadership to grounding in this integrated network • Mirrors findings of research in eFolio Minnesota and LaGuardia Academics as Test of Self • We intended for curricular content to be an central source of evidence and ideas and strategies, but it didn’t show up this way • Class work functioned as – A demonstration of character virtues – An experience – A goal putting aspiration towards those virtues in action Steadfastness • Consistency of commitment over time seen as a central leadership virtue – Tenacity, perseverance, patience, follow through – Standing up to opposition and peer pressure – Essential to ability to create change • Much more prominent than persuasiveness • Spirituality and family key arenas for demonstrating steadfastness Change • While steadfastness is central, so is change • Leadership requires growth • Students universally embraced change as both a personally and societal goal • Local and global, but very little in between Evidence • Primarily reproductions and attestations • Symbolic rather than persuasive • Heuristics for reflection Buncencia Seabreeze’s Portfolio Questions Moving Forward • How do students who self-identify leaders and those who don’t differ? • Why is course content not see as relevant, and how might we change that? • Do the ways students use evidence match the expectations of their intended audiences? • In terms of developing leadership competence, how important is self-identification? Does it matter when we call it leadership? • How well do the different OSP tools support the development process?