Leadership Development of Technology Students through Experiential Learning

Abstract

In a world where technology is changing every single detail of our societies, schools, and organizations in a skyrocketing speed, it is worrying that the way we develop our leaders is improving so slowly. With numerous studies showing that leadership is one of the factors that impact the most on software projects’ success, it is worrying that more than $14B are spent yearly with leadership development and, still, most organizations believe they are not being effective. \nOne of the most efficient methodologies for leadership development inside companies is the Experiential Learning from David Kolb, but it still has some problems in gaining traction inside universities due to their difficulty of simulating practical experiences. Many different approaches have been tried with various results and little standardization is perceived on the way they are used. \nFor this reason, this study proposes a framework for using group activities as a means to help technology students practice leadership skills. A first pilot was executed with pleasant results and feedback from students, but more experiments are necessary to ensure its application for other skills and contexts.