Exemplary Leadership Development of College Athletes: the Role of Reflection in Leadership Development

Abstract

This study investigates the impact reflection has on the exemplary leadership development of college student-athletes by employing a randomized, alternative-treatments design experimental strategy in order to examine the relationship between reflection and leadership development among 101 student-athletes at an NCAA Division III, faith-based university. The Student Leadership Practices Inventory, SLPI, (Kouzes & Posner, 2006) was used to measure the level of engagement college student-athletes have with five exemplary leadership behaviors and if growth in the use of those behaviors was affected by reflection activities held over a sport season. Reflection was operationalized for all study participants in the form of large group reflections. The participants in the experimental group participated in additional reflective exercises called “engaged journaling” (Jenkins & Clarke, 2017). This classroom activity employs Experiential Learning Theory (Kolb, 1984), the theoretical framework utilized for this study. Results indicated that while there was an increase in exemplary leadership practice scores for both groups from pre-intervention to post-intervention, there was no statistically significant growth of any of the five exemplary leadership behaviors between the student-athlete groups in this study. However, the reflection intervention appears to significantly impact four exemplary leadership behaviors as statistical significance was found to exist within subjects. In addition, significant interaction effects were present in three exemplary leadership behaviors. These findings imply that continued exploration of the impact of reflection on the leadership development of college athletes may lead to programmatic additions and a cultural shift in the administration of college athletics.