Shared-Purpose Process: Implications and Possibilities for Student Learning, Development, and Self-Transformation

This article presents a student-established, shared-purpose process used to increase student engagement with, commitment to, and responsibility for their learning. In addition to establishing a shared purpose for their course, the students establish and commit to ways of being, doing, and interacting with one another necessary to intentionally and mutually achieve the shared purpose and other meaningful learning outcomes. They also commit to an individual practice that they believe will increase the likelihood of achieving the shared purpose, as well as identify personal inhibitors to achieving it. This process represents a form of experiential/case-in-point, student-centered, transformative, and partnership learning that is relevant to leadership, team, and organizational development courses. Based on the established shared purpose, we share how to effectively facilitate additional partnership and in-class experiential learning opportunities over the course of the semester.