Using Self-Assessment and Reflection to Enhance Learning

The purpose of this study was to examine how self-assessment and reflection supported student learning in an online graduate higher education leadership course. Twenty-five graduate students completed the Bolman and Deal Four Frame leadership orientation assessment and engaged in a guided reflective discussion of their results. Using reflexive thematic analysis, forty-nine discussion posts were analyzed to explore how students made meaning of their assessment outcomes and how reflection supported their understanding of leadership. Findings revealed four themes: leadership as people-centered support, structure as stability and clarity, discomfort with conflict and organizational politics, and the leadership instrument as a catalyst for self-reflection and learning. Self-assessment, when paired with intentional reflection, promoted leadership awareness, conceptual understanding, and leadership identity awareness. The results demonstrate that the discourse conducted through online discussion boards can serve as a supportive tool for critical reflection that challenges assumptions, leading to transformative learning, as well as a means of assessing that learning.