Leadership Toolkit

Assessing students' awareness and development of leadership

1. Reflective journals
2. Reflective essays
3. Analytical essays
4. Case studies
5. Media, film and fiction
6. Current affairs
7. Group presentations
8. Role plays

Media, film and fiction

Examples from the media, film and fiction provide a rich source of assessment strategies.  For example:

Film review:   Give the students a small list of feature films that effectively depict leadership theories and concepts and ask each student to nominate one film that they will watch in their own time.  They must analyse and apply diverse leadership theories to write a paper evaluating the leader's effectiveness, as depicted in the film.  Students must apply leadership theory to specific events, images, behaviours and quotes in the film.

Compare and contrast:  First, choose two different leadership scenes from movies and show these scenes to the students.  Get the students to compare and contrast the two leaders in the extracts by applying a specific leadership theory, for example, trait, behavioural, or situational leadership theory.  This assessment could be varied in a number of ways, for instance: Compare and contrast women in leadership e.g., Queen Elizabeth 1 in Elizabeth (1998, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation), and Captain Karen Waldron in Courage Under Fire (1996, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation); or compare two different leaders in a similar context, e.g., Captain Millar in Saving Private Ryan (1998, Paramount Pictures),  and General Patton in Patton (1970, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation); or compare and contrast the leadership approach of one leader with a diverse set of followers (e.g., staff and students) over a period of time, such as Principal Joe Clark in Lean on Me (1989, Warner Bros.).

What if?:   Select and present a film scene that leads up to a tough leadership decision.   In class, the students are asked to role play the different courses of action the leader may take in the context portrayed in the film.  You could also give the students a written assignment asking them to analyse how they would act if they were the leader.  The students need to support their approach using leadership concepts and other readings. Apollo 13 (1995 MCA/Universal Pictures) is one film that provides several 'What if?' scenarios.

Leadership group presentations and case analyses: The lecturer needs to: discuss leadership using the selected films; provide a list of selected films for students to watch in their own time and take notes; organise students into groups; and provide questions (refer to pages 28 and 29 in Nielson, Pillai and Watson, 2003, below). Students are able to add their own questions to the list.  Each group is to deliver a one hour presentation based on a particular leadership theory and should incorporate a scene from a film to argue their particular point-of-view.  Each group is to submit a written report which includes a brief summary of their selected film and answers to the set of questions relating to the film, using leadership concepts from the course and any other relevant comments on leadership issues.

Adapted from: Nielson, T., Pillai, N., & Watson, K. (2003). Blockbuster Leadership: Teaching Leadership Using Film. Cited in:  Pillai, N., & Stites-Doe, S. (Eds). Teaching Leadership: Innovative Approaches for the 21st Century. Greenwich: Information Age, pp.17-18.

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