THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND REFLECTION
The study of leadership is important for many reasons. Leadership provides a lens to analyze people, current and historical events, context, systems, and cultures. The study of leadership is interdisciplinary and provides students with the opportunity to connect theory, co and extracurricular activities, and practice. Most importantly, the study of leadership provides students the opportunity to better understand their strengths and weaknesses, how they relate to others, and their relationship to the larger community.
At Episcopal High School( EHS) our leadership class focuses on topics such as leadership traits, types, leader-follower interaction, organizational culture, communication, and ethics. We interact directly with leaders in a wide range of sectors: national security, law, electoral politics, education, local government, finance, nonprofit work, technology, journalism, and more. We ask students to use concepts and theory to evaluate leader decision making and behavior to make sense of the world around them. Students are asked to examine their own leadership journey( choices, plans, strengths, weaknesses, goals, relationships, etc.) throughout this analytical process. They then apply that understanding to their work in the classroom, athletics fields, theatre or musical performances, student government activity, and decision making about life after high school.
“... the study of leadership provides students the opportunity to better understand their strengths and weaknesses, how they relate to others, and their relationship to the larger community.”
Kolb and Kolb identify four distinct parts of the experiential learning cycle: abstract conceptualization, concrete experience, active experimentation, and reflective observation( Kolb and Kolb 26). They describe experiential learning as a“ recursive process that is sensitive to the learning situation and to what is being learned … reflections are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for action can be drawn”( Kolb and Kolb 32). EHS is a boarding school with 100 % of students and approximately 90 % of faculty living together on campus. We work, play, laugh, and worship together. The same adult knows a student in a wide range of settings, appreciates how all experience is connected from the classroom to the dorm to the playing field, and is therefore able to fully see the student. These relationships, enhanced by our nature as a boarding school, provide opportunities for ongoing reflective conversations. Every day students try new things, have success, work through challenges, and learn at each step of the process. Guided by caring adults, students feel empowered to make different choices, take action, and shape both their educational journey and community. The collec-
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CSEE Connections Summer 2025 Page 7