シミュレータの疑似体験とPBLでの実体験とを結びつけるリーダーシップ教育とその評価

Abstract

All engineering students need to develop their important skills of leadership in project management. Many students have never been leaders in their social and school lives. A leading role is unimaginable to them and hence they cannot imagine how to achieve it. The purpose of this paper is to report a result of a new leadership education program which links a variety of simulated experiences with real actions of students in project based learning (PBL) to develop their leadership ability. The first step is for graduate students to gain knowledge in the leadership arena. Then, they utilize simulation to experience leadership actions many times. Simulation provides a safe environment in which they can try out many different approaches in taking leadership in various situations. In the next step, students as a team utilize PBL, so that the above simulated experiences can help them to actually take leadership. Students can apply trained leadership to actual projects. It is highly effective to apply conscious leadership to a project aimed at a specific goal in limited circumstances. This education repeats both of the steps above, raising leadership abilities in an upward spiral. In terms of students’ evaluation of leadership education in project management, 360-degree assessments were carried out by teachers, senior, and junior students before and after the course, and authors compare their assessments thoroughly. As a result, authors are assured that students not only gained knowledge but also raised leadership abilities in their actions after this education. Six months after the time of leadership education employing simulated experiences and PBL, follow-up interviews were conducted on its effects. Authors recognized the cyclic period that students apply simulated experiences to PBL and that they seek different approaches in simulation for solving problems found in reality. This research concludes that this cycle of simulator and PBL can produce effective leadership actions.