Jennifer A Caleshu
Lecturer, Haas School for Business
How might we create self-reflection assignments that encourage deep reflection rather than shallow or inauthentic (i.e. AI generated) essays? Many of the leadership courses I teach at the Haas School of Business school primarily use self-reflection essays as the summative assessment. Over the past 10 years, I've seen these essays become progressively less reflective and generic. I suspect a variety of reasons, including the decline of liberal arts degrees, the growth of a more transactional workplace environment (hybrid/remote workplaces offer less informal human connection), and the recent impact of generative AI.
The original assignment asked students to "keep an ongoing journal during and after class" and attach at least three pages as an appendix to the final paper. The assignment included 20+ reflection questions, but no structural requirements. The final paper was submitted via the Rumi tool in bCourses, to capture behavioral data about how students were writing.
For Spring 2026, the assignment was redesigned to require three distinct, structured self-reflection entries (submitted separately from the final paper), with the option to complete them as written journals or recorded peer-dialogue transcripts.
Analyzing the Rumi behavioral data from Fall and Spring indicated that scaffolding works at the level of process and structure — students arrive at the paper with thinking pre-organized and write more efficiently, however whether scaffolding deepens reflection remains an open question. Detecting depth changes will require larger samples and multi-coder qualitative methods. The format flexibility (journal vs. transcript) widened access without compromising process or content.
Visit https://authentic-leadership-self-reflection.netlify.app/ for information for both students and instructors on applying the structured self-reflection activities to support the development of authentic leadership.
