Design and evaluation of a formative experience in “leadership for the common good” competencies in university students

Abstract

In the context of the social responsibility inherent in the profession to contribute to the common good, research has been carried out on the effect of a training program model, with collaborative project-based learning methodology (PBL), on the development of the competencies that make up “leadership for the common good” in university students. This research has a quantitative phase of a quasi-experimental type with a non-equivalent control group and pretest and posttest measurements, whose sample of 683 students was obtained by pseudo-random incidental sampling for convenience depending on the availability of the groups of students enrolled in the first year of the degrees of Education and Psychology of two universities. And a qualitative, complementary phase, based on the modality of unstructured interview, whose sample consisted of 20 students from the degrees of education and psychology of the group to which the training program was applied. The results show, in the students' self-perception, a real impact of the training program on the development of the competencies of “leadership for the common good”, especially in the dimensions of “self-knowledge”, “emotional management”, “time management”, “full presence”, “active listening”, “empathy”, “equanimity/flexibility”, “assertiveness” and “cooperative respect”. The results obtained in this research coincide with those achieved by other authors in their research on the effect of PBL on the development of interpersonal competencies, which generate leadership oriented towards the common good, as well as on the transversality of these to all aspects of the student's life.