This reflective journaling activity is designed to support effective team collaboration by intentionally integrating character development into technical project work. Using Affective Domains as a progressive, scaffolded framework, the activity guides students through increasing levels of affective engagement, beginning with awareness and ultimately characterizing courage and humility as essential professional traits.
Through timely, guided reflection, students examine how they engage in conversations, raise concerns, make decisions, respond to feedback, and navigate challenges within team-based projects. The reflection prompts are designed to support this progression by encouraging students to move beyond reflection and apply their insights to real team interactions, using courage and humility to strengthen collaboration, decision-making, and professional growth.
To maximize relevance and impact, the prompts are designed to align with key phases of the associated team project, so that each reflection intentionally corresponds to students’ lived experiences and evolving project demands.
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate effective collaboration in team-based projects by integrating courage and humility into professional practice and identity.
- Identify and describe moments in team collaboration where courage or humility is present or absent.
- Recognize how team dynamics, communication patterns, and project pressures influence their willingness to act courageously or humbly.
- Demonstrate emerging courage and humility by intentionally engaging in communication, feedback, and decision-making within their team.
- Explain the role of courage and humility in supporting effective collaboration, trust, and shared problem-solving in team-based projects.
- Integrate insights from reflection to adjust their behaviors and contributions in response to evolving team needs and project demands.
- Articulate a personal definition of courage and humility informed by their lived team project experience.
Disciplines: Any
Focal area: Character Development, Cross-Disciplinary Skills, Dispositions
Resource type: Assignment
Character traits: Courage, Humility
Cross-disciplinary skills: Teamwork, Written Communication, Verbal Communication
Dispositions: Being Collaborative
Education level: Any.
Language: English
License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC)
Resources
Accessibility Features
Video:
- Captions
Documents:
- Structured
- Alt text for images and tables
- Screen-reader compatibility
Slides:
- Alt text for images and tables
- Screen-reader compatibility
Alignment to Standards
ABET Criteria for Computing Programs, 2025-2026
- Analyze a complex computing problem and apply principles of computing and other relevant disciplines to identify solutions.
- Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the program’s discipline.
- Communicate effectively in a variety of professional contexts.
This resource was made possible through funding from the Educating Character Initiative, a project of The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. The Educating Character Initiative is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.