Although prior research on outcome assessment on skill development has documented students' improvement through self-directed change, it is not clear whether students are aware of their own change. This study focused on students' awareness of self-directed change at a professional management school. A group of students were given repeated opportunities to reflect about their self-directed change process during the program, and their awareness of change was compared with other students who were not given a similar opportunity. Although both groups improved their managerial skills during the program, the reflective group had a greater awareness of its own change than the comparison group but overestimated the amount of improvement. Interestingly, despite the greater behavioral change, the comparison group displayed an extremely low level of awareness of change. A number of explanations for this discrepancy are offered, and the implications for learning and education are discussed.
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