APSS1L01 Tomorrow's Leaders
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Semester 1, 2026/27APSS1L01 Overview
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Semester 1, 2026/27
- Level 1 leadership course
- Essay and presentation assessed
- Learn @ PolyU
What this course asks you to do
Tomorrow's Leaders develops leadership through theory, reflection, interaction and application. The course does not treat leadership as a fixed personality type.
- Largest task The term paper carries 45% and links one leadership quality, theory, professional relevance, personal experience and improvement.
- Presentation focus The group presentation moves from credible public-figure evidence to theory, application and two practical actions.
- Core method Separate observable evidence from interpretation, apply one concept precisely and finish with a next action that can be checked.
- Completion requirements For the separate academic-integrity tutorial in Learn @ PolyU, the attendance scope covers each page: visit all of them so the post-test appears and earn at least 75% to satisfy this pass/fail requirement. The NSL quiz is also listed pass/fail.
How APSS1L01 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Class participation & completion of Pre-Class Online Modules | 20% | Continuous individual assessment |
| L2L Assignment 1 | 2% | Individual assessment, end of Week 3 |
| Academic integrity online module and assessment (POLYU1001) | 0% | Pass/fail, end of Week 5; visit each page through Learn @ PolyU and earn at least 75%, the score required for successful completion |
| L2L Assignment 2 | 3% | Individual assessment, end of Week 7 |
| Group presentation | 30% | Group assessment, 20 to 25 minute live presentation plus questions, Week 12/13 |
| Term paper | 45% | Individual assessment, 1,500 to 1,700 words excluding references |
| Quiz on NSL | 0% | Pass/fail, due 20 December 2026; threshold and question format are not published in the course materials |
The five marked rows total 100%; the two 0% rows are separately listed pass/fail items. For the academic-integrity tutorial in Learn @ PolyU, the attendance scope covers each page of the online module: visit all pages before the post-test and earn at least 75% to satisfy this pass/fail requirement. The NSL quiz threshold and question format are not published in the available course materials. Confirm live submission settings on Learn @ PolyU.
Assessment structure
Current APSS1L01 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 1 December 2026 | Term paper | Due at 11:59 PM on the detailed term-paper page. |
| 20 December 2026 | Quiz on NSL | Pass/fail deadline shown in the course assessment table. |
Dates are as published in the course outline and detailed term-paper instructions for this offering. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What APSS1L01 covers
Ten chapters move from self-awareness and self-leadership through relationships, teams and public responsibility to spirituality and resilience.
Leadership Foundations and Self-Awareness
leadership qualities, reflective evidence, AI literacy dimensions and professional applicationLeadership begins with a relationship, not a position
This chapter treats leadership as influence directed toward a shared purpose.
- Leadership as purposeful influence rather than formal position
- The relationship among leader, followers, goal, and context
- Values, motives, strengths, and limitations as self-knowledge
- Reflection as event, interpretation, and revised action
- Feedback as evidence that must be checked for pattern and context
- Followership, credibility, and responsible challenge
Self-Leadership in Practice
behaviour-focused strategies, natural rewards, thought patterns and study-protocol designSelf-leadership converts intention into regulated action
Leading oneself is more than being disciplined. It involves understanding internal states, choosing goals, regulating behaviour, and learning from consequences.
- Self-leadership as self-understanding, choice, regulation, and learning
- Values translated into specific and observable goals
- Behavioural cues, routines, feedback, and environmental design
- Emotion and impulse regulation under pressure
- Review cycles that diagnose a failed plan without self-blame
- Responsible use and declaration of artificial intelligence tools
Social-Emotional Competence
social awareness, empathy, relationship management and the risks of egocentric inferenceEmotion is information that still requires interpretation
Social-emotional competence involves noticing emotions, naming them with enough precision to be useful, regulating one's response, recognising another person's perspective, and acting in a way that protects the relationship and the task.
- Emotion recognition and precise labelling
- The difference among feeling, interpretation, impulse, and action
- Empathy as perspective-taking followed by a checked response
- Active listening and paraphrase before advice
- Regulation strategies that create time and choice
- Boundaries, disagreement, and relationship repair
Effective Communication
observable events, I-statements, active listening, empathetic replies and agreed actionCommunication is a feedback process
A message is not complete when it is sent. Meaning is encoded by a speaker, carried through a channel, interpreted by a receiver, and tested through feedback.
- Sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback, and noise
- The gap between intended meaning and interpreted impact
- Observation-based language instead of character judgement
- I-statements linking situation, feeling, effect, and request
- Active listening through paraphrase and clarification
- Channel choice, status differences, and closure of action
Team Building and Conflict Resolution
team development, conflict modes, win-win strategies and reviewable working agreementsA team needs interdependence, not just membership
A collection of capable individuals becomes a team when members hold a shared purpose, depend on one another's contributions, coordinate roles, and accept mutual accountability.
- Shared purpose, interdependence, roles, norms, and mutual accountability
- Team development as changing coordination rather than a smooth ascent
- Task, process, and relationship conflict
- Positions, interests, emotions, and power in conflict diagnosis
- Collaborative win-win strategies and their limits
- Action ownership, follow-up, and restoration of trust
Cultural Competence and Global Citizenship
adaptation across difference, local-global connections, rights, participation and public actionCultural competence is an adaptive practice
Cultural competence combines awareness of one's assumptions, knowledge about difference and inequality, respectful motivation, communication skills, and the capacity to adapt behaviour.
- Cultural self-awareness and the limits of one's default assumptions
- Knowledge, attitude, skill, encounter, and behavioural adaptation
- Within-group variation and the danger of stereotyping
- Communication differences interpreted alongside power
- Interdependence, multiple perspectives, and global citizenship
- Responsible participation that connects local action to wider effects
Critical Thinking and Information Quality
cognitive competence, claim testing, misinformation, disinformation and evidence-based reflectionCritical thinking makes the reasoning inspectable
A strong conclusion is not defined by confidence or complexity.
- Claims, reasons, evidence, assumptions, and conclusions
- Relevance, sufficiency, credibility, and proportional confidence
- Authority, method, recency, purpose, and corroboration in source checks
- Correlation, causation, sample limits, and alternative explanations
- Confirmation bias and common argumentative fallacies
- Academic integrity and transparent handling of source or tool assistance
Morality and Ethical Leadership
moral judgement, personal and situational factors, ethical example and academic integrityEthical leadership joins character, conduct, and influence
Leadership becomes ethical when decisions and influence are evaluated against obligations to people, fair processes, consequences, and the kind of character being expressed.
- Ethical leadership as character, decision, process, and social influence
- Consequences, duties and rights, justice, and character lenses
- Affected stakeholders, uncertainty, reversibility, and distribution
- Moral example, incentives, explanation, and response to wrongdoing
- Speaking up, procedural fairness, and safe correction routes
- Authorship, ghostwriting, and responsibility for assisted work
Spirituality, Forgiveness and Leadership
meaning, connectedness, forgiveness, accountability, trust and reflective leadership practiceSpirituality concerns meaning and connectedness
In this chapter, spirituality can be analysed through questions of meaning, purpose, connectedness, and orientation toward values beyond immediate self-interest.
- Meaning, purpose, connectedness, and values beyond narrow self-interest
- Spirituality distinguished from but compatible with religious traditions
- Forgiveness as emotional, cognitive, moral, and behavioural process
- The distinction among forgiveness, excuse, forgetting, and reconciliation
- Accountability, repair, safety, and boundary setting
- Leadership practices that support meaning without imposing belief
Resilience for Well-Being and Leadership
personalisation, pervasiveness, permanence, AI verification and practical reframingResilience is adaptive capacity, not invulnerability
Resilience concerns how people respond, recover, learn, and adapt when facing adversity. It does not mean constant positivity, absence of distress, or unlimited endurance.
- Resilience as recovery, learning, and adaptation under adversity
- Well-being, emotion, support, rest, and limits
- Permanence in explanations of setbacks
- Pervasiveness and the containment of one difficulty
- Personalisation, responsibility, and contextual causes
- Resilient leadership through resources, learning, and system repair
It moves from self-awareness and self-leadership into empathy, communication and teams, then widens the frame to cultural competence, global citizenship, critical thinking, morality, spirituality and resilience.
Across those topics, the repeated task is to connect a concept to evidence, explain what the concept reveals and propose a practical response.
How the assessment rewards linkage
The two largest tasks make the course method visible.
The group presentation asks for a real-life public figure, credible sources, at least one relevant theory, application of that theory to the figure's story, and two ways to practise the selected quality in daily or professional life. The term paper asks for one leadership quality, conceptual depth, professional relevance, self-reflection, experience analysed through theory, learning and improvement.
A strong submission therefore does more than define a quality or tell a story. It shows how the theory changes the interpretation of evidence.
How to study the chapters
Start each chapter by writing the distinction or process in your own words. Work the original case before reading its answer. Then choose one event from your own study, work or community experience and apply the same reasoning.
Keep observation separate from interpretation, name the consequence for another person or the task, and make the final action specific enough to observe. This routine prepares both the analytical presentation and the reflective paper without turning either into memorised prose.
Complete the separate integrity tutorial
Open POLYU1001 through Learn @ PolyU.
Its attendance scope covers each page of the online module, so visit all pages before the post-test. Earn at least 75% to satisfy this pass/fail requirement, keep the certificate and follow the live upload direction rather than assuming that the weighted assessment table records this separate completion step.
Worked example · free
Reframe a setback with the three Ps
- 3Classify the personalisation and separate controllable from contextual factors.
- 3Limit the pervasiveness and permanence without denying the result.
- 2Give one action that directly counters the revised interpretation.
Key terms
- Self-Leadership
- Self-leadership is the process of influencing one's own behaviour and thought toward self-direction and self-motivation.
- Social Awareness
- Social awareness is the ability to notice and understand other people's emotions and situations without treating an initial inference as certainty.
- Empathy
- Empathy is an understanding of and sensitivity to another person's feelings, thoughts and circumstances that can change the response chosen.
- I-Statement
- An I-statement names an observable event, its effect on the speaker and the need connected to the shared task without assigning a character judgement.
- Active Listening
- Active listening is attending, paraphrasing and checking an interpretation so the other person's account can alter the next action.
- Conflict Mode
- A conflict mode is a patterned response to disagreement, such as collaborating, accommodating, competing, avoiding or compromising.
- Cultural Competence
- Cultural competence is the capability to function effectively in situations characterised by cultural diversity through learning, checking and adaptation.
- Global Citizenship
- Global citizenship connects local action with wider relationships, rights, justice and responsibility across cultural and national boundaries.
- Misinformation
- Misinformation is inaccurate information shared without sufficient basis; stronger claims about deliberate deception require evidence of intent.
- Ethical Leadership
- Ethical leadership influences values, beliefs and behaviour by demonstrating and reinforcing conduct treated as appropriate.
- Spirituality
- Spirituality concerns awareness, meaning, wholeness or connectedness beyond purely material aspects of life and is not identical to religion.
- Resilience
- Resilience is the capability to recover from adversity, adapt to changed conditions and identify a credible next action.
APSS1L01 FAQ
How is this course assessed?
The published table assigns all marked credit to participation and online modules, two learning-to-learn assignments, a group presentation and a term paper. It also lists the academic-integrity module and the NSL quiz as 0% pass/fail items, with no separate end-of-semester examination row.
What does the term paper require?
Choose one leadership quality, define and discuss it with theory and citation, explain its professional relevance, then analyse your own strengths, weaknesses and experience through that theory. The paper must identify learning and improvement and maintain a strong link between the conceptual and reflective halves.
What is the group presentation format?
The published guidance specifies a 20 to 25 minute live presentation followed by questions. The content moves from a credible real-life public figure story to at least one theory, application of the theory to the story and two ways to practise the quality in daily or professional life.
What is the academic-integrity passing condition?
Visit POLYU1001 through Learn @ PolyU. Its attendance scope covers each page of the online module, so visit all pages before the post-test. Earn at least 75% to satisfy this pass/fail requirement, upload the certificate according to the live direction and keep completion evidence.
Do I have to declare GenAI use?
Yes. The course page requires students to declare GenAI use and attach the completed declaration form to the last page of assignments as an appendix. Record what the tool did, what you verified and what remained your own analysis while you work rather than reconstructing the process later.
How should I link theory to personal reflection?
Describe one observable event, name the concept that helps interpret it, explain the consequence for another person or the task and finish with a specific next action. The theory should change the reading of the experience; placing a definition before an autobiography does not create the required link.
What is known about the NSL quiz?
The course assessment table lists the Quiz on NSL as pass/fail and gives a deadline of 20 December 2026. The available course materials do not publish its threshold or question format, so use the live instructions on Learn @ PolyU rather than preparing for an assumed structure.
Questions students ask in each APSS1L01 chapter
- Is a manager automatically a leader?
- No. A managerial role supplies formal authority and responsibilities, while leadership is demonstrated through influence toward a shared purpose. The two can overlap, but an answer should not infer one from the other. Show what the person did, how others responded, and whether the resulting direction served the group and its context. Chapter 01 · Leadership Foundations and Self-Awareness
- Why are values not enough to guide behaviour?
- Values give direction, but they do not specify what to do in a particular situation. Two people can value learning while using very different routines. Convert the value into a goal, identify the first observable action, attach it to a cue, and decide what evidence will reveal progress or the need for revision. Chapter 02 · Self-Leadership in Practice
- Does empathy require agreeing with the other person?
- No. Empathy concerns understanding and acknowledging a perspective, while agreement concerns whether a claim or proposal should be accepted. A leader can recognise frustration, check its source, and still decline a request. The response becomes stronger when it states both the understood experience and the boundary that remains. Chapter 03 · Social-Emotional Competence
- Why can a well-intended message still be ineffective?
- Intention belongs to the sender, while impact depends on encoding, channel, context, interpretation, and feedback. A familiar phrase may carry different meanings across roles or cultures. Check effectiveness by asking what the receiver understood and what action followed, then repair the message instead of defending the intention alone. Chapter 04 · Effective Communication
- Is conflict always harmful to a team?
- No. Disagreement about ideas can improve analysis when members share enough trust to test evidence and revise proposals. Harm increases when conflict becomes personal, power prevents safe participation, or process disputes remain unresolved. Diagnose the object and conditions of the disagreement before deciding whether to encourage, contain, or stop it. Chapter 05 · Team Building and Conflict Resolution
- Is cultural competence a body of facts about different groups?
- Facts can support preparation, but competence is shown in how knowledge is held and used. Group patterns never determine a particular person's preference. Treat background knowledge as a source of questions, attend to within-group variation, invite correction, and adapt behaviour according to evidence from the actual interaction. Chapter 06 · Cultural Competence and Global Citizenship
- Does a university or government source automatically settle a claim?
- No. Institutional authority is relevant, but the specific document still has a purpose, date, method, and scope. Check whether it addresses the question being asked and whether later or independent evidence changes the picture. Credibility supports careful use; it does not remove the need to interpret limits. Chapter 07 · Critical Thinking and Information Quality
- Which ethical lens should decide the answer?
- No single lens automatically resolves every case. Use each lens to expose a different obligation or cost, then explain which considerations carry the greatest weight in context and why. A strong recommendation also acknowledges what it sacrifices and adds safeguards for the value that remains at risk. Chapter 08 · Morality and Ethical Leadership
- Must spirituality be religious?
- No. Spirituality may be interpreted through a religious tradition, but it can also concern meaning, connectedness, purpose, and values in non-religious terms. A leader should create room for diverse interpretations and avoid imposing a private belief system as the only legitimate source of commitment or moral worth. Chapter 09 · Spirituality, Forgiveness and Leadership
- Does resilience mean staying positive during every setback?
- No. Distress can be an accurate response to loss, pressure, or injustice. Resilience involves processing that response and finding a workable path through support, recovery, learning, or changed conditions. Forced positivity can block evidence and discourage people from asking for help or addressing the actual source of harm. Chapter 10 · Resilience for Well-Being and Leadership
How to prepare for the assessments
Work in three passes. First, state the chapter's main distinction or process from memory and name the error it prevents. Second, answer the original practice case without looking at the model, keeping observation separate from interpretation and giving a response that fits the situation.
Third, select one event from your own academic, professional or community experience and write four sentences: what happened, which concept explains it, what consequence followed and what you will do next. For the presentation, maintain a source table that separates facts about the public figure from your theoretical interpretation.
For the term paper, outline the conceptual and reflective halves side by side and draw explicit links between matching sections before drafting. Keep the GenAI declaration with the working file, verify every reference and preserve dated drafts. In the final week, rehearse the presentation aloud and read only the topic sentences of the paper to confirm that the argument moves from concept to evidence to improvement.
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