As the society is becoming more global and complex, the demand for higher education to prepare students with competencies to participate in the fast-changing world community is becoming higher. Due to this trend, today’s students are provided with hands-on, collaborative and engaging educational practices and opportunities on and off campus. However, although a holistic view of college education has long been advocated by especially student affairs professionals, integration of academic learning from curriculum and identity development from extra-curriculum still seems to be a major issue.
This study focuses on “Constructive Developmental Theory” which is a conceptualization of how human beings make meaning of themselves. The study reviews how the theory has been utilized in the field of student development, and examines the relationship between developing internal sense of self and leadership development in order to obtain suggestions for an effective methodology for student development in Japanese higher education.