XIDS 2002 What Do You Know About Leadership FALL 2006
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
Credit:
2 Semester Hours
Instructor: Lucille B. Garmon, Ph. D., Professor of Chemistry
Office: TLC 2132
Office Phone:
Office Hours: I will be available in my office most days
from about
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
This
course introduces you to the concept of leadership. We will study leadership from a ways in which
you, as a leader, can develop a team from the group assigned to you. We will discuss leadership styles and
characteristics of effective leadership.
There
will be an experiential component in this course. Each student is required to practice and
observe leadership. Each student will
maintain a journal devoted to thoughts and experiences of the semester as they
relate to leadership and will write a final paper tying together these
experiences and the theories presented in class and the text.
Texts: Becoming a Peer Leader: A How-To Guide, by Roth, Marcus, and Goldstein
Also, some selections will be taken. Exploring Leadership, For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference, Komives, Lucas and McMahon. These selections will be given as handouts.
EXPECTATIONS,
EVALUATION PROCEDURES,
Expectations:
The student will attend each leaders’ meeting having
gone over the assigned workshop material and being prepared to participate
actively in activities and discussions.
The student will attend these meetings as an effective leader and
well-prepared scholar of leadership.
This
class will use a point system for evaluation.
Points will be achieved in the following manner.
Class
Participation ‑ 30% (up to 2 points each class
meeting)
A.
Attendance: ˝ point for attendance at each leaders’
meeting.
B.
Participation: ˝ , 1, or 1˝ points for participation
in leaders’ meetings each week.
Participation points will be given for contributing to discussion,
taking an active part in the meeting, showing evidence of familiarity with the
assigned workshop, exuding enthusiasm, and sharing ideas with the other
leaders.
Journal
‑ 30% (up to 2 points each weekly submission)
Each
student will write a reflection on his/her workshop experience. Entries may relate to what was learned in
training, retreat, or weekly leaders’ meetings and should include significant
experiences of the past week in or pertaining to workshop. (However, the entries SHOULD NOT JUST be a
chronological log of events that happened during the experiential component.)
Some
guidelines for writing journal entries are as follows.
1.
Each week’s entry is to be written up as soon after the workshop meeting as
possible and handed in promptly; no later than the next week’s workshop
meeting. They may be hand-written or
printed, or (recommended) e-mailed to lgarmon@westga.edu. Please use your my.wesgtga.edu address
when sending e-mail. The journal may
be either in the body of the e-mail message or sent as an attachment. When using e-mail it is always advisable to
save a copy of your submission in case of electronic problems in the
transmission and delivery.
2.
Length should be 200-300 words. This is
about one page either handwritten or printed double-spaced with 12-point font.
3.
Feelings and insights into your work as a leader and your understanding of the
concept of leadership should be included.
(Optional: include an
4.
Comments on what you think you might do differently should be included.
5.
Your thoughts about class discussion, the text and any applications to what you
learned in class should be referred to.
6.
The impact you seem to be having in your position as leader, the impact group dynamics/interpersonal
relations is exerting in your situation should be described.
7.
Each week you will have a particular assignment to address in your journal, in
addition to following guidelines 3 to 6 above.
These assignments are shown on the next page. Further elaboration or clarification may be
sent on each assignment. CHECK YOUR
E-MAIL FREQUENTLY.
Your journal entries will be scored with the above in mind. You may rewrite any journal entries if you are not satisfied with your score. Should your journal entry be unsatisfactory you will be given one week (only) to rewrite and resubmit it for a possible revision of your score.
See next page for a list of journal assignments.
Student/faculty evaluations - 25%
Up to 25 points, based on evaluations submitted by those involved in your practical experience and by course faculty.
Final Paper - 15%
Up to 15 points for a research-based paper or project appropriate to the content of the course. For the term paper, you will be asked to analyze your semester’s progress as a leader and relate it to the theories, concepts presented in the text and in class, and any outside resources you find useful. (You will find a richly descriptive journal to be helpful in remembering the stages through which you will progress this semester, and therefore helpful in preparing your term paper.) The paper will be 5 - 8 pages, typed, double spaced, no larger than 12 and no smaller than 10 size font.
Grading Scale:
A = 90‑100 total points; B = 80‑89.5 total points; C = 70‑79.5 total points; D = 60‑69.5 total points
F = below 60 total points
COURSE OUTLINE: Content of weekly meetings will parallel the needs of the student’s experiential component.
Each
journal entry is due by the third day after that workshop meets.
Topics for journal entries (j.e.’s)
Week 1 How well did the training prepare you for the first workshop? What specific principles and techniques did you apply? Did anything occur during the workshop that you wish had been included in the training.
Week 2 Report on your observations from sitting in on a veteran leader. (See other side.)
Week 3 Suggestions for topics to be covered at the “retreat”. Also, what signs of group development do you see? Are any potentially persistent or disruptive problems developing? (Handling these could be among the retreat topics suggested.)
Week 4 Explore the pltl web site. Discuss what you find that is most pertinent to your own workshop.
Week 5 What did you find most helpful about the retreat? (Optional: What did you feel was missing and how could it have been improved?)
Week 6 Report on your observations from sitting in on another new leader.
Week 7 Reflect further (cf. j.e. for Week 3) on your group’s development. Where are they now in the stages of: forming, storming, norming, performing?
Week 8 Respond to survey comments. Do the comments, on average, correspond with your assessment (cf. previous week’s j.e.) of how the group is developing? Then try to do something different (e.g., allow one of the students to be a leader, or have them rate themselves on participation and attitude)
Week 9 Find a relevant website for either the content or the peer leadership aspect of your workshop experience. Give URL and describe.
Week 10 Re-evaluate where your group is on the series of stages: forming, storming, norming, performing. Describe the progress of your group through these stages.
Week 11 Outline your plans for a final paper or project.
Week 12 Re-read Chapter 3 of RMG and describe how your group compares with the ideal and how much this differs from what your group was like at the beginning of the semester.
Week 13 Discuss your progress on the final paper or project.
Week 14 How did the “Jeopardy” game go? Also, from the perspective of the entire semester, address the question: If you were a leader again with a similar group, what would you do different and what would you definitely do the same?
Final Paper or Project due Dec. 8
For your observation assignments,
you are to attend a workshop led by one of the veteran leaders. You do not have
to stay for the whole two hours, but should arrive at the beginning and plan to
be there as long as you can (at least 45 minutes).
1.
Some
of you may have already picked a workshop to observe. That is step 1 below. If
not, there is a list of veteran leaders and times and places below. If
possible, select someone doing the same workshop material that you are (1001,
1002, or 1003) and if possible for the same instructor.
Here’s what you should do.
1.
Select (from the list
below) a WS to observe.
2.
Inform the group leader
of your intention to visit that session.
3.
When you arrive at the
meeting place, introduce yourself casually. Try something like, “Hi, I’m a leader for another group. I wanted to sit in to
compare notes.”
4.
Let the discussion proceed
as much as possible as though you weren’t there. Be a fly on the wall. Right
after the group is over, or as soon as possible after
you have to leave, write down your impressions so you don’t lose the immediacy of what you want to say.
Your j.e.
#2 should include the following about the session you observed.
1.
What did you think
about the participants’ seating arrangement during this session?
2.
What happened to help
everyone get down to work? Was an appropriate pace maintained throughout the
session?
3.
What did you observe
about group interaction? How much did individual students pay attention to one
another?
4.
How much “metacognition”
was going on? Were
students asked to “think about their thinking” and to explain carefully to others how they arrived at their
conclusions?
5.
If you noticed any
subtle clues that one of the group members was not understanding a concept but
was hesitant to say anything, did the leader also notice these clues and
respond appropriately? And whether or not there was a spoken request for help,
what sorts of things happened when someone’s understanding broke
down?
6.
By the time the
questions dealing with a particular concept had been completed, how well did
the group members seem to understand the concept? What gave you this
impression?
7.
What was the general
atmosphere of the WS? Did the group members seem at ease? Did they participate
eagerly? Was there any laughter? Was the leader conveying enthusiasm?
8.
What was the very best
thing about this WS?
9.
What suggestions do you
have for the leader for upcoming sessions?
Add also anything else you feel
should be mentioned.
Do not forget that this j.e, as with
all of yours, should also include (briefly) your report on how your own group
is developing.