Junior Leader Training -- White Stag Leadership Development

Joseph St. Clair Passes Away

Joseph Szentkiralyi, or Joe St. Clair as he was known to his Scouting and White Stag family, was born July 5, 1913 and passed away at age 94 on January 4, 2008. He was always a man of action and has committed his life to service to others. We are waiting for more information from the family and will post it when it becomes available. You can read about Joe's heroic life in this short biography.

Manager of Learning, or is it “Effective Teaching”?

Originally conceived as "Manager of Learning," this competency was re-branded at some point by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America as "Effective Teaching." In so doing, the National Training staff revealed their complete lack of understanding of the competency.

In a nutshell, Manager of Learning describes a system for exposing learners to the need to know and involving them in their own learning. It is not only one of the competencies taught in the program, it is a method for leadership development which we embrace as essential to participatory, experiential, leadership development. In re-christening the competency as "Effective Teaching," the default attention once again shifts to the instructor. We believe the main attention belongs on the learner: did they actually learn anything new?

What Effective Teaching is

Effective Teaching is in essence only a portion of Manager of Learning: its focus is on the various teach/learn methods that a manager of learning might employ. The emphasis is on the techniques used to effectively transmit the content, for example, discussions, role plays, quiz, buzz groups, or simulations.

In Manager of Learning, the Focus is on the Learner

The reason the competency was named "Manager of Learning" is because we have shifted our attention from instruction to learning. This does not mean that we minimize the importance of instruction or the role of the instructor.

The significance of instruction is not questioned here at all. The point that is made here is that the learning task is the nucleus around which to design instruction. The role and function of instruction should be viewed in its proper relationship to learning. It should be planned for and provided for accordingly. Instruction is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Its function is to facilitate learning. 1

The effectiveness of the learning experience is not measured by the effort made by the instructor but by the amount of learning achieved by the learner.

The Emphasis is on Learning

A "manager of learning" is not simply a teacher. Teaching connotes activities too typically requiring a lecture hall and a large number of desks. The phrase manager of learning is carefully chosen. The emphasis is on learning, not on what the instructor teaches. Your job, as a manager of learning, is to help the participants to become more effective leaders.

Managers of learning are different from "teachers" or "instructors." They know that people learn as individuals, not as a class or group. They know each individual is important; therefore, each individual leader must learn or all will receive an inferior program. Whoever accepts the responsibility for managing learning must use unusual techniques to get unusual results.

Teaching and How People Learn

Teaching involves changing a person, either his behavior or what he thinks. You can tell if he has learned by his ability to perform differently. The individual must be receptive to change and he must be physically, emotionally, or mentally able to perform in the changed manner, or no amount of instruction can achieve success.

The Manager of Learning Steps

Manager of Learning is our principle technique of instruction. It emphasize the learner in the learning process.

Guided Discovery

The learner is confronted with a pre-planned leadership situation, or guided discovery, which makes a demand on him so that he can internalize the need for new principles, concepts, skills and techniques and/or improvement of those existing. The learner will understand what his current knowledge is relative to the manager of learner's stated objectives.

Not everything that happens in which the learner discovers what he does not know is a Guided discovery. This is a common misconception. For example, suppose a member fails to tell his patrol that food for the next three days must be picked up by 7:00 pm—60 minutes ago. Just because the information given to him at the Troop Leader Council meeting is not relayed to the rest of the patrol, it is not a Guided Discovery about Getting and Giving Information. Calling any type of accidental learning a Guided discovery simply blunts its real meaning, which is that a manager of learning has guided learners to discover a need to know.

For more information, see Guided Discovery.

Teach/learn

Having internalized the need for learning because of the attempted action, the leader-in-training enters into a learning period. This period is designed to teach the skills, techniques and knowledge needed to cope with the first situation and with similar situations. The learnings are presented if possible in the same sequence as they occur in the actual leadership task context. For more information, see Teach/Learn.

Application

Having received instruction and having had proper practice, the leader-in-training engages again in an actual leadership performance, during which he will have a chance to compare his performance exhibited before and after the instruction and evaluate his own development.

The application is a practical test and performance of the new principles, concepts, skills or techniques. Situations for application are devised that simulate or parallel as closely as possible situations the learner may encounter in the home environment. The laboratory, experience-based nature of the program is essential to the outcomes achieved. For more information, see Application.

Evaluation

It is, formally, the process of discovery or assessment for improvement, creating a redefinition for the learner and manager of learning of what the learner knows.

Key to continued learning in the program is an opportunity to apply the new knowledge. The learner makes an individual contract with the coach-counselor describing one or more ways he will apply what he has learned. The learner is asked to evaluate the application and share his learnings with the counselor.

The test of any leadership development program is not, and never should be, the training situation itself, but the participants application back home of what he learns while participating in the program. This occurs when the trainee returns to his sponsoring home group and takes up his leadership role.2 For more information, see Evaluation.

Summary

The White Stag Manager of Learning method puts a strong emphasis on individual and group participation and hands-on practice long to ensure sufficient habit formation during the training situation.

The Manager of Learning competency also requires proficiency in evaluation, counseling, and getting and giving information.

The Manager of Learning competency is one of the most complex subjects taught in White Stag. Capturing it as a subject for knowledge and translating that into an ability to teach it requires repeated exposure and practice. Before you can master Manager of Learning, you must also become proficient in at least three other leadership competencies: evaluation, counseling, and getting and giving information. An effective manager of learning blends these competencies together, as illustrated at left.

In White Stag we refer to the "manager of learning methodology." The word "methodology" means more than a method—a method is a way of doing something—but methodology includes methods, reasons for doing things by those methods, and rules to accomplish some large purpose. It is a design for producing in-depth learning.

Excerpted from Resources for Leadership, available to order.

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