Cohort 3 Leadership Extension

The whole team from Delgado Community College participated in the extension of Cohort 3 that focused in helping Change Agents improve their leadership skills.

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Leadership Accomplishments and Lessons Learned

Diondra DeMolle

• Employed more grace and empathy in working with students
• Motivated other faculty members to incorporate active learning strategies into their classes
• Successful team workshops and book clubs that were positively received and will continue in the future at both the college and in the region

Karen Menge

• Leverage teamwork and collaboration to accomplish more than doing projects alone
• Engage with others on campus based on their leadership preferences to implement change
• Model faculty leadership for others to improve student success rates

Activity Report

Activity Plan

A virtual book club based on Dr. Saundra McGuire's book "Teach Students How to Learn" was held. The book club met three times; the first meeting was held on February 26^th and participants were asked to read chapters 1-3 prior to the meeting. The second meeting was held on March 12^th and the participants were asked to read chapters 4-9 prior to the meeting and the third meeting was held on April 16^th and the participants were asked to read chapters 10-12. For each meeting the participants were asked to respond to and be ready to discuss the following two questions:

1. What have you tried in your teaching that you have not done before that was inspired by the reading?
2. What are you planning to try in your teaching, that you have not done before and that was inspired by the readings?

The goals of the book club were to introduce faculty members to the different ways in which they can assist their students in being successful thus improving grades and retention. The faculty were introduced to active learning strategies, metacognition strategies, and effective study skills for their students.

The book club group was comprised of twelve participants from the Physical Science Department as well as faculty from the Biology and Math Departments. The participants were divided up into four breakout room for approximately 20 minutes; after which the participants returned, and each group reported back what was discussed in their groups.

As a special treat, Dr. McGuire joined us for an additional meeting on April 30^th where she shared some ideas and allowed all the participants to ask her questions.

Results

The book club provided an opportunity for the twelve faculty members to come together and learn about new strategies that could be implemented in their classes to help improve student success rates and therefore student retention. Having Dr. McGuire join us for a meeting really seemed to motivate the faculty to try some of the strategies that were presented in the book. The feedback from the faculty was very positive, some faculty members implemented some of the strategies in their Spring 2021 classes while others are planning on implementation for the Fall 2021 semester.

Lessons Learned

Holding the book club over zoom worked very well, the division of reading seemed not to be too overwhelming for faculty to complete with their other commitments. The faculty really enjoyed being able to come together and learn/share ideas. There is really nothing that we would do differently.

The main piece of advice we would pass along is to make sure the books are ordered far enough in advance. We had to revise the chapters covered for our first meeting due to the arrival of the books for some of the faculty members.