Transformational Leadership in the Introductory

Journalism Classroom

By Ashley Brenon

This final project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts
degree in the communications department graduate program at The College of Saint Rose.

Cailin Brown, advisor for the project, and Gary McLouth, reader for the project, approved this
project in the fall semester of 2009.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I: Proposal ______________________________________________________________ 3

Introduction __________________________________________________________________ 3
Literature Review _____________________________________________________________ 8
Methodology ________________________________________________________________ 22
Proposal ____________________________________________________________________
32

Part II: Course Portfolio _____________________________________________________ 36

Defining the Project __________________________________________________________ 36
Reflection __________________________________________________________________ 37
Identifying Values ___________________________________________________________ 39
Building and Affirming Shared Values ___________________________________________ 43
Inspiring a Shared Vision ______________________________________________________ 44
Challenging the Process _______________________________________________________ 48
Enabling Others to Act ________________________________________________________ 50
Encouraging the Heart ________________________________________________________ 53
Proposed Rubric _______________________________________________________ 56
Additional Educational Considerations ___________________________________________ 57
Course Plan __________________________________________________________ 57
Proposed Syllabus _____________________________________________________ 75

Part III: Discussion __________________________________________________________ 79

Part IV: Works Cited ________________________________________________________ 81

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PART I: Proposal

INTRODUCTION

For more than 100 years, journalism professors and scholars have considered the best

ways to develop good journalists. They have presented, implemented and evaluated varied

educational paradigms. Journalists working within education began thinking of themselves as

practitioners then theorists. They envisioned themselves as craftspeople and editors then as

creators and coaches. They have even thought of themselves as experiential guides. Meanwhile,

teachers in other fields have proposed new educational methods, which have been used only on a

limited basis in the realm of journalism education. Although each educational system has been

found to have strengths and weaknesses, and some of the methods used within each have been

determined useful, individually and as a whole these educational paradigms have been found

unsuccessful, incomplete, impractical or unrealistic for implementation within journalism

classrooms at the college level.

Proof of these insufficiencies has been based on the results they have generated.

Journalism programs are turning out students who don’t perform up to their editors’ standards. In

fact, when asked, newly employed college-educated journalists admit that their skills don’t meet

even their own standards. Ward and Seifert conducted an important study that asked 86 college-

educated journalists and their editors about the qualities they use to evaluate reporters’ work. A

questionnaire was used to extract editors’ feelings about journalist’s skills in general and their

feelings about the specific journalists participating in the study. Another was used to allow the

journalists to rank the importance of journalism skills and to evaluate themselves. Then

journalists were tested to determine the accuracy of their own and their editors’ evaluations.

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 According to the study, editors rated journalists—in order of importance—based upon

their writing mechanics, expressive skills and journalistic abilities (Ward and Seifert 104).

Writers, on the other hand, ranked skills relating to journalistic ability—including conciseness,

precision, clarity, organization and self-editing ability—highest (Ward and Seifert 107). Editors

divulged that recent graduates lack mechanical writing skills—the same quality they deemed

most important. (Admittedly, editors may have ranked mechanical skill as most important

because it was lacking.) “Applicants’ writing is riddled with sentence fragments, run-on

sentences, dangling participles, lack of subject-verb agreement, misuse of punctuation and a

myriad of spelling errors” (Ward and Seifert 104). And these problems persist even after

journalists are hired and have a few years of experience (Ward and Seifert 104).

When journalists rated their own work, the journalists revealed that they themselves

thought little of their capabilities to perform up to generally accepted standards of mechanical

proficiency. It should be noted, however, that the journalists thought more of their mechanical

abilities than their editors did. In addition, journalists rated their own journalistic ability—the

quality they deem most important—higher than their editors did. This information reveals that

the journalists in the study thought more highly of their own work than did their editors (Ward

and Seifert 110). We’ll touch later on criticisms of journalism education models that over praise

students in an effort to boost their enthusiasm about writing.

When the researchers tested journalists to determine whether the low impressions of

journalists’ skills were exaggerated, they found that editors and journalists were right to criticize

reporters’ lack of mechanical proficiency. The majority of reporters—45 out of 86—answered

only 70-79 percent of grammar and usage questions correctly (Ward and Seifert 109). “The

results of the test show that many reporters lack knowledge of writing mechanics” (Ward and

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Seifert 109). Reporter background didn’t matter, except in the case of college major; English

majors performed noticeably better on the exam (Ward and Seifert 109).

The chasm between how journalists should perform and how they do perform is an

important problem. Success as a communicator depends on journalists’ abilities to arrange

language in coherent patterns. Grammar and style are at the heart of journalists’ effectiveness as

mass communicators (Kessler and McDonald 3).

Moreover, the researchers Ward and Seifert found that mechanical proficiency is

completely intertwined with the other two skills editors identified. Those who lack mechanical

skills often lack expressive and journalistic abilities as well (Ward and Seifert 112). In addition,

when journalists’ work is flawed, editors must line edit for mechanical errors when they should

be editing content, often on deadline. When mechanics take up time needed to discuss reporting

problems, journalism suffers (Ward and Seifert 104). Perhaps most importantly, literature

indicates that as the number of grammar mistakes news consumers find increases faith in media

credibility decreases (Seamon 60).

Improving the quality of student work, however, is not the only concern of journalism

education. In many ways, journalism educators must chase a moving target. The industry is

changing at a remarkable rate. Geneva Overholser makes the powerful statement, “Journalism as

we know it is over” (5). As a result of technological innovation, readers’ changing expectations

and economic instability, the old model is collapsing before a satisfying new model has taken

hold. A number of questions have arisen. “What exactly are the elements of mainstream

journalism that must be preserved? In the new, emerging models, who will pay for that

journalism? And how, during the transition period, can we ensure that journalism in the public

interest survives” (Overholser 5)?

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 As in the past, journalism educators are using classroom methods that focus on very

specific sets of traditional skills. These methods don’t work to answer the new questions the

industry is asking. According to the research of Massé and Popovich, strict traditional methods

prevail even in the classes of those teachers who value more progressive strategies and who think

that they are communicating progressive attitudes (224). “Research indicates that today's media

writing teachers across the United States still cling to the traditional media writing techniques

and models that have long served academia and the industry” (Massé and Popovich 230).

In addition, journalism educators have not kept pace in teaching the digital methods. "A

review of recent journalism scholarship and textbooks that explore new communication

technologies… indicates that most scholars and practitioners are responding to [technology]

challenges in ways that largely conform to existing conventions" (Huesca 7). “[Teachers] need to

consider how convergence, globalization, digitization, and integrated communications are

affecting the curricula of journalism and mass communications” (Wanta et al. 216). In summary,

students are not graduating from journalism programs with the skills they need to produce

quality journalism much less lead the industry toward a vibrant future.

With this, the second goal of journalism education in an evolving environment is to

“interrogate the practice of journalism for the purpose of pointing out the perils of confusing

tradition with justification, a reminder to students that there often exists for reasons that need to

be explored, a gap between what journalism is and has been and what journalism ought to be”

(Dates et al. 149). By acknowledging flaws in the current system, teachers provide an

opportunity for students to develop their own ideas about what journalism is and how it ought to

work (Dates et al. 149).

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 Journalism scholars who have begun interrogating the fundamentals of the practice of

journalism and journalism education have uncovered a third goal. One paper, which was

published in Journalism Studies in 2006, began by asking, “Does journalism education matter?”

From the start, the contributors reminded readers that journalism began as a vocation, rather than

a profession. Theodore Glasser of Stanford University wrote, “No one needs a degree in

journalism—or any degree at all—to excel as a reporter or editor (Dates et al. 148). Journalism

education, the contributors stressed, is not as important for its role in communicating skills that

can be learned on the job as it is for communicating journalism’s importance in society.

Janette Dates began by proving that journalism itself matters. “Journalism is not just a

raft or a profession. It is the linchpin of the foundation of democracy: an informed citizenry

making informed judgments about how they will live together” (145). Others echoed her

thoughts. ‘‘Journalism is one of the most important professions in the world: It is the principal

way for us to mediate between the world of actions, the world of expertise, and the general

public,’’ Lee Bollinger wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2002 (Dates et al. 144).

Perhaps the first goal of journalism studies is communicating journalists’ role in “serving the

public interest” (Dates et al. 145).

Admittedly, these are tremendous aspirations for an introductory journalism classroom.

According to the propositions above, students must be able to describe journalism’s role in

democracy and make a set of claims regarding the fundamental nature of journalism in the

future. In addition—whether journalists can learn writing skills on the job or not—editors expect

college-educated journalists to produce high-quality journalistic texts. Before long, they will be

expected to produce not only in traditional narrative forms but integrated and interactive

electronic stories as well.

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 By writing this paper, I aim to propose a course that accomplishes these goals. The

endeavor involves a number of steps. First, I will review strategies used to teach journalism in

the past. The purpose of the review is twofold. By examining history, we see the needs

journalism education strategies have identified and in what ways the strategies have succeeded or

failed. Then, I will draw parallels between both the traditional and newly identified needs

expressed by journalism educators and the answers transformational leadership offers. I

hypothesize that teachers who employ the transformational leadership paradigm have the

potential to communicate the industry’s traditional values, democratic demands and evolving

understandings of the profession in a structure useful to both students and themselves. Finally, I

will create a course portfolio that integrates leadership and educational materials and that

facilitates the implementation of a transformational leadership paradigm in an introductory

journalism classroom.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theory vs. Practice. Serious debate within journalism education began as soon as the

University of Missouri started the first journalism department in 1908. Journalists argued that

journalism students should learn on the job, while academics advocated for a university setting

for journalists’ training. It was the era of theory versus practice. A temporary equilibrium was

reached by emphasizing the practical. The instructors were professional news people, and

courses focused on professional needs, including the principles of journalism, ethics,

newsgathering, editorial writing, the law of libel, history, newspaper administration, comparative

journalism, advertising, public relations and reporting (Brandon 60).

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 When Joseph Pulitzer funded the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New

York a radical curriculum change ensued. Liberal arts and sciences became a part of journalist

education, and Ph.D.s assumed roles teaching journalism classes. With this, the theory-and

-practice debate was renewed. It continued—in discussions of issues such as the centrality of

journalism to the university setting, who should teach journalism courses, what skills and

competencies needed to be taught, whether journalism should be merged with other

communication programs and whether a journalism program is better if accredited—throughout

most of the twentieth century (Brandon 60).

And the debate continues today. Glasser wrote that the skills journalists need to learn

come mostly from the field in the form of internships, apprenticeships, simulations and

laboratory courses, rather than the traditional classroom (Dates et al. 148). Theorists counter that

theory is important, because it teaches students why journalism matters, helps them understand

power and their relationship to power, offers a framework for understanding the world, helps in

critically evaluating one’s own work, leads to deep rather than surface learning, and encourages

students to question the systems in which they and others work (Greenberg 300).

Susan Greenberg illustrated the battle with quotes collected from a survey of journalism

educators in Britain. Theorists began by saying that students must be offered some kind of vision

of what constitutes “good’” journalism (Greenberg 297). Practitioners countered that theorists’

descriptions of what is “good” have little to do with the real world. One of her respondents

illustrated the point by saying that the theory taught in journalism classrooms is often “based on

ignorance or misconception of journalistic realities” (Greenberg 300).

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 One theorist seemed to insult practitioners’ critical thinking skills in saying that

“‘[Practitioners] ought to know why they’ve been doing what they’ve been doing all those

years’” (Greenberg 301). Practitioners claimed that they are naturally critical. After all, their jobs

revolve around the practice of asking questions (Greenberg 293). In addition, practitioners

resented “the apparently hostile tone adopted in much current theoretical writing about practice”

(Greenberg 294).

Practitioners claimed that theory is “confusing” and “demoralizing” for students.

Learning it bogs them down and paralyzes them (Greenberg 300). In addition, they claimed that

learning theory is not necessary, because “journalism theories and treatises do not inform

practice as much as they track it” (Dates et al. 148). G. Stuart Adam of Carleton University

answered that criticism by saying that journalism schools are relied upon to make both

journalists and journalism critics (Dates et al. 154).

In the classroom, practitioners claim that practical experience is critical to making

courses credible (Greenberg 300). At the same time, theorists use the credibility argument as

well. They say, “Tutors relying [only] on their own professional experience [may] teach students

the routines and practices they are familiar with, without making clear how and why those

practices are open to debate” (Greenberg 300).

Stephen Cushion seems to argue both points. “There remains a resistance—and more

than a hint of suspicion—amongst many journalists that media studies courses fail to encapsulate

accurately the harsh, everyday reality of life ‘on the beat’” (421). He continues that many

programs “offer critical perspectives about the media industry rather than being part of it” (431).

However, later in his paper, Cushion recognizes the relevance of teaching the history of the

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press, ownership, regulation, ethics and law, and the role of the media in democracy. The

creators of journalism studies programs, he claimed, must convince those working in the industry

that an understanding of these topics helps journalists do their jobs in the real world (Cushion

431).

The research points to gaps between the ideals of practitioners and theorists and between

those of journalism studies programs and organizations that employ journalists. Still, it should be

noted that many have called for a culture of mutual respect in discussions and a “framework of

self-reflection that does not inherently belittle journalism as an activity” (Greenberg 294).

Explicit theory is still important as a way of providing meaning to the experience and of framing

questions, but practice is highly valued for its ability to draw on our intelligence, experience and

powers of critical reflection. (Schon as cited in Greenberg 291). Both camps agree that there is a

need for the other and are seemingly committed to building a more direct relationship between

the theoretical and practical disciplines in the educational setting and beyond (Greenberg 302).

Product vs. Process. In the 1980s a new debate took root. Until this point, most

journalism professors had been teaching writing in much the same way they had been taught in

school. They concentrated on the accuracy, organization and grammatical correctness of the final

product “as measured against a pre-established model” (Massé and Popovich 218). It was

assumed that media stories are conceived and written in a linear, methodical fashion. Educational

units emphasized story forms (e.g., inverted pyramid) and formats (e.g., speech stories, meeting

coverage and crime stories). Lectures were frequent, and papers received detailed critiques

complete with severe penalties for grammatical errors (Massé and Popovich 218). According to

Massé and Popovich, teachers conceived themselves as editors and the classroom as a newsroom

(215), perhaps as an effort to find common ground in the theory-versus-practice debate.

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 One example of the traditionalist model is profiled in an article "Feature Writing Course

Arouses ‘Fear of God,’” which appeared in Journalism Educator in 1977. According to the

paper, the teacher was successful in her sink-or-swim approach. The class featured many

assignments, short deadlines and huge deductions in credit for grammatical and stylistic errors.

And the students achieved a respect for high writing standards, clarity, coherence and correctness

(Clark 54).

During the 1980s, however, journalism educators began to note flaws related to the

traditionalist method of writing instruction. Students educated for many years within the

traditionalist mode had adopted a rigid tone that lacked creativity (Massé and Popovich 216). In

addition, the method was discouraging, even paralyzing, to all but the best students (Schierhorn

and Endres 59). Finally, the pre-established model against which work is judged disallows

innovation at a time when changes in the industry require that practitioners to work creatively to

engage consumers and to adapt to the evolving formats. As a result, “a growing number of

theorists began a search for a more integrated paradigm in the teaching of writing” (Massé and

Popovich 216).

Borrowing from research related to the teaching of composition, researchers began to

envision writing as an intuitive and recursive process focused on making meaning (Zurek 19). It

involves pre-writing (e.g., brainstorming, free writing and idea development), drafting (e.g.,

discovery and collaboration) and revising (e.g., internal revision, editing and proofreading). They

found that students worked best when they moved freely between writing stages with an

emphasis on creativity and finding their own meaning. Teachers began to see themselves as

coaches rather than editors, which led to more teacher involvement during the text’s creation and

revision (Pitts 12). Progressive educators tended to assign more non-graded, informal writing

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exercises; to organize collaborative writing and peer-editing teams in the classroom; and to

schedule student conferences regularly (Massé and Popovich 218).

But challenges arose with what came to be known as the process-based method as well.

Students’ confidence and self-esteem improved—which may relate to an exaggerated impression

of student proficiency mentioned earlier—but overemphasis on process writing and a de-

emphasis on the quality of the finished work impaired the focus, clarity, structure and critical

thinking skills of some students. And mechanical proficiency decreased (Ward and Seifert 104).

Another problem arose with fewer graded assignments; professors had a hard time making the

process “count” grade-wise (Massé and Popovich 216). Finally, some said that following a series

of steps resulted in lazy teachers and to students who didn’t take enough responsibility for the

final product (Massé and Popovich 217).

As a result of the flaws in the process-based methodology, several instructors attempted

to blend the best parts of the product and process systems. “The balancing act between nurturing

creativity while ensuring quality has been the subject of several writing studies since the 1990s”

(Massé and Popovich 216). One teacher exposed his journalism students to “journalism as

literature” assignments on a biweekly basis. The practice tuned students in to great writers of

journalism and united a class of varying journalistic abilities (Allen 50). Another teacher adopted

the practice of synetics—a complex method used to increase creative thinking—to reintroduce

students to the right-brained processes of building the contrast, metaphors and analogies that

instill otherwise bland journalistic prose with creative flair (Land 52). A third employed music to

introduce literary themes that journalists can use to increase the appeal of their news stories.

Picking out specific literary conventions in lyrics—imagery and metaphor, for instance—

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encouraged students to use the same conventions even within the factual framework of

journalism (McKerns 21).

Massé and Popovich claimed, “The challenge for journalism educators is to integrate the

best of writing as product and process in their instruction” (215). According to this research

team, the best journalistic and media classroom instruction unites craft and creativity. “Students

learn to think as writers and gain confidence in their creativity, while recognizing and employing

the principles and techniques required by their professional craft” (Massé and Popovich 214).

Regardless of a teacher’s intent, those who try to blend product- and process-based

methods in the journalism classroom usually end up with a traditional journalism course with a

few activities meant to foster creativity (Massé and Popovich 224). This is illustrated in

journalism texts, which still stress formal features—structure, style and types of stories—rather

than the more amorphous and creative process of generating meaning (Zurek 19-20). Even if text

books did blend product and process frameworks, the blended model does not bring structural

and creative elements together in the way that reflects the writing practices exemplified by good

writers in the real world (Pitts 12). Most importantly among the reasons to continue looking for a

satisfying method is the less-than-desirable results noted in the introduction (Brandon 62).

Standards-Based Learning. In the early 1990s, the idea of national education standards

began its assent among philosophies governing learning methods in elementary and secondary

schools (Marzano and Kendall 2). Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch is

recognized as the originator of the movement toward standards-based education. According to

her book, National Standards in American Education: a Citizen's Guide, standards define what is

to be taught and what kind of performance is expected (25).

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 There are two types of standards that often get confusedly mixed in documents meant to

define standards. In simple terms, a content standard describes what students should know and be

able to do; a curriculum standard describes what should take place in the classroom.

“Specifically, curriculum standards address instructional technique or recommended activities as

opposed to knowledge and skill per se” (Marzano and Kendall 12).

As a result of the rise in standards-based education, a few states have published statewide

standards for journalism education at the high school level. Finished in September 2007, the

document produced for high school journalism classes in the state of Indiana is ten pages long

and includes seven main standards addressing the major topics. They include historical

perspectives, law and ethics, media analysis, journalistic writing processes, writing for media,

technology and design, and media leadership and career development.

On the national level, several experts have suggested drafting national standards for

journalists as a means of curbing the decline in the quality of journalism available to the public

(Overholser 13). And a few have even suggested the creation of a set of worldwide standards for

journalism and journalism education (Cushion 424).

Apart from the obvious benefits related to defining how educators should prioritize

instruction in public schools, the standards shift the educational emphasis from inputs to outputs

(Marzano and Kendall 9). According to journalism education researcher Wayne Wanta, “Good

teachers emphasize outcomes, not inputs; they focus on what students learn rather than how

much content the teachers teach” (Wanta et al. 216). In addition, the standards-based method

simplifies the creation of rubrics and assessments (Marzano and Kendall 8). Having a valid

rubric may answer the difficulties related to grading identified by those using the process-based

method of writing instruction detailed above.

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 On the national and state level, the use of standards in public schools have encountered

resistance for many reasons not least of which is because “they were simply too cumbersome to

use” (Marzano and Kendall 5). The writers of the standards—often those with deep

understanding of the subject matter—got carried away with the detail. The number and

specificity of the standards reflected the potential of the subject rather than an amount of material

practical for the time allotted (Marzano and Kendall 5). To illustrate, Marzano and Pickering

presented a report in which they quantified the amount of time it would take to complete all of

the 200 standards expected of elementary and high school students and compared it to the total

number of school hours in the K-13 lifetime. They found that, even after much whittling,

students are expected to learn over 15,000 hours of material in just over 13,000 hours (Marzano

and Pickering 9).

The other reason national and state standards have faced criticism in schools is because

the best educational standards are highly unique to a school’s region and its community.

“Standards-based approaches must be tailor made to the specific needs and values of individual

schools and districts” (Marzano and Kendall 11). As we will learn later, transformational

leadership suggest that standards may be most effective when they are created by the members of

the specific class.

As a result of criticisms from public school leaders, the push for national and state

standards in public schools has weakened (Marzano and Kendall 6). But Marzano and Kendall

insist that the standards-based model is still relevant on a smaller scale. “We assert that the logic

behind organizing schooling around standards is so compelling as to make standards-based

school reform something that schools and districts will implement even in the absence of federal

or state mandates or incentives” (Marzano and Kendall 6).

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 Many of the qualities of standards-based journalism and journalism education have been

found desirable in the realm of journalism. With standards, some journalism leaders envision a

monitoring organization that might evaluate and report on the quality of news (Overholser 13).

The criticisms of the implementation of standards in journalism and journalism education are

based not on locality or community, as they are in public schools, but on freedom. No one agrees

on what components of journalism represent quality, and many journalists are passionate in their

resistance to a system that would qualify or disqualify journalists to report (Overholser 13).

Experiential Learning. Next in the search for the perfect method of instruction were the

experiential learning pioneers Dewey, Lewin, Joplin and Kolb (Brandon 63-4). Since these

founding researchers drafted the method, others have tweaked it in ways that have led to a

number of renamings (e.g., problem-based learning, solution-based learning and student-centered

education). Synonyms and permutations have led to as many as a dozen different monikers for

the same educational movement. Proponents of the method claim that it mirrors reality in ways

the other methods do not. “Professionals do not simply maintain an expert body of knowledge

and retrieve it when needed; rather, they constantly engage with their practice, through actions

underpinned by intrinsic intellectual processes, creating solutions appropriate to the specific

context of a problem” (Kolb cited in Greenberg 290).

Experiential learning researchers insist that students should be expected to work through

challenges in the same way that professionals do. In order to replicate real-world problem-

solving environments, the student “experiences an event, acquires competencies and compares

the knowledge gained with knowledge gained in similar situations” (Brandon 62). An ideal

experiential learning environment should develop the skills of learning, encourage initiative and

lead students to adopt healthy attitudes toward the learning process (Brandon 62). The

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combination of “real-world problem solving” and the use of “intellectual processes” suggest the

method as an answer to the theory-versus-practice debate.

At its most basic, participants face problems, develop theories for their solution, test

those theories in practice, and evaluate the outcome (Brandon 63). More specifically the process

should include the identification of needs, the expanding of tasks, objective setting and the

freedom for participants to decide how to meet objectives. This encourages them to acknowledge

problems and to use mistakes as learning opportunities, which provides the incorporation of

meaningful and unforeseen skills. Educators within this method provide frequent feedback,

encourage students to experiment with new methods and support students’ efforts (Brandon 62).

The success of the method in any given situation is based on the extent of “direct contact

with objects, forms, features and processes; the extent that students are involved in the planning

and execution of an activity; the extent that participants are responsible for mastering an activity;

and the extent that participants have an opportunity to experience personal growth” (Brandon

63). By allowing the students to take the lead in the execution, this method empowers students.

Many teachers in public schools use a combination of standards-based and experiential

learning. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe wrote the book Understanding by Design to detail

how teachers can draw on the strengths of both systems. Teachers use the state or school

standards to identify the desired results, determine the benchmarks the students will exhibit as

evidence of learning, and finally plan learning experiences. Because the method begins at the

end, so to speak, the researchers labeled the process “backward design” (18).

Wanda Brandon recommended the experiential learning framework for improving the

learning environment in journalism classes. The experiential process has tremendous potential

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for giving students opportunities to solve problems in the same ways they would in a

professional environment. But, however compelling the research, the experiential learning and

backward design methods have not caught on. (As we learned earlier, most journalism teachers

are still using traditional methods of instruction.) Accounts of experiential methods in action are

scarce perhaps because of their intensity. Teachers who use experiential learning consistently

might find that, due to the student-guided nature of the method, they lack the time to give

students experiences that relate to all of the content areas they hoped to cover. Those who use

backward design might find that they are spending a lot of effort structuring classroom time with

activities that may or may not lead to the attainment of instructional goals. Without examples of

teachers who have adopted these models, it is difficult to tell if either experiential learning or

backward design would work.

Before moving on, I would like to summarize the origins, goals and shortfalls of each of

the instructional models we have discussed so far. (I have italicized words that I will highlight

later in the paper.)

• Theory and practice, a pair of instructional methods that came out of traditional

journalism classrooms, address concerns of competence and credibility. Although

one can teach mostly one or the other, the methods support one another in the

instructional setting.

• From the realm of composition education, we have the product and process

methods, which are focused on the creation journalistic texts that are at once

mechanically proficient and readable. In short, these methods address quality.

Neither method nor blends of the two reflect the reality of producing high-quality

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 work. In addition, the product method has been known to discourage students,

while the process method has been criticized for over praising them.

• Elementary and secondary education research provided the standard-based

concept of instruction, which is focused entirely on goal-setting. It defines what

students should be able to do and the best ways to encourage their achievement.

Rigid implementation of the standards based paradigm sometimes results in an

over-programmed classroom.

• Experiential leadership, also from elementary and secondary school research, is a

wonderful method for generating real-world problem-solving skills in ways that

empower students. The sometimes slow, free-flowing nature of the method may

prohibit teachers from accomplishing instructional goals.

Transformational Leadership. Now we borrow from the business world. It’s not the

first time that strategies used in corporate training have been suggested for the college-level

classroom. Judith Kolb observed corporate training in presentation skills for use in a university

public speaking classroom (1-8). She found that both corporate trainees and college students

benefit from conventions often employed in business environments. In this case, the researcher

highlighted four transferable techniques (a) the creation of a supportive, risk-taking atmosphere,

(b) the use of speaker goal setting, (c) regular in-training performance evaluations and (d) plans

for real-world implementation of the skills acquired (Kolb 1).

Leadership is a corporate idea that has gained importance throughout the last half of the

twentieth century. Publications about leadership have been rising steadily since the 1970s, and

several universities now require leadership courses as a part of their curricula (Zorn and Violanti

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70). Zorn and Violanti’s paper served as a guide for instructors who would like to include

information about leadership in their courses. It describes several models that have been used to

identify the leader-follower roles, including Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid (72),

situational leadership theory (74), transactional leadership (75) and, the most modern and

sophisticated among the models, transformational leadership (75).

Transformational leadership attempts to raise the followers’ consciousness by appealing

to moral values and Maslow’s higher-level needs, including self-actualization and self-esteem.

Transformational leaders are creative, interactive, visionary, empowering and passionate (Zorn

and Violanti 75). They are committed to the work and the process of encouraging participation

and of defining and reinforcing group values (Zorn and Violanti 75).

The transformational leadership “style” was authored by Kouzes and Posner, who spent

years conducting research on hundreds of research subjects’ personal-best leadership experiences

to create their “leadership practices inventory” (Kouzes and Posner 14). It is made up of five

practices that nearly every good leadership experience in their research had in common.

Essentially, good leaders set an example, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable

others to act and provide encouragement (Kouzes and Posner 14).

All leadership situations involve a significant challenge or discontentment with a

situation (Kouzes and Posner 18). They feature a leader who has strong beliefs on the matter

(Kouzes and Posner 46) and who is interested in empowering each member to fulfill personal

goals and in creating group-driven change (Kouzes and Posner 20). With this description, it is

difficult not to see the journalism classroom as an optimal place to implement the

transformational leadership paradigm. According to journalism researchers cited in the

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introduction of this proposal, the journalism industry is in trouble. Journalism teachers have an

opportunity to present journalistic issues in ways that inspire students’ personal interest and their

abilities to generate ideas for positive change.

METHODOLOGY

Now, it seems, it would be helpful to describe a journalism classroom using

transformational leadership theory. Because I found no documented sources of college-level

teachers of introductory journalism classes (or any teachers, for that matter) using

transformational leadership theory in their classrooms, the description that follows draws

parallels between educational literature and Kouzes and Posner’s book, Leadership Challenge. It

imagines how the transformational leadership paradigm might work in the educational

environment.

As we noted, there are five practices that make up successful leadership. Under these five

practices, Kouzes and Posner relate ten commitments good leaders make. These commitments

often overlap and become intertwined. Below I have chosen to dissect some of Kouzes and

Posner’s leadership tasks and compress others based on which are most relevant to the

educational environment.

Developing Credibility. According to Kouzes and Posner, “credibility is the foundation

of leadership” (37). The research team learned this by beginning with an open-ended question to

thousands of people: “What values, personal traits or characteristics do you look for and admire

in a leader” (Kouzes and Posner 28)? The team used content and empirical analyses to narrow

the answers to twenty characteristics, each with a set of synonyms. Then they administered

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seventy-five thousand one-page questionnaires worldwide in order to rank them in order of

importance. The questionnaire asked respondents to check off the seven qualities they most look

for in a leader, as defined “someone whose direction they would willingly follow” (Kouzes and

Posner 28-9). In more than 20 years of research—through economic growth and recession, the

introduction and popularization of the Internet and increased globalization—four qualities have

consistently—regardless of national, cultural and organizational differences—received over 60

percent of the votes. People choose leaders who are honest, forward-looking, inspiring, and

competent (Kouzes and Posner 29).

Similarly, communication education researchers Ann Bainbridge Frymier and Catherine

A. Thompson determined that credibility is based on competence and character (388). “Teachers

need to be perceived as both competent and of good character to be effective” (Frymier and

Thompson 397).

It is interesting to note that this isn’t the first time the word “credibility” has made a

significant appearance in this paper. Both theorists and practitioners claim that their practices are

responsible for providing credibility to journalism classrooms. Exhibiting proficiency in both

theory and practice is one way that journalism teachers can show competence, which according

to Frymier and Thompson is one half of the qualities necessary to earn the role of leader in the

classroom.

According to Kouzes and Posner, identifying credibility in a person involves measuring

their actions against their stated beliefs. When people’s words and actions match, they are said to

be credible (40-1). Universally, credible leaders “have strong beliefs about matters of principle”

(Kouzes and Posner 46), express these values, and follow through (Kouzes and Posner 41).

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Frymier and Thompson described the same values in a way that appeals to my personal

sensibility. In their study, they wrote that “Consistent messages—both verbal and nonverbal—

led to perceptions of greater character” (Frymier and Thompson 388). Character, if you

remember, is half of Frymier and Thompson’s equation of credibility.

And credibility is important. Kouzes and Posner learned that respondents who found their

immediate managers credible were more likely to take pride in their work and to work

consistently without supervision (39). Many education researchers have reported similar findings

regarding credibility and student interest (Frymier and Thompson 388). “[There is a] relationship

between these teacher-communication behaviors and student motivation” (Frymier and

Thompson 388). Whether at work or at school, people enjoy being engaged in meaningful

thought. They enjoy working hard toward an important goal. “People are prone to expose

themselves more and pay more attention to people and things they like” (Frymier and Thompson

397). And student attitudes toward their craft are considered significant predictors of writing

performance (Massé 45).

Frymier, Kouzes, Posner and Thompson all take the competence step for granted.

Competence is gained over years of experience: not in a leadership manual or a research paper.

This being the case, the next logical step in creating credibility, according to Kouzes and Posner,

is the leader’s defining what he or she believes (47).

Clarifying Values. Kouzes and Posner found that the process of clarifying personal

values drives leaders’ commitment (62). Leaders must discover what they believe before they are

able to voice those beliefs and follow through in ways that inspire constituents. In a journalism

classroom, a teacher might create a personal definition for what journalism is and what

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journalists do. The teacher might also create personal and classroom missions, set instructional

goals based on the institution’s objectives for the curriculum and think about stories and other

personal language that she can use to communicate values and objectives in ways that relate to

students. (Later, it will become clear that—although the leader must enter the situation with

values, beliefs and goals—the class values, beliefs and goals must be generated by the group as a

whole in order to be effective.)

Frymier and Thomson don’t stress personal values as much as confidence (e.g.,

dynamism, presenting an interesting self, exhibiting physical and vocal animation) and

friendliness (e.g., being optimistic, sensitive and polite; smiling and making eye contact; and

attempting to be of assistance to the student) for their roles in creating credibility (Frymier and

Thompson 397-8). Kouzes and Posner seem to take the qualities of confidence and friendliness

for granted.

Both sets of researchers agree that, “Leaders don’t just speak for themselves” (Kouzes

and Posner 68). Of the twelve actions that can be counted on to build the perception of character

and credibility, Frymier and Thompson identified several that seek and value the input of

students. Ways to seek and value student input include listening, inquiring about the students’

interests, demonstrating interest in what the student says, and providing positive reinforcement

(Frymier and Thompson 397-8). Leaders seek input by asking constituents about their personal

goals and values on a continual basis and making the discussion of values a part of the

organization’s language. The leader constantly draws connections between personal beliefs and

constituent needs to create the group’s shared values, also described as the group’s expectations,

obligations or promises (Kouzes and Posner 60).

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 Setting an Example. Asking about values and goals on the first day of class or even on a

regular basis is not enough to perpetuate the positive effects of a transformational leadership

paradigm. Leaders have to live it (Kouzes and Posner 76). With their time and attention (Kouzes

and Posner 79), language (Kouzes and Posner 80), storytelling (Kouzes and Posner 89),

questions (Kouzes and Posner 83), responses to critical situations (Kouzes and Posner 88) and

positive reinforcement (Kouzes and Posner 92), leaders personify group values and set a good

example. Teachers exemplify learning by being good learners and perpetuate the ideal classroom

environment by behaving the ways they want their students to behave.

That takes care of the classroom environment, but journalism teachers also want students

to be good journalists. Often there are no writers in writing classrooms; teachers have stopped

writing before students have really started. Instructors who hope to foster good journalists might

begin by being good journalists in ways that students can see. A journalism teacher actively

writing stories or researching theory in plain sight provides students with an example of how the

process works. Letting students know that the work is intended for publication—whether in a

regional magazine or a local newspaper or in a professional journal—lends relevance to the

skills.

Astonishingly, I found very little academic research related to teachers’ ability to teach

through their own professional example. One researcher noted, “Journalism programs favor

faculty who can teach by example, who can demonstrate what others can only describe, who can

inspire good work by pointing to their own good work” (Dates et al. 148). Sharon Dunwoody

touched on the topic when she wrote that breaking down the wall between teaching and

producing professional work may be beneficial to both students and teachers (Wanta et al 218-9).

Another researcher hinted that continuing to engage with the practice might be helpful for

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teachers. “Professionals do not simply maintain an expert body of knowledge and retrieve it

when needed; rather, they constantly engage with their practice … (Kolb cited in Greenberg

290).1 Still, I found no research directly related to how a professor’s outside-of-class work might

be used to inspire students in class. There is a tremendous opportunity for further research in this

area.

The reason professional example-setting doesn’t happen more often in classrooms might

be the lack of time. There is already so much to do. Kouzes and Posner recommend storytelling

as a doable way to incorporate example setting (89). At first it might be hard to see the

connection, but a leader’s vivid, memorable stories reinforce values (Kouzes and Posner 97).

Second, a teacher might mention briefly the successes and challenges related to his or her

research or how he or she is executing an article for a magazine. Without showing the process in

class, students can garner information about how they might employ what they are learning.

Empowering students to share stories of personal writing- or research-related successes

and challenges in ways that are vivid and memorable reinforces values, but this is not the only

benefit. Storytelling is a primary journalistic skill, and storytelling in class provides students

impromptu, oral practice. It allows them to see in real time what interests and repels their

audience. In addition, sharing positive and negative journalism and research experiences with

storytelling transfers the role of teacher to the student.

Envisioning the future. Kouzes and Posner’s conception of envisioning the future comes

into the journalism classroom in two distinct and pivotal ways. The first way that teachers can

1
This is the second time I have used this quote. It was first used to illustrate the values of experiential learning.

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envision the future relates directly to the standards-based methodology I addressed in the

literature review. Teachers simply work with the college and the students to determine what

journalistic content is most important and make plans to address those topics. Clear expectations

and goals focus our attention and keep people engaged (Kouzes and Posner 286-8). A quote on

the opening page of the chapter “Envision the Future” in Kouzes and Posner’s book could have

come out Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design: Jim Pitts of Northrop Grumman

Corporation is quoted to have said, “You begin with the end in mind, by knowing what you

dream about accomplishing, and then figure out how to make it happen” (103).

The other way envisioning the future helps journalism teachers relates to the second goal

of this hypothetical introductory journalism course: it gives students the opportunity to define

how journalism should look in the future. However similar the goals, “envisioning the future”

must happen in a very different way in the corporate world as compared with the educational

environment.

In the corporate environment, good leaders imagine exactly how an ideal future will look

(Kouzes and Posner 110), inspire others to join them in the pursuit of that vision (Kouzes and

Posner 116), tweak it based upon group ideals (Kouzes and Posner 118), and take steps to make

it happen (Kouzes and Posner 121). In education, that would never fly. Teachers are not allowed

to indoctrinate their students with personal beliefs.

Instead, the journalism education leader would communicate a belief that a healthy

journalism industry is possible. (Remember, Frymier and Thompson identified optimism as a

component of character.) Then, the teacher would leave it to students to present ideas regarding

how journalism might overcome its current distress and go on serving the public interest. Kouzes

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and Posner relate the process to “sending everyone shopping for ideas” (186) and experimenting

and taking risks (188).

In a journalism classroom, “shopping” and experimenting might take the form of an

experiential learning project. A group evaluation of experiential projects focused on the future of

journalism might take the form of what Kouzes and Posner call “pre-mortems” (213). Analogous

to the traditional post-mortem discussion related to specific problems with the solution, a pre-

mortem anticipates possible challenges associated with a given solution.

Fostering Collaboration. In a survey conducted by Mary Mino and Marilynn Butler,

students were asked: (1) What was the most successful college course you have ever taken? (2)

What role did you play to make this course successful? (3) What role did the instructor play to

make this course successful? (495). Third among the six reasons students gave for their success

was “participating in discussions, both with the instructor and their classmates” (495). Despite

this research, lecture is still the most common mode of instruction (Terenzini and Pascarella 31).

Teachers in the typical classroom spend about 80 percent of their time lecturing to students who

are attentive to what was being said about 50 percent of the time” (Terenzini and Pascarella 32).

Instructional lectures are ineffective when they assume that each student is equally

prepared, that students learn at the same rate and in the same way and that differences in

performance relate to differing student effort and ability (Terenzini and Pascarella 35).

Moreover, the traditional lecture format does not provide an opportunity for the listener to clarify

misunderstanding. Lectures are particularly ineffective when they are not carefully organized,

rehearsed and supported by other means of instruction and stimuli (e.g., audio visual materials,

activities, or discussion sessions) (Mino and Butler 498-9).

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 Mino and Butler contend that interactive instruction, one type of collaborative learning, is

a more effective instructional approach for several reasons. “This type of instruction: (1) creates

a classroom setting conducive to learning; (2) arouses and directs students' interests, experience,

and energy; (3) helps the instructor lead discussions that stay on track and involve all students;

and (4) improves oral communication skills (Mino and Butler 494). Interactive environments

emphasize open communication, focus on student participation and create a climate that

encourages proactive learning (Mino and Butler 494). The research indicates active learning

produces greater gains in academic content and skills, because students are more involved and

take more responsibility (Terenzini and Pascarella 34-5).

Fostering collaboration is number seven in Kouzes and Posner’s ten commitments of

leadership (221). Kouzes and Posner recommend creating an environment where everyone is

comfortable asking questions (222), structuring projects to promote joint effort (237) and

providing face-to-face interactions (240). All of these actions are already very common in

education literature and in many classrooms.

My favorite among Kouzes and Posner’s collaborative recommendations—and one that is

far less common in educational environments—is “support norms of reciprocity” (234).

Cooperation, they explain, relies on equal amounts of “give and take” (Kouzes and Posner 235).

This idea suggests taking the traditional adversarial attitude out of the student-teacher

relationship. In the transformational leadership classroom, teachers would be as likely to learn as

students. Students would teach as well as learn. And the goal would be creating the best work

possible based on a mutually defined set of standards. It acknowledges that those who cooperate

are most likely to experience success (Kouzes and Posner 235).

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 Providing Encouragement. Encouragement is an important part of every successful

leadership. Challenges like those that require transformational leadership require that people

work quite intensely and put in long hours. To persist for months at a demanding pace and to

experiment and try new things, people need encouragement (Kouzes and Posner 281). According

to Kouzes and Posner, encouraging people involves two important components: leaders must

expect the best from constituents and personalize recognition (281).

This first one is particularly interesting. One of the very few mentions of teachers in

Kouzes and Posner reads, “As human beings, we tend to live up to—or down to—our leaders’

(teachers’, coaches’, parents’) expectations” (282). Leaders who set high expectations and expect

(meaning, “consider likely”) enjoy an increased likelihood that their constituents will succeed

(282). Teachers must fundamentally believe in the abilities of their students. In believing in

students, students begin to believe in themselves and perform better. In this way, leaders bring

out the best in people (Kouzes and Posner 282).

Giving personalized recognition involves getting to know constituents well enough to

understand what type of recognition would be most meaningful to them. Admittedly, this is

difficult when there are many students and when a uniform method of recognition—namely,

grades—is already built in. Perhaps the best way to recognize students, above giving a good

grade, is by thanking them for their contribution (Kouzes and Posner 298).

One important aspect of teaching writing is delivering criticism in a sensitive way. No

matter how motivated the student is, he or she will still make mistakes. Writing is a deeply

personal act, and students are frequently ill-equipped to handle constructive criticism directed at

their work. And educators may be too removed from the sensitivities and insecurities of their

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students (Massé 46). One student noted in her journal: "It can take years to build your soul back

up. Professors need to begin realizing the impact they have on their pupils” (Massé 46).

Kouzes and Posner fall short in that they do not address delivering criticism in ways that

are appropriate, thoughtful and constructive. (According to the index, the word criticism is not

mentioned in the book at all. When they speak of feedback, they are mostly interested in the

leader’s willingness to seek feedback from constituents.) A brief mention of feedback as it is

dished from teachers to student, relates directly to goals. “Goals without feedback, or feedback

without goals, have little effect on motivation” (Kouzes and Posner 288). It shouldn’t be

surprising at this point, that Massé instructs teachers to use "focused instructional strategies" that

sensitively identify the differences between student work and the desired product (46). Like

Kouzes and Posner, Massé’s conception of redirecting students is related to achieving a goal.

This takes personal worth judgments out of the equations and increases the likelihood that

students will find the “feedback” constructive and motivational.

All the talk about goals might inspire a person to reexamine the standards-based

methodology, where the word “goals” is featured so prominently. As it turns out, the method

provides an answer long employed for the sensitive evaluation of highly personal writing

assignments: the rubric. Long used as a consistent way to measure whether or not students have

met instructional goals (Wiggins and McTighe 173), the leadership paradigm highlights the idea

that rubrics are as a way to evaluate work that is as useful to the student as it is to the teacher.

PROPOSAL

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 Some may claim that the reason we found so many similarities between writings about

education and journalism education and those about transformational leadership is because

teachers are naturally transformational leaders. In the best circumstances, this is no doubt the

case. Good teachers are good leaders. Kouzes and Posner would likely agree that good leaders

are good teachers. Unlike many of the other methods teachers and journalism teachers often use

to structure the education they provide, transformational leadership provides a way to pull all of

the most effective educational practices under one mental umbrella. Furthermore, because of its

ability to fill the particular gaps many journalism education strategies leave, I believe

transformational leadership is particularly well suited for journalism education scenarios.

To demonstrate how a transformational leadership might operate in a journalism

classroom, I intend to create a course portfolio. William G. Christ recommends course portfolios

as a good method for preparing graduate and post-graduates for positions in academia (Wanta et

al. 226). “The course portfolio is different from the teaching portfolio in terms of purpose. The

teaching portfolio is developed to help review a teacher's expertise, while the purpose of the

course portfolio is to identify problematic educational issues and intellectual challenges with a

course” (Wanta et al. 226). According to Christ, the portfolio starts with goals for student

learning and teaching practices that the new teacher thinks he or she can use to accomplish the

goals (Wanta et al. 226). A new course portfolio might include teaching and learning statements,

a syllabus, and samples of tests and paper questions (Wanta et al. 226).

Moreover, the building of a course portfolio is ongoing. “[It] is really like a scholarly

manuscript: not a finished publication, but a manuscript—a draft—of ongoing inquiry” (Wanta

et al. 226). Portfolios for classes that have been taught through might include notes about the

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course from students, the teaching assistant, and the instructor; a sample of student work; and

student and peer evaluations, reviews, and commentaries (Wanta et al. 226).

The creation of my course portfolio will combine Christ’s concept of the course portfolio

with the conventions of transformational leadership. My portfolio will include several

documents meant to help me clarify my values, including personal definitions for what

journalism is and what journalists do, teaching and learning missions, beliefs regarding the

classroom environment, stories and other personal language that can be used to communicate

values and objectives in ways that relate to students.

The portfolio will include questions that seek out student’s conceptions of what

journalism is and what journalists do and questions that seek students’ personal and classroom

missions. Both of these relate to building a shared vision and fostering collaboration. In addition,

the portfolio will define the content and curriculum standards as defined by Marzano and

Kendall (12) and rubrics as defined by Wiggins and McTighe (173). The standards will serve as

instructional goals, while the rubrics will serve as methods to deliver useful encouragement.

Finally, the portfolio will include experiential and group assignments meant to help students

recognize the importance of journalism in democracy and present ideas for the continuation of

journalism in the future.2

2
Because I have neither an academic position nor a classroom, much of the material in the course portfolio will be
—by necessity—hypothetical. The content and curriculum standards, for instance, will be based on my own well-
researched concepts of what should be taught and how. In the case that the portfolio were actual, those standards
would be adjusted based upon the institutions’ goals for both the class and the program and based on students’
career and classroom goals.

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 I hypothesize that a course portfolio based on the principles of transformational

leadership will help me meet my instructional goals3 in ways that are successful, complete,

practical or true to professional reality.

3
As stated in the introduction, students should be able to describe journalism’s role in democracy, make a set of
claims regarding the fundamental nature of journalism in the future, and produce high-quality journalistic texts.

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PART II: Course Portfolio

DEFINING THE PROJECT

The following is based upon pages 20 – 26 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

The project: The development and implementation of an effective leadership-based introductory

journalism class.

The project goals: To be an effective teacher of journalists.

Time Frame: One semester.

Budget: Minimal, based upon the budget of the employing institution.

Challenges: I have never done this before. It is difficult to know how to begin.

Immediate project team: Myself, the employing institution, students.

Stakeholders: Other journalism teachers and professionals, the wider college community, the

community in which the institution is situated and consumers of news.

Relevance of the project to me: This is fulfilling, important work. I anticipate the satisfaction

of doing a really good job while earning a modest income.

Relevance of the project to my organization: For students, the project has the potential to

provide a really fulfilling learning experience and some important journalistic skills. I hope that

colleagues at the institution that would employ me would be interested in exploring ways to

teach journalism in different and potentially more effective ways.

Relevance of the project to others: For the community and media at large, there is the potential

to improve the craft, its service to the public, and the health of democracy.

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REFLECTION

The following is based upon pages 29 – 31 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

What are the characteristics of the successful projects you have contributed to in the recent

past? Two notable experiences come to mind. During the first, I was an agricultural extension

agent in the United States Peace Corps. I was tasked to work together with a women’s group of

over 500 members to build a community garden that would increase income and nutrition for the

village’s families. It was a lofty goal in a region with few natural or economic resources. It was

complex multi-step process. It involved much intercultural education and personal commitment

from every member of the group. In this case, the motivation for the project came from the

members. They originated the goal, which made it easier for them to buy in. I remember having

to spend several months listening and earning their trust and changing my methods drastically

based on the members’ input. Ultimately we were successful, and the garden was built. The

garden continues to thrive after nearly five years.

The second experience related to a teaching position I held at Southern Vermont

College’s Summer Upward Bound Program. Upward Bound is a college preparatory program for

high school students from grades 9 – 12. I was tasked to teach world literature, English

composition, and an interdisciplinary course. The first two courses I taught in a rather

conventional mode despite including projects I considered innovative. For the last course—ID

Block, as it was called—I took an entirely different approach. We carried out my ideals for the

first week of class, so that the students would have an example of the type of work I expected,

but then I put the students in charge. I guided. I facilitated. I found and allocated materials.

Honestly, they set their goals higher and performed more diligently than I expected. They had a

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wonderful time, and they learned in ways that were personal and memorable. Among the five

other ID Blocks, ours alone was singled out to present their project at the end of the summer. It

was an amazingly fulfilling experience.

In both of these situations, the members of the group had complete ownership. They set

the goals. They defined their roles. The group abided by norms of mutual respect, hard work, and

enjoyment. In the second of the two experiences, students evaluated the class and instructor (me)

each week for six weeks. The feed back was tremendously useful. In both cases the groups

enjoyed great success.

What two or three things would you hope that students say about the class one year after

its completion? This was the most useful and fulfilling class I have ever taken. I learned

attributes about journalism that have changed my everyday behavior, reinvigorated my love of

learning, improved my skills and increased the likelihood that I will make a valuable

contribution to my field.

What are you already doing to help create this legacy? I have researched journalism in order

to clarify my own beliefs and goals. I have researched journalism education in order to learn

what skills students need and the best ways to encourage professional and academic growth. I am

positive regarding the potential of leadership methods to make a positive impact on the education

of journalists. I am actively pursuing ideas that will help me incorporate leadership into a

journalism classroom.

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What remains to be done in order to make this legacy a reality? I need to create a plan, of

which this document is a start. It will imagine the best ways to build credibility, identify my

values, and engage students in the creation of a values-driven group of new journalists.

IDENTIFYING VALUES

Unless noted, the following is based upon pages 31 – 35 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership

Challenge Workbook.

Values are enduring beliefs about the way things should be done or about the ends we desire,

intrinsic principles, consistent thoughts that guide decision making and the foundations of

credibility (31).

What values are most critical to the successful completion of this project? Kouzes and

Posner recommend choosing and prioritizing as many as seven values (33). This is a difficult

task. I have chosen eight. In order of importance, my values for this project include optimism,

example setting, realism, self-determination, creativity and exploration, respectful collaboration,

immediate and purposeful feedback and encouragement and organization and consistency. A

short description of each follows:

Optimism. I believe that good teachers are optimistic regarding their students’

capabilities. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, the fathers of transformational leadership theory,

wrote, “Constituents look for leaders who demonstrate an enthusiastic and genuine belief in the

capacity of others, who strengthen people’s will, who supply the means to achieve and who

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express optimism for the future.” Believing in students is the first step in students’ believing in

themselves, their accepting responsibility for tasks, and their achieving success.

Example Setting. I believe that teaching begins when the teacher sets an example. I am

saddened that there are rarely many writers in writing class rooms; teachers have stopped writing

before students have begun. I am a teacher who exemplifies the roles of learner, journalist,

academic theorist and leader in ways that students can see. This increases the likelihood that

students will assume these roles for themselves.

Realism. I believe that the best classrooms represent reality. Dr. Yousey, the professor of

my Principles of Education class, said one thing I will always I remember: “Professional practice

starts here.” As prospective teachers, he expected students to behave as teachers immediately.

The same should be expected of communications students. Real writing assignments, actual

interviews and genuine networking experiences are all a part of my educational plan for new

professionals in communications.

Self-determination. I believe that constituents exhibit higher levels of commitment and

accountability when they are empowered to set their own goals and make their own

determinations regarding their successes. When reviewing my own personal-best leadership

experiences, I found that they had these two attributes in common. Bringing these ideas into the

classroom might involve using student-provided goals to draft the syllabus and requesting

student input in the creation of grading rubrics.

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 Creativity & Exploration. One of the most powerful mandates I encountered in my

research was from New York University journalism education researcher Mitchell Stephens. He

wrote, “Don’t pretend we know how things should be done. Doing so underestimates and

devalues student contributions” (Dates et al.). The world of professional communications is

ready for new ideas. I believe students have valuable and creative contributions to make to this

important conversation.

Respectful Collaboration. Collaboration has been much lauded within education circles

in recent years. Working together in an educational environment mirrors collaborative

environments many communicators are likely to find in the work place. Building ideas together

makes classes more interesting, more memorable and more effective.

To me, respectful collaboration includes purposeful feedback. Providing feedback is one

of teachers’ foremost responsibilities in traditional education systems. Indeed, it is an important

act. Students must understand how the skills they possess measure up against those expected of

them in the professional world. In addition to this traditional form of feedback, my plan for

educating new communicators includes opportunities for students to evaluate regularly their own

work and the work of their teacher. I believe teacher evaluations that occur only once a class is

over are too late.

Organization & Consistency. Someone reading these values might assume that my

classroom might be quite loose and maybe disorganized. Honestly, unpredictable learning

situations have always been personally frustrating for me. I believe that teachers can work with

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students to create a culture of learning that is at once creative, empowering, well organized and

consistent.

What are your organization’s values? Do they align with the values of the project? What is

the potential alignment or conflict? At this point, I do not have an organization. For the

purposes of this assignment, I will use documents produced by The College of Saint Rose and

their communications department. According to the information posted on the communications’

department Web site, The College of Saint Rose values discovery, storytelling, problem-solving,

big ideas, collaboration, exploration, “challenging the status quo, and pioneering unexpected

solutions.” All of these words are among those that appear frequently in work produced by

Kouzes and Posner.

On the master’s degree page of The College of Saint Rose Web site, the goal of being and

creating leaders is evident in the college’s mission and in the program’s degree requirements.

The college’s mission uses its final lines to emphasize leadership: “Engagement with the urban

environment expands the setting for educational opportunities and encourages the Saint Rose

community’s energetic involvement and effective leadership in society.” The fact that course

Group Communication and Leadership is prominent among graduate courses is an indicator that

the college’s faith in the potential of leadership practices to make a positive and lasting impact.

Finally, because the books I am relying upon for much of my information were assigned

by a member of The College of Saint Rose faculty, I believe these ideas would be welcome for

discourse. Based on feedback from my project advisors, I believe these ideas are open for

discourse and possibly for implementation.

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 A few of my values are unconventional for education settings, namely self-determination.

In most classes, teachers set the priorities, the activities, the assignments, etc. Judging success

upon students’ goals is also unconventional. Handled properly, I think these unconventional

ideas could be integrated into even an institution more traditional than The College of Saint

Rose.

BUILDING AND AFFIRMING SHARED VALUES

The following is based upon pages 36 – 41 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

“When you’re the leader, other folks’ values need to be considered if they are going to be

committed” (36). In an educational situation, this involves teachers asking students what they

care about and the educational culture or group norms they would like to establish. Kouzes and

Posner recommend the following steps: (1) Gather the group to discuss values and principles that

will guide group decisions. (2) Set the example by being the first to communicate your values.

Then ask everyone to share. (3) Once everyone has shared, look for commonalities and conflicts.

(4) Discuss how tension can be resolved. (5) Create a team credo that articulates the principles

that will guide the group during the project. (6) Display it prominently.

Honestly, there’s not much here that would surprise most teachers or students. Anyone

who has participated in organized group building likely has participated in an exercise like this

one. In the classroom, I envision this process differently than the typical group-building exercise.

Second only to introductions—which, in order to value realism, might take place in a networking

environment—this process might occur in the following way: Borrowing from Mino and Butler’s

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education research, which is also cited on page 28 of my proposal, I would ask students to

remember their most satisfying educational experience, what the student in that experience did to

make it successful, and what the teacher did. This may help student envision their ideal

educational scenario and discover their values (495). A plan for this exercise may take the

following form:

HOUR 2:

Essential questions: What is your personal-best educational experience? What did your value

about that experience? How can we develop culture of learning that reflects those values?

Procedure:

1. For the first 5 minutes, present storytelling as a journalistic skill and as a way to express

values.

2. For the second 5 minutes, edit experience into three sentences.

3. For the next 30 minutes, share/note values.

4. For the next 20 minutes, draft and finalize a credo.

Thought questions: What is journalism? How does our definition of journalism affect our

standard of academic and professional achievement? Write it down.

INSPIRING A SHARED VISION

The following is based upon page 43 – 51 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

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 According to Kouzes and Posner, vision is a “unique and ideal image of the future for the

common good” (43). To inspire others, leaders must be able to articulate the vision in

meaningful ways. In my proposal, I drew a connection between the leadership step of “inspiring

a shared vision” and building educational standards or goals. Based on my research, I believe

that there are three important goals that must be a part of any introductory journalism class.

Students who complete this course should demonstrate understanding of the connection between

journalism and democracy, use journalistic and expressive abilities and mechanical skill to

produce professional-quality journalistic texts and make insightful assertions regarding the

nature of journalism and its future. In order to achieve success, constituents and the leader must

work together to build a vision that belongs to the entire group.

Kouzes and Posner recommend the following steps: (1) articulate your personal vision of

the future to the members of the project, (2) engage members in a dialog about their aspirations,

(3) Enlist others in the common vision and (4) communicate the common vision in an attractive

way (45). The following lessons work to inspire a shared vision by uniting the class’s thoughts

about journalism, goals for ourselves and for the industry and how we should spend our time to

accomplish these goals.

HOUR 3:

Essential questions: What is journalism? What is our standard of academic and professional

achievement?

Procedure:

1. For the first 10 minutes, use your networking experience to gather in groups of about four

people. Synthesize your ideas.

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 2. For the next 20 minutes, present your group’s thoughts in one or two refined sentences.

3. For the next 10 minutes, synthesize again until the definition is finalized.

4. For the next 15 minutes, create a rubric for our work based on our definition. Discuss and

agree.

5. For the last 5 minutes, debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: What do you read? How does our definition of journalism affect our

choices as media consumers? Bring a list of three smart ideas regarding your text for this course.

HOUR 5:

Essential questions: What are your personal goals for the class and your longer-term

professional goals?

Procedure:

1. For the first 5 minutes, the teacher/leader demonstrates how the rubric that the class

created can be adapted to the five-paragraph assignment.

2. Use your networking experience to pair with a member of the class with whom you have

not worked yet.

3. For the next minutes of the class, use our copy-editing lesson to cross-edit your five-

paragraph essays. Read for 5 minutes and talk for five minutes.

4. For the next 10 minutes, edit your thoughts about your personal and professional goals

into three sentences.

5. For the next 20 minutes, share your goals.

6. For the next 10 minutes, synthesize ideas.

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Expectation for the next class: Polish your five-paragraph essay. Add to the end a paragraph

containing your thoughts about the experience and a brief self assessment.

Thought questions: How can we spend our time in ways that meets our personal and our

professional needs? Bring at least one good idea.

HOUR 6:

Essential question: How can we spend our time in ways that meets our personal and our

professional needs?

Procedure:

1. Pass in your five-paragraph essays. The teacher/leader will pass her essay to a member or

several members of the group.

2. Use your networking experience to create groups of four people.

3. For the first 10 minutes, share and synthesize your ideas regarding how can we spend our

time in ways that meets our personal and our professional needs?

4. For the next 15 minutes, create a list of the best ideas from the entire class.

5. For the next 5 minutes, align our definitions of journalism with our standards for

blogging.

6. For the next 10 minutes, use each other’s experience to set up a blog.

7. For the next 5 minutes, create an introductory post that establishes the blog as a place to

record thoughts regarding your reading.

8. For the last 10 minutes, debrief and look forward.

Expectation for the next class: Finish your first blog post.

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Thought questions: What does the word multi-media mean to you? What resources are

available to students who would like to use different media to present their thoughts? Bring one

well-developed and original idea to share. You will have three minutes to present your thoughts.

CHALLENGING THE PROCESS

The following is based upon pages 65 – 76 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

Kouzes and Posner describe this step by saying, “You search for opportunities by seeking

innovative ways to change, grow, and improve, and you experiment and take risks by constantly

generating small wins and learning from mistakes” (85). They recommend that leaders complete

the following steps: indentify opportunities that would benefit from innovative approaches,

engage the team in generating and selecting innovative solutions, identify incremental steps to

implement changes and learn from inevitable mistakes (86).

For the introductory journalism classroom, the “challenging the process” step may relate

to involving students in project planning and evaluation. This supports the values of optimism

(believing students are interested in and capable of this responsibility) and of self-determination.

Student-guided projects also reinforce three more of the class’s core values: realism, creativity

and exploration and respectful collaboration.

When the teacher/leader participates in all of the same activities that the students

complete, the teacher/leader becomes an active participant and sets an example as leader and

learner. Finally, I believe that supporting a cooperative and innovative environment in the

classroom will increase the likelihood that students will apply cooperation and innovation into

other problem-solving arenas, including the news media industry. Frankly, challenging the

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traditional educational process by allowing students to participate in planning projects is the core

of the transformational leadership classroom.

In the classroom, the hour-by-hour educational plan for the end of one unit and the

beginning of the next may develop in the following way. Note the evaluation and the

identification of incremental steps.

HOUR 27:

Essential questions: How did this last project go? What did you like about it? What did you

dislike? What remains of our goals? How would you like to accomplish them?

Procedure:

1. Spend the first 15 minutes debriefing with the first three thought questions.

2. Look forward by using the next 15 minutes in small groups to discuss the rest of our

goals for the semester. What are they, and how should we accomplish them?

3. Spend the next 15 minutes sharing and synthesizing.

4. Use the last 15 minutes to plan our coursework for the next 12 course hours/ 4 weeks.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 16:

Essential questions: What are the steps to writing an article that meets our journalistic

standards?

Procedure:

1. Use 10 minutes to present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

2. Take the first 30 minutes to build the list of article steps together.

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 3. Divide our tasks bases on the time we have: 11 class hours/ almost 4 weeks.

Thought questions: TBA

ENABLING OTHERS TO ACT

The following is based upon pages 77 – 91 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

According to Kouzes and Posner, enabling others involves fostering collaboration,

promoting cooperative goals, building trust, and strengthening others by sharing power and

discretion (78). The steps include the following: build supportive and cooperative relationships

among team members, develop competence and confidence of team members and connect team

members with the people they need to get extraordinary things done.

For this class, we will build relationships and competence in a few ways. Relationship

building will be the primary goal of the very first class of the semester. This is perhaps not that

uncommon. Many classes begin with the teacher and students introducing themselves, usually in

a round-the-room fashion. The way I would execute introductions is meant to reflect reality. In

professional environments people make connections by networking. It is a much lauded skill but

one that is rarely practiced in the classroom. The following educational plan illustrates how such

a lesson might progress.

HOUR 1:

Essential questions: How does one network professionally?

Procedure:

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 1. In the first 2 minutes, execute the following: Introduce self very briefly as class leader.

2. For the next 7 minutes, introduce a mini-lesson on the topic of networking. What is

networking? Where does it happen? What is it good for in the world? How might

networking be useful in this class? How does one network? What’s easy about

networking? What is challenging for you about networking? If we were to network here

today, what would your personal goals be?

3. For the next 35 minutes, create a realistic networking situation. Grab a drink and a snack.

Meet and greet.

4. For the next 5 minutes, debrief.

5. In the last 5 minutes, introduce the thought question for the next class.

Thought questions: What is your personal-best educational experience? What did your value

about that experience? What did the “teacher” do to make the experience successful? What did

the “student” do to make that experience successful? Write down.

During this networking session, the teacher/leader will set an example and be sure to

express her availability to meet either during open-door hours or by appointment. Students will

be encouraged to meet with the teacher/leader at least once during the semester. This reinforces

the values of respectful collaboration.

Throughout the semester students will use the connections that they made during their

networking exercise to form effective groups. Though the power to choose one’s own work

companions is not always an option in the professional environment, it is a reflection of the goal

of self-determination. The teacher/leader’s participation in the networking exercise allows her to

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get to know students and to recommend suitable partnerships. Altogether, the exercise represents

the class’s commitment to realism.

To build competence, I have chosen to include mini-lessons. The first class of every week

will include a contextually relevant 5- to 10-minute mini-lesson guided by either the official

teacher/leader or one appointed for that purpose. The inclusion of mini-lessons—small,

modularized units of content focused on student mastery and active involvement—is based on

research from Terenzini and Pascarella. (4).

The mini-lessons will be chosen based on (a) background knowledge students need to

complete an upcoming assignment, (b) information for which students have demonstrated a need

or a desire or (c) information related to current events. The following list of possible topics was

compiled from a number of sources: diversity, ethics, fact assessment, the five Ws and H, global

sensibility, the interdisciplinary nature of journalism, in-text grammatical correction, inverted

pyramid, journalism history, media law, media literacy, news gathering, news values, objectivity,

professional e-mail communication, the profit motive and independent reporting and successful

peer support and collaboration.

Allowing a student to lead some lessons makes use of student talents, provides

encouragement for eager students and supports the value of respectful collaboration.

EXAMPLE MINI-LESSON

The Rosetta Stone Scenario

Time: 10 minutes

Procedure:

1. Gather students into teams.

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 2. As the leader passes out one original set of actual edited galleys or marked-up pages from

a real and recent magazine or newspaper to each group, she sets up the following

scenario: You are journalism historians far in the future. You find this document in a

perfectly preserved file cabinet at the bottom of the ocean.

3. Please answer the following questions: (1) What is this and what is it used for? (2) What

do the marks mean? (3) Why do you suppose these marks were developed? (4) Create a

key for the marks that appear on your page. (5) Is the person who produced the original

type a good writer or a bad writer? (6) How do you support your claim?

4. Back in reality, the teacher/leader would reveal that the producer of the text is hers. What

is the lesson here? (Writing is a highly precise process. Everyone makes mistakes. In

order to gain credibility as a professional writer, you must know the rules and use them at

least 95 percent of the time.)

5. How might this information be useful to you now and your career? (You can interpret

and edits and edit others in ways that are highly direct, standardized and interpretable.)

ENCOURAGING THE HEART

The following is based upon pages 93 – 107 of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge

Workbook.

Kouzes and Posner are mindful in their setting aside time to recognize contributions,

show appreciation for individual excellence, celebrate the values of the group and create a sense

of community (93). They recommend public recognition, values- and accomplishment-related

storytelling and support building as important components of team encouragement (94).

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 The End-of-the-Week Meeting. Encouragement in the journalism classroom takes the

form of an end-of-the-week meeting, which will include a debrief and a preview. This will give

students an opportunity to recognize excellence in each other, to share their successes and

challenges, to evaluate areas that have been shown to need improvement and to express feelings

regarding the work to come. This 5- or 10-minute discussion will reaffirm the group’s values and

center the class in its goals.

Co-created Rubrics. A formalized system of evaluation is an important component to

the academic environment. To bridge the gap between corporate leadership strategy—where

formalized evaluation is much less frequent—and academia, I have chosen to use analytic

rubrics. “A rubric is a criterion-based scoring guide consisting of a fixed measurement of scale

and descriptions of the characteristics for each score point” (Wiggins and McTighe 173). An

analytic rubric examines several criteria independently to make an overall judgment of quality

Wiggins and McTighe 174). These criteria specify the conditions that any performance must

meet in order to be considered successful (Wiggins and McTighe 173).

In order to maintain the self-determined and egalitarian environment I have proposed so

far, it is important that the rubrics for each project are student generated and based on student-

generated definitions and goals. “It helps when students themselves identify the characteristics of

an exemplary project so that they will have a clearer understanding of the parts of the whole”

(Wiggins and McTighe 176)4. The students will have already worked to define journalism. They

can simply dissect their definition to create descriptions of work at varying levels of
4
The writer of this quote hoped that teachers would distribute good examples of work and that
students would identify the good points and in some way replicate them. I believe this stifles the
creativity we have deemed necessary to our academic exploration. As we have learned in the
proposal section of this paper, journalism scholars don’t believe that those who have created
journalistic work in the past should be emulated to such an extent as to be mimicked (Dates et al.
page). But the point the writer makes is a good one. Students are more dedicated when they
participate in the creation of the conventions that govern them (citation).
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accomplishment. For instance, my definition of journalism is: “Journalism is an evolving

collection of coherent narratives of unassailable facts that make valuable and insightful

assertions about the here and now.” Hence, to be considered high-quality work, each assignment

must present coherence, narrative, factuality, value, insight. These words would make up the

left-hand column of the rubric. Each criterion might be judged on a continuum including the

following descriptors: sophisticated, proficient, adequate, limited and poor (Wiggins and

McTighe 176).

In the traditional classroom environment, the teacher would be the only person involved

in the creation of the rubric and the only person to use it. In order to support the example-setting

and self-determination values, the teacher/leader will provide students the opportunity to create

the rubric. Students will evaluate each other’s work, the teacher’s work and his or her own.

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PROPOSED RUBRIC

ASSIGNMENT DATE

CRITERIA Sophisticated Proficient Adequate Limited Poor Notes/Score

Value 5 4 3 2 1

The work is a The work The work is The work is The work
skillful represents a orderly, logical weak in shows little
Coherence representation of logical and and organization consideration
logical thinking. It aesthetically aesthetically. and logic. It for
is aesthetically consistent relation The writer uses is organization,
consistent and of parts. The transitions, aesthetically logic,
exhibits mastery of writer exhibits language usage inconsistent consistency
transitions, English skillful use of and AP style. and shows transitions,
language usage and transitions, limited use of language
AP style. language usage transitions, usage or AP
and AP style. language style.
usage or AP
style.

The work The work The work The work The work does
incorporates incorporates incorporates incorporates not
Narration elements of elements of elements of elements of incorporate
creativity and creativity and creativity and creativity and elements of
storytelling adeptly storytelling storytelling. storytelling in creativity and
and seamlessly. thoughtfully. ways that are storytelling.
halting,
unrelated to
the story or
clichéd.

The work includes a The work includes The work The work
The work
masterful collection an appropriate includes includes either
includes an
Factuality of relevant and number of either too too many or
appropriate
credible sources and relevant and many or too too few
number of
facts, which work in credible sources. few sources sources or
sources. The
harmony to support Important facts or sources of sources of
facts support the
the article’s are chosen and questionable questionable
surrounding
framework. The incorporated relevance or relevance or
material. The
facts check out. skillfully. The credibility. credibility.
facts check out.
facts check out. The facts Facts are
check out. questionable.

The piece cements The piece The piece gives

The piece The piece
the importance of addresses the the reader an
addresses the does not
Value the work using questions adequate reason
importance of establish the
news values or regarding the to read.
the work topic’s
other critical importance of the
weakly. The importance.
appeals. The reader topic using news
reader is in The reader has
is compelled to values or other
danger of little reason to
read. critical appeals.
losing read.
The reader reads
interest.
easily.

The piece
The piece
The piece The piece The piece does not make
Insight makes an
makes and makes and makes and an assertion or
assertion, but
proves an proves an supports an exhibit that
exhibits little
original and assertion assertion thought has
support,
multi- that exhibits that been applied
originality or
dimensional an original exhibits to the topic.
thought.
assertion. and clear thoughtful
under- perception
standing of of the
the situation. situation.

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ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Because Kouses and Posner did not design their leadership strategy for the classroom, a

few augmentations are necessary. As you have likely surmised by now, I have devised an hour-

by-hour educational plan. The entire course plan appears later in the portfolio. I have chosen to

organize class work by the hour, because it is difficult for me to tell at this point how long or

how often my classes will be. I have assumed that classes will include about 3 class hours per

week and will last for approximately 14 weeks.

Each hour includes an essential question or two, a procedure, and thought-generation

prompts for next class. In cases where students will be expected to submit polished work, I have

included a section called “expectation for next class.” There are two reasons for this

arrangement. It is based on principles learned during a course in The College of Saint Rose’s

graduate program in education, EDU 550/551 Advanced Instructional Design.

In addition, the hour-by-hour educational plan relates to the value of organization and

consistency. The essential questions align each day’s work with the larger goals or standards.

The time-driven procedure assures that the leader has a realistic idea of what can be

accomplished in the amount of time provided. The thought questions prepare students for the

next class in a way that is relevant and allows the student to devote as much or as little time as he

or she warrants necessary, which honors the value of self-determination. The expectation section

ensures that there are no surprises regarding what is expected of students.

COURSE PLAN

WEEK 1

HOUR 1:

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Essential questions: How does one network professionally?

Procedure:

6. In the first 2 minutes, execute the following: Introduce self very briefly as class leader.

7. For the next 7 minutes, introduce a mini-lesson on the topic of networking. What is

networking? Where does it happen? What is it good for in the world? How might

networking be useful in this class? How does one network? What’s easy about

networking? What is challenging for you about networking? If we were to network here

today, what would your personal goals be?

8. For the next 35 minutes, create a realistic networking situation. Grab a drink and a snack.

Meet and greet.

9. For the next 5 minutes, debrief.

10. In the last 5 minutes, introduce the thought question for the next class.

Thought questions: What is your personal-best educational experience? What did your value

about that experience? What did the “teacher” do to make the experience successful? What did

the “student” do to make that experience successful? Write down.

HOUR 2:

Essential questions: What is your personal-best educational experience? What did your value

about that experience? How can we develop culture of learning that reflects those values?

Procedure:

1. For the first 5 minutes, present storytelling as a journalistic skill and as a way to express

values.

2. For the second 5 minutes, edit experience into three sentences.

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 3. For the next 30 minutes, share/note values.

4. For the next 20 minutes, draft and finalize a credo.

Thought questions: What is journalism? How does our definition of journalism affect our

standard of academic and professional achievement? Write it down.

HOUR 3:

Essential questions: What is journalism? What is our standard of academic and professional

achievement?

Procedure:

1. For the first 10 minutes, use your networking experience to gather in groups of about four

people. Synthesize your ideas.

2. For the next 20 minutes, present your group’s thoughts in one or two refined sentences.

3. For the next 10 minutes, synthesize again until the definition is finalized.

4. For the next 15 minutes, create a rubric for our work based on our definition. Discuss and

agree.

5. For the last 5 minutes, debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: What do you read? How does our definition of journalism affect our

choices as media consumers? Bring a list of three smart ideas regarding your text for this course.

WEEK 2

HOUR 4:

Essential questions: What do you read? How does our definition of journalism affect our

choices as media consumers?

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Procedure:

1. For the 10 minutes, present a contextually relevant mini-lesson: copy-editing symbols.

2. For the next 15 minutes, complete a writing exercise that answers the following

questions: (1) Choose your favorite of the three publications you identified. (2) Describe

in detail your first encounter with this publication. (3) What first attracted you to it? (4)

What do you like about it now? (5) How does the publication relate to our definition of

journalism?

3. For the next 15 minutes, describe and exemplify the five-paragraph essay.

4. For the next 20 minutes, identify your thesis, your reasons and your backup. Put your

outline in order and begin writing.

Expectation for the next class: Bring your best five-paragraph essay about what you read and

why.

Thought questions: What are your personal goals for the class and your longer-term

professional goals?

HOUR 5:

Essential questions: What are your personal goals for the class and your longer-term

professional goals?

Procedure:

1. For the first 5 minutes, the teacher/leader demonstrates how the rubric that the class

created can be adapted to the five-paragraph assignment.

2. Use your networking experience to pair with a member of the class with whom you have

not worked yet.

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 3. For the next 15 minutes of the class, use our copy-editing lesson to cross-edit your five-

paragraph essays. Read for 5 minutes and talk for five minutes.

4. For the next 10 minutes, edit your thoughts about your personal and professional goals

into three sentences.

5. For the next 20 minutes, share your goals.

6. For the next 10 minutes, synthesize ideas.

Expectation for the next class: Polish your five-paragraph essay. Add to the end a paragraph

containing your thoughts about the experience and a brief self assessment.

Thought questions: How can we spend our time in ways that meets our personal and our

professional needs? Bring at least one good idea.

HOUR 6:

Essential questions: How can we spend our time in ways that meets our personal and our

professional needs?

Procedure:

1. Pass in your five-paragraph essays. The teacher/leader will pass her essay to a member or

several members of the group.

2. Use your networking experience to create groups of four people.

3. For the first 10 minutes, share and synthesize your ideas regarding how can we spend our

time in ways that meets our personal and our professional needs?

4. For the next 15 minutes, create a list of the best ideas from the entire class.

5. For the next 5 minutes, align our definitions of journalism and our journalism rubric with

our standards for blogging.

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 6. For the next 10 minutes, use each other’s experience to set up a blog.

7. For the next 5 minutes, create an introductory post that establishes the blog as a place to

record thoughts regarding your reading.

8. For the last 10 minutes, debrief and look forward.

Expectation for the next class: Finish your first blog post.

Thought questions: What does the word multi-media mean to you? What resources are

available to students who would like to use different media to present their thoughts? Bring one

well-developed and original idea to share. You will have three minutes to present your thoughts.

(In addition to the work expected of all students, the teacher/leader uses the time between classes

to generate feedback on five-paragraph essays and to produce a syllabus based on the class’s

ideas.)

WEEK 3

HOUR 7:

Essential questions: What does the word multi-media mean to you? What resources are

available to students who would like to use different media to present their thoughts? Bring one

well-developed and original idea to share.

Procedure:

1. Present your blog address to the instructor and to at least one other student. Receive/pass

out the proposed syllabus.

2. For the 10 minutes, present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

3. Use the next 5 minutes to exchange feedback regarding the five-paragraph essays.

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 4. Use the first 25 minutes to present ideas/take notes regarding multi-media.

5. For the next 10 minutes, discuss the ideas presented. Which are the most interesting,

practical, useful, challenging, and fun?

6. For the next 10 minutes, explore the possibilities. Discuss the one or two multi-media

methods you would like to explore this semester and how you might include them in your

blog.

Expectation for the next class: Please write a one- to two-paragraph typed, unnamed document

that describes your impressions of the syllabus, what you would change and any other ideas

regarding the class so far. In addition, please make a comment on at least one fellow student’s

blog.

Thought questions: Apart In light of our values, our definition of journalism and our goals, how

should we present our work for final evaluation? Write your ideas down.

HOUR 8:

Essential questions: In light of our values, our definition of journalism and our goals, how

should we present our work for final evaluation?

Procedure:

1. Submit your syllabus review documents.

2. Use 10 minutes to discuss blogging.

3. Use your networking experience to create groups of about four people.

4. For the next 15 minutes, synthesize your ideas regarding final evaluation.

5. Create a 2-minute presentation that includes the benefits and drawbacks of the method

you chose.

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 6. For the next 15 minutes, synthesize the class’s ideas. Agree on one idea. Vote if

necessary.

7. Use the next 10 minutes to create a rubric for the final evaluation.

Expectation for next class: Consume media and post about it. Follow at least one other student

and make comments when compelled.

(The teacher/leader uses the time between classes to revise the syllabus based on student

suggestions.)

HOUR 9:

Essential questions: What is our goal for the next 10 weeks? How should we work to

accomplish it?

Procedure:

1. Use the first 30 minutes to present the syllabus in a detailed and entertaining way that

represents the class values.

2. Use 15 minutes to generate and answer questions, to debrief and to look forward.

3. Use the last 15 minutes to offer the thought question and to offer in-class help.

Thought questions: Is there a connection between journalism and democracy? Why or why not?

Please bring at least one original, real-world example edited into a thoughtful presentation no

more than 2 minutes long.

WEEK 4

HOUR 10:

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Essential questions: Is there a connection between journalism and democracy? Why or why

not?

Procedure:

1. NOTE: the mini-lesson scheduled for this class has been postponed to the next class

when it will be more relevant.

2. Use 30 minutes to share findings.

3. Use 15 minutes to answer the question: How can we learn more about the connection and

demonstrate our ideas in a meaningful way? Present ideas. (I would like to have a public

debate.)

4. Use 15 minutes to plan our work for the next 5 class hours/2 weeks.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 11:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Use the fist 10 minutes to present contextually relevant mini-lesson.

2. Execute plan.

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post; follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 12:

Essential questions: TBA

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Procedure:

1. Execute plan.

2. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 5

HOUR 13:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

2. Execute plan.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 14:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Execute plan.

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post; follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 15:

Essential questions: TBA

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Procedure:

1. Execute plan.

2. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: What are the steps to writing an article that meets our journalistic

standards?

WEEK 6

HOUR 16:

Essential questions: What are the steps to writing an article that meets our journalistic

standards?

Procedure:

4. Use 10 minutes to present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

5. Take the first 30 minutes to build the list of article steps together.

6. Divide our tasks bases on the time we have: 11 class hours/ almost 4 weeks.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 17:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

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HOUR 18:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 7

HOUR 19:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 20:

Essential question for next class: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make comments about

his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 21:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

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 1. Debrief and look forward. Evaluate.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 8

HOUR 22:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 23:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 24:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: TBA

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WEEK 9

HOUR 25:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 26:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: How did this last project go? What did you like about it? What did you

dislike? What remains of our goals? How would you like to accomplish them?

HOUR 27:

Essential questions: How did this last project go? What did you like about it? What did you

dislike? What remains of our goals? How would you like to accomplish them?

Procedure:

5. Spend the first 15 minutes debriefing with the first three thought questions.

6. Look forward by using the next 15 minutes in small groups to discuss the rest of our

goals for the semester. What are they, and how should we accomplish them?

7. Spend the next 15 minutes sharing and synthesizing.

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 8. Use the last 15 minutes to plan our coursework for the next 12 course hours/ 4 weeks.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 10

HOUR 28:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 29:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation for next class: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make

comments about his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 30:

Essential questions: TBA

Procedure:

1. Debrief and look forward. Evaluate.

Thought questions: TBA

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WEEK 11

HOUR 31:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 32:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make comments about

his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 33:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

1. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 12

HOUR 34:

Essential question: TBA

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Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 35:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make comments about

his or her blog.

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 36:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

1. Debrief and look forward.

Thought questions: TBA

WEEK 13

HOUR 37:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

1. Present a contextually relevant mini-lesson.

Thought questions: TBA

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HOUR 38:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Expectation: Consume media, post, follow at least one other student and make comments about

his or her blog.

Thought questions: How did this last project go? What did you like about it? What did you

dislike? What remains of our goals? How would you like to accomplish them?

HOUR 39:

Essential questions: How did this last project go? What did you like about it? How would you

like to finish the semester?

Procedure:

1. Spend the first 15 minutes debriefing with the first two thought questions.

2. Look forward by using the next 15 minutes in small groups to discuss the end of the

semester. How would you like to finish?

3. Spend the next 15 minutes sharing and synthesizing.

4. Use the last 15 minutes to plan our coursework for the final week and the last class.

WEEK 14

HOUR 40:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

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Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 41:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Thought questions: TBA

HOUR 42:

Essential question: TBA

Procedure:

Thought questions: TBA

In addition to the hour-by-hour educational plan, I have also devised a proposed syllabus.

Like the rubric, many of the details included will be adjusted based upon student input. As

Kouzes and Posner suggest, leaders must have vivid ideas regarding what they hope to

accomplish. Then they listen and adjust to build a shared understanding.

PROPOSED SYLLABUS

Course Number and Title

OUR VALUES We believe in our capability to achieve positive change in this class, in

this community and in the journalism industry.

We foster a team of inspired writers in a realistic journalism environment

where any member of the group is as likely to teach as he or she is to

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 learn.

We use collaboration, solid goal orientation and innovation to create

uniquely relevant projects.

We evaluate progress toward journalistic ideals based on professional

standards, mutually defined rubrics and collaboration.

We operate within in a consistent set of expectations that gives everyone

the highest likelihood of success.

OUR DEFINITIONS Journalism is a collection of coherent narratives of unassailable

facts that make valuable and insightful assertions about the here

and now.

“[Journalists are] professionals who are employed to create journalistic

texts in the public media” (Dates et al. 154).

OUR GOALS We aim to understand the relationship between journalism and democracy,

to produce professional-quality journalistic texts and to make valuable

contributions to the future of the industry.

TEXTS The Associated Press Stylebook, a grammar manual of the student’s choice

and a literate magazine or newspaper of the student’s choice

OUR PROJECTS Journalism and Democracy Debate. Students will learn Robert’s Rules

of Order and conduct an orderly debate of ideas in the public forum. They

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 will attempt to prove one of the two following statements: “Journalism

does affect the health of democracy” or “Journalism does not affect the

health of democracy.”

Professional Journalistic Texts. Students will use several weeks to

complete the following tasks: generate newsworthy ideas regarding what

they should cover; conduct preliminary research, including potential

interviewees; make a pitch—which includes the idea, supporting points,

potential interviewees, proposed number of words, photography, sidebars,

and multimedia—to the teacher/leader and fellow students; listen to

interviews and make guesses regarding how to interview; draft questions

and practice interviews; conduct at least one interview for every 250

words of their story; transcribe interviews and make assertions; organize

material and write the story; revise and self-evaluate.

Experiential Learning for the Future of the Industry. Students will

observe the media, reflect on observations on blog, cite examples and

identify concepts or make generalizations, identify implications, define

development needs, set objectives, and make a plan for meeting objectives

and evaluate their work (Brandon 63).

SOURCES

Brandon, Wanda. "Experiential Learning: a New Research Path to the Study of Journalism

Education." Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 57.1 (Spring2002 2002): 59-

Brenon Page 77
 66. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. College of Saint Rose, Neil

Hellman Lib. 7 Sep. 2009. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ufh&AN=6892269&site=ehost-live>.

Dates, Jannette L., et al. "Does Journalism Education Matter?" Journalism Studies 7.1 (Feb.

2006): 144-156. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. College of Saint

Rose, Neil Hellman Lib. 7 Sep. 2009. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ufh&AN=19373947&site=ehost-live>.

Brenon Page 78
PART III: Discussion

Honestly, when I started this project, suggesting transformational leadership in the

classroom was a bit of a leap. There was no research to support such a thing. There was only the

real-world idea that good teachers are good leaders and that good leaders are good teachers.

Since having finished the research portion of the paper more support for the idea of leadership in

education has emerged. On December 2, 2009, the Poynter Institute’s Roy Peter Clark wrote a

blog post titled, “What the Best Writing Teachers Do, How Students Can Learn from Them.”

Many of Clark’s ideas echo those of transformational leaders. Clark suggests that good teachers

“believe that all students…can improve their writing,” offer encouragement, set an example by

writing with and for students and incite discussion about reading and writing.

A few days later on December 4, 2009, the New York Times ran an editorial by Harvard

University’s Bob Herbert. It announced the university’s having created a tuition-free doctoral

program focused on leadership in education. It is scheduled to begin in the fall. The idea is

catching on.

After having completed this project, I have come upon a couple of conclusions. I believe

that transformational leadership offers an organizational structure for communicating the

journalism industry’s traditional values, its democratic demands and its evolving understandings

in a way that is effective, complete, practical and realistic. I believe that a journalism teacher

who employs transformational leadership has the potential to motivate students and him- or

herself toward positive change both in the classroom and in the industry. All of this being true,

perhaps the most compelling reason to implement a transformational leadership paradigm in the

journalism classroom is the strategy’s capacity to exemplify the leadership that the industry itself

needs.

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 Regarding the implementation of transformational leadership in the classroom, there are

two important and seemingly contradictory pillars that teacher/leaders must remember. First, the

teacher/leader must have very firm ideas about everything. Everything. This is not the lazy way

to go. The teacher/leader must develop a clear set of values and a clear vision regarding where

the class should go. The teacher/leader must know the projects that he or she would use to

accomplish the instructional goals. Second, the teacher/leader must listen, adopt the role of

learner and incorporate students’ values and visions into the class work. In a sense, the

teacher/leader must be prepared to make significant changes to his or her plans.

There are challenges related to this flexibility. Because students act as co-creators of the

course, it takes much longer for students to begin working on journalism. According to my

course plan, they will spend the first several class hours creating an educational culture. Given

that the semester is only 14 weeks long, I imagine that most departmental leaders would object to

spending the first several classes “getting set up.” Many journalism instructors hope to have

students writing news or news-like pieces by the end of the first few class sessions.

I believe that the time used to create a personally relevant educational environment is an

investment in motivation. I believe that the investment will allow students to accomplish more in

less time, because they will be working toward their own goals energetically and voluntarily.

Because this is a new idea, and one with so many variables, opportunities for further

research abound. I am particularly interested in the concepts of co-created syllabi, projects and

rubrics and how opening these documents for guided discussion may affect motivation and

performance. I am also interested in exploring the concept of example-setting in the writing

classroom.

Brenon Page 80
PART IV: Works Cited

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Brandon, Wanda. "Experiential Learning: a New Research Path to the Study of Journalism

Education." Journalism & Mass Communication Educator 57.1 (Spring2002 2002): 59-

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