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Teaching through Leading: The Virginia Military Rat Challenge Program. Holly Richardson, Mike Krackow, Jack Johnson, Chad Joyce and James Coale Department of Physical Education, Virginia Military Institute. Introduction. VMI - state supported school Citizen Soldier and ROTC
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Teaching through Leading:The Virginia Military Rat Challenge Program Holly Richardson, Mike Krackow, Jack Johnson, Chad Joyce and James Coale Department of Physical Education, Virginia Military Institute
Introduction • VMI - state supported school • Citizen Soldier and ROTC • Graduate individuals with strong leadership skills • Over 200 leadership opportunities
Leadership Opportunities • Regimental • Athletics • Peer Counseling • Band and Glee • Search and Rescue • Pre Professional programs
The Rat Challenge Program • Experiential-Ten weeks • Physical, mental, emotional • Supportive and positive • Reflective of the Regimental • Esprit de corps
Objectives • Determine value and worthof the program compared to other leadership programs • Determine the extent participation contributed to development of leadership skills
Methods • Post program evaluation • Qualitative-open ended questions • Quantitative-Likert type of questions • Convenient sampling 57/80 (71%) Cadre
Results-Effectiveness • How do you rank the effectivenessof the cadre role as a means of developing leadership skills? • More effective 32.8% • Most effective 58.6%
Results-Value • Given the educational mission of the Institute, how valuable for the cadre is the Rat Challenge experience? • Very valuable 34.5% • Extremely valuable 62.1%
Results: Ability, Skills, & Unity • Percentage of responses that were a ‘great deal’ or quite a lot’ • Leadership ability 91.2% • Decision making skills 87.7% • Communication skills 91.2% • Develop unity of spirit 94.7%
Cadre Comments • ‘More PT (physical training)’ • ‘More privileges’ • ‘Better than even my Reg. staff position forleadership development.’ • ‘Taught me I should prepare before instructing’ • ‘It helped me understand what I wanted my leadership style to be.’
Conclusion • Valuable • Effective
Discussion-Why? How? • Based on theory and practice • Supervised • Environment