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Practicum Reflection
Colloquium in Leadership 650-82
Pa Yong Xiong
Focus of practicum reflection:
The site of my practicum is at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. The focus of my
practicum is designing and implementing workshops to build on our student ambassadors
personal knowledge and skills. I will be using research based personality and strength tests to
help them assess their level of self. After each workshop training, students walked away with
more knowledge about themselves through personality and strength tests.
Identify two or three effective leadership practices addressed in this experience and how
this practicum addressed the practice and use of them?
Two leadership practices addressed in this experience was Enable Others to Act and Encourage
the Heart. At the beginning of the workshop, I included the goals and objectives. After that, we
dived into the background of the subject. I provide references so that if students want to, they can
seek out more information. After the background information, we started the assessment test.
During the assessment, student were able to practice patience and respect as some finished
before others. After the assessment, we would go over the information and their results. Before
doing so, as the facilitator, I made sure to vocalize my respect and that all students are entitled to
personal thoughts and opinions regarding their results. In building a climate of trust, each person
was able to share their thoughts and insights about the information learned.
In the upcoming training workshops for the new ambassadors, the focus will shift to Model the
Way and Inspire a Shared Vision. As they will be new additions to the team, it is important to

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clarify the departments values and define their roles. As advisors, we will have to set the
example, putting students at the center and thus, if the new student ambassadors have any
questions, we would do the same. To fully include them in our team, we will have to inspire a
shared vision. This can be done through sharing the mission statement of the college. We can
have an open discussion on what is important to each of the ambassador and what they are
excited about in terms of the position.
Brief Description of Experience:
For the practicum, I worked with 4 student ambassadors in further developing their selfawareness and conflict management. I have conducted 2 workshops for 1 hours each on selfawareness and conflict management in the month of March. In the upcoming months, I will also
be working with students one-on-one to talk about their experiences, goals and aspirations after
college. The admissions team will also be adding three more student ambassadors to the team in
the next couple of weeks and so I am planning to lead 4 or more 1 hour training workshops to
finish the ten hours practicum.
Two key learning from the practicum experience:
From the practicum, one key learning point that I am taking away is the ability to assess the
target audiences experiences and build materials that contribute to their growth. For example,
our current student ambassadors have been with us for almost six months now and are well
versed in our mission and vision. It would not be as beneficial for them if I was to focus on
modeling the way and inspiring a shared vision in my trainings. However, these two practices
will be done right away for the new student ambassadors.

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Another huge key learning point for me from this practicum is that I am more aware of my own
self. At first I was nervous about assessing the student ambassadors knowledge and then
building the materials. I was also worried about presenting and teaching. What I did not realize is
the transferability of the skills that I have acquired over the years. Researching, teaching, and
presenting are skills that I have developed throughout college and work. From college, I have
experience leading trainings on working with youth. I have found that the style and structure is
not too different when presenting on self-awareness and conflict management. As I am using this
time to reflect on my experiences with this new awareness, I can go into a different task with
more confidence. I believe that I can draw on similar experiences to help me perform.
Connecting learning to topics covered in the course content, two articles of evidence of best
practices, and compare and contrast literature with course content and your key learnings.
A) Identify relevant course content to your learning. Compare and contrast to your
practicum experiences with the material selected.
Your ability to excel as a leader depends on how well you know yourself. The better you know
yourself, the better you can make sense of the often incomprehensible and conflicting messages
you receive daily. Do this, do that. Support that, support this. Decide this, decide that. Change
this, change that. You need internal guidance to navigate the turmoil in todays highly uncertain
environment. Page 337
I definitely agree with this paragraph. One of the best things about trying new things is at the end
of the day you can reflect and change it for the next time. Becoming self-aware and committing
to understanding yourself, your strengths, and your ethics can really guide your actions when
there are conflicting messages. From my practicum, I was especially descriptive of why I have

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decided to focus two of the workshops on Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management.
Both topics are very important for leaders and useful for anyone in general.
Understanding yourself and your purpose will also give you more confidence. Since these two
are my first workshops, I was quite nervous being that I have not led a session for more than an
hour before. I believe that a part of knowing yourself is preparing enough materials. As one of
my teachers advised me before: as a teacher, you prepare two days worth of materials for one
day and then you add in another days worth for that day as well. I believe that by the end of the
practicum, I would build more confidence in my teaching skills in addition to my leadership
skills.
B) Construct two to three paragraphs identifying at least two pieces of research,
articles, or evidence of best practices and compare and contrast this literature with
the course content and key learnings.
Ganz (2002) claims that a great way to enable others is through [challenging] people to act on
behalf of shared values and interests. When leaders enable others by drawing on these shared
values and interests, they can motivate the group in achieving a common purpose. Zachary and
Fishcler (2010) states that a leader is also a competent mentor. A part of enabling others to act is
to focus on helping others be successful. Leaders create an atmosphere that encourages
collaborative partnership of mutual respect and provide ongoing feedback. To enable others to
achieve this environment is based on listening.
Both Ganz, Zachary and Fishclers behaviors in the leadership practice of enabling others to act
is parallel to the behaviors of Kouzes and Posner (2012). From the course learning and my
experience, I agree with both article. However, I resonate more with Zachary and Fishclers

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article. I believe mentorship is very important. It can develop both formally or informally.
Mentors can provide a person with different perspectives that they may not get otherwise.
Mentors are able to provide information and conversations that may not always happen in a
professional setting.
How did this experience improve my current understanding of educational leadership?
Through the practicum, I was able to focus on conducting my actions in a purposeful manner that
allows me to practice my leadership style. I believe educational leadership is having the ability to
focus, motivate and support a group in an educational setting. As leadership is critical across all
fields, with the addition of education, it really emphasizes the learning and teaching aspect that
some fields omit. Through the Educational Leadership program, I hope to develop my own
leadership skills to better the education systems. Not only that but also be able to teach and
inspire others to develop their own leadership skills as well.

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References
Ganz, M. (2002). What is Organizing?.Social Policy,33(1). 16-17.
Zachary, L. J., &Fischler, L. A. (2010). Those Who Lead, Mentor. T+D, 64(3), 52-57.