Girl Scout Leadership Experience

OF WESTERN OHIO

VOLUNTEER RESOURCE GUIDE

GIRL SCOUT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

GIRL SCOUT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience continues to maintain the values that have been at our core for 98 years while maintaining relevance to the lives of girls today. The Leadership Experience defines and displays all of the elements that enable troops/groups and all Girl Scout activities to positively impact girls’ lives. The following pages explain some of the key principles found in the Leadership Experience.

The Foundational Pieces of Girl Scouts

The Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines foundation as, "an underlying base or support." The Girl Scout Mission, Council Goals, and the Girl Scout Promise and Law are just that in Girl Scouting, the underlying base, the items that support all we do are the mission, goals and the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Everything done in Girl Scouting is supported by these ideals.

Council Goals:

Success in Girl Scouting is based on the achievement of the Council Goals. The greatest measure of success in Girl Scouting is the degree to which individual members benefit or demonstrate personal and social development toward the four Council Goals.

The Council Goals are:

Discover

Girls will understand themselves and their values

Girls will use their knowledge and skill to explore the world

Connect

Girls will care about, inspire, and team with others locally and globally

Take Action

Girls will act to make the world a better place

Pathways

Pathways are how we deliver the Girl Scout Leadership Experience to all girls and how we match volunteers to girl preferences for participation.

Program Processes

Program processes are implemented through activities supported by adult volunteers to achieve the Council Goals (see page 6 for more details). The three Girl Scout program processes are Learning By Doing, Cooperative Learning and Girl-Led.

Outcomes

An outcome in Girl Scouting is the benefit for participants during or after their involvement in the Girl Scout Program or activity related to the program. There are three different levels of outcomes resulting in girls achieving the Council Goals in Girl Scouting:

Short-Term/Intermediate Outcomes: these outcomes are linked to the council goals, the changes in behavior that result from the participant’s new knowledge, attitude, or skill.

Long-Term Outcomes: these outcomes are the ultimate desire for participants…Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. These are the changes that occur in a girl and often carry over into adult life.

KEYS TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL GIRL SCOUT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Girl/Adult Partnership - Girls are able to direct their Girl Scout experience with the support of adults. In partnership, girls and adults work together to plan and carry out the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Girls are involved and have more opportunities to increase their self-reliance and gain important life skills. Adults assist girls through the experiential process and ensure there are opportunities for reflection.

Progression - Girl Scouts is built on progression. As girls grow in the Girl Scouts so do their experiences. It is the responsibility of the adult working with the girls to ensure that progression takes place allowing girls to fully achieve the council goals.

Non-Formal Education - Girl Scouting is considered "non-formal education" because girls (i.e. the learners) direct the learning. Non-formal education supports development of life-skills and character.

What is the distinction between formal, non-formal and informal education?

Formal Education - this is what happens in school…a prescribed curriculum, well planned, sequential and usually comes from the top down.

Non-Formal Education - this is education that has outcomes, builds relationships, is less structured than school and usually requires volunteers to deliver. It is intentional and develops skills, relationships, and is value based.

Informal-Education - is unintentional and often happens by "accident." It comes from family friends, the media. It’s everywhere.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE PROGRAM PROCESSES

The program processes describe how the Girl Scout program really works. It’s not just what girls do, but how adults engage them that creates a high-quality experience. All Girl Scout activities are built on three processes that make Girl Scouting unique. These three program processes ensure the quality and promote the fun and friendship that is so integral to Girl Scouting and results in the achievement of short and long term outcomes. Below you’ll find more information about the three key program processes: Girl-Led, Cooperative Learning, and Learning by Doing.

LEARNING BY DOING

Learning by Doing, also known as Experiential Learning, is a hands-on learning process that engages girls in continuous cycles of action and reflection that result in deeper understanding of concepts and mastery of practical skills. As they participate in meaningful activities and then reflect on them, girls get to explore their own questions, discover answers, gain new skills, and share ideas and observations with others. Throughout the process, it’s important for girls to be able to connect their experiences to their lives and apply what they have learned to their future experiences.

The Experiential Learning Cycle

The Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC) is a model that shows how you can work with a group to take something they experience, ask the right questions, and make meaning of that experience for future use and application. The ELC has five steps and can be applied to any group experience.

Asking good questions and discussing shared experiences and data is like painting a picture of what happened in an experience. By getting everyone to talk about it the picture grows in color, texture, and depth. Once the picture is clear, you are able to change how things are done in the future.

Asking good questions is also progressive process. The purpose is to take girls or leaders from what they saw and heard to discovering what can be done to change behavior or actions in the future. This is done by asking questions, in a specific order.

Learning By Doing in Action

Believe it or not, it is really quite easy to implement these ideas with a group. Here are a few things that will help make it easier:

Don’t make it a formal process. When in the car on the way home from an activity, turn the radio off and listen to what the girls are saying about the experience. At a meeting, have the girls sit in a circle and just begin the discussion. Be sure it is casual and fun.

Don’t worry about the order of the questions, with practice you will improve on the progressive order. The most important thing is to ask questions and get the group talking about the experience.

Build the questions based on what is being said. There is no perfect plan for asking questions because with each question the answers change. Listen to what is being said and build questions on the answers. Keep in mind your final outcome…identifying and applying learning in the future. Even if the questions aren’t in the right order, you will get there.

Just try it out. The more you do it, the more comfortable you will become. Practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. The more you do, the better you become.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative learning is just how it sounds… girls working in small groups and teams. Girls work together to accomplish goals, discover and try new things, share ideas, and learn from one another. In a troop setting this often happens when girls participate in troop government/the democratic process. It’s when a girl works in a patrol to make decisions, discuss ideas or to complete a kaper.

Non-formal education and cooperative learning work in partnership. In non-formal education, the adult leader is deliberate about how she works with the girls, the environment that is established, and encourages the building of relationships. Cooperative learning allows relationships to be built through the small group discussion, decision making, and planning. Cooperative learning allows each girl to have a voice and discover new things about her self and others.

GIRL-LED

When girls are actively involved in making troop decisions, encouraged to develop leadership skills and accept responsibility, they are more likely to enjoy their Girl Scout activities and to stay with them longer.

Girl-led learning happens when girls play an active part in figuring out the what, when, where, how, and why of their activities. This non-formal education technique enables the learner to actively participate in directing her own learning.

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Administrative Office

4930 Cornell Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242-1804

T: 513-489-1025 or 800-537-6241, F: 513-489-1417