Framing Educational Leadership in a Global Context

Introduces fundamental skills related to problem solving and communication.

The Fundamentals of Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Provides an overview of the creativity sequence, and explores the genesis of creative ideas – within an individual and within an organization.

Educational Organizations: Governance and Finance I

This two-course sequence explores the impact of global transformations on educational systems’ governance and finance.

Educational Organizations: Governance and Finance II

This two-course sequence explores the impact of global transformations on educational systems’ governance and finance.

Research

Provides foundation and structure for writing literature reviews.

Understanding Research that Informs Educational Leadership

Provides a framework for understanding, interpreting and applying education research. Specific topics include: publication venues; basic research designs (experiments, modeling); reading research studies critically; understanding validity, reliability and other related constructs, and an introduction to evaluation research.

Locating Educational Performance Problems

Focuses attention on developing and implementing strategies for locating, solving and evaluating the solutions to performance problems in educational organizations.

Education Performance Problems: Role of Learning

Provides an overview of contemporary perspectives on learning and motivation. This foundation will be used to provide an extension of the problem-solving model called gap analysis.

Evaluating and Assessing Educational System Outcomes

Addresses the often-overlooked step in creating educational reform: evaluating impact. It introduces basic assessment concepts and strategies, and instructs students in the planning, design, implementation and application of an evaluation approach for a “real time” initiative.

Dissertation of Practice: Context Analysis

During this course, students will become a member of a dissertation team, which will be guided by a faculty member. Each student will study an education-related problem and its organizational and historical context. The problem may be one the student brings from his or her region, or may be one provided by one of the program’s partner organizations. The determination of the suitability of a problem and the assignment of the student to a dissertation team is done at the discretion of the Program.

Creating Policy Alternatives for Educational Settings

Students identify a policy problem and explore its context. Using that information as a base, students define a policy objective(s) and develop ideas for policy alternatives. This course also includes the first case study in which students work through an education policy challenge at the institutional level.

Research

Making Choices: Deciding Among Policy Alternatives

Building on the policy objective defined in the previous course, students choose the policy alternative most likely to attain their specified goals. Students explore models of decision-making including cost-benefit analysis, risk-benefit analysis, and decision analysis, as well as the impact of political environment. Students will choose a policy to address their selected policy challenge, assess the soundness of the decision, and communicate their choice to an identified group of stakeholders. This course will also introduce the second case study in which students will work through an education policy challenge at the system level.

Complexity of Educational Systems: Emerging Ideas, Emerging Markets

Examines a range of emerging markets in education, and efforts of institutions around the world to access new markets through collaborations and offshore endeavors. New ways of thinking about education will also be addressed, such as conceptualizing education as a global trade issue.

Dissertation of Practice

Students will diagnose, research potential solutions, and develop recommendations to a field-based educational problem. Each student is responsible for generating an individual dissertation, but they do this within a group working on closely related topics. The dissertation must be original and demonstrate the student’s ability to gather and analyze evidence for use in prescribing solutions to the problems and interventions identified.

Implementing Policy in Educational Systems

Using the policy alternative developed in the previous course, students examine the implementation stage of the policy process, focusing on the effort, knowledge, and resources devoted to translating a policy decision into action. This course will also introduce the third case study in which students will work through an education policy challenge at the national level.

Dissertation of Practice

Students will diagnose, research potential solutions, and develop recommendations to a field-based educational problem. Each student is responsible for generating an individual dissertation, but they do this within a group working on closely related topics. The dissertation must be original and demonstrate the student’s ability to gather and analyze evidence for use in prescribing solutions to the problems and interventions identified.

Data Analysis and Presentation of Findings I

The course spans over two terms—Terms 7 and 8. The course will equip students with the skills needed to generate chapter 4 on “findings” and the first part of chapter 5 on “solutions.” The course sequence will correspond to these two chapters beginning with Chapter 4, including the practical work of handling and analyzing data, determining findings, reporting them in narrative form and figuring out the most effective way to visually display key findings. The course will also address Chapter 5 and the task of developing a rationale for which findings are intended to address, identifying solutions and organizing them into a coherent set or approach.

Assessing Policy Impact in Educational Settings

Examines the assessment stage of the policy process, which explores how a policy has fared in action, including both its intended and unintended consequences. Assessment provides an important evaluative function that can inform whether a policy or policy dimensions should be continued, expanded, cut back, changed, or abandoned. This course will also introduce the final case study in which students will work through an education policy challenge at the multi-national level.

Dissertation of Practice

Students will diagnose, research potential solutions, and develop recommendations to a field-based educational problem. Each student is responsible for generating an individual dissertation, but they do this within a group working on closely related topics. The dissertation must be original and demonstrate the student’s ability to gather and analyze evidence for use in prescribing solutions to the problems and interventions identified.

Dissertation of Practice

Problem Solving: Equipping leaders to use theory and evidence to ask the right questions, identify underlying causes and solve systemic problems.