Course Descriptions

EDLS 9800 INTEGRATIVE LEADERSHIP SEMINAR 3

The Integrative Leadership Seminar is designed to introduce students to multiple facets of leadership from an interdisciplinary perspective. The seminar provides a framework for the doctoral student to develop knowledge, skills, and values of leadership for 21st-Century organizations. This course is designed to encourage students to investigate their leadership behaviors, to be reflective in their response, and to make plans to improve their effectiveness. This seminar is an integral part of the residency experience.

EDLS 9802 ETHICS OF LEADERSHIP 3

Ethics of Leadership provides doctoral-level students the opportunity to study the foundations of ethics as a discipline, the relationship between ethics and character formation, and historical perspectives on ethical decision making. The course also explores the pressing moral, social, political, and ethical issues of contemporary American society, particularly as these issues impact the policies, programs, and practices of schools and related organizations in the United States. The course is designed to expose organizational leaders to the breadth and complexity of ethical issues and their impact on educational and organizational decision making. In addition, this course encourages the moral, social, and spiritual development of the students.

EDLS 9820 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN 4

This course is designed to provide students with the concepts and tools needed to read, understand, interpret, analyze, and evaluate quantitative literature in the field of educational leadership. In addition, students learn to apply various quantitative techniques to problems and research questions encountered in the field of education and educational leadership. This course is taught from an application framework. Students will identify the appropriate quantitative technique and research design for a given educational problem or research question, organize data in the appropriate form for use by the SPSS/WINDOWS computer software, design and execute the appropriate statistical analysis, and interpret the findings.

EDLS 9821 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN 4

This is a course designed to acquaint students with qualitative research methodology and qualitative research design. Students are introduced to the philosophical underpinnings of qualitative research, with a focus on anthropological and sociological antecedents of such inquiry. The assumptions of qualitative research, as well as ethical concerns, are discussed. Document analysis, content analysis, interviewing, observation, unobtrusive data collection, site selection, building rapport, collecting field notes, data management, and techniques of writing narrative case studies are themes of the course. A pilot study is conducted utilizing data collection, preparing a case study narrative, receiving feedback, and doing subsequent revision.

EDLS 9822; 9824—9829 SEMINARS IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH 2

In this seminar, students learn how to determine which research techniques are appropriate to use with the research questions posed in their initial dissertation topics. Students undertake an intensive study of the quantitative and/or qualitative tools required to conduct their study as they prepare their dissertation proposal.

EDLS 9823 DISSERTATION RESEARCH DESIGN 3

In this course, doctoral students will learn the appropriate methods and techniques to use with the research questions presented in their proposed dissertation topics. They will learn how to conduct an advanced database search and undertake an intensive review of the literature. Students will gain knowledge in the quantitative and mixed method approaches to conducting educational research. The course will discuss and review qualitative methods that may be used in applied research. Students will also acquire skills in the dissertation style of writing.

EDLS 9830 DOCTORAL MENTORSHIP 4

The Doctoral Mentorship is designed to link full-time clinical experiences with academic work. The student, the school district or agency, and the University form a partnership that addresses a specific dimension of the school or agency and design or redesign that piece of the organization to enhance the overall systemic function of the building, agency, or district. The Leadership Examination provides the student with the opportunity to integrate learning from the mentorship experience with other core work. (The Mentorship and the Leadership Examination are described in the Doctoral Student Handbook.) Credit: Four credit hours earned over four semesters: summer, fall, and spring of the first year and all of the second year. (A grade of “IP” is awarded for the first summer, fall, and spring semesters. The final grade is awarded at the end of the second fall semester.)

EDLS 9841 ISSUES AND TRENDS IN COMPUTERMEDIATED LEARNING AND TEACHING 3

This course represents an overview of the influence of computer and other instructional technology on formal learning and teaching. Attention is given to historical, social, and psychological perspectives on media and technology, followed by current research affecting learning and instruction. Students identify a specific area of interest related to instructional technology and pursue an independent project. The projects relate to continuous improvement planning as addressed in EDLS 9843 of this cognate series.

EDLS 9842 EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY 3

This course provides an understanding of the processes and activities essential for designing, implementing, and appraising the utility of educational programs mediated by instructional technology. The graduate student researches systemic reform and other change theory. The student applies that understanding through case study to the development of a needs assessment and an evaluation plan. The work in this course establishes the tools to begin EDLS 9843.

EDLS 9843 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT FOR INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY 3

This course enables students to use a continuous improvement planning model to conduct a research and evaluation project in the graduate student’s school district. The students build on the needs assessment and evaluation plan completed in EDLS 9842. They develop an appropriate plan, with pilot study, to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional technology on student learning in their districts. The course also serves as a starting point for those interested in pursuing dissertation topics in the continuous improvement process and instructional technology.

EDLS 9846 ADVANCED STUDIES IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3

This course is designed to assist professional development practitioners in gaining knowledge and tools necessary to design, implement, and evaluate programs for professional growth in an educational context. The course will center on major themes, each to be examined in relationship to implications for professional development practice. The themes currently include school culture, school reform, schools as learning organizations, and the design of professional growth experiences.

EDLS 9847 CHANGE PROCESSES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3

Change Processes and Professional Development provides an understanding of the theories and practices related to change as it impacts decisions about professional development in formal organizations such as educational settings. The student will use his or her professional assignment to develop case studies of change as it has impacted on professional development decisions for himself or herself and as change has impacted the organization and its professional development needs.

EDLS 9848 ADULT DEVELOPMENT: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE 3

Adult Development is a course designed to provide leaders of professional enterprises with a foundation of knowledge and experience that will enable them to develop programs of development and renewal based on the principles and theories of human life-span development and learning.

EDLS 9849 DIRECTED RESEARCH AND EVALUATION IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3

This course is intended to provide leaders of professional development the opportunity to design an action research project or program evaluation, to carry out the actual research/evaluation project in an appropriate professional education setting, to analyze data, and to prepare the results of the research/evaluation for presentation or publication.

EDLS 660/9860 INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS 3

Institutional effectiveness represents the second generation of organizational development theories and considers multiple aspects of organizational health. High-performance organizations are concerned about improving all facets of their work. Topics such as continuous quality improvement, assessment outcomes, data gathering and analysis, program evaluation, and strategic planning are covered. The course also examines organizational culture and transformational leadership as underlying themes in implementing planned change.

EDLS 9880 LEADERSHIP THEORY 3

This course will provide an essential theoretical understanding of leadership, authority, and group dynamics in a format designed to generate personal insights into one’s own patterns of response to social forces, as well as to develop practical skills for exercising authority and leadership within groups and organizations. The history of the development of leadership will be discussed as will traditional views of leadership. An ongoing theme of the course is “leadership as service.” This course has a strong experiential component that continually provides participants with opportunities to test and integrate their learning with experience (i.e., the mentorship experience).

EDLS 9881 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR 3

This course examines the interaction of people and the institutional environment. Organizational structure, management models, the history of administration, climate, organizational culture, motivation theory, power and authority, systems theory, contingency theory, conflict, organizational change and renewal, and organizational leadership are considered in detail. These notions are discussed in relation to the restructuring of American education in the 2000s and beyond. In addition, the course focuses on how leaders can link theory and research with actual practice; this course is taken concurrently with the student’s mentorship experience.

EDLS 9882 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND RENEWAL 3

Professional Development and Renewal is intended to provide leaders of professional enterprises with experience and understanding that will enable them to encourage and facilitate career-long growth. Dimensions of professional development to be examined include historical perspectives, social contexts, psychological factors, learning and development theories, established models, and effective practices. Individual and organizational development are viewed as inseparable parts of a whole. The completion of a personal, long-range professional development plan is used as a vehicle to frame planning for the professional development of others.

EDLS 9887 INSTITUTIONAL LAW AND POLICY 3

This course blends the study of law and policy. Policy is manifested in the statutes, regulations, guidelines, and codifications that define the purposes and parameters of specific actions, establish individual and institutional responsibilities, outline rules to be followed, and identify resources to be allocated. Policies are formulated and enacted at many levels, but policy decisions made at an organizational level may be circumscribed by those made at higher levels (state and federal policies). Therefore, the course includes a study of federal and state constitutional provisions, statutory standards, and regulatory applications as they apply to the management and control of educational and organizational specific content that will be used to study and develop organization-wide policies. The impact of local policies on the organization’s constituents is studied.

EDLS 9888 ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION 3

An economist looks at education as an investment. Students learn what economic research says about the role of education in economic growth, the best uses of dollars to produce educational outcomes, and equity and adequacy of education funding systems. They study and evaluate examples of various quantitative research designs used by economists and draw out implications of research for policy. The standards/accountability approach to educational reform is contrasted with the market/school choice approach.

EDLS 9889 ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3

Organization development (OD) is an organizational improvement strategy that utilizes behavioral science principles and practices to increase individual and organizational effectiveness. School districts must address the opportunities and challenges in successfully managing change by applying a systems approach to planned change initiatives. Organizational development and transformation focuses on how human capital is utilized in organizations to implement successful positive change. The topics learned in this course are the dynamics of an organization and its environment, the style of internal and external OD consultants, organizational culture and processes, diagnosing an organization or its subunits to determine root, causes and change opportunities, selecting and tailoring OD intervention strategies to address root causes and create positive change outcomes, and addressing resistance to change.

EDLS 9898 SEMINAR/TOPICS IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP 1–6

Individual and group studies of specific aspects of leadership and organizational dynamics are undertaken under this course title.

EDLS 9899 DISSERTATION 1–10