| Instructors: | |
Fred McFarlane, Ph.D.
|
Ian Pumpian, Ph.D. (PreK-12 focus) ipumpian@mail.sdsu.edu |
Technology Support: |
Concepts of individual and group leadership in educational environments. Practices and policies of effective management and leadership; ethical and emerging trends in leadership styles.
We will teach this course in a merged format with the two groups of students. This will require that all of us work together to:
Learning within a cohort group is a model of relational leadership. The quality and depth of each person’s learning depends on the full participation of each member of the cohort.
It is our expectation that each participant will read and study assigned and related materials so that each can actively contribute to discussions on line and during class discussions. All participants are expected to attend all classes and actively engage and monitor on line activities. We expect that all course requirements will be completed on time and be of a quality expected of a doctoral student and an educational leader.
Assignment Detail:
Click each assignment to view the detail.
Due: October 26th
Each student will complete the development of a leadership profile including a 360-degree assessment. Details will be outlined during the first class session. The students will complete a self-assessment and a 360-degree assessment. The results will be presented in an individual and group format.
The instruments will assess the student’s current leadership practices, identify personality attributes, and describe preferences in learning and problem solving. The instruments include:
The Leadership Profile (TLP), which is a 360-degree feedback instrument, provides personalized feedback on leadership skills and characteristics on the basis of self-assessment and an average of the observers’ assessments. This assessment serves to provide learners with a solid understanding of leadership and leadership development. It offers multiple perspectives on their current leadership performance.
The TLP has theoretical roots in both transactional and transformational leadership. These schools of leadership offer learners a broad scope of leadership theories and practices. The TLP considers both skills and characteristics. Coupled with the theoretical basis, this provides learners with a strong foundation for understanding leadership development. The TLP offers learners and colleagues the opportunity to assess the learner’s current leadership performance. Learners can compare their perspective with the perspectives of their colleagues. The comparison provides learners with the platform for creating their individual leadership development plan.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) reports static personality types based on an individual’s mental processes, or how an individual thinks. The MBTI has a complex theoretical base and strong practical applications. Knowledge of an individual’s personality provides indications to their propensity for how they typically perceive and approach situations and people, collect and share information, and make decisions.
The Kolb Learning Styles Inventory (LSI) assesses an individual’s preferences for learning (Kolb, 1999). The LSI was developed from Experiential Learning Theory, which attends to the affective, reflective, analytical, and behavioral aspects of the learning process. The benefits of using the instrument are threefold. First, the results assist in customizing development experiences for optimal learning. Second, knowledge of an individual’s learning styles assists the learner to design professional and leadership development. Third, the LSI serves as a problem-solving model. This model introduces a methodology that considers a comprehensive analysis of decision-making for leaders to apply regardless of the scope of the issue.
Opening Remark Due: September 8th
Closing Remark Due: December 8th
It is not unusual for educational organizations to have some formal event that kicks off a school year and another at its conclusion. It may be a staff development day/conference, commencement, a stakeholder luncheon or ceremony, a departmental/unit meeting or the first or last meeting of a major taskforce or working committee. It is common for one of the organization’s figureheads (for example, the CEO, Chancellor, President, Superintendent, Principal, Dean or Director) to provide some words of wisdom as a means of kicking off (or concluding) the event and the year.
Leaders use these three to five minute opportunities to strategically speak to their colleagues and constituencies. It is an opportunity to share and reinforce who they are, what they value, and what they expect. Leaders use these opportunities to challenge and celebrate the organization’s assets, performance and mission. They convey a sense of both personal and shared values and vision. Aspiring leaders can learn a great deal from constructing and critiquing these opening remarks. At one level, it is a ‘toastmasters exercise” and a skill set most effective leaders will further master with experience and feedback. At another deeper level however, these speaking opportunities provide important insights regarding the leader and information regarding the organization’s climate, health and culture. If you were responsible for creating a rubric for evaluating these speeches what would be some of the indicators you would evaluate and why?
Imagine you are an identified leader on a team responsible for the design of California’s Master plan for K-16 education. It should not be that hard to imagine, after all in many ways its true! You are engaging in a course of study and development designed to lead our K-16 educational system into the next decade. And now, you are assigned the responsibility of:
Due: October 20th
This group project is a PBL of sorts except you are free to define the problem. You will be responsible for identifying an area of need, a barrier to the overall effectiveness of the master plan and/or its intended purpose. Your group needs to identify the problem/need, provide an objective rationale for why the problem merits a major initiative, and then design the initiative. Hint: Try and backward map issues confronted in your organization to the Master plan. Look for areas of misalignment, or for areas of missed opportunities. Design your initiative to close one of these gaps. Design an initiative that will lead to excellent K-16 programs driven by the mission and resources of the California master plan. We will discuss the assignment and its requirements in more detail in class.
Due: December 1st
Imagine yourselves in leadership roles in 2015. Imagine the years you have worked to create a strategic vision in your organization. A strategic vision driven by your mission, by a changing world, by the Master Plan initiative you helped design, and by the knowledge and skills you have acquired in your completed Ed.D program. The structure of your organization is well respected and certainly one component of your organization’s excellence. You are responsible for completing specific chapters of your organization(s) Baldridge application. We will discuss the assignment and its requirements in more detail in class.
5. Lead book club/exercises on assigned readings
Due: December 8th
Each student will be responsible for leading lesson studies/book talks on various assigned and recommended texts. These lessons/discussions may be on-line or in class. They may involve providing a book/chapter notes, synopsis, critiques or posing questions and big ideas and then monitoring a discussion board or in class activity.
Your postings should reflect an understanding of the readings and show evidence that you are critically evaluating the question or issue at hand. Washington State University's Critical Thinking Project developed a set of guidelines for encouraging critical thinking skills in students. In a rubric designed by WSU, elements to demonstrating critical thinking skills are described. The guidelines are outlined below. You may wish to learn more by visiting the site: Washington State University: Critical Thinking Rubric.
Although you are not expected to demonstrate all seven elements of critical thinking in every posting, use these skills to contribute to fruitful and valuable discussions among your classmates.
One last hint for getting others to read your posts....Changing the subject line clues people in to what you are going to say. Use an intriguing Subject line as the hook to getting more people to read what you postings.