Overarching Course Goals / Throughlines

The core questions we will investigate during this course are:

• How can educational leaders use action research to support cycles of continual improvement in curriculum design, student learning and school organization?
• How can attention to group process enable and develop a culture of collaborative inquiry that promotes specific actions to increase thinking, learning and understanding for all members of their learning community?
• How can educational leaders use Teaching for Understanding ideas, Learning at Work ideas and WIDE World professional development strategies to carry out an action plan that develops the school as a learning organization?
• How can educational leaders further develop their own skills in leading for understanding?
• How can educational leaders develop global connections to enable their own understandings?

Session 0 - Orientation Week

In this session you will become reacquainted with the course web site and the role of instructors, coaches and learners in WIDE World courses.  You will meet your fellow course participants and learn about each other’s goals for the course, their backgrounds and leadership contexts.

Session 1 – Planning to Implement Your Action Project

In this session you will re-read about integrating learning and work and leadership for learning.  You will learn about how leaders can address these challenges through the consideration of action research ideas within the context of the Dreams Framework. You will also revisit your Action Plan from LfU 1 and plan for further progress in the implementation of this or a new Action Plan. 

Session 2 – Lordship to Leadership

Many leadership challenges involve interacting with groups in a way that answers two questions: what can I do when people don’t see the way forward? What can I do when people aren’t motivated enough to take the way forward? In this session you will explore four archetypes of leadership and inquiry centered leadership as a pathway to leading for understanding in the service of helping you put together and motivate an inquiry group.  You will also begin to consider your revised or new action project and a “researchable” question that arises out of your mysteries and that is directly related to your dream.

Session 3 – Planning for Action Research
                       
Session Three asks you to expand on the work you did in Session 2, articulating a “researchable” question from your mysteries.  Over the course of this session, you will develop your plans for the Action phase of the Dreams Framework, taking into consideration the need to balance efficiency with precision.  The plan for the Action phase will help you elaborate your specific question/s by asking you to define its contribution to your Dream, the sources of data and analytical approach you will use, and evidence you anticipate producing as a result. 

Session 4 – Implementing your Action Plan and Reflecting on Its Progress

What can you and your colleagues do to make positive progress on your action project?  How do you know that things are changing / improving? What might you look for to mark positive change? In this session you will carry out selected actions from within your plan to prepare and implement within your school over the next two weeks.  You will practice modeling and encouraging actions focused on understanding as you carry out your action project and gather evidence about your initial efforts. You will also consider how you might like to analyze and present your data, making use of a process of collaborative inquiry.

Session 5 – Examining Your Work

Considering data collected from your inquiry action in a collaborative and reflective way is a challenging process. In this session you will consider what is the evidence telling you and your colleagues in response to your mystery?  That is, you will explore ways in which you and your colleagues can: collect, examine and think about your data; make examination of evidence collaborative, reflective and ongoing; and provide feedback to inform future learning.

Session 6 – Looking Forward and Looking Back

How can you sustain the development of a culture of inquiry and understanding in your school? In this session you will review the work that you are doing and continue to discuss its impact. You will read about your study group cohort experiences and identify any that seem responsive to your school challenges. You will plan for further action to lead your school community more deeply into a culture of understanding.