Syllabus for EDL-540
CURRICULUM LEADERSHIP AND SUPERVISION
Description | Objectives | Issues | Materials | Structure | Assessment | Grading | Integrity
Curriculum Leadership and Supervision provides students with multiple opportunities to critically analyze and apply various contemporary theories of effective school leadership to their professional practice. All theories are aligned with the national ISLLC standards and the NJDOE state standards, research-based frameworks informing the knowledge base, dispositions, and performances of effective school leaders. The course focuses on the performance aspects of effective leadership including empowering others, building collaborative organizational cultures, making informed decisions and communicating them skillfully, and resolving conflicts. Participation involves learning theoretical concepts through reflective writing activities, self-assessments, and practice ISLLC exams. (ISLLC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; NJDOE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
On successful completion of this course, you should be able to accomplish the following:
You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbooks are available from the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.
Required Textbooks
Green, R. L. (2009). Practicing the art of leadership: A problem-based approach to implementing the ISLLC standards (3d ed.). Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall. ISBN-10: 0131599739.
Glickman, C. D., Gordon, S. P., & Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2010). Supervision and instructional leadership: A developmental approach (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. ISBN-10: 0-205-62503-7.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. ISBN-10: 1-4338-0561-8.
Curriculum Leadership and Supervision is a three-credit, graduate course, consisting of six modules. Modules include learning objectives, study materials, and assignments. Module titles are listed below.
In addition to module assignments, you are required to complete a final reflection paper on a theory of effective leadership. For information about the theory paper, see the discussion below or go to the Theory Paper area of the course Web site.
For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments, and complete a final reflection paper on a theory of effective leadership. See below for more details.
Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.
Online Discussion Forums
Each module in the course has one or more online class discussion forums. All discussion forums take place asynchronously on the class Discussion Board. Post your robust reflections on the assigned readings for each module and interact with your peers through discussion and dialogue to build a hospitable online learning community.
Online discussions provide an opportunity for you to interact with your classmates. During this aspect of the course, you respond to prompts that assist you in developing your ideas, you share those ideas with your classmates, and you comment on their posts. Discussion Board interactions promote development of a community of learners, critical thinking, and exploratory learning.
Please participate in online discussions as you would in constructive face-to-face discussions. You are expected to post well-reasoned and thoughtful reflections for each item, making reference, as appropriate, to your readings. You are also expected to reply to your classmates' posts in a respectful, professional, and courteous manner. You may, of course, post questions asking for clarification or further elucidation on a topic.
For posting guidelines and additional help with Discussion Board assignments, please see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Written Assignments
Each module in the course includes one or more writing assignments. The writing assignments require you to write well-reasoned and thoughtful papers on questions derived from the module objectives, making reference, as appropriate, to the readings and other sources of information. You are required to use APA format for your work and for all references.
To submit all written assignments, go to the Submit Assignments area of the course Web site.
For additional help regarding preparing and submitting assignments, see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Click link for an evaluation rubric.
Theory Paper
As a capstone experience in the Educational Leadership program, you are expected to prepare an electronic portfolio that demonstrates your incremental achievement of the program standards. Each course in the program helps you to identify artifacts to place in your portfolio on completion of the course.
In this course, you are required to write an 8–10 page paper analyzing one (1) theory of effective supervisory leadership of your choice to be selected from the “Theories Informing Leadership” chart on the Practicing the Art of Leadership companion Web site. The chart groups the educational leadership theories for each chapter by theorist and contains a description of each theory and its application to the standards. If you would like to select an educational leadership theory that does not appear on the list, you may do so with permission of your mentor. Select one theory that you would like to explore more deeply in a theory-to-practice reflective paper for inclusion in your electronic portfolio at the end of this course.
You will complete your work on the paper incrementally in three steps throughout the semester. See the course Calendar for the due dates for each step and for submitting the final paper to your mentor. You are required to use APA format in organizing your paper and for any citations.
Click link for an evaluation rubric.
To submit the theory paper, go to the Submit Assignments area of the course Web site.
For additional help regarding preparing and submitting assignments, see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Portfolio Artifacts and Reflective Narrative
The principal artifacts for this course are the final reflection paper and the change model developed for Written Assignment 6.1. Accompanying each artifact is a reflective narrative that describes the process and how the artifact meets specific standards and prepares you for school leadership.
Upload your artifacts to your electronic portfolio, and be certain to indicate their alignment to the applicable ISLLC standards.
Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:
|
Writing assignments (9) |
45 percent |
|---|---|
|
Online discussions (10) |
20 percent |
|
Theory paper: Step 1 (proposal) |
5 percent |
|
Theory paper: Step 2 (outline) |
10 percent |
|
Theory paper: Step 3 (final paper) |
20 percent |
All assignments will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:
| A | = | 93–100 |
| A– | = | 90–92 |
| B+ | = | 88–89 |
| B | = | 83–87 |
| B– | = | 80–82 |
| C+ | = | 78–79 |
| C | = | 73–77 |
| C– | = | 70–72 |
| D | = | 60–69 |
| F | = | Below 60 |
Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:
Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized assignment, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.
A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.
If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.
Plagiarism
Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see the "Academic Standards" section of the Online Student Handbook and the citation links under Writing Style Guides located in the General Information area of the course Web site.)
Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else's. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.
Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.
Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.
For examples of unintentional plagiarism and advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, click the links provided below.
Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism
When to Quote and When to Paraphrase