Taught Courses

Doctoral Course

 

PEDU7208 Educational Organization and Leadership    
This course aims to provide an in-depth understanding of how educational organizations ‘work’ and of the complexities of school leadership. It seeks to locate these understandings within relevant theoretical, empirical and practical contexts. Processes central to effective administration are analyzed in relation to their influence on educational organizations and the ways leaders drive organizational change and development. Acquired knowledge and insights about educational organizations and leadership will be applied to relevant, practically-based problems through the use of case materials, critiques and other analytic tools. Through reviewing and applying a broad range of literature the course aims to encourage students to develop their own conceptualization of educational organizations and leadership approaches as a means to guide their future inquiry in the field.

 

Master Courses

 

PEDU6011 Administrative and Organizational Theory
Successful leaders, managers, and administrators underpin their behaviours and practices with a strong foundation of theoretical knowledge and conceptual ability. Accordingly, this course aims at developing students’ theoretical and conceptual abilities. It introduces students to a range of important administrative and organizational theories and perspectives which have influenced management practice at all levels, from system to school, over the past century. These theories and perspectives adopt a wide purview, including structural, human resource, political, symbolic and cultural dimensions. Opportunities will be provided for students to apply the theories and perspectives to current education policy and school management issues in Hong Kong.

 

MECM6201 Educational Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Education
This course focuses on two important aspects in early childhood education: educational leadership and management. It is to emphasize that leadership and management are of paramount importance to the success of any organization, including ECE institutions. It is leadership and management that make organizations efficient and effective. This course blends the theoretical concepts of leadership and management with practice, enabling the participants to refine and improve their practice. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with a number of theories and perspectives of leadership and management; be able to critically analyze different perspectives and theories; have developed a position on what they believe ‘good’ leadership and management entailed in Hong Kong schools in general, and more specifically within their workplace context; and be able to discuss the various educational leadership and management issues in Hong Kong schools and their relationship with educational reform.

 

PEDU6206 Managing Change in Schools
This course is designed to familiarize students with theoretical and practical aspects of organizational change and educational planning. The course explores the current context of organizational change and introduces a number of theories and perspectives on change relevant to educational leaders in Hong Kong. Various approaches to educational planning for change are presented and applied. Particular attention is paid to school development planning for self-managing schools and the development of staff in these organizations. The course will include: (1) current theories and perspectives on organizational change; (2) current approaches to and techniques for implementing school development planning; (3) critique and application of change and planning models to relevant situations. Learning activities employed include case studies, solving problems, scenario writing and experience sharing. Through these activities students will develop conceptual and practical skills for the effective management of change in schools and other educational institutions

 

SILP6003 Evaluation for School Improvement
This module focuses on different perspectives, models and methodologies for evaluating school improvement. First, various evaluation ideologies and perspectives will be examined. Secondly, different models of formative and summative methods of evaluation, role of stakeholders in school-based evaluation and their relationships with school improvement would be explored. Finally, issues on school based evaluation, external review and teacher evaluation would be discussed.

 

PGDE/PGDP Courses

 

PGDE5211 Structure and Process of Schooling
Schooling is an integral part of modern society. As active participants and contributors of this modern institution, teachers should have a thorough understanding of their roles in school organization and process of schooling. This course is designed to facilitate understanding of school organization and the nature of this process. It explores the nature of school organization and important dimensions of the schooling process from different perspectives: (1) at classroom level, in the form of teacher-student interaction; (2) at organizational level, in the form of school structure and culture; (3) at societal level, in the form of socializing and stratifying mechanism; and (4) at cultural level, in the form of selection and transmission of knowledge.

 

PGDE5226R Teacher Development and Leadership
This is an elective course in the postgraduate diploma of education programme. The contemporary education system requires teachers to take on multiple roles and perform complicated tasks in the school organization and in the classroom. Without extensive experience and a deep knowledge of how a school functions, teachers are sometimes unprepared to meet these challenges. The present course is designed to enable teachers to gain a perceptive understanding of how a school operates, and to equip them with the skills to handle difficult situations in schools, the objectives of which is for them to develop a capacity to learn in various opportunities and exert themselves as leaders in the classroom and in the school organization. The course treats teacher learning as action learning in the school context, and leadership as a quality that operates at multiple levels throughout the school. Topics covered in the course are: understanding the complexity of the school and the education system, developing personal mastery and personal vision in education, problem solving in the organization and in the classroom, learning shared vision and team building skills, leading and managing change in school, etc.

 

EDD5219 Education and the Law
The school context in Hong Kong has increasingly become very complicated. A few ordinances and laws emerged since the 1990s are having great impacts on school. Teachers in the daily school life may have great chance to fall into lawsuits if they are not careful enough. The course provides an introduction to educational laws and regulations, hoping that teachers will discern theirs and students' rights and responsibilities in the educational context. Topics will include different perspectives for understanding educational laws, educational rights and responsibilities of concerned constituencies (such as, students, teachers, parents, principals, school managers and so forth), and a review of local education laws and ordinances. Through case analyses and group discussions and projects, teachers in the course will learn how to analyze the legal aspects of education policies and daily school activities. The laws and ordinances that will be covered in the course are as follows:"Education Ordinance and Regulations," "the Code of Aid," "Contract Law," "Law of Tort," "Criminal Law," "Human Rights Ordinance," "Ordinance for Equal Opportunity," "Privacy Ordinance," "Copyright Ordinance," and some other laws and regulations that concern school the most.

Chinese University of Hong Kong