PE7064 - Leading Learning and Change

The programme uses Technology Enhanced Learning as a framework to support and enhance teaching and learning. As a Distance Learning programme, delivery is entirely online via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Each module is supported by numerous interactive sessions over a period of 10 weeks of learning, leading to an assessment submission week (you will study one module at a time). Session delivery captures a variety of formats acknowledging the nature and content of the individual module and subject, alongside your needs as a student. You will also be required to engage with and evaluate current research in leading learning and change to inform your participation in interactive discussion boards, where you will be able to share your thoughts with others and engage in debate. Some sessions are text based, others utilise audio and video tools to deliver the learning materials.. All sessions have interactive elements that enable you to enhance your understanding and test your learning, thereby facilitating formative feedback. All modules are supported by online reading lists that provide simplified access by various electronic, digital and hard copy sources. You also can participate in scheduled Blackboard Collaborate sessions in which you will be able to “video-conference” academic tutors and students.

Within the programme, there are wide ranging opportunities for you to engage actively in research rich learning through problem solving, project work and real-world examples, all of which are informed by current research and practice, as well as reading journal papers that develop your theoretical insight. All of the Level 7 modules that form the programme cover each of the four elements of research-rich learning, but with increasing emphasis on you as a student being an active participant rather than part of an audience. There is a significant application of research-based (enquiry-based) and research-tutored approaches, the former being significantly supported through organisation-oriented summative assessment.

There are a range of mechanisms to support you academically throughout your Distance Learning study with us. These will include induction and study support interventions, supported electronically, to recognise the different backgrounds of students entering this programme at Level 7.
You will have the support of an academic Programme Leader from the subject discipline who will lead the programme from an academic perspective and will be available to support you in terms of any academic guidance you require. From an individual module perspective, you will be supported academically by the module tutor leading the individual module you are undertaking at any given point in time, alongside the receipt of peer support from your fellow participants on your module, be it through Blackboard Collaborate and/or online discussion boards.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will explore the breadth and complexity involved in leading learning.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. You will critically evaluate the ways in which leadership behaviours enhance or inhibit learning and their impact on culture within an organisation.
2. Identify and critically analyse effective
approaches in monitoring, evaluation and
review.
3. Reflect on different theoretical approaches to the management of change.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
1. Enhance your communication, team working skills as well as demonstrating independent intellectual curiosity by researching and identifying appropriate literature to inform and develop your discussions and practice as well as your summative assessments.

Formative Assessment
You will engage in discussions with your peers on discussion forums. This will include sharing ideas on issues of interest in leading learning and change and how you will effectively address these in your assignments. Your tutor will guide you as you plan and prepare for your assignments.

Feedback
You will be provided with constructive written/verbal feedback from tutors and your peers.

Summative Assessment
1. Prepare and deliver a presentation on an aspect of leading learning. (15 minutes)
MLOs: (KU1) (IPSA 1-3) (PVA 1)

2. Written Assignment in which you will discuss and critically evaluate an aspect of leading learning in an educational setting.
(2500 words)

MLOs: (KU 1) (IPSA 1- 3) (PVA 1)

Feedback
You will be provided with written feedback using the criteria and the elaborated marking scale.

None

None

In this module you will learn how middle or senior leaders in educational institutions can use the latest thinking about learning to maximise student outcomes. You will reflect critically on current practice and the effect of cutting-edge knowledge on this. We will start by looking at up-to-date theories of learning based on research from education, psychology and brain science, and consider what this tells us about expert teaching and student learning. Then we consider how leaders in schools at every level (subject co-ordinators, Heads of Department, and Senior Leaders) can work to make their institution a truly learning organisation. This will include consideration of ways of finding out what happens in school (e.g. via Learning Walks, using data, carrying out Action Research) and what works according to the evidence base. Finally, we consider theories of change and how these can impact on schools and the learning that takes place within them. This course is highly suitable for anyone at any level who aspires to lead learning in a school or other institution where teaching and learning takes place. OFSTED now place a high value on effective subject leadership at all levels, and this course will enable you to manage discussions with inspectors, parents and others with knowledge and confidence.