Educational Leadership
Imagine you and your colleagues agree there’s an education-related issue at your workplace that seems it could be addressed if you all collaborate on it together. But no one’s sure where to start. They know you’re taking classes toward your Ed.D, so they think you’re a natural pick for the first task, which is to do some research to see what information is out in the world about the problem—and any potential solutions. You’ll share the results with them via a paper that explores the problem of practice.
Think about a problem of practice you’d like to delve into for this course, a problem in your current educational environment or one you see yourself in in the future, one that relates to your specialization.
Preparation
If you haven’t already, complete the interactive media activity Problems of Practice. This will help you think through some examples and get you started on the first step of your assignment.
Instructions
Your purpose is to use research to find recommendations that will help you and your colleagues address the problem of practice. You’ll identify the most current and relevant articles and analyze them to surface the issues, practices, and solutions most appropriate to your setting.
In your paper:
Describe your problem of practice, providing examples.
Analyze the relevant issues, practices, and solutions and their relationship to your educational setting, based on current research.
Evaluate the solutions to prioritize the most relevant and effective for your setting.
Critical thinking: Be sure to analyze and evaluate the articles, not just report what was written. Provide the reasons why these are relevant to your problem of practice. And consider what analysis you need to provide in addition.
Before you begin your paper, examine the scoring guide to see the grading criteria.
Paper Organization
Start with a title page and organize your paper with the following guidelines:
Title page: Use APA format to create the title page. Use your Problem of Practice as a title.
Overview: Provide an introduction of your problem of practice and an overview of what will be included in your paper. Include discussion of how this problem relates to your specialization.
Problem of practice: The body of your paper will be a presentation of research and its relation to the problem of practice you’ve chosen.
Recommendations: Your conclusion should make recommendations for addressing the issue based on the research you’ve found.
References: Include a minimum of three different scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles (related to your field of specialization) that are also cited in the paper. Your citations must have references, and your references need to be included within your paper as in-text citations.
Your 2–3 page paper should be double-spaced and include a minimum of three references from peer-reviewed journal articles related to your field or specialization. As a reminder, you can refer to How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles? Links to an external site. for assistance in searching for appropriate reference materials.
Use Academic Writer Links to an external site. for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the Evidence and APA Links to an external site. section of the Writing Center for instructions on accessing and using Academic Writer.
Additional Requirements
In addition to the requirements outlined above, your assignment should meet the following:
Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Sources: A minimum of three peer-reviewed scholarly sources.
APA formatting: Follow current APA style and formatting for in-text citations. For more information on the APA guidelines for in-text citations, go to Academic Writer Links to an external site. and use the Learn tab to find the Quick Guides on Citing Sources and Paper Format and Organization.
Length: The paper should be 2–3 double-spaced pages in length, in addition to the title page and references page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Keep the name of the setting and any individual anonymous in this and all papers you write in the program.
Submit your paper as a Word document in the Week 4 assignment area.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Determine how action research and systems thinking apply to professional problems, challenges, or issues in education.
Describe a problem of practice in an educational environment, using examples.
Evaluate solutions to prioritize the most relevant and effective for an educational setting.
Competency 2: Apply information literacy skills to locate and critically evaluate scholarly data, theories, and research.
Analyze relevant issues, practices, and solutions and their relationship to the educational setting, based on current research.
Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and appropriate to purpose.
Support main points, assertions, arguments, conclusions, or recommendations with relevant and credible evidence.
Integrate appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and APA citation style.
Answer preview for Educational Leadership
APA
750 Words