Course Description

1- Compulsory Courses

31901     Educational Leadership: Concepts and Theories

This course aims to present the concepts related to leadership in general and educational leadership in particular, and the difference between leadership and administration. The course also deals with leadership theories, with a focus on modern theories in leadership, and an attempt to demonstrate the educational field's need for leadership (educational leadership). The course also presents the concept of ethical leadership, its dimensions and its necessity in the educational field. It addresses the fact that leadership leads the change process (leading change) for the better to keep pace with the requirements of the twenty-first century.

31902     Contemporary Issues in Educational Administration

This course aims to present contemporary, or renewed, educational administrative issues, i.e. to inform students of what is new in the field of educational administration, whether through the administrative concepts employed in the educational field, or in recent studies dealing with contemporary educational issues, or in scientific conferences presenting educational issues in new ways. The course may address issues such as: administrative integrity: accountability, transparency, justice and equal opportunities. In addition, it may address the concepts of administrative re-engineering, career maturity, organizational deviation, functional and organizational alienation, organizational development, administrative renewal and reform, challenges facing education in the Arab world, and others. The issues covered in the course are constantly renewed, bearing in mind that the topics of this course do not intersect with topics raised in other courses.

31903     Change Leadership in Educational Organizations

This course aims to define change nature, types, patterns, main sources and different models in institutions. It also aims to define the causes of resistance to change. The course also establishes change leadership in light of these facts; one of its components is institutional restructuring. It identifies the dimensions of change leadership and the competencies necessary for a change leader. The purpose is to enable educational leaders to become as agents of change in society. The course also presents a proposed strategy for developing change leaders in educational institutions.

 31904     Qualitative Research

This course establishes the concepts and principles of qualitative research, with the aim of developing the student's research competencies, especially in the field of qualitative and procedural research, They have emerged recently and taken the lead in the field of humanities in general and education in particular. This course deals with the similarities and discrepancies between quantitative and qualitative research, sampling, and data collection in qualitative and procedural research, using special tools (observation and in-depth interview). Finally, the course familiarizes students with the methods of presenting, discussing and analyzing the results of qualitative research.

31905    Advanced Educational Statistics

This course aims to introduce the contents of inferential statistics and their educational uses; it includes many advanced statistical tests: binary and covariate analysis, regression analysis, factorial analysis, and chi-squared test ( ). It also deals with dimensional comparisons such as Tukey's test, Scheffe and Newman-Coles test), and focuses on practical aspects that illustrate how to deal with these tests using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program

 31906    Social Foundations of Education    

This course presents an analytical view of education as a social system, and the functional interrelationship between education and the social systems/structures. The course deals with the philosophy of education in society, education development and social functions, social change and education, the role of education in social changes, and education and sustainable community development. The course also deals with educational societal issues, such as: justice and social equality, democracy in education, and critical education and critical thinking

 31907     A Seminar in Educational Leadership and Administration

The course discusses and analyzes educational studies in the fields of educational leadership and management, especially those related to leadership and administrative concepts in the educational field, the concepts related to school planning, supervision and management, and the different leadership styles such as the democratic, autocratic, and missionary style, and modern schools in leadership. The course also includes practicum activities whereby students are trained how to identify and deal with a problem in the educational field, as an introduction to how to deal with the doctoral dissertation later.

 

2- Elective Courses

31908     Analysis of Educational Systems

This course is concerned with the Systems Analysis Method, as a method that emerged from the Systems Theory in Management; thus, the course presents the Systems Analysis Method as a method for understanding the components of the Palestinian educational system along with its various dimensions: its issues and problems, and its efficiency in achieving educational goals, based on educational references and philosophies. The course also aims to identify the extent to which the incoming educational systems are able to achieve the desired goals of the educational process in the Arab world. In addition, the course attempts to come up with suggestions and solutions about the methods and procedures that can advance the educational system to achieve its goals more effectively

31909     Educational Economic and Development

Given the close relationship between economics, education and development, it is necessary to identify the nature of this relationship in this course. This course explores the impact of education on economic growth, and focuses on individual and societal returns of education. The course also deals with some related concepts in some detail: human capital; methods of measuring return from education; education cost and sources of financing; methods of assessing the economic return of education using the simple correlation, the remainder, and the direct and indirect returns of education; and the efficiency of the educational system (internal efficiency and external efficiency).

31910    Strategic Planning

This course deals with the concept of planning in general, including its objectives, significance and fields. The course deals with the concept of strategic planning and presents an illustration of educational data, population, economic and workforce data, necessary for the educational plan. It also deals with educational planning methods and techniques: Delphi, network planning (PERT), nominal groups, critical path, and operations research. The course also presents some models used in educational planning, such as the POPEX Model, the Education Financing Simulation Model (EDFISMO), the Social Demand Model, and International Comparisons Model.

31911     Organizational Behavior

This course deals with the concept of organizational behavior and its relationship to other behavioral sciences, management theories, human behavior analysis, personality, learning, perception, motivation, incentives, attitudes and values, organizational culture, organizational trust, administrative empowerment, group dynamics, job satisfaction, job performance, organizational loyalty, commitment, managerial communication, creativity, innovation, conflict management, work stress, decision-making process, management of change and organizational development.

31912     Readings in Educational Thoughts

This course includes the definition of what educational thought is, and the role of human being in formulating educational thought. The course deals with ancient educational thought (of the Greeks, Romans, Pharaohs and others), passing through the Arab Islamic educational thought ( of Ibn Khaldun, Al-Ghazali and others), and then to the contemporary educational thought ( of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, etc and Rifa'a Al-Tahtawi, etc). The course also explores the congruence and incongruence in the educational intellectual propositions of specialists in this field.

31913     Total Quality in Education

This course deals with the basic concepts of total quality management: (quality, total quality, quality management, quality control, quality assurance, and quality auditing), quality culture, the importance of quality application, justifications and requirements in educational institutions, quality management philosophies, standards and tools of total quality management, and models of quality application in education.

31914     Education in Palestine

This course discusses both general and higher education in Palestine. Students learn about the development of education in Palestine. It deals specifically with the development of educational administration, curricula, and assessment systems that accompanied the educational process in Palestine. The course also deals with the reality and significance of vocational and technical education in Palestine. The course discusses the emergence, development, financing, and challenges facing higher education in Palestine. The course also explores the future prospects for higher education in Palestine in light of the global visions of higher education.

31915     Application in Educational Leadership and Administration 

This course focuses on the practical aspects of the educational leadership and administration.  Students go to practice in the educational field. They observe and monitor educational issues by experiencing them on the ground, especially those related to the educational administrators and supervisors. The purpose is to try to put educational leadership and administration theories and ideas into practice in the observed reality. They are requested to write a detailed report (a short procedural research) and submit it at the end of the course

31916     Designing the Educational Enviroment

This course deals with the basic concepts related to the elements of the educational environment, classroom and school, along with its characteristics such as the natural (physical) environment, the psycho-social climate, and human relations in the educational environment. The course also deals with classroom management, the appropriate methods of motivation, methods of individual and collective reinforcement within the classroom, methods of social and cooperative learning, educational communication along with its models and obstacles, the concept and applications of educational design, and the use of educational aids and modern technologies in the educational process.

31917     Curriculum Analysis and Assessment

This course deals with topics related to curriculum analysis and evaluation, such as the curriculum philosophy, objectives and content, elements and foundations; analysis of the textbook in terms of philosophy, objectives, content and activities, development of thinking, values and trends, design, output, language, methods of presenting its material and its questions. The course also deals with the concept of curriculum evaluation, evaluation purposes, evaluation models, evaluation aspects, the principles of proper evaluation, and the steps of the evaluation process.

31918     Modern Trends in Educational Supervision

This course aims to familiarize students with a set of ideas and trends adopted by educational supervision recently to respond to the requirements of continuous development in the educational field, starting with the theory of educational supervision, such as performance-based supervision, the human model in educational supervision, developmental supervision, diversified supervision, dialogue supervision, and standard supervision. Ideas related to teamwork and building professional learning communities are also presented. The course also involves another aspect of special importance, which is the ethics of the educational supervisor as an educational leader in the era of accountability and change (educational supervision is an ethical action). The course also explores future directions for educational supervision, and it includes a field application that the student performs with the educational supervisor in schools.

 

3- Ph.D. Qualifying Exam (31998)

This exam is compulsory for all Ph.D. program students who wish to fulfill the requirements of the doctorate degree. Students can take it after successfully completing all the compulsory courses. The exam sessions, components and technical procedures are determined by the postgraduate committee in each university. Students who scores 75% or more in this exam shall be eligible to begin writing their Ph.D. thesis. Students may take the exam twice only; they may retake the exam after no less than one semester from the first attempt. Students who fail to score 75% in the exam twice, shall be dismissed from the program.

4- Ph.D. Dissertation (31999)

Writing a Ph.D. dissertation is mandatory to obtain the doctorate degree. It should be equivalent to 18 credit hours. Firstly, the student shall write and submit a dissertation proposal to a joint committee from the two universities for assessment. If approved, the student may register the Ph.D. dissertation officially under the supervision of a faculty member from one of the two universities. The main supervisor must have the rank of an Associate Professor or above, and  a second supervisor may be appointed, depending on what the program committee deems appropriate. The doctoral dissertation should present a new addition to the educational knowledge, specifically to the field of educational leadership and management. The topics should be related to significant educational issues in the educational field. As soon as the doctoral students finish the dissertation writing, they can submit it to a committee of four specialist members with a rank of Associate Professor or above, provided that one of them is an external examiner from outside the two universities.