Implementing Problem‐based Learning in a Master's Degree Program in Educational Administration

This paper reports the implementation of a problem‐based learning (PBL) approach for a unit in a specialized master's degree in Educational Management. The unit, Instructional Leadership, has previously been taught in a conventional delivery mock, relying on lectures, assigned reading and written essay‐type assignments. Although the programme continues to be popular and to recruit students from many parts of the world, there is growing dissatisfaction with the conventional delivery mode. Questions were raised, chiefly by the professor, about the appropriateness of conventional delivery methods to transcend the worlds of theory and practice, about the nature of the knowledge, skills and attitudes imparted, and about the extent to which the programme met the expectations and goals of a diverse group of upwardly mobile, goal‐orientated students who see the degree as an important step along their career paths. Two considerations were of paramount importance in revamping the existing Instructional Leadership unit into a PBL format. First, an existing master's unit, was to be transformed into a problem‐based learning approach; secondly, subject content of the unit was to be delivered according to principles of active, problem‐solving learning. In sharing our experiences of transforming an existing unit in a postgraduate degree programme in educational administration, it is hoped that useful insights may be gained into how problem‐based learning can improve the preparation of school leaders.