Leading Change and Learning, 7.5 credits

Candidate - or professional degree of at least 180 higher education credits and at least two years of professional or vocational experience within medicine, care or behavioural science and/or at least two years teaching experience (on at least upper-secondary level)., care or behavioural science and/or at least two years teaching experience (on lowest upper-secondary level). Furthermore, knowledge in English equivalent to English B (with at least the Pass grade) is required.

The participants should have completed the courses Scholarship of Medical Education, Learning processes, Integration of theory and practice and Design and assessment of learning.

The aim of the course is to help the participants to develop the skills and understanding that is required to create a learning organisation when leading change and development work and learning in their workplace. The course builds on preceding courses in the Master's programme by creating possibility for the participants to apply their educational skills in practice.

Intended Learning outcomes
On completion of the course, the participants should be able to:

1. Apply development theory in connection with healthcare and education by taking interactions on individual, group, organisational and system level into account.

2. Reflect on his/her own role in relation to group processes and leadership.

3. Analyse how organizational factors affect leadership.

4. Cooperate to create a learning organisation based on a scientific approach/ scholarship of medical education.

The course contains two fields of study, individual development of leadership, and understanding and skills regarding learning organisations, and how learning within medical and the health care field may be developed. These two fields will be studied with the aim at learning how we can work with development to prepare for a continous development within healthcare and education.

The field individual development concerns the understanding and analysis of own leadership in relation to current leadership theory, context, types of problems and learning.

The field of learning organisations is based on literature from both leadership and organisation/management, and organisation and system issues within higher education. Here, the understanding of central concepts are deepened such as culture, complexity, beaurocracy, ethics, negotiation, power, motivation, group processes, change and development work.

The teaching is based on a problem-oriented and collaborative approach to learning in which the tasks provide opportunities for the student to take active responsibility for their learning. The interactions between the course participants, and the course facilitators take place via the learning platform PingPong. Each participant is included in a learning partnership and a smaller group that is supervised by a course facilitator. Literature studies, observation, web-based resources, lectures, learning in pairs (peer learning), group discussions and group assignments will create the basis for each participant to process and present individual assignments. The course participants and/or the course facilitators review and give feedback on the assignments.

Showing activity on the learning platform PingPong and perform the assignments in the different modules is compulsory. The course coordinator decides whether, and if so how, absence from compulsory course elements can be compensated. Study results cannot be reported until the student has participated in compulsory course elements or compensated for any absence in accordance with instructions from the course coordinator. Absence from a compulsory course element could mean that the student can not retake the element until the next time the course is offered.

In parallel with the above the participants willl work with his/her own continuing professional development in leadership and collaborative work.

The examination consists of a written individual assignment, which is based on the individual work during the course and the mandatory group work. The examination assignment requires reflection, documentation, linkage to theoretical framework and central concepts of the course and self- and peer assessment.

Students who have not passed the regular examination are entitled to participate in five more examinations. Students without approved results after three examinations can be offered to retake the course or parts of it once more; subject to availability. If the student has failed six examinations/tests, no additional examination is given. Each occasion the student participates in the same test counts as an examination. Submission of a blank exam paper is regarded as an examination. In case a student is registered for an examination but does not attend, this is not regarded as an examination.

The course will be closed-down and is given last time HT16. Examination will be provided during a period of one year after a close-down of the course.

A course evaluation will be carried out according to the guidelines that are established by the Board of Education at Karolinska Institutet.
Language of instruction: English