Postsecondary Teaching and Instructional Leadership Ed.S.

The Ed.S. and Ed.D. degrees in Teaching and Learning with a major in Postsecondary Teaching and Instructional Leadership is an advanced professional practitioner program for college and university faculty. This program serves postsecondary educators who seek to deepen their professional teaching practice, expand knowledge of instructional approaches that help college students learn, adopt a critically reflective approach to teaching, and strengthen capacities to approach college students as adult learners. With emphasis on teaching and learning processes, this major prepares educators for a variety of academic roles related to instructional leadership in postsecondary institutions.

In addition to National College of Education Doctoral Admissions Requirements, applicants must:

  • Submit three letters of recommendation. Two of the three required letters should be completed by people who can attest to the candidate’s capacity to complete rigorous graduate studies and one by a person supervising the applicant’s professional work.
  • Submit written responses to the following four questions:
    • What are your professional goals and how do you envision doctoral experiences supporting and/or relevant to achieving those goals?
    • What previous professional and personal experiences encouraged you to apply to this program?
    • Please explain what readings, academic studies or specific ideas have contributed to your current understandings as a professional.
    • How do you strive to enact these understandings?
  • Note: The admission process occurs in two stages:
    • First, the applicant submits the application and supporting documentation to the Office of Admissions by the published deadlines. The Office of Admissions will forward to the doctoral committee the completed application form once all documentation is received. A faculty committee will review the documents and decide if and when to invite the applicant for a second stage of the admissions process.
    • The second stage will consist of having all applicants who appear to be a good match for the program being invited to campus for the second stage of the review process that includes three components: a group interview, a written response, and an individual interview
    • The first part of this will be a group interview in which a faculty committee will interview 
      applicants as a group. This will include a discussion/conversation among the candidates and the committee members, focusing on an article, selected by faculty and sent to the 
      applicant in advance. 
    • After the group discussion, students will write a reflective essay on the ideas provoked by the 
      discussion. Faculty will later review the essays to assess the student’s ability to construct a written document. 
    • Individual interviews will follow the writing portion to enable faculty and the applicant to 
      focus on individual and programmatic goals

Program Details:

  • Requires 48 SH for completion


Postsecondary Teaching and Instructional Leadership Major - 48 SH

Required Courses

CCD 615Psychological Foundations of Teaching and Learning

3

CCD 604Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Presentation

3

CCD 625Critical Policy Analysis

3

CCD 698Dissertation Research Seminar

1 TO 3

HED 600Higher Education in the United States

3

LSE 601Instructional Design in Higher Education

3

LSE 605Postsecondary Teaching in Content Specializations

3

LSE 691Field Study for Postsecondary Teaching in Content Specializations

3

EDL 605Leading Change

3

EDL 622Developing Curriculum and Evaluating Programs

3

EDL 625Scholarly Writing for Practitioners

1 TO 4

EDL 626Leading Instruction to Advance Student Learning

3

EDL 630Understanding and Using Educational Research

3

EDL 632Utilizing Data to Inform Decision Making

3

EDL 691Internship in Postsecondary Teaching in the Content Area

1 TO 8

Note: CCD 698 must be taken for 3 SH, EDL 625 must be taken for 5 SH, and EDL 691 must be taken for 4 SH.