Improving organizational performance is educational leaders’ primary mission. Among numerous improvement approaches, the improvement science approach has received increasing attention in the last decade. Improvement science is a systematic approach to improvement that involves testing a change idea multiple times on a small scale using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle before implementing it on a large scale. It is a method that draws from various disciplines such as sociology, psychology, learning science, and applied statistics. It finds frequent application in the business and healthcare industries. Although improvement science is still in its early stages in education, there is growing recognition of its potential to bring positive change to educational organizations. For example, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate facilitates the redesigning of a Doctor of Education program with improvement science as a primary improvement approach. As a result, the number of educational leaders trained in improvement science has been growing.
Improvement science is becoming an increasingly popular approach to improving various aspects of education. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how educational leaders perceive this approach, how frequently they use it for improvement, the challenges they encounter in their improvement work, and the factors contributing to their success or failure. The goal of this Research Topic is to provide the communities of educational researchers and scholar-practitioners with empirical evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) about educational leaders’ perceptions of and experience with the improvement science approach.
Using improvement science to support organizational improvement can help advance understanding within educational communities.
We accept manuscripts in a variety of forms. We welcome case studies and qualitative studies that describe educational leaders’ experience with and/or use of the improvement science approach for organizational improvement in the PreK-12 and higher education contexts worldwide. These studies may illuminate the challenges, success, faltering, and failure of the improvement science work they experienced. We are interested in quantitative and mixed-methods research studies that report and analyze the perceptions and use of the improvement science approach among educational leaders. These studies may survey school and district leaders statewide to investigate their perceptions and experience and analyze systematic patterns. Senior administrators in higher education institutions could be monitored and interviewed to describe their experience with and use of the approach. Finally, we welcome manuscripts in any format that illustrates the development of networked improvement communities.
Keywords:
rganizational improvement, organizational change, educational leadership, improvement science, improvement research, PDSA cycle, networked improvement community
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
Improving organizational performance is educational leaders’ primary mission. Among numerous improvement approaches, the improvement science approach has received increasing attention in the last decade. Improvement science is a systematic approach to improvement that involves testing a change idea multiple times on a small scale using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle before implementing it on a large scale. It is a method that draws from various disciplines such as sociology, psychology, learning science, and applied statistics. It finds frequent application in the business and healthcare industries. Although improvement science is still in its early stages in education, there is growing recognition of its potential to bring positive change to educational organizations. For example, the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate facilitates the redesigning of a Doctor of Education program with improvement science as a primary improvement approach. As a result, the number of educational leaders trained in improvement science has been growing.
Improvement science is becoming an increasingly popular approach to improving various aspects of education. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how educational leaders perceive this approach, how frequently they use it for improvement, the challenges they encounter in their improvement work, and the factors contributing to their success or failure. The goal of this Research Topic is to provide the communities of educational researchers and scholar-practitioners with empirical evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) about educational leaders’ perceptions of and experience with the improvement science approach.
Using improvement science to support organizational improvement can help advance understanding within educational communities.
We accept manuscripts in a variety of forms. We welcome case studies and qualitative studies that describe educational leaders’ experience with and/or use of the improvement science approach for organizational improvement in the PreK-12 and higher education contexts worldwide. These studies may illuminate the challenges, success, faltering, and failure of the improvement science work they experienced. We are interested in quantitative and mixed-methods research studies that report and analyze the perceptions and use of the improvement science approach among educational leaders. These studies may survey school and district leaders statewide to investigate their perceptions and experience and analyze systematic patterns. Senior administrators in higher education institutions could be monitored and interviewed to describe their experience with and use of the approach. Finally, we welcome manuscripts in any format that illustrates the development of networked improvement communities.
Keywords:
rganizational improvement, organizational change, educational leadership, improvement science, improvement research, PDSA cycle, networked improvement community
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.