Master of New Professional Studies (MNPS)
University Programs
700 The New Professionalism: Theory and Practice (3:3:0)Experientially explores contemporary and relevant ethical theories and their diverse applications to professional studies field. Examines ethical relationship between professionals and clients, ethical accountability and responsibility, ethos of institutions, and professional’s role in sustaining ethical standards. Explores philosophical and pedagogical assumptions to understand professional management issues, and social and individual purposes of being professional. Customized for each track; for detailed course content, contact appropriate program directors.
702 The New Professional as Reflective Practitioner (3:3:0) Identifies central problems in epistemology. Examines how an epistemology appropriate to professional practice may be constructed, what is meant by “ways of knowing” and the “reflective practitioner,” and implications for professional learning. Studies core issues of generalizability; objective knowledge and understanding; and how evidence, truth, and meaning affect nature of organizational reality and professional’s practice. Special attention to developing skills for “double-loop learning,” and reflection in professional lives through journals, narrative, autobiography, and imaginative literature. Customized for each track; for detailed course content, contact appropriate program directors.
703 Technology and Learning in the New Professions (3:3:0) Examines enormous potential for enhancing the way organizations can learn, notably through developing Internet literacy, and skills in using differing Internet navigation tools. Focuses on applying technology to real-world problems in different professional work-sites, and offers in-depth training in use and development of groupware applications. Customized for each track; for detailed course content, contact appropriate program directors.
704 Research Methodologies in the New Professionalism (3:3:0) Corequisite: EDUC 597. Concentrates on understanding and using research methodologies from such varied sources as Friere, McKeon, and Janowitz, with a practical team activity in which students study organization or aspects of it, using ethnography, field study, or any appropriately defensible research methodology. Customized for each track; for detailed course content, contact appropriate program directors.
720 Learning Community (3:3:0) Only for MNPS in organizational learning degree candidates. Workshops, seminars, and reading groups involving at least 60 hours of contact time and culminating in two-day retreat during which candidates for MS in New Professional Studies (organizational learning) make presentations to class and faculty on research practica. Theme of module is communication, collaboration, and interaction in organizations. After initial one-and-a-half day workshop, MNPS candidates meet with all faculty once a month to give talks and presentations on application of ideas in their organizations, discuss issues in organizational learning, and provide feedback about using collaborative computing technology in learning process.