Developing Myself: A CAEL Module

Discover how intentional self-development can help you become a transformative leader.

Overview

Leaders often underestimate the power they have to make change. By paying attention to our personal growth, we can deepen our impact as leaders. 

In Developing Myself, you’ll learn the importance of intentional self-development and use a variety of tools to support personal growth. You’ll learn to use practices such as deep listening, the ladder of inference, and testing big assumptions to improve professional relationships, diagnose challenges, and achieve personal leadership goals. You’ll also acquire tools to help you diagnose and respond to the complex challenges of systems-level education leadership.

Program Details

Developing Myself takes place over 12 weeks. It moves through a cycle of learning, application, performance, and demonstration. You’ll engage in a range of activities and activities both online and in your personal and professional contexts.

The experience is designed to be both rigorous and flexible. The activities are asynchronous, meaning you can choose when within a given week you do them. Each week will require five to seven hours of work, with more guided, paced work during the “learning” weeks (weeks 2, 3, 4, and 8) and more job-associated practice and application during weeks 5-7 and 9-12.

Learning Goals

• Practice intentional self-development
• Identify a high-level leadership goal and make progress toward that goal
• Apply the tools and practices used within this learning community to further your development within the context of your workplace and personal life

Who Should Participate

Current and aspiring leaders in preK-12 school systems, including:

• Teams of education leaders seeking to improve their skills, collaborative capabilities, and impact
• Superintendents and district-level administrators
• Directors of charter management organizations
• Administrators at state agencies
• Experienced principals and teachers who aspire to system-level roles

Taking Developing Myself as a Graduate Credit Participant
Participants who have been admitted to complete CAEL modules for HGSE graduate credit should plan to complete their final projects during weeks 9-12. Participants should estimate an additional five hours of study during that period.

Taking Developing Myself as a Team
Taking this course as a school-, district-, or organization-level team is a powerful way to enact a collective impact on learning in your system. You can tackle a more significant problem of practice by engaging and collaborating in this material as a team. By identifying unified goals and objectives together, you can collectively apply what you learn as you learn — not only enhancing your team's toolkit but also establishing a throughline and transformed learning culture.

Your team will work on a single, shared problem of practice across the 12 weeks, submitting a single midterm and final project that represents your collective effort. Along the way, you will also have the chance to submit individual assignments where you engaged in personal learning.

About CAEL

Developing Myself is one of five online modules of the Certificate in Advanced Education Leadership (CAEL) program, which is based on the Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and designed for current and aspiring school system leaders. Please visit the CAEL program page to learn more if you are interested in pursuing the full certificate.

The five modules in the CAEL portfolio are:

• Developing Myself
• Driving Change
• Leading for Excellence and Equity
• Leading Learning (required module for the certificate)
• Managing Evidence

English Language Proficiency Requirements

English language proficiency is a requirement for application to and successful participation in this online course. All participants are expected to have fluency in English, including a basic knowledge of education terminology, in order to effectively engage with the content, complete assignments, and interact with other members of the learning community.

Fees & Policies

Participants receive a certificate of competency as well as a letter confirming the amount of clock hours awarded per module (60 hours). CAEL does not provide course hour equivalents.

Full tuition is due by the indicated payment deadline, which you may find above or on the program’s community page. While a purchase order confirms enrollment, full payment is still required by the payment deadline. Please note that failure to pay by the payment deadline will result in your withdrawal from the program. Click here for more information on payment, refund, and withdrawal policies.

Tuition includes all instructional materials required for participation in the program. The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion. The school is not responsible for any planning expenses incurred.

Tuition Assistance

Tuition assistance is available for this program on a need- and application-basis. Tuition assistance is granted based on participant and institutional needs. Requests for tuition assistance have no effect on an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application.

Closed Captioning and Accessibility

This online course consists of a combination of both pre-recorded videos and live web conferences. The majority of our pre-recorded videos are closed-captioned and accompanied by PDF transcripts. For live events, we will arrange for captioning services upon your request. Please email us at ppe@gse.harvard.edu if you require these accommodations. If possible, requests should be made at least a week in advance. Please note: we will make every effort to secure services, but all are subject to availability.