The Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice: A Guide for Faculty, Committee Members, and their Students

The Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice provides a narrative and illustration about the purpose and features comprising the Dissertation in Practice and how this culminating experience is well suited to using Improvement Science as a signature methodology for preparing professional practitioners. This methodology, when combined with the Dissertation in Practice experience in EdD programs, reinforces practitioner learning about and skills for leadership and change. As a guide, the book is an extremely valuable resource that supports faculty, students, and practitioners in the application of Improvement Science to pressing educational problems in a structured, disciplined way.

CPED Initiative Fireside Chat with Jill Perry: https://vimeo.com/508666806

To learn more about Improvement Science and see our full list of books in this area, please click through to the Myers Education Press Improvement Science website.

Perfect for courses such as: Educational Leadership, Research Methods, The Dissertation Process, Dissertation Writing and Research, and Thesis and Dissertation

Dr. Jill Alexa Perry is the first full Professor of Practice in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, she is Director of the school’s Doctor of Education (EdD) program and is Executive Director of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate.

Her research focuses on professional doctorate preparation in education, organizational change in higher education, and faculty leadership roles. Currently she is researching the ways EdD programs teach practitioners to utilize research evidence. She teaches and coaches how to teach Improvement Science in EdD programs. Her books include The Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice, The EdD and the Scholarly Practitioner, and In their own words: A journey to the stewardship of the practice in education.

Dr. Perry is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she received her PhD in International Education Policy. She holds an MA in Higher Education Administration and a BA in Spanish and International Studies from Boston College. She has over 25 years of experience in leadership and program development in education and teaching experience at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels in the US and abroad. She is a Fulbright Scholar (Germany) and a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Paraguay).

Debby Zambo is an Associate Professor Emerita from Arizona State University currently working as the Associate Director of the Carnegie Foundation on the Education Doctorate (CPED). Along with Jill Perry and Robert Crow, she developed and presented five workshops on a range of topics from the basic tools and processes of improvement science and, most recently, contextualizing improvement science in dissertation work.

Robert Crow, PhD, is an associate professor of educational research at Western Carolina University. His expertise in assessment and evaluation has led to collaborations with other 4-year institutions, community colleges, PK-12 schools, and institutional accreditation agencies such as SACS-COC. Dr. Crow's research interests include assessment and evaluation of student learning and of learning environments.