The present curriculum reflects contemporary thought in management education as advocated by Srikant Datar, David Garvin and Patrick Cullen who proposed that a right balance between the skills of knowing, doing and being is essential in management.
'Knowing' Skills Are About Understanding The Limits Of The Market And Developing Critical Thinking Skills.
'Doing' Skills Refer To Thinking Creatively And Innovatively To Frame And Solve Problems.
'Being' Skills Are About Paying Greater Attention To Personal Development And Grounding Organisational Decision-Making In Ethics And Values Of Equity And Fairness.
The approximately 49-week PGP-DM is divided into 8 Terms. The courses offered over the year fall into six clusters:
Focuses on the Knowing component to build a deep understanding of the development sector
Enables students to engage with ground realities from multiple perspectives
Drives designing an intervention by adopting a unique approach that is anchored in systems thinking
Focuses on management–the what and how of managing SPOs as well as customised development management courses. The students get to choose from a wide range of electives that equip them with the deeper knowledge required to begin their careers in SPOs.
The teaching-learning process consists of lectures, case studies, workshops, group work, readings, and individual assignments to build the students’ knowledge and application capacities.
An integral part of the pedagogy is a signature component of the PGP-DM - Context-based Collaborative Learning (CBCL). CBCL creates opportunities for students to apply what they have learnt in the classroom in specially designed group work. Collaborative inquiry and co-creation, an integral part of the CBCL process, is supported by learning mentors called Bricoleurs.
The assessment process supports the learning journey of the student and drives excellence. The assessment of the student's learning is done through a periodic combination of the following components:
Classroom Attendance
Graded Individual and Group Assignments (Faculty and Bricoleurs)
Test/Quizzes
End Term Examinations
Peer Assessment in the Collaborative Groups
This is a part of CBCL pedagogy as a two-week structured immersion program planned for the students between Terms 2 and 3. It enables the students to develop a deep understanding of people’s lives on the district level, preparing them to design interventions.
it focuses on equipping students with the skills to communicate effectively (write, tell and present) as per the need of the development sector. This includes using a language that is specific and appropriate to the development sector, including the right choice of words and a tone that recognises the complex nature of social change and the emergent nature of this work. This will be reinforced
A unique offering at ISDM with experienced bricoleurs working with students on a one-to-one basis and groups to discuss individual learning journeys and key development lenses to differentiate management for the social sector such as collaboration, equity and social justice.
Spread over 7 terms, this is a family of sessions and workshops such as the Personal Mastery for Development Leadership course, Radical Transformational Leadership and Group Dynamics. This is anchored in the need to build the spirit of curiosity, courage and compassion in students while they work in teams, communities and design interventions.
Eminent speakers and established leaders from different walks of life are invited all through the year to help the students debate, discuss, pause, reflect and learn through these interactions.
Students are required to complete Harvard Manage Mentor Courses covering management topics such as Team Creation, Team Management, Budgeting, Project Management, Business Plan Development, and Negotiating. These are self-paced courses offered during terms 5-7 that are an opportunity to enhance the management practice.
These cover a range of topics and are future-forward workshops on Networks, Partnerships and Alliances for Scale, Perspective on Organisations, Knowledge Management Systems and FundRaising.
Courses include Financial Perspectives, Operations Management for Quality and Impact, Behaviour Change Communication, Marketing Management, Human Development in an Unequal World, Technology and Management, Corporate Social Responsibility. Some of the core courses will be available to the students as Electives as an opportunity for deeper engagement.
The final term project focuses on scale and sustainability, providing the students with a frame of reference to work on live projects with SPOs, thereby integrating their learnings of the previous terms with a real, viable and scaling strategy for the SPO.