Education Commons^™

What Is The Role Of Emotions In Educational Leaders’ Decision Making? Proposing An Organizing Framework, Yinying Wang

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: Emotions have a pervasive, predictable, sometimes deleterious but other times instrumental effect on decision making. Yet the influence of emotions on educational leaders’ decision making has been largely underexplored. To optimize educational leaders’ decision making, this article builds on the prevailing data-driven decision-making approach, and proposes an organizing framework of educational leaders’ emotions in decision making by drawing on converging empirical evidence from multiple disciplines (e.g., administrative science, psychology, behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroeconomics) intersecting emotions, decision making, and organizational behavior. Proposed Framework: The proposed organizing framework of educational leaders’ emotions in decision making includes four core propositions: …

Using Research On Neuroeconomics Games In School Leaders’ Decision-Making Training, Yinying Wang

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

This article demonstrates how to use three neuroeconomics games adapted from game theory— the Ultimatum Game, the Trust Game, and the Public Goods Game—in school leaders’ decisionmaking training. These three games have been commonly used in the emerging field of neuroeconomics—an interdisciplinary field intersecting behavioral economics, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. For each game, I first outline how to play it in the training of school leaders’ decision making, followed by the constructs relevant to leaders’ decision making, including fairness, justice, inequity aversion, reciprocity, emotions, social identity, trust, distrust, and altruistic punishment. These games, with a lighthearted touch, serve as part …

Pulling At Your Heartstrings: Examining Four Leadership Approaches From The Neuroscience Perspective, Yinying Wang

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: This review study aims to bridge neuroscience and educational leadership by exploring the neural mechanisms of the constructs relevant to educational leadership.

Research Methods: The reviewed literature includes 69 neuroscience studies and 4 books on neuroscience. The brain activities and neurotransmitters associated with the constructs pertinent to educational leadership were coded to bridge the knowledge base of neuroscience and educational leadership.

Findings: The neural mechanisms of the constructs related to educational leadership (e.g., vision, charisma, trust, and organizational justice) were organized by four different leadership approaches: charismatic, transformational, destructive, and culturally responsive school leadership. Emotions are the common thread …