Professionalising Ph.D. education to enhance the quality of the student experience

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 32 - Trang 303-320 - 1996
Margot Pearson1
1The Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Tóm tắt

Ph.D. student numbers have been increasing in Australia as has government interest in the economic and social outcomes of graduate education (Moses 1994, Cullen et al. 1994). Yet the position of Ph.D. students can still be seen as marginal within universities and the institutional organisation of Ph.D. education as problematic. This situation can be related to the highly individualistic nature of research and supervision which is both a barrier to and part of the argument against efforts to examine and discuss in general the processes of research training and supervisory interactions across disciplinary and departmental boundaries. This article positions all Ph.D. students, in all fields of study, as learners in a form of professional education -a perspective which offers a way out of this apparent dilemma. Drawing on data from a study reported in Cullen et al. (1994) the following topics are explored: Ph.D. students as learners of the knowledge and skill of the professional practice of research and scholarship; the role of the supervisor in assisting students to become independent practitioners; and the complementary professional role of student participation in the academic community. Implications for policy and practice to professionalise Ph.D. education and enhance the quality of the student experience are discussed.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Becher, T. (1994). ‘Freedom and accountability in professional curricula’, in Becher, T. (ed.), Governments and Professional Education. Buckingham, Great Britain: SRHE and Open University, pp. 161–179.

Becher, T., Henkel, M. and Kogan, M. (1994). Graduate Education in Britain. London: Jessica Kingsley Press.

Bowen, W.G. and Rudenstine, N.L. (1992). In the Pursuit of the Ph.D.. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Brown, G. and Atkins, M. (1988). Effective Teaching in Higher Education. London: Routledge.

Clark, B.R. (1993). ‘The problem of complexity in higher education’, in Rothblatt, S. and Wittrock, B. (eds.), The European and American University Since 1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 263–279.

Cullen, D. Pearson, M. Saha, L.J. and Spear, R.H. (1994). Establishing Effective PhD. Supervision. Canberra: AGPS, and: http://uniserve.edu.au/uniserve/eip/Ph.D._sup/TableofContents.html

Elton, L. and Pope, M. (1992). ‘Research supervision -the value of collegiality’, in Zuber-Skerritt, O. (ed.), Starting Researc-Supervision and Training. Brisbane: TEI, University of Queensland, pp. 69–85.

Moses, I. (1994). ‘Planning for quality in graduate studies’, in Zuber-Skerritt, O. and Ryan, Y. (eds), Quality in Postgraduate Education. London: Kogan Page, pp. 3–13.

Parry, S. and Hayden, M. (1994). Supervising Higher Degree Research Students. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Pearson, M. and Cullen, D. (1994). Ph.D. study the student passage. A paper presented at the Annual SRHE Conference: The Student Experience, York.

Phillips, E.M. (1992). ‘The concept of quality in the Ph.D.’, in Cullen D.J. (ed.), Quality in Ph.D. Education. Canberra: ANU, pp. 11–21.

Phillips, E.M. and Pugh, D.S. (1994). How to get a Ph.D.. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

Reason, P. and Marshall, J. (1987). ‘Research as personal process’, in Boud, D. and Griffin, V. (eds.), Appreciating Adults Learning: From the Learners' Perspective. UK: Kogan Page,pp. 112–126.

Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

Schon, D. (1987). Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Tập 32

303-320

Thông tin tác giả