The 6th Annual Conference of the National Academy for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL) and the 4th Biennial Threshold Concepts Conference was held at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, on June 27-29, 2012. The NAIRTL is a collaborative initiative between University College Cork, Cork Institute of Technology, National…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching action research through modeling. Participants were 11 doctoral students enrolled in a two-semester practitioner-based research course. In this study, I was both instructor and member of the research community. I modeled the steps of action research as I conducted a study…

This dissertation argues that changing ideas about race and engagement with race science were at the heart of a major transformation of political science in the 1920s, a transformation that I characterize as "becoming modern." This transformation was at once conceptual--visible in the basic categories and theoretical apparatus of the…

The author's proposition is that there is a pedagogy of supervision, not that "this" is it in its entirety but that there is a pedagogy of supervision, that it has relevance for other levels of the curriculum, and that this pedagogy of supervision provides an entry point for academics to become involved in the scholarship of research,…

Portents of the demise of the Professional Doctorate have emerged in some recent policy and institutional circles in Australia, raising questions about the meaning and relevance of the Professional Doctorate in an era of "league tables" and research assessment in Australia. This article argues that such portents, based largely on narrow…

In this paper we examine the state of teacher training for political science PhD candidates in the European Union and make a comparison with the situation in the United States. We investigate the determinants of supply and demand of teacher training. On the supply side, we suggest that research orientation and quality assurance are factors that…

As the population of the United States becomes more diverse, both challenges and opportunities are created for the educational system. The gap that currently exists between a predominantly White, middle class, female teaching workforce and an increasingly heterogeneous population of students is one of the key factors that shapes these challenges.…

The authors conducted a survey of marriage and family therapy (MFT) doctoral students in programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). MFT doctoral students (N = 82) from across the United States responded to a web-based survey that focused on career aspirations, training opportunities,…

This article explores the changing context of school leadership in our nation, a context that requires education leaders who are skilled and knowledgeable with a new set of dispositions to lead complex, diverse, and innovative institutions. The article also discusses recent critiques of existing leadership preparation programs, with emphasis on…

This article addresses multi-disciplinary writing groups in supporting writing for publication for higher degree by research candidates in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Drawing on focus group discussions with postgraduate research students from the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Australia who participated in the writing…

The success of doctoral student mentoring is largely dependent upon faculty members, but structural and institutional obstacles compound deficiencies in the performance of all participants. University leaders must emphasize the value of mentorship in stimulating positive learning conditions and stress the importance of recognizing faculty members…

Twenty doctoral students in the disciplines of chemistry and history were interviewed to better understand the socialization processes that influence their success and how these processes differ by year in the degree program and disciplinary culture. Five major themes emerged describing these socialization processes and how they facilitate or…

This study was conducted to determine the policy of a single university department concerning admissions to the doctoral program. (CK)

Many postgraduate students in Britain experience a "mock" viva some time before their "rea" one, but little has been published on this aspect of gaining a Ph.D. or professional doctorate. In this study questionnaire data on the experiences and feelings of 29 UK postgraduate students concerning their mock vivas are summarized. The results suggest…

Supervision lies at the heart of PhD pedagogy, but the focus has been on improving efficiency and completion rates of the PhD process rather than theorising about the nature of the postgraduate supervision process. The study explores the usefulness of situated learning as a theoretical framework for thinking about PhD pedagogy. In the process,…