Kuhn's Paradigm and Example‐based Teaching of Newtonian Mechanics

Summaries

English

According to Kuhn, normal scientific work is developed not mainly from basic axioms, but by the development of the fundamental examples and demonstrations of the paradigm. For disciplines still at the research frontier, education can also only be example‐based rather than axiomatic, but for disciplines which have become classical, such as Newtonian mechanics, teaching should be performed using more formal methods. In practice this does not appear to be the case, and a number of simple problems in mechanics are cited where example‐based teaching commonly leads to misunderstanding. A recommendation is made for more direct teaching of the basic principles of mechanics.     

Seen,unseen, and unforeseen dangers: what a White emerging scholar learned about positionality in research with racially diverse practitioners

Abstract

Framed by autoethnographic methods, I use Milner’s framework for researching around race and culture to critically analyze my work as a researcher with a group of diverse educational administrators. I identify seen, unseen, and unforeseen dangers that I experienced in my research as a white doctoral student and university professor, and consider how they impact my development as an educational researcher. I conclude with implications for doctoral students as emerging scholars interested in researching race as well as implications for researchers working with elites.     

Positive and negative experiences related to doctoral study conditions

ABSTRACT

During their doctoral studies, students undergo an emotionally and intellectually intensive process involving a wide range of positive and negative experiences. This article analyses PhD students’ perceptions of the most positive and negative experiences related to doctoral study conditions. Previous researchers have primarily focused on analysing experiences that negatively affect doctoral work and have related these experiences to institutional, social and individual variables. However, little is known regarding positive experiences and how both positive and negative experiences are interpreted and related to variables connected with doctoral study, such as discipline, funding, enrolment type, and the stage of the doctoral process. In total, 1173 doctoral students from 56 Spanish universities completed an open-ended online survey. The findings indicate that opportunities for PhD students to communicate their scientific advances, receive expert feedback and interact with other researchers have a high positive influence on their doctoral journey. However, funding difficulties, particularly for students in the social sciences, and relationships with the research community, principally with the supervisor, were perceived as the main negative challenges. Experiences related to research design, data collection and analysis were perceived either negatively – primarily for mid-level students – or positively. These results should be considered in future doctoral programme policies to determine when, how and why to provide specific support during the doctoral process.     

The Impact of Supply and Demand on Doctorates in Physical Education Teacher Education: The Future of the Profession

ABSTRACT

Quality preparation of doctoral students is a key to the survival of physical education teacher education. Past research has revealed a shortage of students graduating with a doctoral degree in physical education and a general reluctance of teachers to leave their jobs to pursue an advanced degree. As the number of universities preparing new physical education teacher education assistant professors decreases, those in the profession are concerned for the future of teacher education. Unlike other professions that prepare more doctoral students than the market can accommodate, this is not the case for physical education teacher education doctoral programs. This article will provide summary information on supply and demand, which will be used to identify trends and recommendations for the future. This article will explore the status of doctoral programs in the United States and whether university programs will be able to prepare a sufficient number of professors to replace the aging physical education teacher education professoriate.     

Facilitating action research: reflections on the challenges and opportunities faced by a doctoral researcher engaged in education for sustainable development

ABSTRACT

Many universities have signed international and national declarations that have publicly committed them to embed sustainability within education, research, outreach and management operations. To date, research has focused on examples of good practice and case studies. Little research exists that has looked at the change process itself. This paper is based on a doctoral study conducted at the University of Southampton in which a doctoral student was engaged as a facilitator and critical friend for a period of more than one and a half years working with a group of staff and students trying to embed sustainability within the institution. In this paper, evidence is provided on the impact and contributions made by the critical friend and facilitator role, and reflections presented on the challenges and opportunities the doctoral researcher encountered during the research.     

From ‘Year 9 dropout’ to doctoral candidate: An autoethnographic journey of becoming (with friends)

ABSTRACT

In this article, I am joined by two academic colleagues to explore my personal narratives and experiences as a doctoral student, and to explicate the challenges and achievements of my pathway into doctoral studies. Positioning itself within the growing field of doctoral research, the article focuses on an exploration of three vignettes which identify important points in my unfolding stories of formation in becoming a doctoral student as an older person. This autoethnographic study draws on Transformative Learning Theory and the critical discourse understandings of Gee to examine my stories of becoming from school-leaver at 15 to doctoral student over four decades later. The study has three implications. First, it is important to recognise and appreciate alternate pathways to doctoral education. Second, that there is a need to better understand the complex formation of doctoral students within an academic research community; especially in regard to those from diverse or challenging backgrounds. Finally, the significance of seeing doctoral education as identity work and work of the soul, built as much on affective experiences and reflexivity as learning to perform and write as an academic, is key.     

The Decline and Elimination of PETE: Implications for Doctoral Education

ABSTRACT

In this article, we will explore the current landscape of teacher education programs in general, and specifically, physical education teacher education (PETE) from the national level down to the local level. Furthermore, we will explore the impact that the elimination of undergraduate PETE programs can have on PETE doctoral programs, including the teaching, research, and engagement of their faculty. We present ideas for preparing doctoral students for their future higher education roles that may or may not include the preparation of future physical educators.     

Weaving an interpretivist stance throughout mixed methods research

ABSTRACT

A recurring debate in mixed methods research involves the relationship between research methods and research paradigms. Whereas some scholars appear to assume that qualitative and quantitative research methods each necessarily belong with particular research paradigms, others have called for greater flexibility and have taken a variety of stances toward the integration of paradigms and methods in mixed-method studies. In this article, we review these arguments and stances, positioning ourselves in favour of flexible (but intentional) integration of any research method with any research paradigm. We then draw on a recent study of teachers’ experiences of professional development to provide an illustration of how a single paradigm can be used to inform the entirety of a mixed methods study, including study design, data collection, analysis and reporting. This illustration is particularly noteworthy since past mixed-method studies that have been grounded in a single paradigm have typically used the post-positivist paradigm, whereas our study involved an interpretive stance and a social constructivist epistemology. This article may, therefore, provide a useful resource for those considering the design of mixed methods studies as well as a practical demonstration to support theoretical claims in support of moving away from binary methods–paradigm associations and assumptions.     

Doctoral conceptual thresholds in cellular and molecular biology

ABSTRACT

In the biological sciences, very little is known about the mechanisms by which doctoral students acquire the skills they need to become independent scientists. In the postsecondary biology education literature, identification of specific skills and effective methods for helping students to acquire them are limited to undergraduate education. To establish a foundation from which to investigate the developmental trajectory of biologists’ research skills, it is necessary to identify those skills which are integral to doctoral study and distinct from skills acquired earlier in students’ educational pathways. In this context, the current study engages the framework of threshold concepts to identify candidate skills that are both obstacles and significant opportunities for developing proficiency in conducting research. Such threshold concepts are typically characterised as transformative, integrative, irreversible, and challenging. The results from interviews and focus groups with current and former doctoral students in cellular and molecular biology suggest two such threshold concepts relevant to their subfield: the first is an ability to effectively engage primary research literature from the biological sciences in a way that is critical without dismissing the value of its contributions. The second is the ability to conceptualise appropriate control conditions necessary to design and interpret the results of experiments in an efficient and effective manner for research in the biological sciences as a discipline. Implications for prioritising and sequencing graduate training experiences are discussed on the basis of the identified thresholds.     

How Prepared Are MSW Graduates for Doctoral Research? Views of PhD Research Faculty

ABSTRACT

This national survey of PhD faculty assessed the research preparation of entering doctoral social work students on a wide range of research knowledge and related skills. The prior literature shows that PhD programs repeat much BSW and MSW research course content. This study shows that the trend continues and has perhaps widened. PhD research faculty report that the typical entering PhD student displayed solid conceptual, ethics, and writing skills but lesser preparation for conducting quantitative and qualitative research, including methods related to understanding evidence-based practice. The research expectations of responding PhD faculty were low, reflecting limited retention and little production of research among typical entering doctoral students. These findings raise the issue of how effectively the social work profession prepares students for research and for future PhD education.     

Contemporary perspectives on the Australian doctorate: framing insights to guide development

ABSTRACT

The growth of the doctorate in recent decades has spawned concerns about programme quality and external relevance. This article reports findings from research conducted in Australia that was shaped by the view that the doctorate remains in need of educational clarification and design. The research generated insights that can be used to modernise and realign the doctorate. First, this article discusses the development of a doctoral education framework. Next, it presents results from a questionnaire developed using the framework and administered in a national survey to both five-year-out doctoral graduates and to doctoral experts. This identifies the need to design programmes that better orient and align research training with students’ professional aspirations, incorporate more real-world forms of learning, enhance traditional aspects of research training and provide structured reports of doctoral outcomes, experiences and preparations. The results underpin the need for more specific analyses of outcomes and assessment, the nature and distribution of doctoral experiences and the design and management of the resources that go into doctoral education.     

人文社科博士生延期毕业成因分析 ——以高深知识生成逻辑为视角

博士生延期毕业现象受到高校和政府的重点关注，但相关研究付之阙如。为探寻博士生延期毕业原因及矛盾根源，研究访谈了32位博士生及15位导师。围绕高深知识的生产、学习与传授，得出延期矛盾的根源如下：延期博士生学术基础与高深知识高深性、深奥性的失配，延期博士生学术动力与高深知识开放性、探索性的失配，延期博士生自学能力与高深知识个人性、缄默性的失配，院系培育服务与高深知识学习、传授方式的失配。为改善延期现状，研究建议：应严格把控博士招生环节，多途径提高学生科研素养；正视导学冲突的负面效应，弥合师生沟通的现实张力；加强过程监管及考核力度，回归科研评价的学术本位。     

Curating care-full spaces: doctoral students negotiating study from home

ABSTRACT

This article explores how care and space shape doctoral becoming. We extend previous higher education research that has critically examined the spatial arrangements of postgraduate study to explore how doctoral students negotiate both study from home and care-work responsibilities. The article draws on collaborative autoethnographic texts created by the authors to understand the ways in which care shaped their decisions about study spaces. We identify both exclusions and disadvantage in these accounts, at the same time as we discern wilfulness in the ways the contradictory positions of postgraduate student and caregiver were negotiated. We conclude the article by arguing that educational spaces are involved in the maintenance of academic norms that position care-work as invisible and out-of-place/space. Despite this, the creation of productive home spaces that facilitate both care and doctoral work remain possible.     

博士研究生学术研究方法教学模式探析——基于美国大学教学方法的启示

探讨适合中国博士研究生的学术研究方法教学模式。分析我国研究生学术论文写作中存在的问题;阐述美国大学研究方法教学的基本特征和实践模式。在美国大学教学模式的启发下,对教师的知识供给体系和学生科学研究能力推进模式进行深入解析。     

Shifting paradigms: Emerging issues for educational policy and practice

Abstract

Within the current national context of educational reform, educators are generating a new paradigm about teaching and learning. This shift is occurring as a consequence of rethinking nearly all aspects of schooling. The new paradigm is competing with, an older one. Time will tell whether or not the new one will replace the old one, but clearly they cannot coexist because they are so fundamentally different. The new paradigm is based on the latest research on cognitive developmental and constructivist theory, and the old paradigm is based on reductionist principles and behavioral theory.

This article creates a framework for understanding the paradigm shift, describes how the shift applies to instructional practices, synthesizes several principles and indicators that can guide the observation of teaching, and discusses issues yet to be resolved.     

Learning from Rookie Mistakes: Critical Incidents in Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Science to Teachers

While there is a growing literature focused on doctoral preparation for teaching about science teaching, rarely have recommendations extended to preparation for teaching science content to teachers. We three doctoral students employ self-study as a research methodology to investigate our developing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to teachers during a mentored internship in an elementary teacher professional development program. With our mentor, we examine critical incidents in the experience that supported new insights about teaching teachers and about ways in which beginning teacher educators need to develop their existing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to students in order to teach science effectively to teachers. We emphasize ways in which doctoral internships can support this learning and how our respective cultures shaped our interactions with and perceptions of teachers as learners.     

A PhD In motion: Advancing a critical academic mobilities approach (CAMA) to researching short-term mobility schemes for doctoral students

ABSTRACT

Short-term mobility has been neglected in the higher education mobilities literature, which tends to focus on longer stays such as study abroad or entire degrees. Short-term doctoral mobility schemes are relatively low-cost, potentially high-value investments in the development of early career researchers. Doctoral mobilities research – and the field of academic mobilities research more broadly – is characterised by a positivist, often atheoretical orientation; this article responds to this by introducing a critical academic mobilities approach (CAMA). This approach is rooted in the ‘mobilities paradigm’, and involves (i) questioning the status of mobility as a universal good; (ii) exploring the subjectivity of mobile subjects as dynamic and shifting, but also structurally determined; (iii) a commitment to researching mobility processes as well as investments and outcomes. The article explores ‘autoethno-case studies’ of two doctoral mobility schemes funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): Overseas Institutional Visits (OIV) and the PhD Partnering Scheme (PPS).     

Compatibility and Complementarity of Classroom Ecology and Didactique Research Perspectives in Physical Education

ABSTRACT

A large diversity of theoretical frameworks exists in the physical education literature. This article focuses on two of those frameworks to examine their compatibility and their complementarity. The classroom ecology paradigm concentrates on the balance between three task systems, two vectors, and programs of actions proposed by the physical education teacher and negotiated by students. The didactique research program studies the teaching and learning processes using the concepts of didactic contract and didactic milieu that focus on how the knowledge content emerges within teacher and students’ joint action. The article underlines the complementarity and the compatibility of the two frameworks when analyzing teaching and learning in physical education. It argues that the gray areas left by the classroom ecology paradigm could be filled with the insights of the didactique research program. A concise example of how the two frameworks have already been utilized is presented.     

Paving the Pathway: Exploring Student Perceptions of Professional Development Preparation in Doctoral Education

The breadth of doctoral education has expanded to include professional development activities in order to prepare students for academic and nonacademic careers. This mixed methods study focused on students’ perceptions of professional development opportunities at a Research One university. The findings suggest that most students feel prepared in scholarly-related activities; but they identify gaps in areas such as preparation for grant writing, teaching, and leading research teams. Statistically significant differences in perceived preparation were noted among disciplines. We offer suggestions for future research in doctoral professional development and recognize the need to expand and diversify centralized, institution-based resources so as to pave the pathway to successful careers for graduate students.     

The Use of a Teaching Practicum for Doctoral Students in Social Work

ABSTRACT

The authors discuss the use of a teaching practicum for doctoral students in social work. The advantages of a teaching prac-ticum are identified, as are critical issues associated with the establishment of such a program.