Doctoral Students Becoming Researchers: A Study of an Innovative Literature Review Process

• In Event: Doctoral Curriculum (Re)Design and Assessment

Abstract

This study investigates a new teaching approach to the literature review within a yearlong doctoral seminar. The seminar is constructed to build three scholarly capabilities: utilizing sound research methodology (Fink, 2010; Labaree, 2003), demonstrating information literacy (George, 2006), and developing a researcher identity (Maxwell, 2005; Peterson, 1998). We analyze how doctoral students have experienced this pedagogical reframing, utilizing an embedded librarian, based on 6 years of qualitative and quantitative data derived from a thematic analysis of students’ course evaluations and feedback memos (Boyatzis, 1998). Four themes emerged: 1) entering student misconceptions about research; 2) thinking about literature as data; 3) particular challenges of research skills at the doctoral level; 4) importance of community in research identity formation.

Authors

• Deborah S. Garson, Harvard University

• Eileen M. McGowan, Harvard University