Measuring Perceived Research Competence of Doctoral Students

• In Event: Professors of Education Research: Accepting the Responsibility of Training Novice Scholars

Abstract

Graduates of doctoral programs are expected to be experts in their field and conducting research independently. However, doctoral study alone may not adequately prepare students for performing their roles as researchers. This study examined the appropriateness of the Perceived Research Competence (PR-Comp) scale for measuring doctoral students’ perceptions of their research competence across a variety of disciplines. Data were gathered from students enrolled in a doctoral program at a Spanish university using the PR-Comp questionnaire, an adaptation of the R-Comp questionnaire (Böttcher & Thiel, 2018), which measures perceived research competence in five dimensions. Results of this study will allow us to explore what areas of scientific thinking doctoral programs need to foster and what others must be tackled by other approaches.

Authors

• Sarah Anne Marrs, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Carla Quesada-Pallares, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

• Korinthia Danielle Danielle Nicolai, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Elizabeth Severson-Irby, Virginia Commonwealth University