Investigating the ways prior experience informs the research approaches of returning and direct-pathway students in engineering PhD programs
Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education
ISSN: 2398-4686
Article publication date: 11 June 2020
Issue publication date: 17 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways engineering doctoral students draw on prior experiences to inform their doctoral research. This study includes the experiences of “returners” – those who have worked as practitioners for five or more years before entering a PhD program – who have distinct experiences from “direct-pathway students,” which may inform how they engage in doctoral research. This study also explores the traits that distinguish varying levels of sophistication in the ways PhD students think about the research process and how prior experience may contribute.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on interview data from 52 returning and direct-pathway engineering doctoral students. A thematic analysis of this interview data highlights the primary ways participants’ prior professional, academic and life experiences inform their doctoral research. In addition, the authors conducted an iterative analysis process to sort participants’ responses about their management of a hypothetical research scenario into emergent categories of research thinking sophistication to understand what characterizes varying levels of sophistication in research thinking and explore how experience may contribute.
Findings
Participants identified past experiences as shaping their research, related to how they identify a research problem, considering what needs to and can be done to address the problem, identifying an appropriate research approach, managing unexpected challenges, responding to critical feedback, determining their comfort taking risks and using intuition to lead a project.
Originality/value
Outcomes of this research can inform how graduate education supports students throughout their degree by identifying key experiences that may contribute to students’ research approaches.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
A grant from the National Science Foundation (EEC-1159345) supported this study. We also thank Diane L. Peters and Steven J. Skerlos for their contributions to the research project.
Citation
Mosyjowski, E.A. and Daly, S.R. (2020), "Investigating the ways prior experience informs the research approaches of returning and direct-pathway students in engineering PhD programs", Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 197-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-08-2019-0072
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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