STEM Education Ph.D.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Upon completion of the degree, students should be familiar with all the major areas of science education research and their historical development. Students should be able to locate and access relevant resources (dissertations, databases, journal articles, etc.) utilizing appropriate search techniques; organize and structure presentations on topics in the field; and prepare a publication quality written paper, with appropriate academic citations.

2. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to recognize the values and assumptions inherent in the development, understanding and interpretation of scientific knowledge. Scientific knowledge is empirically based, culturally embedded, tentative and incorporates subjectivity and creativity. Students should be able to distinguish science from other ways of knowing and explain the standards of evidence and scientific explanations, processes, and conventions that are used in science.

3. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to identify and critique the basic approaches to STEM teacher education; examine ways in which STEM teacher effectiveness may be empirically assessed; compile an introductory literature review that is grounded in the academic research literature of the field; and, conduct research on a STEM Education topic and present findings in a conference poster format.

4. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to produce policy briefs for scientific topics; be able to recognize the strengths and limitations of various research methods (quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods). Locate appropriate and adequate academic research on their thesis area, extracting main findings and synthesizing them into a review of current literature that is coherent, well supported and original, and which demonstrates the student’s understanding of the theoretical framework and context in which the problem statement is situated. Demonstrate proficient knowledge of the protection of human subjects in social science research. Develop a sound, rigorous research design based upon a compelling policy rationale and previous research in the field of STEM education.

5. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to conduct STEM education research using qualitative methods; demonstrate proficiency in choosing appropriate methods for studying a particular person or people group under a given set of conditions; locate and access relevant resources related to qualitative research; demonstrate proficiency in developing research questions aligned to the philosophical and methodological assumptions and choices in the study design; identify and express appropriate theoretical and methodological frameworks for qualitative studies.