From+Practitioner+to+Scholar

One of the biggest transitions people face when they enter graduate school is the transition from being a capable practitioner to a scholar in training. Many times practitioners have a less than favorable view of scholars with all their airy fairy theories and complicated talk. Most teachers have a very "get'er done" mentality that helps them function effectively in a demanding profession. Often practitioners do not have much input into the scientific basis of their teaching practice, they are given a curriculum and are expected to dispense it, often without question and often with some pretty severe limitations on personal preferences. Reflective practitioners recognize that there is more to teaching than dispensing curriculum but they often do not have the background, time, or energy to challenge the status quo or recommend new perspectives and new approaches.

So the day to day work of education carries on without anyone stopping to ask, " Is it working?" "Is learning actually occurring?" "Could we do it better?" Many of the taken for granted assumptions of present day education are based on theoretical perspectives of teaching and learning that have proven to be out-dated, ill-informed or demonstrably incorrect. However, educational practice continues to employ such theoretical frameworks out of inertia, ossification, incompetence and/or malpractice.

Western traditions of scholarship have provided orderly and systematic methods for testing and verifying theoretical claims. The main actors in these systems are researchers, academicians and theorists who have been rigorously trained in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Graduate school is the basic training for the apex knowledge workers with in this system.

The transition from being a long experienced expert, someone who has had many years of teaching and administrative practice on the ground to a doctoral scholar can be very disorienting and may result in various degrees of identity crisis. Accustomed to being correct in most situations it is hard to accept that your practical knowledge has not prepared you for the unique challenges of scholarship.

Graduate level course work, whatever the stated objectives in the syllabus, has the overall objective of preparing people to be scholars. Each course and each activity in a course is an opportunity to hone your scholarly competencies. Each issue should be approached from the highest conceptual level using a recognized theoretical perspective. The writer must be able to trace the lineage of the theoretical perspective, cite the original authors, outline the basic precepts of the theory and describe the most recent efforts that researchers have conducted to test and verify the theory. The writer then proceeds to conduct an critical analysis of the topic at hand using the identified theoretical lens and drawing on the support of previously published research. Another topic another theoretical perspective and a new set of supporting publications. The graduate learner eventually builds up a repertory of theories and resources that prepares them to challenge the task of writing a dissertation, the first scholarly contribution to the body of knowledge in a given field.

This process can be a mixture of moments ridiculous and tedious but can also be sublimely captivating and infinitely motivating! A number of strategies have proven helpful, many of them outlined in a fabulous book -

Rudestam, K., & Newton Rae. (2001). //Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive guide to content and process// (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Another perspective on the process of developing doctoral scholars can be found in the article Gardner, S. K. (2009). The development of doctoral students: Phases of challenge and support. ASHE Higher Education Report, Volume 34, Number 6. //ASHE Higher Education Report//, //34//(6), 1–127. Also found here http://personal.crocodoc.com/TePWfMk

Technological advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has made it possible to participate in online social networks dedicated to very specific interests. These social media groups can be very simple but powerful tools for learning with great flexibility and customizability. Such groups freely share in the triumphs and trials of scholarship and are especially important for scholars studying in online environments.