Additional information
by George E. Walker (Author), Chris M. Golde (Author), Laura Jones (Author)
This groundbreaking book explores the current state of doctoral education in the United States and offers a plan for increasing the effectiveness of doctoral education. Programs must grapple with questions of purpose. The authors examine practices and elements of doctoral programs and show how they can be made more powerful by relying on principles of progressive development, integration, and collaboration. They challenge the traditional apprenticeship model and offer an alternative in which students learn while apprenticing with several faculty members. The authors persuasively argue that creating intellectual community is essential for high-quality graduate education in every department. Knowledge-centered, multigenerational communities foster the development of new ideas and encourage intellectual risk taking.
Front Jacket
The Formation of Scholars
In the fast-paced twenty-first century educational environment--with new technologies, mounting global competition for students and scholars, blurring of boundaries between traditional disciplines, and growing pressures for accountability--doctoral programs face fundamental questions of purpose, vision, and quality.
Sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, The Formation of Scholars distills the results of a five-year project to develop creative solutions and approaches for transforming doctoral programs. The authors outline the processes, tools, and opportunities through which faculty and graduate students can turn their habits and skills as scholars--their commitment to hard questions and robust evidence--on their purposes and practices as educators and learners.
This groundbreaking book explores the current state of doctoral education in the United States and offers a plan for increasing the effectiveness of doctoral education. Programs must grapple with questions of purpose. The authors examine practices and elements of doctoral programs and show how they can be made more powerful by relying on principles of progressive development, integration, and collaboration. They challenge the traditional apprenticeship model and offer an alternative in which students learn while apprenticing with several faculty members. The authors persuasively argue that creating intellectual community is essential for high-quality graduate education in every department. Knowledge-centered, multigenerational communities foster the development of new ideas and encourage intellectual risk-taking.
The Formation of Scholars issues a call to action for administrators, faculty, and students to ensure that the United States' doctoral education continues to be the envy of the world.
Back Jacket
Doctoral Education for Future Generations
"Improving doctoral education is the lynchpin for higher education reform, and in this spirit The Formation of Scholars was built from an unusual process in which faculty-student teams from corresponding departments in participating institutions were brought together to share experiences. The results provide new guidance toward creating teaching and research scholars who are also 'stewards of the discipline.' This book should be required reading for those who care about higher education."
--DON KENNEDY, president emeritus, Stanford University and former editor-in-chief, Science
"The strength of doctoral education in the U.S. lies in its willingness to continually reinvent itself. That reinvention hinges crucially on performance of both the faculty delivering the program of study and graduate deans who structure the right incentives and generate the right resources to ensure the highest possible quality experience for students. The Formation of Scholars provides extraordinarily rich insights into the thinking of students and faculty across six fields as they reflect on program goals, program effectiveness, and the program's capacity to reinvent itself in positive and productive ways. The CID project has made a lasting contribution to the toolbox of graduate deans as they do their part to reinvent doctoral education to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century."
--DEBRA W. STEWART, president, Council of Graduate Schools
"The ideas in The Formation of Scholars are great conversation starters with faculty and administrative colleagues involved in doctoral education. This terrific volume is delightfully written, informative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. It will be a wonderful resource for effecting change in one of the most dynamic and important parts of the educational enterprise--preparation of the Ph.D."
--SUZANNE ORTEGA, vice provost and graduate dean, University of Washington
Author Biography
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is an independent policy and research center with a primary mission "to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education." CFAT is located in Stanford, California.
George Walker is a senior scholar at CFAT, where he directs the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. Walker, a theoretical physicist, was Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at Indiana University before joining CFAT. He has been active in many national organizations working on graduate education, including?the Council of Graduate Schools, an AAU Task Force, and the Council on Research Policy and?Graduate Education of NASULGC.
Chris Golde has been a senior scholar at CFAT since 2001, working?on the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. Prior to CFAT, she was a scientist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the principal investigator of the national Survey on Doctoral Education and Career Preparation, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and released as a report in January 2001.
Pat Hutchings is vice president of CFAT. Hutchings joined the Foundation in February 1998 after serving as a senior staff member at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). She holds a doctorate in English from the University of Iowa and was chair of the English department at Alverno College before joining AAHE.
