Novel Courses for the Professional Development of Graduate Students: Results and Reflection
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Graduate Studies
- Page Count
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12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--35000
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/35000
- Download Count
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485
Paper Authors
Michael A. Matthews P.E. University of South Carolina
Professor Matthews received his PhD from Texas A&M University in 1986. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Wyoming from 1987 to 1993, and has been at the University of South Carolina since 1994. He currently is Senior Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs and Vice Dean in the College of Engineering and Computing
Gina M. Kunz University of South Carolina
Dr. Gina M. Kunz is Director of the Research Institute in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. The Institute is comprised of five University-approved Centers and serves as the organizing infrastructure for resources and supports directly applied to faculty research teams, equipping them in the art and science of writing winning grant proposals. Dr. Kunz received her PhD in psychology at Louisiana State University. She is a licensed psychologist for children and adolescents, and her areas of professional expertise include behavior management for children and adolescents with behavioral and social-emotional challenges and attention deficits, academic assessment and intervention for children and adolescents with academic challenges, professional development and instructional coaching for adults who teach and support children, parent training, school-based consultation, and strengthening positive home-school partnerships. Dr. Kunz has a long-standing history of conducting interdisciplinary research, and she has secured more than $23 million as PI/Co-PI for large-scale research funded nationally or through state and foundation funding.
Kevin Brock University of South Carolina
Kevin Brock is an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina, where he studies and teaches courses in rhetoric, composition, and professional and technical writing.
Darin Freeburg University of South Carolina
Dr. Darin Freeburg is an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. He research centers around the issues of intangible asset creation and extraction, in addition to information literacy. As part of this, he has considered how innovation is facilitated using emergent approaches, and how this innovation can be used to embolden an organization’s strategic intentions. This research has been conducted with nonprofit groups—including refugee advocates, churches, and libraries. Recognizing the value in intangible assets, Dr. Freeburg has looked to his own classrooms as places where students can begin to recognize their unique contributions to society and their current and future professions.
Abstract
The Paul-Elder model of critical thinking has been adopted as the pedagogical framework for two, one-credit graduate courses for engineering (STEM) graduate students at the University of South Carolina. The courses aimed at explicit instruction in development of critical reading and writing skills. Course 1 is for new graduate students who need to develop an understanding of the literature for their research projects. This course focuses on finding, assessing, and critically reading the research literature relevant to their new project. Course 2 is for graduate students who are preparing to write or present their work in a professional venue. The second course focuses on writing, in the standards of the discipline, but with an explicit view of meeting critical thinking standards. These courses were developed to address common faculty concerns about their graduate students, e.g. poor writing skills; inability to comprehend and act on the literature; inability to develop independence of thought; etc. This paper summarizes course syllabi and typical assignments and approaches to assessing student work. Work has begun on the efficacy of these courses, addressing several key questions concerning skill development. Preliminary assessment addresses the extent to which the two-course sequence promotes (a) level of mastery of information literacy skills and written communication skills; (b) the ability to produce high-quality research communications; (c) the development of scholarly independence; (d) the student’s self-perception of their research capabilities and (e) ability to apply critical thinking skills. This particular implementation of the Paul-Elder framework could be adapted to different graduate program environments.
Matthews, M. A., & Kunz, G. M., & Brock, K., & Freeburg, D. (2020, June), Novel Courses for the Professional Development of Graduate Students: Results and Reflection Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35000
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