Personal reflection and purpose

Personal Reflection and Purpose

Lisa Marie BrenneckeUniversity of Phoenix

Topics

• Factors for Obtaining a Doctoral Degree• Current Position Preparedness• Program Outcomes• Life After Doctoral Completion• Closing Thoughts

Factors for Obtaining a Doctoral Degree

• It is a major commitment to start a study at the doctoral level (Leonard, Becker & Coate, 2006).

• The reason a person has for joining a doctoral program will influence what the learner will get out of it (Wellington, Bathmaker, Hunt, McCulloch, &, Sikes, 2005).

• Completing research as a doctoral student is about learning of ones relationship with the world (Wellington, Bathmaker, Hunt, McCulloch, &, Sikes, 2005).

Two reasons to obtain a doctoral degree are to enhance a person’s knowledge base, and to obtain career goals.

Current Position Preparedness

• Multimedia Technician• Encounter New Technologies to share

• Perspective transformation can occur due to change of job status (Mezirow,1990).

Program Outcomes• Many graduate students do not begin a doctorate by thinking or writing

like scholars (Caffarella, & Barnett, 2000).

• Students who obtain doctorates create new knowledge though the creation of original research (Wikeley & Muschamp, 2004).

Program Outcomes• Academic disciplines general knowledge base can:

– understand, design and implement projects– know how to identify new academic questions (Wikeley & Muschamp,

2004).

• Critical thinking is important because a person can accurately:– Interpret data at a high level of intelligence– Improve thinking abilities– Validate choices made by looking at data (Lunney, 2003).

Life after Doctoral Completion• Can use new skills in professional and personal life• Professional

– Journals and Books – Conferences

• Personal– Community Leaders – Church Leader

A new Identity

• “Like a kaleidoscope in which patters of coloured class change and re-form as the wheel is turned, so the identity and associated patters of behavior and attitude that we display tend to change and re-form according to social circumstances” (Wellington, Bathmaker, Hunt, McCulloch, & Sikes, 2005).

Closing Thoughts

• Two reasons to start a doctoral program include scholarship and to obtain a career goals.

• A students can be prepared correctly for this endeavor because of solid past career and education experience .

• Doctors will have a new way of thinking after obtaining many different applicable skills.

• After a degree in educational leadership has been completed, the doctor will be a better citizen in their community because of the skills that they have learned that will improve their professional and personal life.

References• Caffarella, R., & Barnett, B. (2000). Teaching doctoral students to become scholarly

writers: the importance of giving and receiving critiques. Studies in Higher Education, 25(1), 39-52.

• Leonard, D., Becker, R., & Coate, K. (2005). To prove myself at the highest level: The benefits of doctoral study. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(2), 135-149.

• Lunney, M. (2003, July-September). Critical thinking and accuracy of nurses' diagnoses. International Journal of Nursing Terminologies and Classifications, 14(3), 96.

• Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative and emancipatory learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• Wellington, J., Bathmaker, A., Hunt, C., McCulloch, G., & Sikes, P. (2005). Succeeding with your doctorate. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

• Wikeley, F., & Muschamp, Y. (2004, May). Pedagogical implications of working with doctoral students at a distance. Distance Education, 25(1), 125.