04 Mar 2024: Mixed Methods and Metaphors: Introducing Professional Doctorate Students to the Dissertation
Mixed Methods and Metaphors:
Introducing Professional Doctorate Students to the Dissertation
Ellen L. Marmon, PhD
Professor of Christian Disciplship
Asbury Seminary
With:
James W. Bush, DMin
Esther Robles, DMin
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the unique nature of the professional doctorate and identifies struggles commonly faced by ministry and education leaders who pursue this degree. Developing an identity as a scholar, along with researching and writing a dissertation, prove to be significant challenges to practitioners in doctoral programs. The second half of the article proposes five different metaphors, one for each dissertation chapter, to help practitioner-students make sense of their overall research project early on in their studies. In light of the corresponding metaphor, we also provide pedagogical approaches or “learning tasks” (Vella) suitable for each chapter of the dissertation.
Introduction
Ridiculously competent leaders applying to professional doctorate programs admit being nervous about their upcoming classes. Even so, because of their previous graduate school experience, doctoral coursework does not pose an insurmountable threat to seasoned practitioners. When introduced to a five-chapter dissertation, however, these same leaders experience significant confusion and self-doubt.[1] A nagging sense of incompetence disrupts their normally successful patterns of tackling tough issues. Higher Education studies have explored the development of a scholarly identity in doctoral students. This work contributes helpful insights to the process of practitioner-students becoming practitioner-researchers, and eventually, scholarly practitioners.[2] Applied or Professional Doctoral Programs can host this formational process well by intentionally designing the curriculum (academic concentrations, community of learners, mentors, etc.) in ways that build learner capacities over time.[3]
More than any element of doctoral work, the dissertation looms over students as an insurmountable requirement. Technical details, citation models, and research language cause students to question whether or not they can handle the work. Anxiety over the role of researcher or scholar short-circuits their experienced problem-solving and decision-making capacities.[4] Programs and students alike benefit from immediately leveraging the skills practitioners bring to doctoral work. Using accessible metaphors to introduce the dissertation chapters opens space for students, not only to make sense of the research project, but also to build their confidence as practitioner-researchers.
This article discusses the unique nature of the professional doctorate and identifies struggles commonly faced by ministry and education leaders who pursue this degree. Developing an identity as a scholar, along with researching and writing a dissertation, prove to be significant challenges to practitioners in doctoral programs. The second half of the article proposes five different metaphors, one for each dissertation chapter, to help practitioner-students make sense of their overall research project early on in their studies. In light of the corresponding metaphor, we also provide pedagogical approaches or “learning tasks”[5] suitable for each chapter of the dissertation (See Appendix).
The Professional Practice Doctorate
Professional or applied doctorates are designed for adults who seek to deepen their knowledge and expand their capacities as practitioners in various roles. These leaders desire to improve their particular organization or community, and to make a contribution to their vocational field.[6] Two professional practice degrees that match this description are Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) and Doctor of Education (Ed.D.). Unique to these doctorates are the embedded nature of the dissertation, addressing problematic issues in the students’ specific vocational contexts.[7] A robust literature review and qualitative or mixed methods research reveal implications and recommendations for the student’s particular setting, as well as for related contexts in the student’s area of work.[8]
The Carnegie Center of Education describes women and men pursuing an Ed.D. as scholarly practitioners who “blend practical wisdom with professional skills and knowledge to name, frame, and solve problems of practice.”[9] Tim Sensing locates students pursuing a D.Min. degree in the field of Practical Theology. Improving the practice of ministry culminates in a contextually-situated dissertation applicable to other practitioners in similar ministry settings.[10] The Association of Theological Schools Commission on Accrediting identifies four learning outcomes for a D.Min. program:
- Advanced theological integration;
- In-depth contextual competency;
- Enhanced leadership capacity;
- Personal and spiritual maturity.[11] (Standard 5.3)
The D.Min. dissertation or capstone project is required “to contribute something new to the understanding of the practice of ministry” (Standard 5.4). By exploring research related to their professional field, Ed.D. and D.Min. students collaborate with the academy in ways that benefit the organizations, networks, and people they serve. In addition, these scholarly practitioners contribute experience-based knowledge to particular disciplines of the academy.[12]
The Practitioner as Doctoral Student
While practitioners work through the process of researching and writing a dissertation, another, more internal process is in play. Educational researchers note that doctoral students undergo a crisis of identity throughout their academic program. Entering as full-time professionals, these students struggle to see themselves as researchers and scholars.[13] Doctoral students travel a relatively predictable path from applying to a program to defending their dissertation. An early phase of entry and adjustment implies that orientation to an applied doctoral program needs to include more than information about the required GPA, course descriptions, and semester timelines.
Noonan describes one of her goals for first-year doctoral students as “demystifying doctoral education.”[14] This includes addressing the importance of relationships for support and guidance; identifying fears that are typical for new students; and discussing Brookfield and Preskill’s concept of the “imposter syndrome.”[15] Coryell, et.al., gathered journal entries from new doctoral students and analyzed personal narratives in connection with their first research methods course. They discovered that students were “fraught with anxiety or self-doubt related to the perceptions of themselves as competent researchers.”[16] Applied doctoral students often waiver between feeling humbled and humiliated by a process that frustrates them at every turn.
McAlpine argues that acquiring “academic literacy”[17] includes developing an identity as a critical thinker and communicator. For professionals in ministry and education, the process of becoming fluent in doctoral research methods might well be compared to an epic-like quest. Even accomplished, experienced leaders need assistance on an arduous journey. In order to facilitate the formation of scholarly practitioners, Noonan prioritizes specific pedagogy that builds on what the new doctoral students already can do and understand. Supportive and creative pedagogy, targeted reading, writing communities, mentors and role models – these are elements of a professional doctoral program that anticipates students’ struggles with researching and writing.[18]
Using Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning,[19] Wicker discusses what faculty discovered when they redesigned an entry-level research methods course for a professional doctorate program. He observes that emphasizing research-unique tasks, conceptual frameworks, and theory early on in the first methods course, overwhelmed the students. “Introducing the capstone in smaller doses with simpler language would likely have eliminated unnecessary stress. Finding a way to align capstone requirements with examples of how they may see these tasks in their professional experiences could have also contributed to immediate understanding and familiarity.”[20] Faculty redesigned the course so that students could participate in building a bridge of understanding from their experience to doctoral research.
Students pursuing an Ed.D. or a D.Min. degree work full time; they face family responsibilities (aging parents, siblings, spouse, children, etc.), honor volunteer commitments, and lead professional organizations. Ready access to a formal learning community, faculty, or an academic library is not a privilege most applied doctoral students enjoy. Respecting the non-residential nature of professional doctorate students translates into, among other things, easy access to online resources and pedagogy geared toward professional adults. For example, utilizing metaphors to introduce the dissertation chapters to practitioner-students is a creative, effective way to make sense of this complex research and writing requirement.
Metaphors and Adult Learning
Botha asserts that metaphors serve an epistemological purpose in education. “It is exactly the creative and innovative and interactive role of metaphor which creates the similarities between a student’s earlier understanding and the acquisition of the new knowledge of an unfamiliar topic.”[21] Building “link-ages between two dissimilar ideas (the concrete and the abstract),” metaphors can serve as meaningful pedagogical devices.[22] Not usually connected with adult education, metaphors typically have been identified as a literary device, a writing style suitable for poetry and other genres. Cognitive theory, however, argues that metaphors move beyond being merely “decorative,” and serve as conveyers of sense.[23]
Metaphors do more than translate something unfamiliar via the familiar; they transfer the cognitive structure of an idea, or schema, along with the meaning.[24] The domain from which the primary metaphor is drawn travels with all its constructs, language, and secondary metaphors to the new domain. Consequently, the adult students’ once unfamiliar academic realm (in this case, researching and writing a dissertation) is furnished with more than a single image or symbol.[25] Serving as multi-dimensional “lenses,” or “orienting images,” metaphors generously offer familiar pictures, sounds, smells, or tactile senses.[26] They spark the imagination to engage idea and action, abstract concept and concrete reality – a reality with which the learner can readily relate.[27]
The overall process of researching and writing a doctoral dissertation has attracted numerous metaphors from scholars and practitioners alike.
- Telling a Story[28];
- A quest to summit a mountain[29];
- Weaving a tapestry[30];
- Learning a new language[31];
- Tending a Garden[32];
- Thriving in Whitewater.[33]
Despite the variety of metaphors, each emphasizes: 1) progression over time; 2) intentional thought with strategic action, and 3) continual challenge. These meaning makers initially invite adult learners into a relatively familiar experience (metaphor) that segues to an unknown process (doctoral research).
Several educational experts liken writing a dissertation to telling a story.[34] This comparison works well for a general introduction, providing new applied doctoral students with a big picture perspective. Depending on the doctoral program’s standards, this academic story typically contains five chapters. The theme is revealed in both the work’s title and purpose statement (identifying the problem), while the plot’s structure is reflected in the type of research conducted (experimental, quasi-experimental, pre-experimental, etc.). Academic and professional experts (literature review), as well as participants engaged in the writer’s research, serve as the story’s main characters. The writer’s professional context provides the setting for this academic story, a unique aspect of applied dissertations. Chapter Five concludes by integrating themes, identifying surprises, and bringing the story to a well-developed resolution.
Five Metaphors that Make Sense
No metaphor is perfect; in fact, cognitive researchers caution educators that metaphors simultaneously expand and restrict people’s thinking.[35] However, metaphors create initial understanding between the known and the unknown. For professional doctorate students, they provide a familiar framework early on in research methods and writing courses, welcoming practitioners and faculty alike into a complex and critical process. The following section identifies one metaphor (a) for each chapter of an applied dissertation (b). For faculty who teach research methods, the Appendix pairs each chapter’s metaphor with adult learning tasks.[36]
Chapter One: Designing a Movie Trailer
Dishonesty in trailers is more than a moral issue, it’s a practical one. If you don’t deliver in the film what you offered in the trailer, you’ll get bad word-of-mouth. Saul Bass
- A movie trailer offers viewers glimpses of the entire film, without providing a detailed narrative or revealing the ending. After watching a movie trailer, enthusiasts understand the film’s general setting, theme and plot. They also know who is acting in the main and secondary roles. Based on the short clips and background music provided, viewers can discern what kind of movie is being promoted (Science-Fiction, Action, Comedy, Documentary, etc.). Is this film worth going to see in a theater? Streaming at home? Neither? After watching the trailer, viewers have the information they need to answer these questions.
- Chapter One of the dissertation introduces readers to the overall project, identifying key elements of the work without communicating major findings. After reading Chapter One, the research enthusiast knows a little about writer’s personal experience, as well as the project’s purpose, main theme or problem. Highlights from the literature review and research participant description acquaint the reader with the project’s main characters. The dissertation’s setting and type of research are identified (pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, experimental), as well as the way in which the research was (will be) conducted. Ultimately, the reader gains a sense of whether or not this dissertation project (or even its bibliography) is worth further investigation.
Note: It’s important to assure students that even though they aren’t working with the entire movie script at the beginning, they can identify the basic elements of their movie trailer, and fill in the gaps as the research progresses.
Chapter Two: Hosting A Coffee-Hour
A single conversation across the table with a wise [person] is worth a month’s study of books. Chinese Proverb
- The literature review, typically more than any other chapter, challenges practitioners’ beliefs about their ability to research and write academically robust content. In contrast, hosting people for coffee (and tea, of course) seems much more manageable. This metaphor provides a familiar and non-threatening starting place — a social event with a purpose. The host of this coffee-hour needs to invite experts in academic disciplines that relate to the project’s topic. The first, and sometimes most daunting step, requires discerning who qualifies for the guest list. What disciplines and which authors could contribute best to the host’s understanding of the issue in question? Discretion is needed for the host to select the most appropriate, relevant, and academically sound experts. Inexperienced hosts benefit from discussing the invitation list with a mentor or perhaps a professional guest list developer (research specialist). Once invited, the special guests arrive at the coffee hour knowing that they will be discussing the host’s dissertation topic through the lens of their unique field of study. The host strategically seats like-minded scholars and practitioners at small tables. While refilling coffee mugs and tea cups, the host listens in on each table’s conversation and asks probing questions. Good hosts note similar and contrasting perspectives, as well as recent and time-tested insights. They pay attention to ideas, theories and models particularly significant for the project’s context. Astute hosts also notice what isn’t said by the guests.
- For doctoral students in educational and ministry professions, identifying relevant academic disciplines and specific experts for their literature review can feel overwhelming. Little to no interaction with academic libraries in the last decade or two (or three) heightens students’ struggle with feeling incompetent. Introducing students to the literature review also means introducing them to academic research methods. They will be listening to (reading) experts from several academic disciplines, all the while integrating multiple perspectives around their dissertation topic. Framing strategic reading as intentional eavesdropping on discussions over coffee gives students a non-threatening place to start the literature review.
Some school libraries have developed helpful resources for doctoral students, giving them access to online tutorials and research specialists on staff. Dissertation mentors can point their students in the direction of appropriate journals, scholars and practitioners. It’s also helpful to introduce students to the power of bibliographies. Even in their Master’s level work, many students did not have to select resources independently of a course reference list. Consequently, paying attention to Forwards, Prefaces and Bibliographies is also a new practice. In a doctoral program, books, articles, and chapters identified in bibliographies point researchers to essential reading. Similarly, short literature reviews found in articles offer students good examples of analyzing and synthesizing ideas from a variety of resources. Bibliographies and mini-literature reviews acquaint practitioners with the task of integrating multiple voices under relevant headings, all focused on a particular topic.
Chapter Three: Creating a Recipe
I measure everything, because I always think that if I’ve spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot? Ina Garten
- The most formulaic chapter of a dissertation, Chapter Three functions like a recipe. Whether found in a grandmother’s tin or on a website, recipes provide detailed instructions of a step-by-step process. Because both the measurements and the sequence of ingredients matter, recipe language is concrete and exact. The goal is that anyone who follows the directions to bake a chocolate cake, for example, will enjoy similar results as the person who originated the recipe. Ingredients and their amounts can be likened to all the questions raised from both the researcher’s experience and the literature review regarding a particular issue. Recipes use specific language for the order and the manner in which ingredients are combined. Blending, mixing, beating – these instructions all communicate different approaches (research methods) to interacting with the ingredients (questions). The type of pan used for baking (size, metal or glass, round or oblong, etc.) represents the participants or participant groups chosen for the research project, into which the batter (specific research instrument) is poured. What emerges from the oven, the chocolate cake itself, represents the data collected from the participants. Recipes can note which utensils are best to cut the cake, as well as suggest good ways to store the cake in between servings. If someone is going to replicate the baking process with the hopes of creating the same delicious chocolate cake, that person must copy every detail of the recipe in order – nothing added, nothing omitted.
- Chapter Three describes the methodology through which the researcher interacts with participants to generate data. People chosen to engage in the research offer perspectives, log reflections, or respond to statements regarding the researcher’s dissertation topic. Deciding how to engage participants requires knowledge of various research methods, including the strengths and weaknesses of each. The researcher must decide to use either established or self-designed instruments. The type of methods (focus groups, questionnaire, journal, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, pre- and post-tests etc.) and content they contain must align with the project’s purpose and reflect insights discovered from the literature review. Step-by-step descriptions of the researcher’s data collection and analysis assist future researchers who desire to replicate the process in their own context.
Chapter Four: Harvesting a Garden
What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action. Meister Eckhart
- Catherine Zeisner reflects on her Ed.D. program, likening her role to an “intentional gardener.”[37] Using the same metaphor for her entire doctoral experience, she refers to seasons of sowing, weeding, waiting, and harvesting. Chapter Four, data analysis, connects well with the practice of harvesting a garden. After planting intentionally chosen seeds (research instruments), gardeners dig, cut, and discover the fruit of their painstaking attention. Taking what emerges from the soil (participants), gardeners do not alter the vegetables, herbs, fruits, etc. (data). Onions remain onions; kale cannot be changed into cabbage. Harvesting is a process of reaping what was sown and accepting the results at face value (research integrity).
Gardeners inspect their crops, looking for similar shapes, variations in color, texture and taste. Seeds from the same packet, while yielding the same kind of vegetable, can also produce important nuances that warrant closer inspection. Gathering like produce together, gardeners sort and select choice examples from each variety to display or share. Perhaps a basket labeled “damaged,” contains produce that does not meet the standards of the market (participant attrition, incorrectly marked surveys, etc.). Gardens always yield some surprises, “volunteer” flowers in the mix or a stray carrot in the green bean row. Gardeners notice these anomalies, just as they notice what might have limited their crop’s readiness. Everything that grows in the garden matters. Once the bulk of a crop has been brought into the storehouse, gardeners continue the gleaning process. They take stock of what grew to maturity and what failed to thrive; in addition, they draw conclusions about the year’s yield, making plans for an improved outcome next year. - Data analysis begins as soon as the researcher receives the first completed survey or conducts the first focus group. Always observing, listening, and sorting comments into categories, the researcher collects, analyzes, displays, and summarizes participant responses in relationship to the project’s purpose and overall research questions. Ethical standards prohibit the researcher from altering transcripts or omitting data in order to support a particular perspective, model, or theory. People are unpredictable; emergencies arise; participants don’t complete the training event or the survey. Limitations are a normal part of any research process and need to be acknowledged. People are surprising; listening to stories, reading open-ended responses, researchers nearly always meet with unexpected outcomes. Those surprises, while unanticipated, represent data that warrant reporting. Everything that emerges from the research with participants matters. The work of categorizing, noticing similarities, differences, and absences culminates in discoveries or major findings. Ultimately, these major findings represent the primary fruit of the researcher’s work.
Chapter Five: Reflecting on a Long Journey
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can. (The Hobbit, Tolkien)
- Chapter Five represents the completion of a significant journey, which calls for intentional reflection. This purposeful expedition focuses on a complex issue that the traveler was facing in a professional context. After identifying major discoveries, the expert traveler sees how various experiences along the journey inform each other. Each person or group encountered, the sages (experts in various fields) and local inhabitants (participants from the researcher’s context), all contribute to insights regarding a particular concern. Thoughtful reflection on the stories, photographs, and mementos collected while traveling, reveals significant patterns and new perspectives. Travelers realize that the anxiety and dread they experienced when embarking on the journey have been replaced with confidence and deep sense of gratitude
Astute travelers also notice what they missed during their explorations. Perhaps they skipped a village that was originally on the itinerary, or bad weather kept them from meeting with a local official. Now is the time to articulate gaps, as well as highlight surprises met and obstacles overcome. Keeping other travelers who are exploring similar paths in mind, the pilgrim makes recommendations for future journeys. The traveler’s final reflections take on a more personal nature. Looking within, the traveler asks, “How have I changed since the early days of this adventure? In what ways have this journey and the people I met transformed me? How might these changes benefit others, immediately and in the future?” - Chapter Five offers the gift of reflection, informed hindsight from the researcher on the project as a whole. This final installment invites both integration and retrospection from the practitioner-scholar. With the benefit of four chapters complete, the researcher reviews insights from the literature consulted, as well as from the people who participated in the study. Bringing all these voices together for the first time, the researcher integrates theories, models, principles and practices.
Academic integrity requires Chapter Five to include limitations of the study, as well as surprising discoveries. The research must address the project’s significance in the larger educational or ministry context (implications). Recommendations stemming from all the work done can impact the researcher’s immediate context. In addition, the researcher contributes to the understanding and practice of a profession for others working in similar roles and systems. Typically, the final section allows practitioner-scholars to reflect on their personal journey of researching and writing a dissertation. Here the student finally addresses more internal shifts and self-discoveries, emphasizing the personal impact of the dissertation.
Conclusion
Highlighting the unique elements of the professional doctorate degree, this article then identified the initial phase of a common identity formation process that most doctoral students experience. Practitioners question their ability to research and write in an academically robust environment. Their sense of incompetence short-circuits normal problem-solving skills needed for both professional and doctoral work. Educational research supports beginning a professional doctorate program in ways that invite students to contribute to the learning process. Practitioners enter doctoral work with rich experiences and abilities; these gifts become important elements of the overall doctoral curriculum. Discovering that some of their skills are transferrable to academic work can motivate students to continue what they started.
Metaphors are sense-makers; by their very nature they build bridges from the familiar to the unfamiliar, in this case from practitioners’ life experience to the chapters of a doctoral dissertation. Anticipating students’ concerns about their ability to engage in academic research and writing, those leading professional doctoral programs can begin teaching the dissertation with relevant, user-friendly metaphors. These constructs open up mental and emotional space for practitioners to explore an intimidating doctoral requirement. Discussing movie trailers, coffee hours, recipes, gardens, and long journeys allows new doctoral students to begin with what they know. These metaphors work well in the introductory phase of research methods instruction, when second-guessing and anxiety hound students who are quite accomplished professionally. Once a class of new doctoral students gains an initial understanding of each chapter’s purpose, they are better prepared to encounter the complexities of academic research.
Appendix
Learning Tasks for Each Dissertation Chapter
Vella readily admits that “integrating lecture and laboratory”[38] requires advanced planning, creativity and hard work. She is well acquainted with teachers’ hesitance regarding learning tasks for adults. Concerns range from a learning task costing too time to design, to the learning task feeling too elementary for adult students. Vella challenges adult educators:
My question is this: What does it cost to teach without ensuring that learning takes place? What is the price of adult learners failing to grasp essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes? Also, what does it cost to teach without inviting critical thinking and creativity? I work with many graduate students who are struggling to write their dissertations. I propose that they would have a great deal more confidence and ability if they had learned through learning tasks since their preschool days.[39]
Two decades later, neuroscience and social science support Vella’s proposal. Moving beyond passive engagement, participatory engagement of adult learners invites deep, significant learning, the kind of learning that forms scholarly practitioners.[40] The following material describes learning tasks connected with the appropriate metaphor for all five dissertation Chapters.
Chapter One – Designing a Movie Trailer
Learning Task: Before introducing Chapter One of the dissertation to the students, divide them into small groups and provide two links to movie trailers per group. It’s important that the movies represent different genres and themes, as well as diverse actors, countries and cultures.[41] Ask each group to watch both movie trailers two or three times through, noting the film’s theme, type or genre, main characters, setting, and general plot. The group then decides whether they would go see the movie in a theater, stream the movie at home, or not watch the movie at all. Someone in the group records the group’s decisions and rationale for both films. Students return to the full group and share their findings. As these practitioners identify various parts of the movie highlighted in the trailer, the faculty instructor records those categories (physical or digital white board) for everyone to see. After the groups have reported their findings, the instructor introduces the overall purpose of Chapter One, as well as the individual sections, drawing parallels to the movie trailer categories students just discussed.
Chapter Two: Hosting a Coffee Hour
Learning Tasks: To introduce Chapter Two to practitioners, design a coffee break as part of the dissertation instruction. Give each student a notecard and a pen for writing notes as they walk around a room or nearby hallways. Posted on the walls are sheets of paper, each listing an academic discipline at the top, with related fields of study noted below. For example, the discipline “Leadership” might include fields such as “initiating change,” “building teams,” “adaptive leadership,” “transformative leadership” and “servant leadership.” As students walk by the sheets of paper, they write down any subject they think might contribute to understanding their project’s issue. If research methods instruction is based online, students can brew their own coffee, work through slides that operate like the sheets of paper hanging on walls, and jot down any fields of study that relate to their project. Once they have completed this task, they have created their initial guest list for the coffee hour.
Next, students sit down at small tables arranged in one room (or chairs in a circle, or breakout groups via Zoom). Faculty choose a dissertation topic (typical for professionals in the program) and place signs that identify a different academic discipline on each table. Students join in table talk around their assigned discipline, hypothesizing what the experts from that field might say regarding the dissertation topic. Faculty gather insights from each table and synthesize the entire experience as it relates to selecting resources and reading them critically. Mentors, research specialists, library tutorials and even research software offered by the doctoral program, are resources faculty highlight as students begin their literature review. These learning tasks do not teach students how to write a literature review; instead, they introduce them to the purpose of Chapter Two and the critical step of identifying relevant resources for consultation. The creative interaction offers a framework practitioners can comprehend, in order to introduce a chapter that initially seems incomprehensible.
Chapter Three: Creating a Recipe
Learning Tasks: An exercise common to team-building initiatives involves giving one person a set of Legos™, built into some kind of recognizable structure (house, bridge, boat, etc.). The second person stands with back turned and is given a bag containing the exact same pieces used in the original structure (any combination of items will work). The narrator must describe the process of assembling an identical figure with words only, while the listener tries to create an exact replica. The two participants debrief the experience in front of the entire group of students. This exercise is light-hearted, but illustrative of the challenges that communicating precise directions pose.
To match more directly with the recipe metaphor, small groups of doctoral students could be given three recipes each. One is exact and clear in its directions, even including some notes written in the margins about how many times to stir the batter with a wooden (not metal) spoon; a second recipe is moderately detailed; a third reads more like a story and calls for seasoning the mixture “to taste.” Students discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each recipe based on the criteria for reliable replication. While the choice of which recipe is best will be clear, articulating the reasons for that choice initiates critical thinking on the students’ part. The learning task invites practitioners to begin thinking like researchers whose projects can be replicated. For an added bonus, it never hurts to have freshly baked cookies ready for the students at the end of the session (with gluten- and dairy-free options available, of course). The more senses learners engage in their discovery processes, the more likely they will connect insight to application.[42]
Chapter Four: Harvesting a Garden
Learning Task: Whether doctoral students have gardening experience or not, most people are familiar with gardens (even if only through movies, books or generational stories). They can connect their role as researcher with gardener, the person responsible for cultivating an intentional process that will yield fruit, or data. Faculty can visualize this metaphor with baskets of various fruits and vegetables on display. Like kinds are collected together; unacceptable, damaged produce fills one container, but is not discarded. Odd, unexpected items from the garden create another category. Faculty can discuss the purpose of the particular garden, that is, what the gardener set out to accomplish (purpose statement and research questions), the nature of the soil (participants), what seeds were sown (research instruments) and what actually emerged (data). With that background, students are given an evaluation sheet to help with their inspection of the produce (in person of via photos online). What would they report about this garden’s yield? What do they notice about each kind of fruit/vegetable, as well as about the relationships between them. Does the damaged produce offer any relevant information? What about the surprises? Can the students glean any insights through the process of observing and evaluating the crop? Engaging in this learning task introduces practitioner-students to the purpose and process of data analysis.
Chapter Five: Reflecting on a Long Journey
Learning Tasks: Some students may be familiar with the connect-the-dots activity often enjoyed by primary school children. Copying a page from an activity book and asking students to draw lines between dots (in numerical/alphabetical order) illustrates how seemingly random dots (data, academic fields consulted) combine to create a recognizable shape or picture. A quick exercise, connecting the dots introduces Chapter Five’s purpose of integration to practitioner-students.
A second possibility involves selecting passages from famous and lesser-known journey literature (The Odyssey, The Faerie Queene, Pilgrim’s Progress, Diary of a Young Girl, Facing Mt. Kenya, A Horse and His Boy, Journey Toward Freedom, A Miracle of Five Minutes, etc.). Key selections could be read by volunteers as a part of an in-person research methods course, or the passages could be recorded and viewed by students in an online format. Either way, the critical piece of this learning task requires the students to listen and reflect. As they hear someone else’s insights on his or her journey, students consider the following questions:
- Who are the primary people that impacted the person’s journey?
- What experiences shaped the person’s new perspectives and attitudes?
- Did the person identify any surprises along their life journey? What were they?
- Did the person note anything they would change about their journey if they could repeat it? Regrets? Improvements?
- What can other people learn from this person’s journey?
- What have you learned from this account of another person’s journey?
Discussing a person’s journey or quest through the use of reflection questions encourages students to move beyond “meaning-receiving,” to “meaning-making.”[43] Faculty collaborate with practitioners to make connections between reflecting on a long journey and understanding the purpose of Chapter Five.
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[1] McAlpine, “Shining Light on Doctoral Reading: Implications for Doctoral Identities and Pedagogies”; Coryell et al., “Becoming Real: Adult Student Impressions of Developing an Educational Researcher Identity”; Noonan, “Doctoral Pedagogy in Stage One: Forming a Scholarly Identity.”
[2] Lovitts, Barbara, “Being a Good Course-Taker Is Not Enough: A Theoretical Perspective on the Transition to Independent Research”; Benedict, “Teaching Leadership: A Journey from Classroom Teacher to Scholarly Practitioner.”
[3] Lovitts, “The Transition to Independent Research: Who Makes It, Who Doesn’t, and Why”; Wicker, “Rethinking Education for the Practitioner Using Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning: Lessons Learned in Redesigning an Introductory Level Doctoral Course.”
[4] Bigdeli, “Affective Learning: The Anxiety Construct in Adult Learners.”
[5] Vella, Taking Learning to Task.
[6] Bourner and Simpson, “Action Learning and the Pedagogy of Professional Doctorates.”
[7] Perry, “The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate.”
[8] Archbold, Doug, “Research versus Problem Solving for the Education Leadership Doctoral Thesis: Implications for Form and Function”; Dawson and Kumar, “Guiding Principles for Quality Professional Practice Dissertations”; Dana et al., “Exemplifying the Dissertation in Practice.”
[9] Perry, “The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate.” 59.
[10] Sensing, Qualitative Research: A Multi-Methods Approach to Projects for Doctor of Ministry Dissertations.
[11] https://www.ats.edu/files/galleries/standards-of-accreditation.pdf
[12] Storey, “Impact Factors of the Dissertation in Practice: A 21st Century Model.”
[13] Lovitts, Barbara, “Being a Good Course-Taker Is Not Enough: A Theoretical Perspective on the Transition to Independent Research”; McAlpine, “Shining Light on Doctoral Reading: Implications for Doctoral Identities and Pedagogies”; Coryell et al., “Becoming Real: Adult Student Impressions of Developing an Educational Researcher Identity”; Noonan, “Doctoral Pedagogy in Stage One: Forming a Scholarly Identity.”
[14] Noonan, “Doctoral Pedagogy in Stage One: Forming a Scholarly Identity.” 3.
[15] Brookfield and Preskill, Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms.
[16] Coryell et al., “Becoming Real: Adult Student Impressions of Developing an Educational Researcher Identity.” 375.
[17] McAlpine, “Shining Light on Doctoral Reading: Implications for Doctoral Identities and Pedagogies.” 359.
[18] Noonan, “Doctoral Pedagogy in Stage One: Forming a Scholarly Identity.”
[19] Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.
[20] Wicker, “Rethinking Education for the Practitioner Using Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning: Lessons Learned in Redesigning an Introductory Level Doctoral Course.” 115.
[21] Botha, “Why Metaphor Matters in Education.” 432.
[22] Saban, “Functions of Metaphor in Teaching and Teacher Education: A Review Essay.” 300.
[23] Lakoff and Johnson, The Metaphors We Live By; Frackowiak, “Metaphors in Adult Education: Cultural Inspirations for Advancement of Theory and Practice.”
[24] Thayer-Bacon, “Thinking Constructively with Metaphors”; Yob, “Thinking Constructively with Metaphors: A Review of B. Thayer-Bacon, 2000.”
[25] Martinez, Sauleda, and Huber, “Metaphors as Blueprints of Thinking about Teaching and Learning.”
[26] Smith and Felch, Teaching and Christian Imagination.
[27] Eragamreddy, “Teaching Creative Thinking Skills”; Frick and Brodin, “A Return to Wonderland: Exploring the Links between Academic Identity Development and Creativity during Doctoral Education.”
[28] Sensing, Qualitative Research: A Multi-Methods Approach to Projects for Doctor of Ministry Dissertations.
[29] Roberts, Carol and Hyatt, Laura, The Dissertation Journey, A Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Writing, and Defending Your Dissertation.
[30] Butin, The Education Dissertation, A Guide for Practitioner Scholars.
[31] Casanave, Writing Games, Multi-Cultural Case Studies of Academic Literacy Practices in Higher Education.
[32] Zeisner, “The Intentional Gardener.”
[33] Barney, “Thriving in Whitewater: A Professional Practice Doctorate Experience.”
[34] Feak and Swales, Telling a Research Story.
[35] Yob, “Thinking Constructively with Metaphors: A Review of B. Thayer-Bacon, 2000”; Lakoff and Johnson, The Metaphors We Live By; Frackowiak, “Metaphors in Adult Education: Cultural Inspirations for Advancement of Theory and Practice.”
[36] Vella, Taking Learning to Task.
[37] Zeisner, “The Intentional Gardener.” 269.
[38] Vella, Taking Learning to Task.
[39] Vella.
[40] Schenck and Cruickshank, “Evolving Kolb: Experiential Education in the Age of Neuroscience”; Merriam and Baumgartner, Learning in Adulthood, A Comprehensive Guide.
[41] Kingston-Mann, “Academic Integrity and Academic Inclusion: The Mission of the ‘Outsider Within.’”
[42] Merriam and Baumgartner, Learning in Adulthood, A Comprehensive Guide.
[43] Fink, Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses.