Doctoral Identity
For years researchers have study the change in the identity of the doctoral student through their social and academic environments. It is believed that their identity has been developed by the educational environment where they studied, and that the introduction of the Internet created a community of change. Distance education was introduced and the opportunity to teach critical thinking strategies was becoming the norm of the classrooms. Today socialization is the main force in the development of one’s academic identity, the role of the scholar and becoming critical thinkers.
Presented in this paper is a comparative analysis of three articles: “Socialization of Doctoral Students to Academic Norms” by Weidman and Stein (2003); “Developmental networks and learning: toward an interdisciplinary perspective on identity development during doctoral study” by Baker and Lattuca (2010); and “Critical thinking distance education and traditional education” by Visser, Visser and Schlosser (2003).
Comparison of Research Questions
The three articles studied presented a look at the relationships between the faculty instructors and the students and what can be done to help in the socialization of the students.
Article one ask the question regarding the preparation of the students for a scholarly role or the role that a student is expected to have after they have earned their doctorate degree. It explores the socialization of the doctoral student to the academic norms of research and scholarship (Weidman, 2003) and what effect that it has on the development of the student’s scholarly role. While Article Two focus on the development of the academic professional identity, it ask the question how does developmental networks and sociocultural perspectives of learning assist in the development of the identity and academics of the student. Like Article One, Article Two looks at how and what the doctoral student learn during the graduate journey by looking into the roles of the faculty and how they prepared the students for their professional careers. Article Three question is how instructors help students to become critical thinkers. The article also explore the role that critical thinking plays at the graduate level and if the instructors are helping student to become critical thinkers at this level.
All three articles as they pose their question toward the instructor role in the development of the student identity as a professional and what can they do to help in the socialization of the students.
Comparison of Literature Reviews