Department of Teaching and Learning

Degrees

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Degree requirements vary somewhat according to degree pattern, and prospective applicants should consult program descriptions. Prospective applicants should also plan to contact particular program directors prior to completing an application.

Coursework Requirements

All students, regardless of program or focus area, are required to complete a minimum of 36 credits. Additional credit requirements vary by program. Requirements include the following:

  1. Pro-Seminar for Department of Teaching and Learning, to be taken in student's first year of enrollment. This course will introduce students to doctoral level study and will assist in acclimating students to the department, to scholarship, and to the professional world of research studies (*this requirement may be waived by the student's program advisor to accommodate extenuating circumstances*).
  2. Two (2) Cognate Courses, to be selected by student with approval of advisor. Cognate courses constitute those taken in an area outside of the program/focus area that are supportive to the student's research.
  3. Foundations Requirements: All students are required to complete 6 credits (two courses) of course work in the foundations of education during the first 24 credits of doctoral study. Graduate courses qualify for the foundations requirement when they are upper division courses (Steinhardt 2000 level courses or their equivalent in other schools) and designed to broaden students' access to knowledge beyond the areas of specialization. To this end, courses are considered foundational when they: (1) provide broad basic content, not limited to a single profession, and are outside the student's specialization, and do not require prerequisites; (2) are based on current scholarship in the arts, humanities, sciences and/or social sciences; and (3) have wide applicability to common issues of the student's specialization and profession.
  4. Fifteen (15) credits of research methodology courses, of which one must be a qualitative methods course and one must be a quantitative methods course. Per Department of Teaching and Learning requirements, students should complete one qualitative and one quantitative course in their first year of enrollment (See the Handbook for Doctoral Study for more information)
  5. Three (3) credits of specialized methodology (See the Handbook for Doctoral Study for more information). This methodology course should directly support the student's area of research and be linked to his or her planned dissertation work.
  6. Dissertation Proposal Seminar for Department of Teaching and Learning

Additional Requirements

1. Two qualifying papers, to be submitted in early Fall semester of the 2nd and 3rd academic year. Qualifying papers must be approved by two readers; the first reader will typically be the student's advisor. Students will be encouraged to develop papers with publication potential. 

2.  After successful completion of the qualifying papers and coursework, students will complete a comprehensive exam by the end of their third year. Individual programs will constitute an examination committee, based upon the approved procedures for the program and department, and will notify the departmental doctoral committee about the date of the exam.  The exam will include an oral component, and a written component for those programs that have made that a requirement.  Possible outcomes of the exam are Pass, Deferred Pass, or Not Pass.  In the case of a Deferred Pass, the committee will define conditions to be satisfied within one year.  In the case of Not Pass, with the permission of the committee, the student can retake the exam in three months or at a date that the committee believes is appropriate.

 3.  After successful completion of qualifying papers and the comprehensive exam, students will complete and file the Application to Doctoral Candidacy. 

4.  Once advanced to candidacy, students then form their dissertation committees and proceed to develop a dissertation proposal.  Committees will consist of at least three members:  a chair from Teaching and Learning and two additional members from within or outside of Teaching and Learning. At least one member should be in the student’s program area.

5. The dissertation proposal should not exceed 40 pages, and should include:

     a) Statement of problem and research question(s)

     b) Review of research literature/theory related to the question(s)/topic

     c) Research methodology section

     d) Statement of significance/expected contributions of the study

     e) Timeline of stages of research and expected completion date

6.  Upon the completion of the proposal, the dissertation committee must meet as a group to discuss and formally approve or recommend revisions to the proposal.  Once the proposal has been approved, the committee must sign the appropriate forms and submit them to the appropriate Steinhardt offices. 

7. Once the proposal has been approved by the dissertation committee, it must be reviewed and approved by two additional faculty members. Possible recommendations of these two reviewers are:  Pass, Deferred Pass, or Not Approved.  If the proposal receives a recommendation of Not Approved, the student must rewrite and resubmit the proposal to the dissertation committee and the reviewers. 

8. Upon completion of the dissertation and its approval by dissertation committee members, a defense will be held with the student, chair, committee members, and at least two additional faculty members who did not serve on the dissertation committee, one of whom must come from outside the program.  The defense, which will last for approximately two hours, will serve as the final stage of the doctoral process.