2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In their volume on pedagogy in doctoral programs, Lee and Danby (2012) argue that doctoral education is “ripe for reshaping” and that the “pedagogical practices in higher education remain extraordinarily and even shockingly undocumented.” One approach represented in their volume is to identify and disrupt an assumption embedded in a traditional form of pedagogy and then construct pedagogy around a new perspective. For example, a traditional part of doctoral experience is classes where students read a selection of papers curated by an educator, often as a way for students to practice “reading like a scholar.” In order for such a pedagogy to be sustained, the selection of papers needs to be constantly or at least periodically updated. Over time, this work of curating papers can contribute to a lack of sustainability of the pedagogy.

With this in mind, several years ago, one such course set off on a different trajectory, exploring how to build a doctoral pedagogy around students choosing the papers. With the notion of documentation in mind, our current work asks: What loci of refinement have emerged over a multi-year effort to create an entire pedagogical approach that is anchored by having students read what they want, and what wisdom is associated with each locus of refinement? The term locus of refinement is borrowed from DiSessa and Cobb’s work on design-based research in education and the recognition that knowledge can be found in acts of refinement.

This work is situated in a 10 year period of teaching first year doctoral students in a single discipline. To address the research questions, the work is proceeding in three phases: aggregation of data, identification of loci of refinement, and thick descriptions related to each locus of refinement. In the preparation phase, traces of the teaching over time have been assembled. In the identification phase, an expansive set of over time refinements has been generated and then organized into a parsimonious set of loci of refinements. In the describe phase, an iterative constant comparison approach is being adopted. The overall product of this effort is a finalized set of loci of refinements and discussion for each locus of refinement about possible choices and insights revealed about the choices, such as trade offs and design tensions.

The work in progress will focus of describing the loci of refinements and talking about what has been revealed in relation to the cornerstone issue of choosing readings To foreshadow: the following loci of refinement have current been identified: choosing readings, analyses of readings and the curation of these analyses, technical infrastructure, together time, reflection opportunities, transfer opportunities, and individual student engagement. Also, exploration of the refinements related to choosing of readings has surfaced a tension between liberating constraints and inclusion.

DiSessa, A. A., & Cobb, P. (2004). Ontological innovation and the role of theory in design experiments. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 77-103.
Lee, A., & Danby, S. (2012). Reshaping doctoral education. International approaches and pedagogies. Routledge: New York.