Classroom Community: A Mixed Method Study in a Doctoral Educational Program

Abstract

The following research measures the level of classroom community from a course of a doctoral program from the north of Mexico, using an instrument created by Rovai (2002). This instrument reveals the levels of connectedness and learning scores that conforms the classroom community scale score. With a mixed method study, the following research includes a survey and two semi-structure interviews from one doctoral student member of the PhD in education and a tutor from one of the courses of the PhD program, who had contact and teaching experience with the group of doctoral students. Within the analysis of the interaction between the doctoral students, two examples of the discussion forums are also included with the intention to reveal the level of classroom community by gender and the specific characteristics in the performances of the doctoral students of the course selected. The problematic situations experienced by the doctoral students are explained offering contextual justifications of the research problem linking this context with arguments by experts in the field.