Doctoral Students Research Articles

Judge rules against former doctoral student

Judge rules against former doctoral student

Doctoral Student’s Psychological Well-Being: A Scoping Review

Doctoral students are a group that is prone to experiencing mental health problems during their study period which provides an overview of their psychological well-being. Generally, the psychological problems that arise in this group are anxiety, depression, and some physical problems. This study basically aims to understand the psychological well-being of doctoral students through an analysis of the concepts related to psychological well-being, how it is measured, and what factors are often connected and influence it. The method used is scoping review with PRISMA-Scr 2020. Articles were obtained from 4 databases namely Scopus, EBSCO, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. There were 9 articles that were filtered based on certain inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results of this study found that the most frequently used concept to describe the psychological well-being of doctoral students is the subjective well-being of Diener (1984) and Ryff (1989). In addition, the presence/absence of psychological problems is also used as a basis for describing their psychological well-being. Psychological health measurement usually uses SWLS and SPANE from Diener and a psychological health questionnaire from Ryff. Some of the factors identified as related to psychological well-being are relationships with supervisors, research self-efficacy, perfectionism, achievement orientation, and family support. In addition, impostor syndrome and psychology capital (PsyCap) function as mediator variables.

Examining graduate student perspectives on supervision and peer mentoring across four professional faculties

Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine graduate student perspectives on the common and unique roles peer mentors and supervisors play in supporting student success and wellbeing during their program. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design involving semistructured interviews with 62 thesis-based masters and doctoral students from four professional faculties, Education, Medicine, Nursing and Social Work, at a large public research-intensive university in Canada. Findings Findings transcend the four disciplines of study. Communities of support are described that involve both supervisors and peers in combination, clusters of meaning by supervisory paradigm are identified and original findings presented that expand upon the learning alliance framework by explicitly considering the role of peer mentors in graduate student success. Research limitations/implications While supervisors bear primary responsibility for fostering effective research-based relationships, this study’s findings strengthen the argument that mentoring and advising of graduate students is most effective when conducted within a collaborative community of support that involves learning alliances among faculty, peers, program staff and academic leaders across the institution. Practical implications A four-pronged approach to graduate education that emphasizes the collective responsibility of institutions, programs, supervisors and students in creating a supportive ecosystem for holistic graduate student academic success and wellbeing is recommended. Social implications Key argument that it is essential to embrace a collaborative and community of support mindset, where multiple stakeholders actively contribute to the wellbeing and academic development of graduate students throughout their programs. Originality/value A cross-disciplinary perspective is offered on the importance of both supervisors and peers in assisting thesis-based graduate students to successfully navigate academic, social and personal journeys through graduate school.

Doctoral Student Perspectives of Support for Seeking Mental Healthcare On‐Campus: Preliminary Findings

ABSTRACTEven as the number of doctoral students reporting mental health challenges continues to grow, many students who experience significant mental distress do not seek treatment for these concerns. To explore this phenomenon, thirty semi‐structured interviews were conducted with doctoral students at a large U.S. public university. This poster reports on a candidate theme from a larger qualitative analysis that explored the barriers doctoral students face when seeking mental healthcare on‐campus. Insights from the theme “minimal institutional support” are presented here, and discussed with respect to health literacy, information marginalization, and consumer health information justice.

She is so (post)human: doctoral students’ perceptions of response-ability of their becoming-supervisors through caring/careful practices

ABSTRACT In this article, I propose that caring/careful practices of becoming-supervisors are practices of response-ability within neoliberalized academia. These practices, based on a feminist ontology of reciprocity, active co-presence, sensitivity and receptive openness, created a friendly atmosphere where students’ feelings and needs were taken into account and enabled their academic development in a rationalist-individualist competitive context. I present interviews with 15 doctoral students at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) regarding their relationship with their becoming-supervisors. The analysis showed that students’ perceptions of assemblage-professors’ caring/careful practices included: post-human treatment, facilitating the research, mentoring, and sheltering. Caring/careful practices allowed the students to be inspired and build trusting relationships. However, care is complex and is co-opted by the neoliberal system, which means that a complete transformation of the academic culture is necessary.

A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Counseling Students in a Co-Facilitated Experiential Group

Research on experiential learning, group psychotherapy, and neuroscience has supported the inclusion of the experiential group in counseling training programs for the positive impact on students’ personal and professional development (Denninger, 2010; Zhu, 2018). This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of master’s level counseling students in a group co-facilitated by a doctoral student and a professor. Results of this research provide a deeper understanding of counseling students’ experiences in a co-facilitated experiential group and offer a rationale for best practices in the facilitation of the required group experience in counseling training programs.

Increasing Generative Artificial Intelligence Competency among Students Enrolled in Doctoral Nursing Research Coursework.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools may soon be integrated into health care practice and research. Nurses in leadership roles, many of whom are doctorally prepared, will need to determine whether and how to integrate them in a safe and useful way. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a brief intervention to increase PhD nursing students' knowledge of appropriate applications for using generative AI tools in health care. We created didactic lectures and laboratory-based activities to introduce generative AI to students enrolled in a nursing PhD data science and visualization course. Students were provided with a subscription to Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer (ChatGPT) 4.0, a general-purpose generative AI tool, for use in and outside the class. During the didactic portion, we described generative AI and its current and potential future applications in health care, including examples of appropriate and inappropriate applications. In the laboratory sessions, students were given three tasks representing different use cases of generative AI in health care practice and research (clinical decision support, patient decision support, and scientific communication) and asked to engage with ChatGPT on each. Students (n = 10) independently wrote a brief reflection for each task evaluating safety (accuracy, hallucinations) and usability (ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use in the future). Reflections were analyzed using directed content analysis. Students were able to identify the strengths and limitations of ChatGPT in completing all three tasks and developed opinions on whether they would feel comfortable using ChatGPT for similar tasks in the future. All of them reported increasing their self-rated competency in generative AI by one to two points on a five-point rating scale. This brief educational intervention supported doctoral nursing students in understanding the appropriate uses of ChatGPT, which may support their ability to appraise and use these tools in their future work.

Reasons and root causes: Conventional characterizations of doctoral engineering attrition obscure underlying structural issues

AbstractBackgroundAlthough most engineering graduate students are funded and usually complete their degrees faster than other disciplines, attrition remains a problem in engineering. Existing research has explored the psychological and sociological factors contributing to attrition but not the structural factors impacting attrition.Purpose/HypothesisUsing systems theory, this study seeks to understand nuance in how underlying structural causes affect engineering graduate students' attrition experiences in ways that may differ from their official reasons for departure.Design/MethodsData were collected through semi‐structured interviews with seven departing or already departed engineering doctoral students from R1 graduate programs across the United States. Using thematic analysis, root cause analyses were conducted to understand participants' attrition experiences to explore how structures influence causes of departure.ResultsThe ways participants discuss root causes of their departure indicate differences in formal reasons for departure and underlying causes of departure. We highlight the role of informal and formal policy as root causes of a different attrition rationale often passed off as interpersonal issues. When interpreted as evidence of structural issues, the causes of departure show ways in which action–inaction, policy–“null” policy serve as structural features governing student attrition decision processes. We also highlight a form of benign neglect toward struggling graduate students.ConclusionThis study reveals important nuances underlying face‐value reasons of attrition indicating foundational structural issues contributing to engineering graduate student attrition. Coaching faculty in team management and encouraging close revision of departmental policies could help mitigate students' negative graduate experiences and decrease unnecessary attrition.

Reflective Thinking in Athletic Training Students

Context Athletic training students, part of the broader healthcare system, are expected to maintain knowledge and skill levels, including reflection. Once graduated, students need to continuously evaluate themselves as clinicians, thus requiring some skill in reflecting at different levels. Objective To examine athletic training students’ level of reflective thinking in academic programs. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Web-based survey. Patients or Other Participants Athletic training students (N = 126) currently enrolled in professional bachelor’s, professional master’s, postprofessional master’s, clinical doctorate, research doctorate, or residency/fellowship programs. Data Collection and Analysis Participants rated the 16-item Likert-style Reflective Thinking Survey on their experiences in their current program. The items were subdivided into 4 subscales: habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test to assess individual items against participants’ current academic programs, followed by Mann-Whitney U post hoc tests due to nonnormality. Results We found differences between “In this course, we do things so many times that I started doing them without thinking about it” (H4 = 21.79, P < .001) and “This course has challenged some of my firmly held ideas” (H4 = 15.83, P = .003). Post hoc analysis showed differences on “…do things so many times…without thinking…” between professional bachelor’s and postprofessional master’s students (U = 20.50, P = .001), professional bachelor’s and clinical doctorate students (U = 135.0, P = .003), and professional master’s and postprofessional master’s students (U = 56.5, P < .001). Differences were found between professional bachelor’s and clinical doctorate students (U = 131.0, P = .003) and between professional master’s and clinical doctorate students (U = 158.0, P < .001) on the item “…challenged some of my firmly held ideas.” Conclusions Professional-level students reflected more on firmly held ideas, indicating more challenge with new knowledge exposure. Educators should, themselves, reflect on their goals when evaluating for a certain level of reflection and consider their program’s overall goals for preparing future and current athletic training students for practice.

Weaving Our Kuwentos (Stories) toward Ginhawa (Aliveness): Pilipinx American Social Work MotherScholars Enacting Praxes of Survival and Thrivance in the Academy

Five Pilipina American (PA) social work MotherScholars, from a doctoral student to an interim dean, used kuwentuhan (Pilipinx methodology) to amplify their survivance and thrivance despite attempted exclusion, reduction, and distortion as Pilipinos by coloniality/modernity. Grounded in decolonial feminism (the view that oppressions such as sexism and racism co-constitute coloniality and that unsettling oppressions disrupts hegemony) and Pinayism (an integrated framework revaluing the labor, intellect, and nurturance of mothering through a cultural lens), the authors work coalitionally across their PA diversity to re-center ginhawa (aliveness or sense of ease and wellness). Together, they embarked on an iterative self-study process of data generation and analysis that included presenting, recording, and transcribing two panel presentations at a premier social work conference, writing reflections and hay(na)ku poems about their experiences and processes, reading and rereading the data, and meeting and discussing the data, their process, and past and current events pertinent to the content. The stories highlight how the authors are living and enlivening decoloniality, and that, in so doing, they continue a lineage of those who have resisted coloniality/modernity and promoted thrivance. Collectively, these kuwentos (stories), reflections, hay(na)ku, and their weaving together, are memory, resistance, counter-storytelling, and healing.

The Pursuit of Doctoral Studies in an African Context

This paper discusses the pursuit of doctoral studies in an African context. Doctoral studies are not a new development worldwide. It has been reported that the first conferred doctoral degree was at the University of Paris. This paper examines the situation of doctoral studies in Africa, the role of doctoral students, the role of supervisors, doctoral studies across the globe, and the challenges facing doctoral students in Africa. This paper reveals that the role of a doctoral student is planning research, scheduling meetings, searching for literature, carrying out the research, drafting the thesis preparation, proofreading the thesis, writing the final thesis, submitting the final thesis, defending the final thesis, publishing the final thesis, and communicating the findings in the form of publications. The situation of doctoral studies in Africa, the role of supervisors, doctoral studies across the globe, and the challenges facing doctoral students in Africa have been discussed. It is recommended that the research work should be collaborative to enhance sharing of ideas and knowledge, involvement in presentations at seminars, participating in conferences/workshops, commitment to a research plan, and if possible joining research associations or groups. In this article recommendations for the quality doctoral programs in Africa have been provided. The conclusion states that the effort and input of supervisors also play a critical role in the quality of doctoral students who are turned out at any point in time. So, the future of research in the African context needs special attention regarding the role of role of doctoral candidates, supervisors and the government itself.

Lived experiences of work-life balance among doctoral nursing students: a qualitative descriptive study

ABSTRACT Purpose This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning and nature of nursing doctoral students’ lived work-life balance experiences. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 11 doctoral nursing students who worked and raised children. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data, providing insight into the participants’ work-life balance experiences. As proposed by van Manen, four lifeworld existential, namely lived place, lived body, lived time, and lived relations, were used for qualitative data analysis. Results Four existential themes emerged: 1) existing in multiple spaces; 2) busy, tired, hard, and painful but must endure; 3) time to endure and grow until the end of schooling; and 4) realizing walls of togetherness. Conclusions This study explored how the work and life of doctoral nursing students with multiple roles are balanced and how they relate to others in different contexts. We revealed the problems and difficulties they face in their daily lives and the centres and motives behind their lives. Support from families, universities, and workplaces is needed to continue the Ph.D. program, which will eventually ensure the quality of the discipline.

두뇌 유입(Brain Gain) 관점에서 외국인 유학생의 국내 고용 활성화를 위한 IPA 분석 : 정부출연연구기관 이공계 석·박사과정을 중심으로

With Korea's total fertility rate recorded at 0.72 in 2023, there is even a pessimistic prospect that it will become the 'first country to extinguish the population'. In the face of serious demographic challenges such as a population decline, regions disappear, and a lack of high-quality human resources in the industry due to a rapid decline in the fertility rate, the Korean government and each local government are pouring out various policies to alleviate these problems by utilizing the capabilities of international students. This study analyzed the importance of domestic employment promotion activities and differences in the degree of implementation of the employment support system for international students studying as master's and doctoral students at government-funded research institutes using the importance-performance analysis(IPA) methodology. As a result of the analysis, 'recommendation of supervisors' and 'industrial cooperation projects' were evaluated as the most important employment promotion activities, and in the employment support system, 'flexible visa system' and 'simplification of immigration procedures' for researchers were recognized as important. In addition, it was found that there is a difference in perception between the importance and performance of international students depending on the region of residence and country of origin, so a strategy for promoting employment tailored to the region of residence and country of origin is necessary. This study is limited to international students in science and engineering who are enrolled in U graduate university, so there is a limit to the generalization of research results. In future research, extended research is needed including international students from science and technology specialized universities and base national universities. In addition, it is proposed to expand the study on how the expectations and demands of the employment support system of international students differ according to the cultural context by comprehensively considering the country and cultural background and economic conditions that affect the employment activation of international students.

Artificial intelligence in developing doctoral students' research competencies

The study deals with the topical issue of introducing artificial intelligence (AI) into the students’ professional training at the third educational and research level of higher education. The aim of the study is to empirically verify the AI role in building the research competence of future doctors of philosophy (PhDs). The research employed the following methods: monitoring, quantitative, qualitative, comparative data analysis, modelling. The study involved monitoring the development of the students’ research competence of the third educational and research level of higher education according to substantive, design, procedural, optional, communicative components. The method of using AI in building the research competence of PhD students was developed and tested. The level of research competence increased during the implementation of the method of using AI. So, the growth was the following: substantive – by 7.5%, design – by 10%, procedural – by 8.4%, optional – by 11.4%, and communicative – by 8.5% components. The results of the study can be used in the educational process of higher education institutions (HEIs) to create the content of the training of applicants. The prospect of research is the development of recommendations regarding the use of AI tools in the development of their research skills.

Departmental case study of physics doctoral students’ perspectives of written qualifying exams

Little research in physics education focuses on graduate student experiences related to structural elements of their programs. This departmental case study examines the impact and perceptions of written qualifying exams (QEs) from a student perspective, following recent research which questions the role and utility of such exams. We conducted semistructured interviews with two physics doctoral students at a large research university before and after taking their QEs, capturing their expectations, preparedness levels, and apprehensions regarding the exam. We also conducted a survey of the rest of their student cohort one month before and one month after their exams to understand further variation in the students’ perspectives. The students’ experiences reflected substantial frustration with the nature and transparency of the QE process, as well as substantial negative emotional and mental impacts of the exams. The students’ experiences with the QEs are consistent with psychological responses to traumatic events. The responses further indicate that building trust and establishing transparency around the QE process, as well as creating emotionally and academically safe spaces that allow students to fail on exams and in coursework without the threat of punitive action, are important trauma-informed pedagogical strategies that faculty can use to support students through this process and help them build resilience. While we do not suggest that the current QE process in this department follows best practices for assessment, the students and faculty in this department do agree on the need for some kind of assessment indicating research readiness early in the graduate program; this provides a common perspective from which departmental change can begin. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Preface: 7th International Conference on Frontiers of Biological Sciences and Engineering (FBSE 2024)

This proceeding includes original and peer-reviewed research papers from the 7th International Conference on Frontiers of Biological Sciences and Engineering (FBSE 2024) held on July 27-28, 2024 in Jinan City, China. FBSE aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Biological Sciences and Engineering. It also provides a platform for academic scientists, researchers and research scholars, doctors, doctoral students and related professionals to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Biological Sciences and Engineering. All authors and participants are kindly encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference through submissions of their research abstracts, papers and posters. FBSE 2024 received 52 submissions. By submitting a paper to FBSE, the authors agreed to the review process and understood that papers undergo a peer-review process. Manuscripts were reviewed by appropriately qualified experts in the field selected by the Conference Committee, who gave detailed comments and-if the submission was accepted the authors would submit a revised version that took into account this feedback. All papers were reviewed using a double-blind review process: authors declared their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers did not know each other’s identities, nor did the authors receive information about who had reviewed their manuscript. The Committees of FBSE conference invested great efforts in reviewing the papers submitted to the conference and organizing the sessions to enable the participants to gain maximum benefit. Hopefully, all participants and other interested readers will benefit scientifically from the proceedings and also find it stimulating in the process. Paula Cheung Conference Organizing Committee Singapore

Strategies Used by Educational Technology Faculty to Mentor Online Doctoral Students in Research Experiences

ABSTRACT As online doctoral education continues to grow, faculty members are faced with mentoring an increasing number of students. To effectively support these students’ research projects, faculty mentors need to develop strategies that take into account the unique challenges of online environments. This study, based on Crawford et al. (2014) theoretical framework for online graduate mentoring, aimed to identify the strategies used by faculty members who advise online students in Educational Technology doctoral programs during research experiences. The data was collected through a survey completed by 24 mentors, and five of them also participated in individual interviews. These mentors were faculty members in online educational technology programs in the USA and Canada. The study found that faculty mentors used strategies associated with both the academic and psychological domains of Crawford et al.‘s framework. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to enhancing the quality of mentoring in online doctoral education.

Daring to Be a Mother: A Case Study on Being Black, Being Pregnant, and Being a STEM Doctoral Student

This singular holistic case study examined the experience of a Black pregnant mother pursuing doctoral studies in a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field at a predominantly white flagship institution in the southern United States. We employed the tenets of critical race feminism in this study to demonstrate the ways in which structural racism and pervasive gender stereotypes, specifically as they relate to Black women, present obstacles to successful completion of doctoral STEM studies. We narrate her story to highlight the insight inherent within her intersecting identities that challenges dominant narratives about a Black pregnant doctoral student. In bringing to the fore four themes surfaced: the triple consciousness of layered Blackness, the pregnant Black tax, Chemical imbalance: mapping a white man’s reality onto a Black mother’s body, and internal struggles and the complex intra-actions that birthed them – we present a counternarrative to the dominant white-male centred STEM discourse that permeates the field. We conclude by extrapolating, from this case, considerations for faculty and institutions to understand better and act to comprehensively support Black students, in general, and Black mothers.

The relationship between coauthorship and the research impact of medical doctoral students: A social capital perspective

Research impact is an important manifestation of research competence and the focus of medical education. This study is dedicated to exploring the relationships between coauthorship networks and the research impact of Chinese medical doctoral students from a social capital perspective. A total of 16291 scientific papers from 237 doctoral students and 126 mentors at Chinese universities were selected from databases, and a study dataset including 19 variables was constructed. Nine independent variables were defined and obtained through coauthorship network analysis, and the doctoral students’ research impact, as the only dependent variable, was used to test the hypothesized relationships among the variables. The results show that the betweenness centrality, student-mentor coauthorship count and the partnership ability index significantly affect the h-index. Specifically, the coauthorship unit count plays the most important role in developing centrality, which, in turn, produces a higher h-index. In addition, betweenness centrality, student–mentor coauthorship count and the partnership ability index are good predictors of the likelihood of doctoral students entering the greater research impact group and especially improving their betweenness centrality. Specifically, doctoral students whose partnership ability index is greater than 2, student-mentor coauthorship count is greater than 4, coauthorship unit count is greater than 6, and betweenness centrality is greater than 0.02 are considered to have greater research impact. These findings suggest that the important roles of cooperation in the development of research competence and good mentorship in the acquisition of social capital by doctoral students should be emphasized. Several strategies are advised for harnessing social capital rooted in doctoral students’ coauthorship network for relevant organizations, mentors and doctoral students who want to increase medical doctoral students’ research impact.

Supervisors’ power sources and doctoral students’ working conditions: a qualitative study of doctoral supervision in a developing country

ABSTRACT Higher education institutions around the world seek to expand their capacity to compete with one another in attracting more doctoral students and recruiting talented researchers by enhancing the quality and performance of their doctoral programs. In this study, we adopt a service perspective lens and explore the relationship between doctoral supervision and students’ working conditions by investigating the influence of supervisors’ power sources. Interview data was obtained from 22 doctoral students and 16 supervisors studying and working, respectively, at public universities in Iran. The findings suggest that the use of mediated power by supervisors is associated with poor-quality doctoral supervision, which negatively impacts the mental well-being and perceptions of decent work of doctoral students. Building on the literature and evidence from the interviews, we elaborate our arguments and offer several practical implications for higher education institutions.