U.K. Ed.D. Expectations

Yes, and the truly remarkable thing is that (at least in California), your English M.A. and Ph.D. will not qualify you for a California teaching credential to teach English in high school...go figure!!

Tony

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I may disagree here. If the world were run the right way (my way, ha! ), I would see to it that grad degrees intended for college teaching included a practicum. Consider, the PsyD (last time I looked at the George Fox program description) it required an "internship." At OSU I supervised student teachers "learning the ropes." The pastoral Mdiv degree often includes some proctored minstry experience. What, these all need to learn the "how to do it" but because one has a PhD in English he just *must* have also acquired the skills to share what he knows.. effectively? No, Ed work tacked on somewhere in a program may not cure all deficits, but it may reveal many unknown before and prescriptions for remediation could then accompany that experience. With the wave of distance docs, where in general assistantships are not available (far as I know) the utility of learning how, or showing you already know how to teach, are receding. But I don't think it would be an insurmountable modification to work out brief "internships" in local college contexts even as part of the doc acquired by DL. Were I hiring a PhD in Systematic Theology I would not just want to know if he can parse Greek verbs or summarize Chalcedonian Christology or define 'perichoresis,' I also would what to know, "Can he teach; can he inspire; can he show others how to learn, how to think, and how and why to love the experience of learning! Who better to ask about a new doc than someone who supervised his teaching practicum?


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Bill, I couldn't agree with you more. In my graduate work (instructional technology), I not only had teaching internships but served a year-long doctoral internship as an instructional designer at Intel Corporation. The reason that Intel needed help was that they realized that their "expert" engineers and operators had no idea how to transfer their knowledge to their novice trainees. The same is true for Ph.D.s. Being an expert in a field and knowing how to transfer your expertise to a novice require different skills. For example: How many great musicians are lousy music teachers? (answer: most).

Years ago, when I was interviewing for the first Coordinator of Instructional Technology position in the California Community College system, I was asked what I thought my major job task would be. My answer was "I'll be taking highly technical concepts and jargon and translating them into English." I got the job.

Tony

Adjunct Faculty of Education
California State U., San Bernardino