¶ … socialization of doctoral students the authors John C. Weidman and Elizabeth L. Stein utilize the framework for graduate and professional socialization to explain the socialization of doctoral students to academic rules of research and scholarship. The researchers reveal information about the perceptions of doctoral students on social science and on the foundation of education. The researchers also present information socialization of the students with their peers and with members of faculty. The authors employed a multivariate analysis to support the framework. The analysis helped to emphasize the social relationships between students and the members of faculty. The main objectives of the study were to examine the structures of faculties in relation to the student's socialization and to determine ways that could help create a supportive environment/structure that could help students taking graduate programs by using academics and legislations to help colleges to bring up professionals.
While in the second article Developmental networks and learning: toward an interdisciplinary perspective on identity development during doctoral study the authors Vicki Bakera and Lisa Lattucab explore two theory families i.e. developmental networks and sociocultural perspectives so as to create an interdisciplinary channel to doctoral studies as an alternative route towards becoming a professor. Bakera and Lattucab review the main points of the two theory families before discussing their conjectures and their combinations. The study also involves a discussion of research and theory. According to the two researchers, doctoral education is undergoing huge changes that are predicted to continue in the long-term. One of the main changes is the increase in number of students accepting non-academic careers and increase in number of professional doctorates. The framework used in the study helped address the concerns of academics/scholars, by reviewing theory the authors attempted to link academics to identity development among students undertaking doctoral studies with the aim of joining faculty. The objective of the authors was to explore the relationships of students both within and outside academics.
The third article Critical Thinking in Distance Education and Traditional Education by Lyn Visser, Yusra Visser and Charles Schlosseer is a bit different from the first two based on the fact that it doesn't specifically investigate the perceptions of doctoral students. Instead the authors...
They begin by describing critical thinking as organized and rational thinking used by individuals to determine the validity of perceptions, thoughts or opinions. The researchers further argue that there are certain behaviors and habits of the mind that are linked to critical thinking, namely problem definition, analysis of assumptions and bias, posing questions, evidence analysis, avoidance of simplification and countering confusion. Even though the authors admit that critical thinking entails the understanding of issues under investigation, they also argue that it requires flexibility which they define as the need for one to change his or her opinion upon the re-examination of facts or opinions. The authors argue that critical thinking is a very important exercise for students at every level of education, especially the graduate level. The authors opine that when thinking critically, one sees different perspectives which might help him or her to adapt to changes in new environments. Critical thinking can be perceived as a mediating mechanism and also as a learning outcome.
Research Question(s)
In the first article The socialization of doctoral students the research questions are as follows: What are the different student experiences in various graduate courses? In which ways do socialization perspectives help in the determination of changes that ought to be taken into account to enhance graduate programs? What does the schematic depiction of the process of graduate/professional student socialization look like? What is socialization among graduate students?
While in the second article Developmental networks and learning: toward an interdisciplinary perspective on identity development during doctoral study only one question is investigated that of the roles played by relationships in the development of professional identity among doctoral students?
No research question was posed in the third article Critical Thinking in Distance Education and Traditional Education.
Organization of Literature Review, main themes of the review and the key authors used
The common theme between these three articles in the investigation of the behaviors and habits of the minds whether it is linked to: critical thinking; developmental networks; and socialization of students.
Weidman and Stein start by reviewing various perspective of scholarly practice as discussed by various…
