Rocket Science by Sven Geier CID Summer 2005 Convening: Developing Researchers and Scholars Topic 1: Asking questions and developing a line of inquiry CID-Survey Data This Snapshot presents data on the Carnegie Foundation surveys of graduate students and faculty about how students learn to ask questions and develop a line of inquiry. Launching an investigation involves posing questions to advance the frontiers of knowledge and provide new ways of understanding. As students develop, they move from accepting questions that others pose, to critically evaluating questions, to posing and defending questions of their own, and ultimately to asking questions that cohere into a research program that extends over time. Along the way students learn to discern the important or pressing questions of the moment, to form a vision of what constitutes a "meaningful" question, to judge which problem areas are interesting and ripe for investigation, and to identify manageable questions to pursue.

Click on image to enlarge Survey Results Except for mathematics, 70 to 90 percent of faculty rated their advisees' skills associated with recognizing and asking a good question, and choosing a manageable project as four or five (a positive evaluation) on a one to five scale. On what do they base this response? Why are the ratings for mathematics faculty lower? Chart: Faculty assessment of their students' skills in 3 areas The survey asked students to assess their level of confidence in their ability to generate interesting questions. Most students selected one of the top two points on a five-point scale. The proportion of students selecting one of those two responses is shown on this graph. The data are disaggregated for each discipline, and for students who are at each of the different stages of the doctoral program. The resulting graph suggests a different trajectory of development of students in each field. Why are the trajectories for high student confidence so different in different fields? Why does student confidence decrease from the "dissertator" (dissertation in progress) to "dissertation defended" stage in several of the disciplines? Chart: Students' Perceived Ability to Ask Interesting Questions by Stage in Program And Discipline Between 90 (English) and 55 (mathematics) percent of dissertators are confident that they can generate questions worth investigating. As a function of discipline, are these results satisfactory? If not, what can be done to improve the situation? Dissertators and faculty (combining all disciplines) agree that about three quarters of dissertators are proficient at asking a good research question. How can the proficiency of the other 25 percent be improved? Chart: Student and faculty assessments of student ability to ask questions compared Chart: Student assessment of ability to generate interesting questions

There is great variation between the disciplines in the percentage of dissertators who report that they have discussed what makes a good research question, regardless of whether they report these discussions before starting their dissertation or during their dissertation work. Why is this? Does the situation need improvement in some disciplines? Chart: Dissertators Discussed What Makes a Good Research Question Click image to enlarge There are some differences, as a function of discipline, in the frequency with which faculty report assisting advisees in developing a research program that will continue after the Ph.D. Can these differences be understood from the nature of research in the discipline and the different advisor-advisee relationship traditions? Chart: Faculty Assist Advisees in Developing Research Program after Ph.D. Qualitative Results Survey respondents had the opportunity to write statements about the development of researchers. For a sample of what faculty had to say on this topic, click on the link below. In Their Own Words

Summary Description As part of the research strand of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID), two surveys -- one each to graduate students and faculty -- were administered by Carnegie staff to doctoral students and graduate faculty in the participating departments of the CID (84 departments and programs at 44 universities). Graduate Student Survey The Carnegie Graduate Student Survey was administered to all doctoral students in participating departments. In all, 2,176 students from 76 departments at 40 universities responded. Graduate Faculty Survey The Carnegie Graduate Faculty survey was administered to faculty in participating departments. In all, 668 faculty members in 63 departments at 32 universities completed the survey. Overview of surveys Summary of survey goals and overview of tables and graphs. Snapshot of Survey Data This snapshot includes several graphs and tables of data from the CID faculty and student surveys. Carnegie staff on the CID team Contact Information Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate [email protected] 650/566-5107