Search

Although learning to write for publication is an important outcome of doctoral education, it has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Within a socialization and supervisor pedagogy framework, this study uses narratives of faculty who regularly write with their doctoral students for publication to expose challenges students commonly encounter in the writing process. Common challenges include international students' ‘writing problem’, misconstruing the nature of disciplinary writing and not realizing that ‘public’ is part of publication.

The development of research skills and scientific reasoning underpins the mission of graduate education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, yet our understanding of this process is mainly drawn from self-report and faculty survey data. In this study, we empirically investigate the pattern of research skill development using STEM graduate students’ written research proposals. Analyses of proposal performance data suggest a potential developmental trajectory of research skills, in which the ability to effectively situate work in context using primary literature, and to generate testable hypotheses, emerge early in students’ careers, while other skills, such as data analysis and forming conclusions from data, appear to develop later. We discuss these findings in relation to threshold concepts theory, a framework which posits that intellectual growth occurs in transformative leaps rather than a gradual progression, especially as it applies to graduate student research skill development.

Research indicates that modifying teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching (i.e. teaching orientation) may be a prerequisite to changing their teaching practices. This mixed methods study quantitized data from interviews with 65 graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to assess the relationship of participants’ teaching experiences and available teaching support systems with changes in their teaching orientation over time. These individuals represent an important but understudied link in the STEM pipeline, because they serve as primary instructors in large, introductory science laboratory classes for undergraduates at large research universities. Mentor involvement in teaching and departmental/university training and support for teaching were significantly related to change in teaching orientation toward more student-centered beliefs. Consideration of why other factors failed to evidence a relationship with teaching orientations and recommendations for how study findings can influence policy and practice are offered.