2019 Annual Conference

CPAE CoConference: Emerging Issues for Faculty in Higher Education

CPAE CoConference Only: Professional Development Workshop (90 minutes)

In doctoral education, the overarching goal and essential process is the doctoral student’s transformation from dependent learner to independent scholar.  Using the lens of self-directed learning, this session shares practical strategies for fostering self-direction in learning among doctoral students to aid in their development as independent scholars.

This session is appropriate for faculty who work with doctoral students and for future faculty who are interested in learning strategies for fostering development among doctoral students.

Participants who attend this session will be able to:
Understand the rationale for fostering self-direction among doctoral students
Describe Grow’s Staged Self-Directed Learning model and self-directed learning
Identify the strategies for developing self-directed learning among doctoral students
Develop a plan for incorporating these strategies into their own praxes

Literature suggests that formation of a doctoral student into an independent scholar requires not only developing the requisite intellectual and technical skills and abilities of a given discipline, but also developing the “skills, habits, and dispositions that fully prepare scholars to contribute to their disciplines” (Elkhana, 2006, p. 62).  This development happens progressively through “guided, repeated, intention, self-conscious effort” (p. 62).  The goal of this progressive development is to move a doctoral student from dependent learner to independent scholar (Walker et al., 2008). 

One way in which to understand the development toward independence as a scholar is through the lens of self-directed learning.  The presenters will connect Grow’s (1991) Staged Self-Directed Learning model to their work with doctoral students with a goal of developing their independence.

This session begins with the literature of factors related to doctoral student progression toward degree and the requisite development related to that progress.  Then the presenters will explore Grow’s model and connect its stages with specific strategies for developing doctoral student self-direction.

The session will conclude with a gallery walk, inviting participants to share their own experiences of, and strategies in, fostering doctoral student progression from dependent learner to independent scholar.

This session begins with a brief overview of the literature on the factors related to doctoral student development into independent scholars.  Then the presenters will describe the components of self-directed learning and the process of developing self-direction among doctoral students using Grow’s (1991) model of Staged Self-directed Learning.

Additionally, strategies for fostering doctoral student self-direction through each stage of Grow’s model will be presented.  Then, with a gallery walk, participants will have an opportunity to reflect upon their own experiences and share their knowledge about fostering doctoral student self-direction.  A debrief will conclude the session.