The Function of Today's Doctoral Programs

Is today's doctoral program what the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States4 would have us believe, "designed to prepare a graduate for a life time of creative activity and research, often in associa tion with a career in teaching at a university or college" ? This definition seems oblivious to the role of most doc toral graduates, as well as to many of the doctoral pro grams preparing these graduates. I suggest that the definition should read: The Ph.D. program is designed to prepare a graduate for a life time of creative activity and teaching, often in associa tion with a career in research at a university or college. This more accurately describes the positions filled by doctoral graduates upon completion of their programs. The revision of definition and the need for changes in the role of doctoral programs became evident in re search related to an examination of: (1) What is now being done in selected doctoral programs in chemistry, economics, education, engineering, English, mathematics, and philosophy to prepare graduates for college teach ing positions? (2) What has been done in the past? (3) How do the people involved in these programs as students and directors feel these programs might be made more beneficial to future candidates? The department chairmen of 303 departments offer ing the doctoral degree were asked to explain their pro grams and 243 returned completed information forms. The results of the departmental information form indicated that many programs serve multiple functions. Of the departments responding 67% claimed their pro gram would prepare researchers and 75.3% indicated their program prepared college teachers. A number of the responding departments obviously felt both teach ing and research were concerns of their program, and that they were doing a job of preparing people for both of these positions. If these figures are to be believed and if these departments are doing the job they claim, the question was asked, How are these departments accomplishing this multiple task? In search of this information one question on the information form asked the department chairmen how many of their programs included preparation in teach ing methods and found that 75.3% included none. If there are no teaching methods included, the question continued, how then are these people to be prepared for the teaching function by your department? Teach ing assistantships were a solution indicated by 97.8% of the departments. These offered teaching opportunities to but a limited number of teachers. An examination of the supervision practices followed in many of these assistantship programs showed that most of these were of little value in preparing college teachers, and that those included in this type of teaching preparation were a very small segment of the total graduates. Was the department then relying on the individual's personal preparation in earlier programs to provide the expertise of a good teacher ? To determine whether this might be true, 450 graduates of the selected areas were asked to respond to questions on their personal back grounds and on the preparation they received in their programs for the jobs they held upon graduation. In a total of 353 graduates who responded to these forms 73.1% indicated that they had secured their first job upon graduation from their doctoral program in teaching. This percentage concurred with the findings of earlier studies of Alciatore, Berelson, and Hollis on job placement upon graduation. When asked if they had any personal teaching experience before entering their doctoral program which might aid them in their college teaching, only 31.5% indicated they had any previous teaching experience and 59% of these were from the departments of education and English, having previously taught in elementary and secondary schools. When asked if this earlier preparation provided any valuable carry over into a college teaching position, 43.6% said there was none. The others claimed varying degrees of value. When asked if they received any preparation in their doctoral programs to prepare them to teach, 72.3% said their doctoral program included none. Only 22 of the 353 respondents had been involved in preparation for college teaching through an assistantship program, and they did not all agree on the merit of their experience. This might raise a question about the department chair men's statement that a prime function of 75.3% of their programs is to prepare college teachers. The question might be raised here about what func tion the doctoral degree actually serves? In the survey of both the department chairmen and former graduates of these programs, over 80% of the cases indicated that the doctoral degree was considered a "union card" for college teachers. It is also an essential part of the requirements for the attainment of tenure for college faculty at many institutions. This must indicate that administrators or those responsible for hiring college teachers, or someone some place, feels that the degree signifies some in depth study of college teaching or a thorough knowledge of how a subject should be taught. Since, as I have pointed out, it does not indicate an