ide variety of the activities and responsibilities common to the profession. These may include teaching and assisting in faculty research projects. Although not required, doctoral students may also pursue an internship in the supervision of student teachers.
General Doctoral Examination
The General Doctoral Examination comprises of an Empirical Study. The purpose of the examination is to provide an opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills acquired in course work and to bring these to bear in analyzing specific educational problems and completing a doctoral dissertation. The faculty expects that Empirical Study will be of publishable quality. Students are urged to make presentations at national conferences and to submit the work to scholarly journals for publication.
Emprical research projects involving human subjects require approval both from the Division and from the Arts and Sciences Institutional Review Board. Instructions and application form can be downloaded from their web site.
Teaching
The Graduate School provides all doctoral students a systematic introduction to college teaching through its Teaching Assistant and Teacher Training Opportunity (TATTO) program. TATTO offers a three and one-half day summer course in pedagogical techniques, a semester as teaching assistant to a regular faculty member in a course within the student's area of study, and full responsibility for teaching an undergraduate course in the student's area of study under the supervision of a faculty member. Ph.D. students in the joint French and Educational Studies program teach French for four semesters in the French Department at the same time that they are enrolled in courses in both departments. Click here to download the TATTO Program Checklist.
Doctoral Candidacy
Having successfully completed all required course work and the General Doctoral Examination, students are expected to develop a dissertation proposal with the advice and consent of the research advisor and dissertation committee. Granted approval of the proposal, the student may make application for Candidacy.
Doctoral Dissertation
The Division subscribes to the policy formulated by the Graduate School, which states that "as a fundamental requirement of the Ph.D. degree, the student must demonstrate potential for productive scholarship and promise as an authority in a special subject. This demonstration is embodied in a dissertation setting forth the results of the student's original investigations. The dissertation must constitute an actual contribution to existing knowledge or be a fresh and significant critical interpretation of existing knowledge. It serves as the most important, concrete proof of the candidate's scholarly and professional abilities" (Graduate School Handbook, 2006-2007, p. 31).
See the Graduate School's Instructions for Electronic Submission of Your Thesis/Dissertation.
Dissertation projects involving human subjects require approval both from the Division and from the Arts and Sciences Institutional Review Board. Instructions and application form can be downloaded from their web site.