Ph.D Director's Message

A Ph.D. degree by nature is heavily research focused. Students spend a lot of time learning core theory and techniques and then applying what they have learned to benefit society. While some of our graduates take research jobs in industry, most become university professors all over the globe. However, unlike K–12 education, universities generally do not require any formal teaching certification for their instructors. Thus, it falls on individual Ph.D. programs to pick up the slack.

Because most of our students teach and help with WSU classes and will become future college teachers, it is incumbent upon our Carson Ph.D. program to provide as much teacher training and mentorship as possible before they leave. Prior to graduation, every funded Carson Ph.D. student should experience the following:

• Teaching assistant duties for several different classes for up to 20 hours per week, nine months per year
• Approximately five sessions on college teaching in the Research and Professional Development course for first-year students
• Completion of the three-credit Management Teaching course
• Observation, feedback, and mentorship from department faculty
• The opportunity to teach at least one course

Learn more about these approaches in the article highlighting Information Systems Professor Debbie Compeau, who is teaching our developmental teaching course, and discover the impressive research efforts of our newly minted alumnus Aishajiang Aizezikali in the article here.