Educating Doctoral Students in Kinesiology to Teach Effectively

Abstract

Doctoral program graduates, including in kinesiology, may be inadequately prepared to become effective teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the required courses in research and teaching for kinesiology doctoral students and the related skills and abilities most important for doctoral students to develop to be successful in their first faculty positions. Through a survey, faculty coordinators of graduate programs in kinesiology were asked to identify required courses, the relative importance of skills and abilities in research and teaching, and the preparation levels of doctoral program graduates in research and teaching. Respondents rated courses, skills, abilities, and preparation in research consistently higher than courses associated with teaching. The authors proposed recommendations for preparing a more qualified cadre of kinesiology doctoral program graduates.

Transforming Postgraduate Education in Africa

“…Over time, doctoral programmes became associated with the production of new knowledge in a specific field or context. They typically focus on producing independent scholars capable of advancing the discipline by creating new ideas and knowledge foundations upon which subsequent learning can be established, nurtured, and sustained (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard 2017;Jones 2013). Thus, the doctoral programme in many HEIs is basically a research degree (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard et al 2017).…”

“…They typically focus on producing independent scholars capable of advancing the discipline by creating new ideas and knowledge foundations upon which subsequent learning can be established, nurtured, and sustained (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard 2017;Jones 2013). Thus, the doctoral programme in many HEIs is basically a research degree (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard et al 2017). Many are therefore structured to equip students with 'content expertise and research practices' (Bonner et al 2020: 436) with little regard for teaching (Lumpkin & Achen 2021) as originally intended.…”

“…Thus, the doctoral programme in many HEIs is basically a research degree (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard et al 2017). Many are therefore structured to equip students with 'content expertise and research practices' (Bonner et al 2020: 436) with little regard for teaching (Lumpkin & Achen 2021) as originally intended.…”

“…Doctoral studies play a crucial role in shaping a candidate's future career in academia or practice (Jones 2013). The literature suggests that many doctoral students take up lecturing during their studies while the majority obtain academic positions on completing their programmes (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Bullin 2018;Maynard et al 2017;Marx et al 2016). In her systematic literature review, Bullin draws on the work of Redmond ( 2015), and reports that '80% of Ph.D. graduates take up a position in college/university as teachers' (2018: 2).…”

“…However, for decades, the focus of doctoral studies in many research institutions has been on research and disciplinary content expertise to the detriment of teaching (Bishop-Monroe et al 2021;Bonner et al 2020;Barney 2019;Marx et al 2016;Boman 2013). As such, there have been calls for HEIs to incorporate teaching into doctoral education (Lumpkin & Achen 2021;Chan et al 2019;Connolly et al 2018;Maynard et al 2017;Lewicki & Bailey 2016).…”