How has your understanding or practice of the three dispositions changed with the new ethics knowledge and experiences
Assignment: Mindset of a scholar-researcher essay
WEEK 8 – ASSIGNMENT: MINDSET OF THE SCHOLAR–RESEARCHER ESSAY
One thing educators know about learning is that it involves making “connections” between themselves and the objects, facts, persons, and relations in their human living. The first year of the Doctorate of Education program at Concordia emphasizes making connections between these things, and the core and concentration literature, as well as the problems or puzzles that candidates want to pursue as potential research topics for their dissertation.
The Comprehensive Connection Paper at the end of Year 1 is a Critical Assessment in which you will bring your Year-1 knowledge to bear on a potential dissertation research topic and potential dissertation research question. In order to scaffold your skills for making connections between your Year-1 learning and the Comprehensive Connection Paper, in Week 8 of each of the core courses and in Week 8 of the first two concentration courses, you will be asked to write a “Mindset of the Scholar–Researcher Essay.” These six essays will help you identify connections between the ideas in the curriculum and your current and future work as a scholar–researcher and social scientist.
As a preface to this first Mindset of the Scholar–Researcher Essay, the program faculty want to share with you some conceptual connections in the curriculum and program outcomes.
The chart below provides an alignment of the program phases, curricular focuses, program outcomes that are emphasized in each phase, and mindset focuses for each phase. When you graduate from the Ed.D. Program you will have developed and enhanced your (a) dispositions for being a scholar–researcher, (b) skills for academic writing, and (c) skills for social science research. These three outcomes are at the heart of each activity and action you take over the next three years. Each of these program outcomes are emphasized more directly in a specific phase (though each of them is always being pursued throughout the program). And each of these program outcomes is related to a certain mindset focus.
Year 1: In the core curriculum, we emphasize scholarly writing and core literature that will assist you in developing the dispositions you reviewed in Week 1 (Professional Discourse and Dispositions in the Doctorate of Education Program, [Concordia University, 2018]), and Mindset: Personal Dispositions on Thinking, Doing, and Deciding (Machi & McEvoy, 2016). These dispositions connect to a mindset focus in this period of the program on the scholar–researcher’s being and character.
Year 2: In the concentration curriculum, we emphasize the development of practical and professional skills related to a professional area of interest, and we begin to focus more directly on academic writing skills (see Royal Literary Fund, 2018) that can be applied to a problem of professional practice or a research interest area. The mindset focus in this period of the program is on praxis and the scholar–researcher’s doing and communicating.
Year 3: In the research curriculum, we emphasize the development of research skills needed to accomplish social science investigations that can generate new knowledge and understanding in a field of inquiry. The mindset focus in this period of the program is on the scholar–researcher’s inquiry and understanding.
Again, none of the periods of the program, the curriculum focuses, the outcome emphases, or the mindset focuses are truly separate—each of them informs, loop-backs and/or loop-forwards on the others. You will make connections in ways you cannot envision today. Still, we hope that seeing this picture will help you frame for now, where you are and where you are going.
| Program Timeline | Curriculum Focus | Outcome Emphasis | Mindset Focus |
| Year 1: Core | Core
Scholarly Writing |
Dispositions of a Scholar–Researcher | Being & Character |
| Year 1 & 2: Concentration | Concentration
Scholarly Writing | Research Writing |
Academic Writing | Doing & Communicating |
| Year 2 & 3: Research | Research Methods | Dissertation
Research Writing |
Research | Inquiry & Understanding |
With these ideas in mind:
1. Write a three- to four-page essay that “connects” (a) the core literature from this The Ethical Educator course and (b) your experiences within and outside of the course during the last eight weeks, with at least three specific dispositions listed in the Week 1: Mindset of a Scholar–Researcher material.
2. The essay should address the following questions:
How has your understanding or practice of the three dispositions changed with the new ethics knowledge and experiences you have developed in the course?
How do you envision these three dispositions applying to your future work as an ethical social scientist?
3. The essay should:
Present a clear thesis and concluding idea;
Present a cohesive narrative/argument;
Use specific professional or personal examples to illustrate points, and
Support the reader by use of clear transitioning ideas and phrasing between sections.
Support your statements with evidence from the required studies and your research. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.
Click here for information on course rubrics.
References
Concordia University. (2018). Concordia University‒Portland Online Ed.D. Program Handbook. Portland, OR: Author.
Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2016). The literature review: Six steps to success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
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