IMPACT OF MENTORING ON DOCTORAL STUDENTS

Impact Of Mentoring On Doctoral Students

Table of Content

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY1

Research Design1

Primary or secondary / Qualitative or Quantitative1

Setting of the Project1

Population and Sample2

Data Collection5

Analysis of the Data & Analyzed Data8

Instruments And Measures10

Findings11

Interpretation19

Description of the Project21

CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS23

Summary23

Conclusions30

Recommendations36

REFERENCES38

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This study is based on the quantitative/qualitative research methodology.

Primary or secondary / Qualitative or Quantitative

The emphasis on subjecting all theoretical concepts, hypotheses, and expectations to empirical demonstration—that is, of testing our ideas—is basically what distinguishes the scientific method from other forms of inquiry. And the principles of scientific methodology, which lend structure to the manner in which such inquiries occur, is what this paper is connected with.

Setting of the Project

The study was a multiyear university project employing the action research methodology as an overall framework, in which the author was a participant-observer (Yin, 2003). The author held a positivist research philosophy so the focus was on reviewing empirical studies, examining validated instruments and designing a priori models that could test for cause-effect. A mixed-method approach was used consisting of critical theory review, survey building/validation and inferential modelling (Creswell, 2003 J.W. Creswell, Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (2nd Ed.), Sage, NY (2003).Creswell, 2003). This was embedded within the action research framework (Yin, 2003). First, a survey instrument was constructed (informed by the literature review), refined through pilot studies, and then it was issued to international doctoral students. Secondly, the instrument was validated by principal component analysis and confirmatory ordinal factor analysis. Thirdly, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to confirm the proposed factors and latent variables (from Fig. 1), and then fit the data to the factors, in order to formally test the hypotheses. In an attempt to detect confounding factors, regression tests were applied on the demographic variables (gender, age, degree concentration, supervisor, etc.), but no significant factor emerged that significantly impacted time performance. Limited experimental control consisted of same university and degree program.

Fig. 1. Hypothetical model.

Population and Sample

In this study 254 international students were sampled across three universities based in Australia. All were completing management-related professional doctorates (like a PhD), offered and managed online in the English language. The management degree concentration alternatives were: business administration, marketing, leadership, strategy, organisational behaviour, or market research. Doctoral students who were due to complete all aspects of their program were invited to participate (with proper ethical disclosure). Random selection of the intact sample group was applied by retaining completed surveys of students that had their dissertation examined and accepted (with or without revisions) by the end of 2008. Responses were excluded if examiner reports had not returned by then. None of the students were employed in this research (they were all volunteer respondents).

Some of the issues addressed by this paper are generally applicable to students and mentors across a range of mental health fields, whereas other issues are particular to the scientist-practitioner model within doctoral clinical psychology training. In most cases, the position of mentor to a student in the mental health field brings with ...