Supervision, Curriculum, and Instruction — EdD

Doctoral Coursework

Candidates for the degree must complete the Supervision, Curriculum, and Instruction Core (30 semester hours), a support area (12 semester hours), and the dissertation (9 semester hours), as well as the 9 hours of research tool courses for a total minimum of 60 semester hours.

In addition, the candidate must demonstrate proficiency in the use of research tools to the satisfaction of the major department. The candidate also must complete a doctoral residency; detailed information on satisfying this requirement is given at the end of this section.

Written comprehensive or qualifying examinations as well as oral examinations will be conducted in the major area of studies (SCI core requirements), the support area and, when applicable, in the cognate and elective areas. A minimum of 9 semester hours of EDCI 718 Doct Dissertation is required.

Departmental Doctoral Residency Policy

Each student is required to complete residency after admission to the doctoral program and prior to completing qualifying exams. Residency provides students with more in-depth experiences than occurs when students are simply enrolled in doctoral classes. Students have opportunities to work with other doctoral students and faculty members as colleagues in research projects that provide experience and training toward independent application of skills, which are commensurate with holders of doctoral degrees.

1. 5 Areas of Residency

Below are 5 areas the residency plan should include, plus examples of activities that would fulfill each area.

  1.  Opportunities to become involved in events to broaden intellectual growth. For example:
    • Departmental Doctoral Email Network provides information about ongoing opportunities such as attendance at colloquiums, and opportunities for grant writing, opportunities to present at conferences, and opportunities to write for professional journals.
    • Doctoral Seminar Assignments provide springboards to activities such as: conducting research projects, writing and submitting manuscripts for publication, and proposing presentations at national or international conferences.
  2.  Access to a range of academic support resources required for scholarship in that discipline. For example:
    • Specific courses require spending time in the library to provide an understanding of how to access various electronic, paper, and people resources so that students understand how to conduct literature reviews.
    • Specific courses require accessing and developing web-based resources.
  3. Opportunities for faculty members and student interactions that provide for the development of a mentoring-apprentice relationship and for a faculty evaluation of students. For example:
    • Doctoral faculty members and student social events provide opportunities for expressing research/writing interests, explaining current research/writing activities, and generally networking on common research/writing interests.
    • Doctoral faculty members invite students to research, write, edit, and teach as assistants, interns, or full-fledged collaborators.
    • Doctoral faculty members invite students to consult or present as assistants, interns, or full-fledged collaborators.
  4. Involvement with cognate disciplines and research scholars in those disciplines. For example:
    • Students select options such as reading, mathematics education, early childhood, or other cognates and electives within The Texas A&M University System or Federation and connections with research scholars are facilitated by the doctoral coordinator, major adviser, and include doctoral faculty members.
    • Specific courses spend time on conference calls, web chats, and two-way interactive video to engage in discussion and network with a variety of scholars.
    • Doctoral faculty members consistently encourage and facilitate student membership in a variety of professional and scholarly organizations.
    • Doctoral faculty members consistently encourage/facilitate student attendance in a variety of professional and scholarly conferences.
  5. Occasions for meaningful peer interactions among graduate students. For example:
    • The Doctoral List Serve provides opportunities to receive and post information and create special interest groups.
    • Chat rooms are created via the web for discussion related to particular courses and topics.
    • Students are encouraged via seminar assignments to co-research, co-present at national conferences, and co-author manuscripts for publication.  Peer support systems and study groups are formally and informally created by students.

2. Activities and experiences expected of the doctoral student:

Continuous involvement in activities like the following are expected every semester regardless of enrollment in coursework. While these vary widely, the intent of these activities is to provide the student with a more in-depth experience than occurs when students are simply enrolled in doctoral classes.

  1. Research projects
  2. Submission of manuscript to state or national journals for publication consideration
  3. Staff development consultancies as a collaborator or an independent contractor
  4. Attending professional conferences and/or study tours
  5. Conference presenter (state, regional, and/or national)
  6. Professional development presentations for schools and/or school districts
  7. Graduate assistant (GAT or GANT)
  8. Ad-interim or adjunct instructor
  9. Liaison in the field-based program
  10. Webmaster of a home page
  11. Grant writing
  12. Formal report writing
  13. Attending Federation meetings and/or guest speaker events
  14. Peer review for conference proposals, manuscripts and/or grants
  15. Other, to be determined by doctoral adviser and student

3. Determination of successful completion of residency and maintenance of documentation:

Information about the residency plan and how to maintain portfolio documentation will be initiated by the departmental doctoral coordinator collaboratively with the student during orientation. During orientation, students learn how to complete the residency documentation form and keep track of their activities.  At least two activities should be completed per semester.  In addition, during the first session of each doctoral course/seminar the instructor will explain how course requirements and/or projects can be incorporated into the completion of residency activities.  The residency form should be signed by each course instructor during the semester the residency activity was completed.  The residency form and the portfolio which contains the written documentation must be completed prior to admission to doctoral candidacy.  The student is required to present the complete file of documentation to the major advisor and his/her committee prior to taking qualifying and oral exams.   The major advisor and committee will be responsible for noting successful completion of the plan on the qualifying exam documentation sheet.  Documentation will continue to remain on file in the departmental office for at least 5 years after the doctoral student has completed the doctoral degree.

Residency

Each student is required to complete residency after admission to the doctoral program. Residency provides students with opportunities to work with other doctoral students and faculty as colleagues in projects that provide experience and training toward independent application of skills commensurate with holders of doctoral degrees. The student will plan the residency activities with the approval of the major advisor.

Note: 

The Department reserves the right to suspend from the program any student who, in the judgment of a duly constituted departmental committee, does not meet the professional expectations of the field.

Doctor of Education - Supervision, Curriculum, and Instruction

Core Courses (30 semester hours)
EDCI 620Policy and Practice in Education3
EDCI 621Advocacy, Equity, and Social Justice3
EDCI 632Pedagogy and Philosophy of Education3
EDCI 640Leadership in Professional Learning3
EDCI 651Curr & Instr Desgn3
EDCI 652Research on Learner3
EDCI 655Assessment Lrng & Lrnr3
EDCI 659Educational Inquiry3
EDCI 695Research Methodology (Research tool course)3
EDCI 698Research: Design and Replication3
Area of Emphasis (12 semester hours)
Complete 12 semester hours of Approved Courses in one of the disciplines listed below.
Education Curriculum & Instruction courses (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level EDCI course listed below).
EDCI 690Seminar in Education (repeatable up to 4 times.)3
Interdisciplinary Studies courses (12 semester hours from any of the other areas of emphasis (EDCI, ECE, RDG, BLED, ESL, SED, ETEC or advisor approved courses).
12 semester hours from any of the other areas of emphasis (EDCI, ECE, RDG, BLED, ESL, SED, ETEC or advisor approved courses).
Early Childhood courses (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level Early Childhood courses listed below).
ECE 634History and Philosophy of Early Childhood Education3
ECE 648Leadership in Early Childhood Education3
ECE 663Seminar in Research in Early Childhood Education3
ECE 682Assessment in Early Childhood Education3
Reading courses (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level Reading courses listed below).
EDCI 657Content Area Literacy3
RDG 650Child, YA, & Multicul Lit3
RDG 667Reading Proc:Theor & Impl3
RDG 692Learning to Read3
Bilingual courses (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level Bilingual courses listed below).
BLED 502Biliteracy Development, Instruction, and Assessment3
BLED 503Content Area Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals3
BLED 690Seminar in Bilingual/ESL Education (6 semester hours required)3
Choose ESL (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level ESL courses listed below).
BLED 512Social and Academic Language Development in English for Bilingual Learners3
BLED 513Advanced Sheltered Content Area Instruction3
BLED 690Seminar in Bilingual/ESL Education (6 semester hours required)3
Educational Technology (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level Educational Technology courses listed below).
ETEC 526Games & Simulations for Learning3
ETEC 528Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum3
ETEC 543Applying AI to Support Learning3
ETEC 579Implementation of Educational Technology Programs3
Secondary Education (12 semester hours of approved doctoral level Secondary Education courses listed below).
SED 613Problems and Trends in Secondary Education3
SED 614Research in Teacher Leadership3
SED 640Research in Adolescent Growth and Development3
SED 641Curriculum Studies in Secondary Education3
Dissertation (9 semester hours).
No less than 9 semester hours
EDCI 718Doct Dissertation3-9
Doctoral Research Tools (9 semester hours).
Four Approved Doctoral Research Tools (9 semester hours)
EDCI 687Sociocult Inquiry in C&I3
EDCI 695Research Methodology (Counted in core)3
EDCI 696App of Rsch Methods3
EDCI 699Statistics: Cont Proc App3
Total Hours60

NOTE: No course beyond the master's program that is over ten years old at the time the doctoral degree is conferred can be used toward the doctoral degree.

Successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam is required of all students.

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