Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology

Program Overview

The Ph.D. in Educational Psychology prepares students to become independent scholars in specialized areas of the field. The program focuses on assessing and understanding learning outcomes and processes in various environments and modifying them to enhance learning. Students must complete 66 credits, maintain a 3.0 GPA, and pass a scholarly paper requirement, preliminary examination, and dissertation defense. Graduates pursue careers in academia, educational assessment, research, and other fields related to education and psychology.

Program Outline

Outline:

• The Ph.D. in Educational Psychology prepares students to become independent scholars who can make significant contributions to knowledge in specialized areas of educational psychology.
• The Foundations strand within the Ph.D. provides opportunity for specialization in assessment, learning and cognition, program evaluation, research, and learning in school domains is designed to enable students to become independent scholars, who are able to make significant contributions to knowledge in the discipline of educational psychology.
• The focus of the program is on the assessment and understanding of learning outcomes and processes in a variety of learning environments and in modifying those environments in ways that promote more effective learning.

Assessment:

• Student must successfully complete a minimum of 66 credits while maintaining a grade point average of 3.00 or better in the program and a grade of B or better in core course work.
• Each student must satisfy a scholarly paper requirement by the time he or she has completed 36 credits (Review I).
The student must be the first author on a manuscript submitted to a journal of quartile 2 or higher (SCIMAGO listing) that is distributed for peer review.
• Each student must take the preliminary examination (Review II).
This second formal assessment, typically completed during the last semester of formal classwork, is an examination that will focus on areas of knowledge that are most relevant to the student's proposed dissertation topic.
• The student and their committee will determine the content of this examination format in that it will focus on in-depth reading and writing directly related to the student's proposed dissertation topic as well as on the student's mastery of previously learned core information.

Careers:

• University faculty
• Community college faculty
• Educational assessment director
• Educational psychologists
• Human resource education director
• Program evaluators
• Research coordinators for school districts, human services agencies, hospitals, businesses etc.
• School, agency, or private practice psychologist