Admps 3090

Dissertation Research Seminar

Syllabus and Description of Assignments

Summer 2014

Tuesdays, 4:30-7:45pm

5702 Posvar Hall

CLS: 17998

Catalog Description / This course provides doctoral students with guidance to complete the dissertation overview.The course may be taken in lieu of three of the 18 required credits of Guidance in the Doctoral Degree.
Prerequisites / Students enrolling in this course should be APS doctoral students who have completed ADMPS 3001 (Disciplined Inquiry in APS), all required research methodology courses, all required program courses, and have begun the comprehensive exam. A draft of the comprehensive exam proposal must be completed during the term if that milestone has not already been reached. Students should also be competent academic writers.
Contact Information / Noreen Garman, Ph.D.
Professor, Administrative and Policy Studies
5712 Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh PA 15260

412-648-7111 (O) 412-681-2895 (H)
JoVictoria Goodman, Ph.D.
Adj. Assistant Professor

724-406-0251(
Recommend Text / Foss, Sonja, & William Waters (2007). Destination dissertation: A traveler’s guide to a done dissertation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 978-0742554405
Main additional suggested resources for general use: / American Psychological Association (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. Washington, DC: APA.
Becker, Howard S. (1986). Writing for social scientists: How to start and finish your thesis, book, or article, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Becker, Howard S. (1998). Tricks of the trade: How to think about your research while you're doing it. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, & Joseph M. Williams (2008). The craft of research, 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [ISBN: 978-0226065663] $17.00/$10.05
Machi, Lawrence A., & Brenda T. McEvoy (2009). The literature review. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. [ISBN: 978-1412961356] $31.95/$26.83
Piantanida, M. & Garman, N. B. (2009). The qualitative dissertation: a guide for students and faculty. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Single, Peg Boyle (2010). Demystifying dissertation writing: A streamlined process from choice of topic to final text. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Additional resources: / Will be posted during session as members locate material related to their work.
  1. Course Goals and Opportunities

It is assumed that students are at different stages of the individualized research phase of their doctoral studies; some may be working on their comprehensive examination proposals, while others may be constructing their dissertation overviews. All students in this course have the following opportunities:

  1. To marshal personal and collaborative resources to further one’s academic progress through the dissertation overview;
  2. To demonstrate command of extant research literature on a meaningful topic for dissertation study;
  3. To construct and explain clearly a rich, meaningful conceptual framework;
  4. To convert the critical reading of research literature into a systematic, purposeful synthesis of prior knowledge;
  5. To adapt one’s knowledge of research design and research methodology into a solid and defensible methodological plan;
  6. To develop an individualized work plan for the summer and for the academic year following the course.
  1. Course Policies and Procedures:

Attendance and class participation. The course will meet 9 times and students are expected to attend at least 7 classes and to participate online in between classes. Please contact us by email if you are going to miss a class.

Grading. Grades for this class are generally S (satisfactory progress), I (incomplete), or F (failure to participate without consulting faculty after enrolling or breach of academic integrity). A grade of S indicates that you have made satisfactory progress in your dissertation study.

Familiarize yourself with CourseWeb: This course uses the Courseweb site (using Blackboard software) provided through the University. See and log on using your Pitt username and password. Or, access through my.pitt.edu. For help with Courseweb 24 hours a day, call 412-624-HELP.

Arrange Internet access: In order to succeed in this course, you need fast Internet access. Students with slow dial-up access spend unnecessary time and risk delayed assignments. The University has many fine computing labs available for your use. Here is the web site where you can locate the labs and their operating schedules. You have free printing up to ~900 copies a term. You can even set your home computer to send a print job to a campus lab. Call the HELP desk at 412-624-HELP to learn how. The School of Education also offers its students special computer labs. See

Acquire hardware and software: You will need to use Microsoft Word and be able to open Adobe PDF files. The software is in the labs on campus. In addition, the complete Microsoft Office 2010 suite is available free to full-time students. For more information on how to download your software go to a University computing lab with your ID or go to: For help with your ID card, go to Panther Central in Litchfield Towers lobby. See Download the Adobe Reader free from

Use the right e-mail: Please make sure that if you have your Pitt email forwarded to another account and that you occasionally delete emails from your inbox in Webmail, accessible at my.pitt.edu. Once you reach your quota of emails in your inbox in Webmail, you will no longer be able to receive emails. If this occurs, you may miss valuable information from your instructor or colleagues.

Academic Integrity: Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University of Pittsburgh's Policy on Academic Integrity.Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. This may include, but is not limited to, the confiscation of the examination of any individual suspected of violating University Policy. By enrolling in this course, you agree that you have read, understood, and accept the obligations of the University’s Students Rights Responsibilities. These are posted at:

Classroom Recording: To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student’s own private use

Let the faculty instructor know about disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.

  1. Assignments:

There are four items that are to be submitted as a result of our meetings this summer: 1) The CITI IRB certification; 2) an individualized Work Plan; 3) a Dissertation Sketch and 4) a draft of the Comprehensive Proposal. The bulk of your work from this course will flow from the Work Plan, and because of that, we need to get that underway as soon as possible.

  1. Self-Assessment (to do on your own prior to Class 2)
  1. Assess your Mendeley proficiency: See the library’s portal to Mendeley and determine your facility with this bibliographic, citation, and referencing service. As always, start out with secure library access (See before doing any work with the library website. We will see about a voluntary session for those who feel they need it. In the meantime, you will need to (a) create an account, (b) know how to search for resources, (c) know how to organize citations; and (d) know how to create bibliographies of citations. See the following site to get started:
  2. Selectlisted resources (or others) that will help guide your dissertation process.
  3. Determine your advisor’s availability this summer. It will be very difficult to complete the course without at least one meeting with your doctoral advisor. Determine know what constraints your advisor has with her or his schedule this summer.
  4. Plan your time. Writing a comprehensive exam or dissertation overview is a time-consuming process and a challenging lesson in dialogic learning (especially through continual writing and revision.) You can also find it quite meaningful, if you have budgeted your time to allow you to read, reflect, and revise your work. Students who succeed in this process are those who
    (a) manage their own time and expectations,
    (b) relinquish unnecessary activities that might disrupt or distract them from their primary academic mission, and
    (c) help their friends and families understand and adapt to this extraordinary experience.
  1. Work Plan (draft due Class 3; final due by email two days later):
  1. Write your work plan for the summer. Start with the form that you completed for the first class. Please write it in all complete sentences, so that it is clear. Please double-space the work plan. Please bring two hard copies to class on June 3 and send completed electronic copies to us by June 5.
    The work plan should have the following components (and the work plan is changeable):
    (a) Goals. Give yourself at least two, not more than four goals. Goals are not specific tasks and not necessarily measurable as written (we have objectives for that), but they’re the kinds of things that keep us remembering why we’re doing what we’re doing. An example: “My goal is to strengthen my abilities to synthesize research literature.” Another example: “I want to move myself further along the dissertation process.” One more: “I want to make it through the summer confident that I can actually finish this dissertation.” Feel free to adopt or adapt these if they are relevant to you.
    (b) Objectives. These are the specific projects you wish to complete this summer. See the list below for a non-exhaustive list of potential objectives. Multiple objectives can help us reach multiple goals:
  1. CITI IRB certification. (required)
  2. Dissertation Sketch (required)
  3. Mendeley training.
  4. Comprehensive exam proposal document. (required if not already completed)
  5. Dissertation Update.
  6. Completed comprehensive exam.
  7. Dissertation overview. (a draft of at least 30 pages is required if your comprehensive exam is already completed)
  8. IRB application.
  9. Methodological plan.
  10. Annotated bibliography. Review of exemplary dissertation(s).
  11. Specific work and/or meetings with one’
  12. Other.

(c) Specific needs. Identify specific things you need from the instructor, your advisor, and your student colleagues.
(d) Timeline. Include a timeline (or an approximate one) for completion of each objective. Include in your timeline the times when you will not be able to complete work and/or will be unavailable by email (vacation, trainings, retreats, etc..).
(e) Next school year plan. Include a timeline for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 for subsequent work that you will do on these goals and objectives and/or further goals and objectives.

(f) Name your topic. In 50 words or less, name the topic that wish to focus on for your dissertation. If you do not know your topic, say so but also indicate the general area or line of inquiry that you hope to pursue.
(f) What’s missing? Be honest about what you are unsure of at this point. Certainty is not required.
(g) Be brief. Write in complete sentences, but be brief. No long explanations are required.

  1. IRB certification (due by date in your work plan). The University requires that all researchers complete human subjects research training before submitting any studies for review. This is accomplished through a new comprehensive online instructional program. Please present a copy of your certification for the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board. See for the new system. Previously, doctoral students were required to complete two CME modules – Social & Behavioral Research: Basic Course and Social & Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research. Previous CME certifications (Research Integrity [or Module 1] and Human Subjects Protection [or Module 2B]) expired March 31, 2013. If you have the CME certification, make CITI training part of your work plan. It takes about 5 hours to complete.
  2. Dissertation Sketch: By the completion of their program coursework, doctoral candidates have a general idea regarding their dissertation focus. Most have identified a topic often related to a personal experience and problematic. Some have a keen interest in a specific theoretical and/or methodological perspective, and a few have a clear conceptual design. Working in the final dissertation stage is often called “the chicken/egg process” (using a trite cliché.) In order to develop the questions for a comprehensive exam, one needs to have imagined details of an intended dissertation overview. And, in order to craft a conceptually sound overview, one needs to have a comprehensive recognition of significant discourses that relate to one’s inquiry. Thus, the dissertation researcher is continually moving back and forth between these two initiatives to deepen the literature review in order to conceptually hone the research design, and vice versa.

One way to begin developing the comprehensive exam questions is to broadly sketch the details of the intended dissertation research. We are recommending that you think of the sketch as an articulation of the traditional “5 W’s and an H” that are considered basic in information gathering and research: who? what? when? where? why?and how?

• What? Topic? Research question? What brings you to the study? What happened?

• Who? Who are the major players involved?

• When? When did the details of the study happen?

• Where? Where did the significant events take place?

• Why? Significance. Why is it important to study it?

• How? How will you study ?

  1. Dissertation update (500-750 words). In this document, you can indicate where you are with your topic and line of inquiry. Address as many of these as possible. Organize this as a single narrative rather than a question-and-answer format from your Dissertation Sketch notes.
  1. Line of inquiry. What is the general topic that you would like to explore? (i.e., literacy development in elementary school children, adult learning characteristics in an on-line environment, identity formation among adolescents).
  2. Positioning in relation to prior research. Ask yourself this question: What does the prior research on and related to my topic tell me that I need to consider in order to develop my own study? Mention key sources in the research literature and reference them correctly at the end of the update. At this point, do not provide a literature review.
  3. Spark. What has sparked your interest in this topic (coming across an interesting question in the literature, a problem or issue at work, a social commitment, etc.)?
  4. Research question. At this point, do you know your research question? If so, name it fully and with as much specificity as you can (use your Mertens or other research text for guidance on what a good research question looks like). If not, say so and suggest two or three potential research questions that you have considered. If you’re stuck and can’t do that, try this: What is the problem that you intend to solve, the issue (or debate) that you intend to resolve, or the phenomenon that you seek to understand more fully? Examples of general questions that can be turned into more specific research questions: How do nurses develop their abilities to work with diverse populations of patients? What are the effects of different types of mathematics instruction on the problem-solving ability of middle-school students? How are leaders in organizational settings able to encourage others to change their practices?
  5. Conceptual framework. Do you yet have a conceptual framework? If you’re stuck: what are the big ideas about one or more of the following might guide your work: (a) the way that the world works, (b) how social life is organized, (c) how the phenomenon I’m studying is understood by researchers, (d) how people relate to one another, (e) how variables in your line of inquiry relate to one another, and/or (f) you have no idea and need to figure this out.
  6. Research methodology. Name the method(s) you would like to use. Indicate the coursework that has prepared you to conduct this methodology.
  7. Project status. Indicate anything else you have done so far to get prepared for this (or indicate that you are just at the beginning).

ADMPS 30901

  1. Class Schedule

Scheduled Class Date / Topic and Agenda / Readings / Assignments Due
May 13 / Introduction to class members and information from class members’ form.
May 20 / Discuss various interpretations of the dissertation journey. Assess Mendeley proficiency. Develop meeting schedule and potential content for the summer session.
/ Piantanida & Garman, Chapters 1,2,3,4. / Dissertation Sketch (bring draft to class)
May 27 / OPEN (voluntary for Mendeley proficiency training if needed.)
June 3 / Introduction: Communities of discourse as literature review.
Form triads. / TBA / Work Plan
June 10 / Open: Individual work on literature review.
June 17 / Comprehensive exam proposal and literature review.
June24 / Begin framing doable comprehensive questions
July __
July __
July 29

ADMPS 30901