- Walden Ponder - June 2008 - Ph.D. Academic Residencies: The Faculty Perspective

The Walden Ponder covers news and accomplishments from the Walden University community. It is emailed monthly to current students, alumni, faculty members, staff, other subscribers and friends of Walden University and Laureate Online Education.


•	Subscribe

•	Email us your news

•	Forward this issue to a friend

•	Read archives


Prospective Students

•	Call 866-492-5336

•	Request Information

•	Apply now

Ph.D. Academic Residencies: The Faculty Perspective

Faculty are energized by the ideas, aspirations, and progress of students.

Dr. Mark Gordon

Doctoral students regularly collaborate with faculty mentors through Walden University’s online community, but at academic residencies, students and faculty have the opportunity to meet face to face. For faculty members, it’s an opportunity to work directly with Walden’s highly motivated student “practitioners” who are working in their fields, and guide them on the path to becoming scholars.

“One of the best things about teaching at Walden or being in the Walden community is the people that you meet,” says Dr. Mark Gordon, a program director in the School of Public Policy and Administration. “We attract the most amazing students who are leaders in their fields right now. We attract faculty from the best institutions around the nation and internationally, and we bring them together to support the student.”

Dr. Rebecca Jobe

Building Relationships

“When students come to the residencies, they meet with different faculty members from their school and from other schools,” says Dr. Sreeroopa Sarkar. “Residency is a great place where students build a personal, yet professional, relationship with faculty. This is where they might find their dissertation chair or committee members. And it works perfectly.”

“We love to have students come up and talk to us, share their research ideas,” adds Dr. Rebecca Jobe, executive director of Walden’s Center for Faculty Excellence. “We get excited about their research with them so it energizes us in turn.”

Strategies for Success

In addition to individual advising, faculty at each Ph.D. residency lead structured milestone seminars and conduct special skills sessions—all of which are designed to match specific stages of the doctoral program.

Dr. MaryFriend Shepard

According to Dr. MaryFriend Shepard, director of the Ph.D. in Education specialization in Educational Technology, a major part of each residency involves reinforcing the doctoral mindset. “We have lots of strategies to help students begin to move from master’s-level thinking to doctoral-level thinking,” Shepard says. “We are helping students move to a critical analysis of the materials they write and to critically assess the ideas.”

Typical skills sessions include “Your Passion and Possible Paths to a Dissertation Question,” “Doing Research That Matters: From Idea to Data Collection,” “Scheduling Time on Task to Ensure Success,” and “Publishing the Scholarly Article: A Complete How-To Workshop for Any Discipline, Any Interest.”

Beyond the Residencies
“We want people to think about moving the research into an active community, whether it’s publishing, it’s establishing an action research project, or it’s doing presentations,” says Dr. Alice Eichholz, director of academic residencies. She adds that it’s an important part of Walden’s mission for research to be meaningfully applicable.

“We hope that all Walden students leave the institution understanding the importance of research in making changes in a community, and that whatever change happens in a community is grounded in theory and grounded in some empirical research.”

More Information
See faculty members describe Walden’s academic residency experience. Watch “Academic Residencies for Doctoral Students.”

Read "Academic Residencies: The President's Perspective"

July Ponder front page

More Walden news