PhDs in Australia are usually threeyears of full-time research. Recently several universities have introduced coursework in the first year covering research methods and research philosophy.What are your views on these two kinds of PhDs? Do you think the coursework is valuable?
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Hi Craig, I suppose that it depends on the type of candidates that you attract, and the kind of PhDs you want to produce.
ReplyDeleteIf your candidates have no research experience and/or very little subject knowledge, it makes sense to have the coursework. Course work may also be useful to get candidates to write early on, and even submit to conferences (depending on the nature /type of coursework).
But, on the other hand, if you see PhD candidates as junior members of the school's research community, than coursework does not make sense - rather, candidates should be encouraged to identify their knowledge gaps, and find ways to address them (e.g., talk with someone with more experience, read a book, join a course, ...) just like any other member of the community would do. The difference is that these (junior) members of the community will have the explicit support from the other (senior) ones.
Hope that makes sense...
Personally, I found the classes on research methodologies in my track to be extremely useful, as was the class on philosophy of science.
ReplyDeleteIn basic hard sciences, like chemistry, a research methodology class is probably not necessary. For any of the soft sciences, a research methodology class is probably a damn fine idea.
Even if you're never going to perform a qualitative survey study, or a historical comparative study, or field research... you should understand the concepts behind constructing those animals so that you can properly digest and critique the literature in your field.
If you don't understand how to build a good survey instrument, you can't properly critique a survey-based study, and you can't rely upon such as part of a literature review.
A philosophy of science course should be required for a PhD in any scientific field, hard science or no. It is, after all, a PhD!