Doctor of Education and Doctor of Philosophy Degrees
MASTER'S DEGREE REQUIREMENTS FOR DOCTORAL STUDENTS
The University of Alabama College of Education requires completion of a master's degree for Ed.S. and doctoral students. The master's degree may be completed at the University of Alabama, or may have been completed at another accredited institution before application to the University of Alabama. The master's degree may be in any field related to educational psychology.
Any student who does not hold a previous master's degree may complete the master's degree as part of her or his graduate activities in the Educational Psychology Program. A student who wishes to obtain a doctoral degree may be officially admitted to the doctoral program without first completing the master's degree, and may complete master's degree requirements during the course of the doctoral program. Students who seek admission to doctoral programs are reminded of the 7 year time limit for completion of doctoral degrees; the student may elect to be admitted to and complete a master's program first, and then apply for official admission to the doctoral program.
SUMMARY OF DEGREE AND PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
Coursework Requirements
A major part of graduate training is successful participation in courses. Coursework requirements for the three Ph.D. degree options and Ed.D. degree in Educational Psychology are listed at the end of this document. Each subsequent level of graduate degree in the Educational Psychology Program builds on the preceding-level degrees. For example, the doctoral degrees include the M.A. and Ed.S. degree requirements, plus additional requirements specific to the doctoral degrees. The Ph.D. and Ed.D. degrees in Educational Psychology require a minimum of 90 graduate credits, with 60 of these graduate credits beyond the M.A. degree in Educational Psychology.
Program Planning Records
Coursework requirements are listed on "Program Planning Records" later in this booklet. Each student is expected to maintain a Program Planning Record with his or her advisor in order to monitor completion of coursework requirements.
Faculty Advisors
Every student is appointed a temporary faculty advisor upon initial acceptance into the program. Students may select to continue with the same or choose different permanent advisors after beginning coursework. Advisors assist students with planning coursework, registering for courses, completing program planning records, portfolio evaluations, and other activities. Doctoral students select advisors to chair their program advisory committees. The doctoral student also selects a faculty member to serve as chair of the dissertation committee; dissertation chairs may or may not be the same faculty members who chaired the program advisory committees. Ph.D. students in Educational Psychology should select advisors and dissertation chairs from their areas of concentration.
Program Outcomes
All degree requirements in the Educational Psychology Program are carefully designed and sequenced according to program outcomes. Program outcomes are the areas of knowledge and skill students are expected to demonstrate upon successful completion of the coursework and other training activities. Students provide evidence of each program outcome during the required portfolio evaluations. Program outcomes for the doctoral degree in Educational Psychology are listed later in this document.
Continuous Portfolio Reviews
All students in the Educational Psychology Program are required to participate in the continuous portfolio review process in order to monitor student progress and determine that program outcomes are being achieved. A general description of the portfolio review process, including a portfolio checklist and rating scale, is located in the Student Handbook. Specific requirements for portfolios for the doctoral degree are located later in this booklet.
Doctoral Screening
As noted in the Graduate Catalog, the College of Education requires that each doctoral student participate in a screening process early during graduate study. Doctoral screening includes the student's filing of a declaration of intent and having a preliminary conference with program faculty. Students must successfully complete screening before they can continue their doctoral studies and appoint their doctoral program advisory committees. The Educational Psychology Program includes doctoral screening as part of the portfolio review process for doctoral students, and that process is described later in this booklet. A Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology may change her or his area of concentration and report this change during doctoral screening.
Doctoral Program Advisory Committees
Following the successful completion of doctoral screening, the doctoral program advisory committee is appointed, in consultation and approval from the program chair and Head, Area of Professional Studies. The form for appointing program advisory committee members is included at the end of this booklet. Program advisory committees assist with planning the doctoral program of study and approve the official doctoral program of study form.
The program advisory committees for Ed.D. students must consist of a minimum of three members of the graduate faculty. The chairperson, or the student's major advisor, must represent the student's major area of study. A minimum of two additional members are selected, with at least one of these members being from outside the Area of Professional Studies.
The program advisory committees for Ph.D. students must consist of a minimum of five members of the graduate faculty. The chairperson, or the student's major advisor, must represent the student's major area of study. A minimum of four additional members are selected, with at least one of these members being from outside the Area of Professional Studies. The four additional members must include representatives from each of the student's Ph.D. minor programs. It is recommended that one of the committee members represent the program in which the student is seeking a language/research proficiency.
Doctoral Programs of Study
Doctoral students are required to file official program of study forms with the Graduate School at the beginning of graduate studies. These forms require each student and her or his advisor to list the specific course requirements necessary for the student's completion of the degree. Doctoral programs of study may not be completed until the student successfully completes doctoral screening. Although a master's degree is not required for initial admission into the doctoral program, the completion of a master's degree is required before any student may complete and file the official program of study form. Doctoral programs of study are approved by the program advisory committee, area head, and assistant/associate deans of the College of Education. The Ph.D. and Ed.D. program of study forms are located in the program office in Carmichael Hall, Room 306.
Ph.D. Minors
In addition to coursework in the major field of study, Ph.D. students must complete coursework and other requirements for two minor fields of study. Training in minor fields of study allow Ph.D. students to seek specialized training in relatively specific areas of practice and research. Requirements for minors are specified by the faculty in the program in which the minor is offered. Typically, minor requirements include 12-15 hours of graduate coursework and a minor comprehensive examination. For example, students may seek minors in the Special Education Program, Counselor Education Program, Elementary Education Program, Educational Leadership Program, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and Department of Psychology. Students should contact the program or department chairs of these and other departments for specific information about minors.
The Educational Psychology Program offers options for several minors as described later in this booklet. Minors offered by the Educational Psychology Program include the following:
General Educational Psychology
General School Psychology
Learning and Teaching
Learning and Development
Cognition and Instruction
Psychoeducational Assessment
Interventions and Problem Solving
Social and Cultural Bases of Behavior
Each of these minors in the Educational Psychology Program requires
12 hours of graduate coursework as described later in this booklet.
No minor comprehensive examination is required. Instead competencies
in the minor area are evaluated by requiring that students earn grades
of B or higher in each course taken for the minor.
Graduate students seeking degrees in the Educational Psychology Program
may seek only one minor from the minor options offered by the Educational
Psychology Program. The minor must be different from the student's major
area of concentration. The second doctoral minor must be taken from
another program or department. Any of the required coursework for degrees
in the Educational Psychology Program can be incorporated into the coursework
requirements for minors, with the approval of the student's program
advisory committee.
Ph.D. Language Requirement or Research Skill Substitute
In addition to fulfilling other requirements, each Ph.D. student must demonstrate either (a) reading competence in at least one foreign language appropriate to his or her research interests or b) competence in at least one alternative research skill determined by the candidate's program and approved by the Graduate Council.
The foreign language requirement is administered by the particular department offering courses in the language. The Departments of Romance Languages and Classics, Department of German and Russian, and Critical Languages Center have established competency-evaluations for foreign language proficiency.
The Graduate School Catalog lists a number of alternate research skills areas in which students may demonstrate competence to meet this Ph.D. requirement. Educational Psychology students typically participate in the examinations and other requirements for the proficiency in educational statistics or the proficiency in educational research. Students may contact the Chair of the Educational Research Program in 306 Carmichael Hall to obtain more information about these two research skill alternatives.
Transfer of Credit and Use of Previous Graduate Work
The University of Alabama allows students to transfer equivalent courses from other accredited institutions where the student was enrolled in the graduate school. Up to one-half of the required coursework, exclusive of thesis or dissertation credit, may be transferred from another institution. Ed.S. students may transfer up to 15 of the 30 credit minimum required for the Ed.S. degree. Credits may be transferred only if they were earned during the six-year period prior to admission to the program. Transfer of courses must be approved by the student's advisor. The Dean of the Graduate School must also approve transfer of courses. The required Graduate School form to request consideration of transfer of credits is located in the Student Handbook.
Many students who enter doctoral programs with previous graduate degrees from other institutions often have had coursework which is equivalent to some of the coursework requirements of the Educational Psychology Program. Some of this coursework may be older than the maximum of six years necessary to officially transfer courses. All previous graduate coursework for a student, regardless of when a course was taken, will be carefully evaluated by a student's advisor or program advisory committee. In some cases, a student may need not take a required course in the Educational Psychology if the course, or a satisfactory substitute approved by the student's Program Advisory Committee, has been taken in a previous master's or specialist program and if the student can supply evidence that he or she has been actively and recently applying the content of the course. However, the student must take all other courses required by the Educational Psychology Program and must meet minimum coursework requirements set by the University of Alabama Graduate School. The student need not transfer any equivalent coursework from a previous degree unless a course transfer is necessary to meet the Graduate School minimum Ph.D. requirements of 48 graduate coursework semester credits and 24 dissertation credits and Ed.D. requirements of 60 semester hours beyond the master's or 90 semester hours of graduate study.
The use of graduate coursework transferred from another institution to meet Ph.D. minor requirements or language/research requirements must be approved by the program offering the minor or language/research proficiency and by the student's program advisory committee.
Limits on Coursework
Educational Psychology Program requirements exclude credit for undergraduate study, study which is remedial, or study which is designed to remove deficiencies in meeting requirements for program admission. In addition, the program limits the number of courses not open exclusively to graduate students to no more than one-third of a student's program.
Field Experiences
All students in the Educational Psychology Program are required to engage in a number of field based experiences. Field-based experiences for educational psychology students vary for individual students, depending on previous experiences, but may include field-based observation, program development, teaching, or research activities.
Research Participation
All students in Educational Psychology are expected to obtain skills in research. Every student is expected to join a faculty member's research team during the first semester of graduate study. Masters' and Ed.S. students take a number of research courses and are encouraged to participate in research projects during courses and field experiences.
Doctoral students are required to participate in and conduct research, and faculty members work closely with doctoral students to help them complete their research requirements. Each doctoral student takes a number of experiential research courses and seminars, is required to complete at least one research project prior to dissertation, and is required to submit this project for publication or presentation at a national conference. Each doctoral student is also required to give an oral presentation of this research study to program faculty, during the continuous portfolio review process.
Every doctoral student is required to complete a comprehensive dissertation study, which is described below and in the dissertation policies of the Area of Professional Studies, included elsewhere in this booklet.
Ph.D. and Ed.D. students may differ in the foci of individual research. Ph.D. students typically focus on basic or applied research which will have implications for educational and social policy and practice at a national level and will have an external audience through major research journals and conferences. The research of Ed.D. students is equally important. Ed.D. students typically focus on program evaluation or practice-based research which will have implications for educational and social policy and practice at a local or state level, will have an external audience with major practitioner journals and conferences, and will have internal audience with school boards and review boards for the particular agency for whom the research was conducted.
Comprehensive Examinations
All degree students in the Educational Psychology Program are required to successfully complete written comprehensive examinations before the degrees will be granted. The specific procedures for comprehensive examinations for the Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees are described later in this booklet. The examinations are completed independently on a "take-home" basis, and require students to integrate knowledge and skills obtained during coursework and other training activities. Students are allowed to take comprehensive examinations only twice.
Admission to Candidacy
As noted in the Graduate Catalog, admission to the Graduate School does not imply admission to candidacy for a degree. Admission to candidacy is contingent upon the recommendation of the student's program and the approval of the graduate dean, after the student has met the formal requirements for candidacy for the degree and demonstrated sufficient preparation to pursue the graduate study and research required for the degree sought. Application forms are supplied by the Graduate School office.
Admission to candidacy for the Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees in the Educational Psychology Programs requires the following:
Completion of the program of coursework approved by the Program Advisory
Committee.
Demonstrated competence through the written or oral examination procedures
or other evaluations required for the major field and, for Ph.D. students,
for the two minor fields.
Fulfillment of the language/research skill requirement.
Completion of the pre-dissertation research project for the doctoral
research requirement and the oral presentation to peers and faculty
on the completed project.
Approval of the dissertation proposal by the Dissertation Committee.
Doctoral Dissertation Committee
The dissertation committee is responsible for assisting the doctoral student in developing and conducting dissertation research. The dissertation committee consists of a minimum of five members, with a chair and four additional members. One of the members of the committee must be from outside the Area of Professional Studies. Although a dissertation committee often consists of faculty members who have served as the student's advisor or member of the student's program advisory committee, it is not required that dissertation committee members have served as an advisor or advisory committee member for the student. The student is encouraged to work with the program chair and Head of the Area of Professional studies in selecting committee members who will provide the most assistance for the dissertation study.
The form for appointing dissertation committee members is found on subsequent pages in this booklet. Selection procedures and responsibilities of dissertation committee members are described in the Area of Professional Studies Dissertation Procedures.
Dissertation Requirements
The specific requirements for doctoral dissertations are described in the Area of Professional Studies Dissertation Procedures located at the end of this booklet. Students must also follow the Graduate School's publication, A Manual for Students Preparing Theses and Dissertations. Copies may be obtained from the Graduate School office.
The steps in preparing the dissertation are listed below:
Preparation of Prospectus
Prospectus Meeting(s) and Approval of Prospectus
Preparation of Proposal
Proposal Meeting and Approval of Proposal
Approval by Internal Review Board for Human Subjects Research
Collection of Data
Data Analyses
Preparation of Final Dissertation
Final Examination, Defense, and Approval of Dissertation
Submission and Approval of Dissertation by Graduate School
Doctoral students in the Educational Psychology Program are also expected
to develop a proposal for and attempt to obtain external funding or
grants for their doctoral dissertation project.
Research suggests that an alarmingly high number of doctoral students across the United States complete all coursework for the doctoral degree, but never complete the doctoral dissertation. The Educational Psychology Program faculty are committed to assisting students with completion of their dissertations and with preventing students from ending their graduate careers "ABD" (all but dissertation). During the portfolio reviews for doctoral students, faculty will provide students with guidance and suggestions for timelines in completing the dissertations. Because doctoral students have a 7 year timeline for completion of all degree requirements, including dissertation, doctoral students will be expected to begin work on the dissertation prospectus during the third or fourth year of study. It is anticipated that most doctoral students will complete the dissertation by the fourth or fifth year of study. Only in unusual circumstances will students complete their dissertations during the sixth or seventh years.
Announcing Dissertation Meetings
Students are required to give their dissertation committee members adequate notice of all dissertation meetings. Students must report their dissertation proposal and final examination/defense meetings to the Dean of the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled meeting. Students must invite all faculty of the College of Education to the final examination/dissertation defense meetings through the college's electronic mail.
Dissertation Title Cards and Submission of Dissertation to Graduate School
The dissertation title card may be obtained from the Graduate School. This card indicates dissertation title and major and is to be signed by the Dissertation Chair and Head of the Area of Professional Studies. The student must submit the approved card to the Graduate School six weeks before graduation.
After successful defense of the dissertation, and at least six weeks before graduation, the student must deposit in the Office of the Graduate School two copies of the dissertation in the form specified by the Graduate School, approved by the dissertation chair and committee members and the Head of the Area of Professional Studies. The dissertation acceptance page must be typed in triplicate with original signatures on each page. The Graduate School Publication, A Manual for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations, specifies the requirements for submission of the dissertation and lists requirements for the binding fee, abstracts, and publication in Dissertation Abstracts. The Graduate School conducts a copy-edit of the dissertation, returns the dissertation to the dissertation chair and student for required changes, and then approves the dissertation.
Publication of Doctoral Dissertations
Students are expected to submit their dissertations for publication in major research journals and presentations at national professional conferences immediately following completions of the studies.
Final Examination
The dissertation defense meeting serves as the final doctoral examination for students in the Educational Psychology Program. At the successful conclusion of the final examination/defense meeting, the student must have the committee members sign the Graduate School form for the final defense.
Application for Graduation
Each candidate for a graduate degree must apply for graduation no later than the registration period for the semester of first term of the summer session in which degree requirements are to be completed. The "Application for Degree" from must be obtained from and submitted to the Graduate School.
Deadlines to Meet Degree Requirements
Each semester, the Graduate School publishes dates by which students must meet degree requirements, submit forms, and engage in other activities necessary for awarding of the degrees. Some of the deadlines occur early in the semester in which the degree will be granted; some of the deadlines occur in semester before the degree will be granted. Graduate School deadlines are posted every semester in the program office in 306 Carmichael Hall. It is the student's responsibility to review and meet all deadlines.
Graduation
Degrees are awarded during fall, spring, or summer semester, and are awarded after the completion of degree requirements. The University of Alabama has only one official graduation ceremony, which is typically the second Saturday in May. All graduates from the previous summer, fall, and spring semesters are encouraged to participate in the May graduation ceremony.
OBTAINING OPTIONAL DEGREES DURING AN ED.S. OR DOCTORAL PROGRAM
The University of Alabama does have a policy that each Ed.S. and doctoral student must also have a master's degree. However, the Educational Psychology Program does not require that this master's degree be in educational psychology. Students may enter the Ed.S. and doctoral programs with previous master's degrees in any relevant field.
However, in some circumstances, student may elect to obtain an optional degree during the course of completing the Ed.S. or doctoral degree. As noted earlier, each subsequent level of graduate degree in the Educational Psychology Program builds on the preceding-level degrees. For example, the Ed.S. degrees includes the M.A. degree requirements. The doctoral degrees include the M.A. and Ed.S. degree requirements, plus additional requirements specific to the doctoral degrees.
Ed.S. students may elect to apply for the M.A. degree if they do, in effect, complete all M.A. degree requirements over the course of their programs. For example, a student may enter the Ed.S. program in School Psychology with a master's degree in special education. This student will likely take most of the 66 graduate credits required for this Ed.S. degree, as very few courses from the degree in special education would likely be applied to the Ed.S. degree. The Ed.S. student will, in effect, complete all requirements for the M.A. in School Psychometry during the course of the Ed.S. program. The Ed.S. student may elect to apply for and receive the M.A. degree if the student determines that obtaining the optional degree will be beneficial in some way.
Similarly, a doctoral student may elect to apply for an M.A. degree and/or Ed.S. degree if he or she does, in effect, complete these degree requirements during the course of his or her doctoral program. For example, a student may enter the Ed.D. program in Educational Psychology with a master's degree in educational administration. This student will likely take most of the 90 graduate credits required for an Ed.D. degree, as very few courses from the master's degree in educational administration would likely be applied to the Ed.D. degree in Educational Psychology. The Ed.D. student will, in effect, complete all requirements for the M.A. and Ed.S. degrees in Educational Psychology during the course of the Ed.D. program. The Ed.D. student may elect to apply for and receive the M.A. and/or Ed.S. degrees if the student determines that obtaining the optional degrees will be beneficial in some way.
In order to apply for and receive an optional degree during the course of an Ed.S. or doctoral program, the student and his or her advisor must determine that all requirements for the optional degree are met, including coursework, internship, residency, etc. requirements. The student must show evidence of passing the comprehensive examinations for the optional degrees. (The program has facilitated the comprehensive examination requirement by building the comprehensive examinations for each subsequent level of graduate degree on the comprehensive examinations for the preceding-level degrees. For example, the Ed.S. comprehensive examination includes examinations used for the M.A. degree plus additional examination specific to the Ed.S. degree. The doctoral comprehensive examination includes examinations used for the M.A. and Ed.S. degrees plus additional examination specific to the doctoral degree.) Then, the student must file all necessary forms with the graduate school for the optional degree, including program of study, admission to candidacy, and application for degree forms and must pay all necessary fees for graduation.