In Depth Knowledge
The Inter-University PhD in Educational Studies: Doctoral Student Handbook explains that this category requires students to "demonstrate in-depth knowledge of a range of issues in their specific doctoral focus area" (Inter-University Doctoral Administrative Committee, 2021, p. 35). For the competency category, I included two artifacts. Both artifacts are taken from my fourth course in the PhD program entitled GEDU 9004/EDUC 8043 Focused Educational Studies. The third artifact is an annotated bibliography that I completed that laid the groundwork for conducting my fourth artifact, a critical integrative literature review. The artifacts in this category demonstrate how I have met the stated requirements.
Artifact 3 - Annotated bibliography
The artifact includes information about the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) and is entitled NCLEX-RN in Nursing Education: An Annotated Bibliography. I chose this artifact because it demonstrates my preparedness to search relevant databases to find peer-reviewed articles, books, thesis, dissertations, grey literature, websites, and other documents for information that is relevant to my research interest. I was concerned about success on the NCLEX-RN, so I decided to investigate the past and current success rates among Ontario universities for first-time test takers and the literature about how nursing educators and students adjusted to the NCLEX in the Canadian context. The artifact included a description of the background of my research topic, along with the annotation of the articles organized in a logical way that describes the findings.
Artifact 4 - Initial literature review
(GEDU 9004/EDUC 8043 Focused Educational Studies)
This artifact represents the first draft in part of a more in-depth literature review for my dissertation and is titled Factors Related to Success on the NCLEX-RN: Literature Review. I chose this artifact because it demonstrates my ability to search academic databases for relevant literature related to my research topic, analyze, criticize, and integrate the findings logically by summarizing the author's results, views, and quotes from the literature. The findings of the literature revealed four patterns, three themes and 11 subthemes, all of which are discussed in this artifact, along with the gap in the literature that I am working on to formulate my research question.
These two artifacts reflect the knowledge, attitudes, and skills developed at this stage of my journey toward my dissertation: Knowledge - In-depth, focused knowledge of several issues in educational studies related to curriculum studies, literacies, lifelong learning, inclusive education, education foundations and leadership, and psychological aspects of education thorough understanding of a substantial body of knowledge that is at the forefront of educational Studies; Attitude - Respect and appreciation for the scope of the area that they are exploring within the context of the limitations of their own work as well as the discipline of education, including an appreciation for the complexity of knowledge and the potential contributions of other interpretations, methods and disciplines; Respect for the need to follow a flexible course of action leading to personal self-sufficiency and professional achievements, and Skills - Use reflective, rational, and critical thinking to gather and interpret information in order to form judgments; Apply creative and divergent thinking leading to the conception of new ideas and practices with the intention to improve and advance current knowledge (they will be intellectually curious and will value interdisciplinary inquiry) (Inter-University Doctoral Administrative Committee, 2021, p. 45- 46).