EDU-M 710A: Mentoring: Develop a Dissertation Topic I

Overview

There are four components in all JIU mentoring cycles:

• Participatory Action Research (PAR)
• Critical friends’ dialogues
• Educational literature as it bears on the topics that will lead you to successful completion of your dissertation in three years
• Dissertation deliverables

All were begun during your colloquium weekend, but will be reviewed again here.

Participatory action research is a cyclic process and one that you will employ throughout the 12 mentoring sessions that run simultaneously with your course work at JIU. Unlike the eight linear modules you will find in your course work at JIU, mentoring sessions can be approached in a non-linear fashion. For instance, you may find that you like to reflect in your online journal once a week, or that you tend to diagnose and set up measurement as you go into action. For this reason, there are four individual modules in this course that correlate to the four PAR steps: Diagnose (Module 1), Act (Module 2), Measure (Module 3), and Reflect (Module 4).

The purpose of the mentoring sessions is to provide you with ongoing feedback and support as you work on your dissertation. The dissertation process is a life-changing set of events. It is unlike any educational experience you have had before this. It is a very big task and at times you will be discouraged by it. Yet it is not until the end that you find the truest reward for your hard work. JIU is committed to your successful journey. The help provided in these mentoring classes and through your mentor is meant to give you the edge you need.

The very best habits you can form are to set aside a bit of time each day for yourself to dream, plan, and do the work that will get you to your final dissertation. These sessions can help with that if you choose to check in often, review the ideas in the resources listed, find your own interesting resources and share them with your mentoring group, discuss ideas with each other and with your mentors, and journal about your experience. All of these are steps to success.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Define and publish in your portfolio clear and professional goals.
• Develop a productive and helpful relationship with your mentor.
• Begin your journal, which will serve as a source of qualitative data during your dissertation.
• Begin to define your strengths and challenges in a Personal Option Policy Brief that will be completed during PAR Cycle 2 in EDU-M710B.
• Begin to define the subject and scope of your dissertation.

Required Texts
EDU-M 710A texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore