Professor Joseph M. Piro
E-mail: joseph.piro@liu.edu
Phone: 516- 299-3683
FAX- 516-299-3312
Written and Oral Comprehensive Exams
In considering the format of the Comprehensive Exams for the Ed.D. Program, the Doctoral Program Executive Committee wanted to develop an approach that would fulfill the evaluative and assessment objectives of the Comprehensive Exams and also maximize their value as an integral component of the learning experience for our students. We also wanted the format of the comprehensives to avoid any unnecessary or redundant retesting of our students' mastery of course content knowledge that would already have been assessed by individual course instructors. We also wanted to design a format for the comprehensives that would advance our students' progress toward their dissertation research.
In considering the format of the Comprehensive Exams for the Ed.D. Program, the Doctoral Program Executive Committee wanted to develop an approach that would fulfill the evaluative and assessment objectives of the Comprehensive Exams and also maximize their value as an integral component of the learning experience for our students. We also wanted the format of the comprehensives to avoid any unnecessary or redundant retesting of our students' mastery of course content knowledge that would already have been assessed by individual course instructors. We also wanted to design a format for the comprehensives that would advance our students' progress toward their dissertation research.With those objectives in mind, the Comprehensive Exams have been combined into a single, take-home exam in the form of a research précis that demonstrates the research methods, skills, and perspectives developed by our doctoral students during their core (covering research skills and methods) courses and reflects the field knowledge they developed in their track courses in the Teaching & Learning or Educational Leadership specialties.Students may take their comprehensives after they:
a) have assembled a dissertation committee
b) have completed 42 doctoral credits
c) have had their electronic portfolio approved by their chairperson
The written portion of the Comprehensive Exams will be a research précis comprising three components.The first component will be a preliminary literature review related to the student's proposed area of dissertation research and should reflect both an understanding of research and of the student's specialized field of expertise (e.g., Teaching & Learning or Educational Leadership) [about 10 double-spaced pages plus References]. The second component will present a discussion of a proposed research methodology (including philosophical perspectives, analytic methods, sample, instruments and measures) and its strengths and limitations [about five to 7 pages plus References]. The third component will be a a statement describing the interdisciplinary nature of the proposed research and of the benefits that will be achieved by the research [about three pages].The research précis format of the combined Comprehensive Exams will provide an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their mastery of the broad learning objectives of the Ed.D. Program and will jump-start their progress toward the development of their dissertation proposals.The written portion of the Comprehensive Exams will be graded by the dissertation committee chair and one other member of the dissertation committee. In the event of a split judgment, the third member of the committee would be asked to break the tie. If two members of the committee find the exam not ready for approval, the committee will offer corrective advice to the student and ask that the research précis be revised and resubmitted.The oral portion of the Comprehensive Exams will be achieved by having the student make an oral presentation of the research précis to her or his three-person dissertation committee. The members of the committee will use that presentation as an opportunity to explore the student's mastery of the content knowledge and understanding of theory and research in her or his field specialization, especially as it relates to the student's planned dissertation topic.