Dissertation Overview

As the culminating scholarly experience, the dissertation serves as a performance assessment of the doctoral candidate’s ability to conduct original scholarship on an important question in education, and to present and interpret the findings in a clear, logical, and appropriate form. The dissertation contributes to the professional body of knowledge in the area of study. That contribution is significant in that it either confirms existing research, extends knowledge, or adds nuance to what has been show previously. The work is also significant in that it can have real-life value for the author’s professional practice or his or her place of employment. The dissertation document describes the research conducted, reports the results obtained, shows the relationship of the research to the scholarly work that preceded it, and shows how the research contributes to furthering an understanding of the issues studied.

A dissertation can take different formats. The most common format is to conduct a single study to address the stated research questions. Alternative formats do exist, such as an “article-based format.” Such a format would include separate articles for publication, typically introduced by a chapter that summarizes the articles and explains the theoretical threads that bind them. Students should discuss options with their advisor.