A Comparative Study On The Development Of Ed.D. Programs

The origin and development of Ed.D.(Doctor of Education) was not found to be accidental but rather inevitable for profound and specific historical reasons. The Ed.D. program is developing undisputably and rapidly, taking up a considerable proportion in the higher educational section in many countries, especially in those developed ones, though its development is perplexed by the homogeneity of Ed.D. and Ph.D. Why did the United States design and develop a new type of doctorate-Doctor of Education, against the context where the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been in existence for more than one century? The dissertation attempts to explore the issue.The dissertation is divided into five parts:Part One is an introduction in which two facets of the issue are to be addressed------the orientation of Ph.D. and the origin of Ed.D. This part also brings in analysis on the current predicament and problems facing training of Ph.D. and clearly points out that:the research-oriented curricula can hardly meet the diversified demands for high-level application-oriented talents. Subsequently this part analyses the historical reason and necessity of Ed.D.’s origin and development. After reviewing three important objects of study, viz. the medieval college, Ed.D., and new modes of knowledge production theory, this part also defines five key concepts such as profession, degree, knowledge and introduces several research methods employed for the purpose of research.Part Two traces the origin and evolution of university and degree from the historical perspective, thus restores their historical image and reveals that the system of modern university has its origins in medieval Europe while the academic guild is the prototype of the medieval college and teacher certification is the origin of the medieval University degree. History demonstrates that the connotation of the degree and functions of the university are closely linked. Following the reform of German universities, scientific research has become one of the core functions of the university, and the connotation of degree has taken drastic changes. The United States attached equal importance to research and application with social service as the university’s third function, which further enriches the connotation of degree. Diversification of degree types and connotation has become common trends in the evolution of the academic degree system in the major developed countries, which offers fertile soil for the rise of Ed.D. programs. On the basis of this trend, complexity and diversity of the current degree system could be fully understood, and the origin and development of Ed.D. and its professional characteristics are clarified to some extent.Part Three focuses upon their common problems, viz. homogeneity between Ph.D. and Ed.D. on the basis of the panorama of development of Ed.D. in United States, Australia and United Kingdom, with reference to solutions and measures taken by these countries to solving the problems. This part also made a case study for more in-depth understanding of the status quo and development trend in the three countries and finally conducts a comparative study on the training of Ed.D. in the three countries from the perspective of background, philosophy, training objectives, admission requirements, and modes of training.Part Four is a survey and research with emphatic focus on the training of the first two batches of the2010and2011Ed.D. with a pilot research conducted in15universities and interviews with some students and teachers. Through data processing based on correlation analysis and regression analysis, final conclusions are reached and recommendations are put forward.Part Five analyses the reasons behind the rapid development of professional doctorate and its intergenerational evolution on the basis of new modes of knowledge production. Current development of professional doctorate has entered its second phrase, viz. the career-oriented "hybrid course+professional practice" model, and is moving towards the third phase which features the practice-oriented mode of students’self-management According to the basic characteristics of the different phases, Ed.D. development in China is still in its fledging phase, namely, academic-oriented "courses+thesis" mode. Therefore, according to the new mode of knowledge production and the intergenerational evolution of professional doctorates, the development trend in China has been very eminent:The training mode will become more open with applied study as its competitive advantage and at the same time, the evaluation for doctoral supervisors will become more diversified in stead of research-oriented solely. In light of comparative analysis of related policies home and abroad, this dissertation designs China’s model of Ed.D. training from such perspectives as value orientation, training direction, training mode, admission requirements and curricula setting.