The Doctor of Arts (D.A.) in Chemistry at Middle Tennessee State University is a terminal degree designed to prepare classroom teachers for the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. The D.A. degree was originally created in the 1960's at Carnegie Mellon University as a response to growing criticism that existing doctoral programs were not preparing teachers properly for college students. Our program consists of 52-64 semester hours including up to 34 hours of chemistry courses, up to 12 hours of education courses, 6 hours of teaching internship, and 12 hours for dissertation research. While some students are in continuous residence, all requirements of the program can be completed entirely during summer semesters to accommodate the schedules of students who are already faculty at other colleges. The D.A. degree differs from the more specialized Chemistry Ph.D. by its broader curriculum and by the required education courses and teaching internships. During the past twenty years, the program has produced 23 graduates who hold teaching or administrative positions at colleges and universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. The first students were a homogeneous group of typically older, experienced faculty whose focus was mostly on undergraduate teaching and who regarded the program as professional development; however, applicants are becoming increasingly diverse and now include significant numbers younger students who have much less teaching experience and express more interest in conducting research in chemical education. Consequently, our program, while maintaining its character as a degree for practitioners of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, has evolved to the point where it now contains many elements of a Ph.D. in Chemical Education.
Web Page: www.mtsu.edu/~chem/gradprograms.html
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Back to The 56th Southeast Regional Meeting 2004 (November 10-13, 2004)