1 APPENDIX I.
Phase I Question Guide
1. What motivated you to pursue your doctoral degree?
2. How did you go about exploring the potential doctoral institutions available to you?
3. Which doctoral programs interested you and why?
4. In the early stages of your doctoral education, including the time before you accepted admittance into a program, what were your concerns?
5. What do you know now, that would have been helpful to know during the selection process?...while taking courses?....during the dissertation phase?
6. Which characteristics of the doctoral program proved to be the most important to you?
7. What made your journey particularly difficult? What could have made it easier?
8. What was essential to your success?
9. If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? Why?
10. What pearls of wisdom would you offer other PTs who are presently considering pursuit of their doctoral education?
11. What else about your journey, do you think I should know?
2 APPENDIX II.
Phase 2 Question Guide
1. Our participants were asked directly about their motivations to pursue doctoral education.
They spoke about internal factors (love of/passion for learning; quest for specific knowledge and or research skills to answer clinical questions; the next logical step) as well as external factors (career move; requirement for academic position).
a. Did their motivations resonate with you?
b. Were your motivations represented among theirs?
c. Our data identifies motivation as a critical factor to success. How critical a factor did you find motivation to be? Why?
d. Did your motivations wane? How did that affect your pursuit?
e. What strategies did you use to sustain your motivations (stay motivated)?
2. Commitment arose as a critical element of success – specifically of the individual, primary work environment and significant others (family/friends).
a. For you, which of these did you find to be most significant?
b. Did your commitment wane?
3. Knowledge of self, as well as knowledge of a particular program was discussed as integral to creating a “good fit”.
a. Tell us about how your explored your options.
b. What about your match was a good fit?
c. What about your match proved to be less than a “good fit”.
4. The participants discussed skills that facilitated success:
perseverance, adaptability, team building, communication, play the game a. Which of these did you wish you had more of? Were integral to you?
b. What other skills would you describe as facilitory?
5. We used a Venn diagram to describe the transition of PT à PT, PhD or PT à PT, EdD as a long term relationship. The integral factors: motivation, commitment and knowledge and skill having a degree of overlap that represented the likelihood of success on this journey.
a. Does this resonate with you? Why or why not?
6. We are going to give you a chance to rewrite history…If you could do it all over again, what 3 things would you change about your journey and why?
3 APPENDIX III.
Phase 3 Panelist Question Guide
1. Briefly describe your program
(degree, discipline, model, FT/PT, year of inception, ~graduates to date, projected time to completion)
2. Our participants have spoken about the importance of a “good fit” between the student and the program.
a. What makes a student a “good fit” for your program?
b. How would you recommend a student find out the particulars about your program to determine a “good fit”?
3. Participants discussed the advantages of working toward their dissertation while still in the coursework phase of the journey.
a. Does this happen at your institution?
b. How do students choose their dissertation topics?
c. How are committee members chosen?
4. What are the most common reasons that students do not graduate?
a. When is it most likely for students to “lose their way”?
b. What are your recommendations to students to avoid these pitfalls?