Why the MITER program?
The MITER program is an exciting academic opportunity for doctoral
students whose research and coursework are in or related to education.
The program helps graduate students cross disciplinary and division
boundaries, making them ultimately more knowledgeable about the
field of education and better able to research education issues
in a rigorous way. The training program is important for several
reasons.
The MITER program...
- equips researchers to address criticisms of current education
research.
- builds on the University’s strengths in cognitive science,
neuroscience, curriculum and instruction, educational psychology,
child development, pediatric and adolescent medicine, psychology,
public policy, and sociology—fields of direct relevance for
educational research—while maintaining connections with schools.
- offers a mechanism for applying disciplinary expertise in
non-education fields to educationally relevant problems.
- responds to the growing interest within the University and
at the national level in supporting and training researchers
capable of solid scientific research in education-related fields,
and who can operate across divisional boundaries.
The program equips researchers to address criticisms of current
education research. Education research is criticized for failing
to provide a strong empirical and theoretical evidence base that
education practitioners can use to make educational decisions. The
MITER program trains students to use research designs that permit
a determination of causality, and gives students the theoretical
foundation that would permit interpretation of results. Graduate
students in education are given the conceptual and experimental
tools necessary for critical evaluation of educational interventions
and action plans. Graduate students will gain an understanding of
the issues facing education and the perspective of various disciplines,
and be able to integrate these understandings with their research
in education.
The program builds on the University’s tremendous strengths
in cognitive science, neuroscience, educational psychology,
child development, curriculum and instruction, neuroscience,
pediatric and adolescent health, psychology public policy, and
sociology—fields of direct relevance for educational research—while
maintaining connections with schools. Few organized educational programs are specifically designed
to acquaint students outside of education with the major research
issues in education. Likewise, few programs are designed to connect
students in education with education related research in other disciplines.
Graduate programs in all areas of study tend to focus on only one
field rather than exposing students to related knowledge across
departmental/divisional boundaries. The MITER program is building
an actively functioning campus network of faculty and students interested
in educational problems and able to conduct research that benefits
from the strengths and insights of education-related scholarship
at the University.
The program offers a mechanism for applying
disciplinary expertise in non-education fields to educationally
relevant problems. MITER program coursework acquaints students
with the major education research issues from the point of view
of various disciplinary perspectives, using methods from those disciplines
to address problems of translating research into educational practice.
The program responds to the growing interest
within the University and at the national level in supporting and
training researchers capable of solid scientific research in education-related
fields, and who can operate across divisional boundaries.
Educational research is increasingly multidisciplinary. At the University
level, President Robert Bruininks has made a commitment to building
and enhancing a culture of interdisciplinary research and education
across the University. The MITER program is a vital component of
the University’s growing array of interdisciplinary training and
research opportunities.
MITER is one of only ten pre-doctoral interdisciplinary programs
funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education
Sciences’ funding program, Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research
Training Program in the Education Sciences.
Revised September 2005
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