Why the MITER program?
The MITER program is an exciting academic opportunity for Ph.D. 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 (Ph.D.) interdisciplinary programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in the Education Sciences).
Revised September 2005