College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Catalog 2016

65 The Teaching Course and Practicum Students take the Fundamentals of Teaching course during their first or second year in the program. This course is designed to promote learning on how to become an effective instructor/professor as part of a student’s professional development and readiness for a teaching career. Upon completion of this course, students are able to work with full time faculty as teaching assistants in a practicum format to advance their teaching skills. Students seek out faculty and request a position as a TA in their course. Prior to the term commencing, the faculty and TA discuss the student’s interest and type of involvement in the course. The faculty and student develop a written agreement as to the TA’s responsibilities for the course. The Supervision Course and Practicum The Supervision course and supervision practicum are designed to understand and practice the fundamentals of supervision and the advancement of a student’s supervisory skills. Prior to taking the Supervision course students must have successfully passed their doctoral Internal Practicum courses. For the Supervision Practicum, students must contact a full-time faculty supervisor prior to beginning the supervision practicum to request permission to assist supervising. Students may also contact a master’s level External Practicum full-time faculty supervisor for permission to assist supervising. Prior to the term commencing, the supervisor and student discuss the student’s interest and type of involvement in the practicum. The supervisor and student develop a written agreement as to the student supervisor’s responsibilities for the practicum. Dissertation The Ph.D. dissertation consists of original research in the Marriage and Family Therapy field. Students are encouraged to develop research topics that are not only of interest to them but also meaningful to the field at large. It is highly recommended that students begin their studies with a general idea of a dissertation topic which they begin to evaluate upon entering the program. During each of the four research courses , students will be developing components of a manuscript, such as an Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, and IRB proposal, that will lead to a dissertation. Students enroll in their Dissertation courses while completing their Internship. A dissertation committee for all doctoral students will be composed of at least three members, one of whom will serve as the dissertation chair. The dissertation chair and at least one other committee member must be full-time DFT faculty members. A student may have one or more outside members on the committee if methodological or substantive topical issues make such membership advisable, and is approved by the dissertation chair. All members who are not DFT faculty must have an earned doctorate degree, must be full-time faculty at a university, and must provide copies of their credentials to the department. Dissertation committee members may not be from among the student’s family members or personal friends, nor have graduated from CAHSS within the past three academic years. The dissertation Chair will formalize a research study with the student and develop a timeline for moving through the process. The Dissertation process is extensive and specific details about how students move through this process and write their dissertation can be found in the DFT Dissertation Guidelines available online at www.CAHSS.nova.edu/studentresource s. Students must take a minimum total of 9 dissertation credit hours; three credit hours per term for three terms. Three hours of dissertation credits is considered full time by the program. Students must continually be registered for at least one dissertation credit each term until they complete and successfully defend their dissertation, bind, and turn in their final document, and register their dissertation with ProQuest, UMI.