Graduate Study Standards

Purpose

The purposes of graduate standards at Doane College are to guide program development and to establish criteria for program evaluation.

These criteria are designed to maintain flexibility to allow for diversity and change, to incorporate appropriate strategies for adult learners, and to develop and promote innovative approaches to learning.

The foundation of graduate studies at Doane is based on a practitioner/scholar model that includes:

• Programs based on an awareness of and respect for information and experience brought from the field by participants in the learning community.
• Participants actively involved in individual program design.
• Individual learning objectives met through the reciprocal exchange between theory and practice.
• Content and context recognized as both having importance.
• Learning promoted as a process of study-action-reflection.

Admission Standards

Standards are individualized by program as approved by the faculty and in accordance with discipline-specific accrediting bodies.

Faculty Standards

• Under the supervision of a Dean, each degree program will consist of both resident and adjunct professors.
• A minimum of three resident faculty members who hold the terminal degree are involved in a degree program.
• Adjunct faculty are expected to hold the terminal degree or a minimum of a master’s degree with exceptional expertise in the area of instruction.

Course Standards

• Standards focus on the quality of the experience and the professional growth of the participants.
• Course standards are developed to meet outcome standards for each degree program (e.g., instructor/student contact, individual/group research demands, and field or practicum experiences) used singularly or in combination to establish quality, growth, and competency.

Outcome Standards

The Master of Education (M.Ed.) program is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

The Master of Arts in Counseling (MAC) program is designed to meet regional standards.

_{(Standards approved by the Doane College faculty, April 25, 1996).}