A Study of PhD Students’ Perspectives Concerning Pedagogic Training in Doctoral Program

Introduction: Many PhD students will continue their academic career as university lecturers; therefore they should be familiar with presentation skills. Most universities around the world offer postgraduate pedagogic courses in their PhD curriculums, while such courses are not included in most Iranian PhD programs. Thus at the Education Development Office of Mashhad Medical School, we offered the pedagogic courses for PhD students and thereafter the viewpoints of these students about such courses in the PhD training programs were assessed. Methods: Thirty two PhD students attended the "pedagogic skills" course held at School of Medicine of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2012. The students were divided in three smaller groups for workshops presented by experts in educational development office. At the end of each workshop, students’ points of view were evaluated using a questionnaire prepared based on Likert rating scale. Results: The majority of respondents (96.87%) have evaluated the importance of pedagogic workshops as high to very high levels. The relationship of the pedagogic training and their future career was assessed as high to very high by 93.75% (p < 0.01). Also, according to most PhD students (93.75%), the addition of such courses to PhD program was highly beneficial (p < 0.01). Students (68.75%) stated that the topics discussed in this pedagogic training were new to them and they agreed to participate in further pedagogic trainings in future (87.5%). Conclusion: The pedagogic courses should be considered of high importance, and accordingly should be included in PhD training curriculums of the universities. This strategy will result in training more successful lecturers and will help to promote education at the universities which is an ultimate goal of the educational systems.