Doctoral and Masters Thesis/Dissertation Coaching
Coaching for doctoral and masters candidates across every stage of research, from research question development and literature review through research design, execution, findings, and defense.
Coaching on Your Own Original Research
This is a coaching program. Candidates do their own original work, and APSI faculty guide them through it, from early framing through the defense.
Regardless of field of study, APSI faculty have coached students across the STEM and liberal-arts fields.
Coaching at Every Stage of the Research Process
APSI coaches candidates through every stage of the thesis and dissertation process.
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Methods
- Experimentation
- Conclusion
- Dissertation and Thesis Defense
Practical, Original-Work Coaching
Cross-referenced against the stages of your research, coaching can include:
- Research question development, including enhanced techniques to narrow your question
- Coaching you to build Chapter 1 as an effective backbone for the rest of your study
- Learning to begin your Chapter 5 while you are still developing your Chapter 2 literature review
- Developing your literature as a conceptual genealogy that captures the full set of factors and variables, using advanced techniques that can shave months to years off your timeline while helping you identify the gap you aim to fill
- Coaching for research methods, including statistical analysis
- Templates that do not detract from the originality of your study
- Presentation coaching for the thesis and dissertation defense, including conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and literature review
- Mock defense panels
Selecting the Right Design
APSI coaches candidates in choosing and executing the right research design, across the three main categories.
Qualitative
In Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, John W. Creswell identifies five major qualitative research approaches. Each serves a distinct purpose, with different philosophical assumptions, data-collection techniques, and reporting structures.
Narrative Research
Studies the lives of individuals by asking them to share stories about their experiences, which the researcher then re-stories into a chronological narrative.
Phenomenology
Describes the lived experiences of individuals surrounding a specific concept or phenomenon, aiming to uncover the fundamental essence of those experiences.
Grounded Theory
Focuses on generating or discovering a general, abstract theory of a process, action, or interaction grounded deeply in the views of the participants.
Ethnography
Investigates an entire cultural or social group in a natural setting over a prolonged period, typically through observation and interviews.
Case Study
Involves an in-depth, detailed exploration of a bounded system, such as a specific program, event, activity, or individual, over time.
Quantitative
Methods
- Experimental
- Quasi-Experimental
- Descriptive
- Correlational
- Longitudinal
Statistical program coaching
- R
- SPSS
- Excel
- and more
Plus statistical analysis coaching to interpret and defend your results.
Mixed Methods
Coaching for mixed-methods designs that combine qualitative and quantitative approaches within a single study, including embedded, exploratory sequential, explanatory sequential, and convergent parallel designs.
Templates for Every Section of the Manuscript
Coaching is supported by templates that carry a candidate through the structure of the manuscript, section by section, so effort goes into the research rather than into working out what each section is supposed to do.
Ensuring Alignment
The problem statement, purpose statement, and research question have to agree with one another before anything downstream will hold together. Coaching treats that alignment as its own step rather than assuming it.
Literature Review
The heaviest chapter, and where the coaching saves the most time.
- How to build an effective conceptual genealogy that lays out the history of your topic and makes the gaps in the literature obvious, along with how your study fills that gap.
- A format that shortens the time needed to identify topical and research gaps your study covers. Candidates save an average of 30 percent, which can be months or more.
- How to begin writing Chapter 5 before the experiment is finished, without smuggling in untested conclusions. Saves an estimated three to five months of writing.
Discuss coaching for your candidates.
Book a consultation to discuss thesis and dissertation coaching, or call APSI directly.