This is an orientation for new graduate students on the changes in the research tools between when I started graduate school in 1975 and 2009. I also talk about the primary skills that are essential that haven't changed.

1. What is Graduate School All About?

2. A Perspective from 1975

3. University of Texas at Austin

4. Austin– Capital of Texas

5. Armadillo WorldHeadquarters

6. Registration-- 1975

7. “…the not-so-secret secret of becoming an expert is deliberative practice– working hard at a task in a focused, deliberative, and reflective way.” Robert Sternberg, 2004, Psychology 101 ½

9. Research Methods/Statistics

10. Content Courses

12. Content—reading about development More theory, Piaget, Piaget, Piaget….. A little Vygotsky, more Piaget, and American Piagetians.

13. Methods & Statistics Campbell & Stanley- The “Bible” of Methods Analysis of Variance, Multiple Regression

14. Transitioning from Student to Scientist

15. “….faculty members want to show you how to do research and scholarship. They want to prepare you for an academic or other research-oriented career. They know that no one is ever going to pay you to sit in a classroom, take notes, and score well on exams. They expect you to …draw your self-esteem not from being a student but from being a researcher and scholar.” Charles Lord, The compleat academic, 2004.

16. Research Tools

17. Research Abstracts

18. Reference Lists

19. Enduring research skills Finding, Recording, Organizing, and Critiquing research literature

20. Document Tools

21. Data Analysis Tools

22. SPSS– 2nd edition, 1975

23. Qualitative Data Analysis--1980 Qualitative data analysis was very uncommon in psychology programs in the 1970s.

25. Read the “results” sections of papers

26. Ask to write the “results” sections of papers

28. Learn to Write

29. #1 reason why most junior faculty struggle with writing. “They did not learn how to write with fluency and constancy in graduate school. Instead, most worked on proposals and dissertations erratically and painfully, often procrastinating their writing far longer than they imagined possible.” Robert Boice, Advice for new faculty members, 2000.

30. “You become an expert writer by writing a lot, and by working to improve you writing while you are doing it.” Robert Sternberg, 2004, Psychology 101 ½

31. Research Assistantship

32. Research Assistantship Tasks Data Collection Data Management Supervision of other students Working in teams Workflow management and Learning to think like a scientist

34. How to compose and deliver a lecture

35. How to compose and deliver any presentation

36. How to grade

37. How to foster a class discussion

38. How to manage students

39. Self-confidence in front of an audience

41. My own research

42. Create your own learning opportunities. Audit a course Read all the course readings Volunteer to work on extra research projects Explore faculty across campus

44. Learn about newest findings

45. Meet potential employers

46. Meet other graduate students

48. Dissertation--1980