Survey of course curricula of graduate programs in social and administrative sciences

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Summer 1998 by Barner, Jamie C, Desikan, Radhika, Plake, Kimberly S, Purkerson, Dana L, Et al

This paper describes survey results of current social and administrative pharmaceutical science graduate programs conducted by a group of senior graduate students in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Purdue University. The project provided an "environmental scan" of coursework in these programs and served as the basis for designing an advanced research methods course for future graduate students in the Department. The survey was developed after it was determined that knowledge of coursework of similar graduate programs would be helpful in the creation of Purdue's course. This project also served to fulfill a charge of the 1995-96 AACP Social and Administrative Sciences Section Graduate Standards Committee to conduct a survey of graduate program coursework emphasis areas7.

The purpose of this project was to provide an overview of graduate program subject and content areas for students majoring in social and administrative sciences. Specific objectives of the project included:

1. determine core/required courses for students majoring in social and administrative sciences;

2. determine the specific amount of emphasis graduate programs place upon specific subject areas;

3. determine where and how students obtain knowledge of specific methodology and statistics content areas;

4. determine importance to the graduate program and the level of preparation provided by the graduate program in specific content areas; and

5. compare Master's and Doctoral students' responses on the aforementioned areas.

METHODOLOGY

To gather information about social and administrative sciences programs in colleges of pharmacy, two surveys were developed.

Graduate Student Survey

This survey focused on graduate students perceptions of their graduate programs. It consisted of four sections with questions related to: (i) core/required courses; (ii) content areas; (iii) graduate seminar; and (iv) demographics. In the core/required course sections, students were asked if their program had a core/required course curriculum. If the response was yes, they were asked about the subject areas included in the core/required course curriculum and where the courses were taken (i.e., within or outside department or division). In addition, students were asked to indicate the amount of emphasis placed upon each subject area in their program using the following scale: 1 = none, 2 = slight, 3 = moderate, 4 = strong, 5 = very strong. Subject areas for inclusion on the instrument were identified through the use of the AACP Roster of Graduate Programs and investigator knowledge of various social and administrative sciences curricula. After the initial list of subject areas was identified, the list was reviewed and amended.

For the content areas section, students were surveyed about whether they had taken or will enroll in specific methodology and statistics content areas (e.g., descriptive, regression). They were also asked whether these courses were/will be taken within or outside the department or division. The selection process of content areas was consistent with the subject areas selection process. Students were to indicate if they had obtained knowledge in the content areas through coursework and/or practical experience. In addition, students were asked to estimate the percent of their graduate courses typically taken outside the department or division of social and administrative sciences. The final portion of the content areas section included questions on the students' perceptions of the current importance and the level of preparation provided by the graduate programs in these content areas.