The following information will guide you through our Ph.D. in educational psychology program. Once you complete all required coursework, you will complete your candidacy exam, followed by your dissertation.
Schedule a meeting with your program advisor, who will be assigned to you upon acceptance.
At the meeting, you'll discuss key program elements and obtain a Student Advising Form to keep track of requirements. You'll also select courses for your first semester.
Meet at least once each semester with your advisor to select courses. You can take classes part time (one or two courses a semester) or full time (three courses a semester).
If you take two courses a semester, you can complete the coursework in three years. Our coursework rotation can be used for planning purposes:
Toward the end of your coursework, you'll conduct research under the supervision of an internship mentor, whom you'll select in consultation with your advisor.
Your mentor's research and/or research methods should align with your anticipated dissertation research. Your mentor may be outside the department or university.
The internship workload is approximately 10-12 hours per week. One semester (three credit hours) is required, but the internship can be extended to a second semester to fulfill three hours of cognate requirement.
You'll complete your candidacy exam once you've fulfilled coursework requirements.
The semester before your exam, ask a faculty member to serve as chair of your exam committee. This person should also be your intended dissertation chair. Work with them to form your exam committee (two additional members you also intend to have on your dissertation committee).
Submit a Committee Approval or Change Form.
Read candidacy exam tips.
You may enroll in one to three hours of EPS 797 or EPS 799 the semester of your exam.
Prior to week five of the semester, hold a meeting with your committee. At the meeting, or soon after, your committee will finalize two or three exam questions. Your chair will give you a due date (eight weeks after questions are finalized).
Complete your exam and submit it by the due date. Responses to each question average 15 pages in length.
Your committee has two weeks to review your submission and render a decision of pass, rewrite or fail. Your chair will share the committee's feedback and evaluations with you and submit the results to the Graduate School.
If the committee asks for revisions, you'll have one week to revise and resubmit.
If your first attempt at the exam is not successful, you may request a second attempt, the outcome of which is final.
Invite an educational psychology faculty member to serve as your dissertation chair and work with them to select at least three more committee members. Submit a Committee Approval or Change Form.
Plan to meet regularly with your chair to help maintain progress on your dissertation.
There are two dissertation formats:
Learn more about the five-chapter dissertation proposal.
Use your candidacy exam as a starting point for your proposal, the structure of which will be developed in consultation with your chair. It must contain an overview of the problem, a review of relevant literature, a fully developed methods section and a plan for the content of each manuscript.
No later than three weeks in advance, schedule your proposal defense with your committee and share your completed proposal at that time. You are encouraged to schedule this several months in advance.
No later than two weeks in advance, email your full proposal to your committee.
Plan your defense in consultation with your chair and draft your IRB application so it's ready to go once your proposal is approved.
Your 20–25-minute presentation will cover the problem, theoretical framework, background literature, research questions and plans for data collection/analysis. You'll have the opportunity to respond to committee questions/feedback.
Your committee will reach a decision of pass, pass with revisions or fail. In case of pass with revisions or fail, you'll work with your chair to address committee concerns.
Following the successful proposal defense, and after consulting your chair, submit your project for IRB review.
Collect and analyze data following the plan laid out in your proposal. Be sure to schedule regular meetings with your chair to check in on your progress.
For a five-chapter dissertation, writing will primarily consist of completing Chapter 4 (results) and Chapter 5 (discussion), with some edits to Chapters 1-3.
For a three-manuscript dissertation, the final report will consist of three stand-alone manuscripts suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. While not required, you may submit manuscripts for publication prior to your defense, in consultation with your chair and committee.
Consult with the Thesis and Dissertation Office on formatting guidelines.
No later than three weeks in advance, and at least 12 weeks prior to end of semester you intend to graduate, schedule your defense with your committee. You are encouraged to schedule this a couple of months in advance.
No later than three weeks in advance, email your full proposal to your committee.
Submit an Oral Defense Request Form to the Graduate School. Email a pre-defense version of your full dissertation to the Thesis and Dissertation Office.
Plan your presentation for defense in consultation with your chair.
Your 20-25-minute presentation should touch on all aspects of your research while focusing on results and discussion of conclusions and implications. You'll have the opportunity to respond to committee questions/feedback.
Your committee will reach a decision of pass, pass with revisions or fail. In case of pass with revisions or fail, you'll work with your chair to address committee concerns.
Return to Select Dissertation Format step.
Return to Assemble Dissertation Committee step.
Refer to the following outline when planning your five-chapter dissertation for the Ph.D. in educational psychology program.
Establishing the study’s connection to relevant research and theory.
Return to Select Dissertation Format step.
Department of Learning Innovation, Leadership and Technology
Graham 223
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9339
lilt@niu.edu