Question: module 8 dq 2 Rachel

The content expert plays an important role for the doctoral student during the writing of their dissertation (Greenberger, 2016). Thus, finding a content expert is an ever-present thought for this researcher. After the first residency, I contacted a content expert who is a leader in STEM education research and was turned down because he had too many graduate students he was working with already. However, he voiced interest in my study and provided me with encouragement that I was pursuing much needed research. In fact, he let me know that once I finished my dissertation he would help me with publication of an article based upon the dissertation. In the meantime, I have been communicating with another well-known researcher regarding self-efficacy of college math students for work-related purposes, and I am considering asking him to be my content expert.

During the first residency, the focus of my research changed somewhat, specifically the scope of research was narrowed, and I realized that as I continued to research my topic that there might be further changes. In fact, at my second residency, the topic was narrowed even further based upon faculty feedback. When I went to the second residency, my goal was to perform a causal-comparative study comparing students from 4-year schools or universities and community colleges. However, the methodologist could not understand how I would compare these groups and asked me to focus on just the community college students. This class has rekindled my desire for a causal-comparative study, but this might need to wait until after my dissertation is complete. Thus, for now my prospectus remains unchanged and I do not anticipate it changing in the near future due to the fact that I keep being reminded to keep the focus very narrow and simple.