ADTED588:

The underlying goal of this course is to provide both the support system and the practical suggestions to facilitate the writing of your master's paper and to bring about the successful conclusion of your graduate studies in adult education. This course has been designed to provide not only faculty support for your master's paper, but group support and accountability for your efforts. Past experience with students at this very point in their academic career shows that such support and accountability is crucial. When finally reaching the point where all that remains is the writing of a terminal project for a graduate degree--whether such a project takes the form of a thesis or advanced paper--a significant number of students never finish their studies. Although many factors (alone or in combination) can account for such incompletion, two factors are frequently identified as most significant.

1. For the majority of a student's graduate studies, the need to attend classes or complete assignments typically takes precedence over work and family/personal demands. However, during the period where the student is doing "independent study" on their master's paper and no longer has to go to classes, most find it is much harder to say "no" to such demands. The end result is a lower priority for study and increased likelihood of not finishing a masters degree.
    
2. Much of the Master's Degree in Adult Education Program offered on Penn State's University Park campus is built around collaborative learning activities with other students and frequent personal interactions with a faculty member, similar to our program offered through Penn State's World Campus. The abrupt shift into "isolation" when a learner turns to self-directed study to write a master's paper often creates major problems for the learner. The resource of the group is gone and the accountabilities of fellow classmates and faculty are missing. Within this context the master's paper is easily pushed into the background.

Thus ADTED 588 has been developed to permit several things.

1. Small group interactions that allow for stimulation, motivation, and collaborative learning.
    
2. Close connection with a faculty member to assist as questions arise in the development of the master's paper

The Adult Education Program at Penn State defines the master's paper as a "suitable essay or paper presented at the completion of all required course work." This paper is viewed as evidence that the graduate student "demonstrates the integration of theory and practice in their area of professional interest." Well, there you have it! Any questions?

Obviously the above material, although identifying the broad purposes of a master's paper and the underlying basis for evaluation, does little to clear up the confusion regarding the specifics of such a requirement. So let's look further at the nature of this "culmination requirement" for your M.Ed. in Adult Education.

The Adult Education Program expects the master's paper to provide the student with the opportunity to demonstrate some very specific skills and competencies that we hope will characterize the subsequent professional practice of one of our program graduates. These skills and competencies include:

1. A high level of writing skills.
   Such writing skills prove the student is able to describe serious intellectual and professional experiences adequately in writing. Effective writing skills are critical to effective practice in most professions. It is assumed by agencies in the field that graduates of our program possess such skills.
    
2. The ability to formulate a practice problem/need into a researchable study.
   This skill deals with problem-setting and the ability to situate a practice need in terms that permit a systematic examination of literature and formulation of meaningful interventions and applications. It is the ability of the graduate to see the underlying issues in any practice problem.
    
3. The ability to acquire and analyze information pertinent to the identified problem.
   This skill is linked to the ability to do comprehensive literature reviews in the professional literature base of the field. Such skills enable the graduate to draw upon the current state of knowledge regarding an issue or problem when seeking to understand and resolve practice issues.
    
4. The ability to summarize findings, synthesize the knowledge, and develop meaningful conclusions.
   These skills are central to the development of critical thinking that lies at the heart of the graduate program and competent professional practice.
    
5. The ability to apply conclusions to practice realities.
   This skill is linked to problem solving and intervention--it is intended that the graduate become a problem-solver in professional practice settings.

Looking at these five skills and competencies, the master's paper can be summarized as a tangible product of study and research that provides proof that the graduate student can effectively write, identify problems, research the literature, summarize and synthesize knowledge, and draw conclusions applicable to professional practice needs. The Adult Education Program at Penn State University expects and requires nothing less before it grants the M.Ed. degree.

A typical master's paper will range from 45-60 pages in length (references and appendices not included in this total). Thus the paper will be approximately double the length of a typical research paper you may have written for other courses in our program. The key is to understand that the master's paper is not only a longer paper, but it is also different in its focus. A master's paper is not only a summary of the research literature on a topic, but also involves a linkage to the professional practice setting. This linkage will be examined further in the sections to come.

Actually, a master's paper can take a variety of forms in the process of satisfying the requirements we just covered. Let me quickly say that a master's paper is not necessarily intended to take the form of a formal research project, as would be true of a master's thesis. Furthermore, it is not necessarily intended to take the form of a philosophical or theoretical inquiry. As stated previously, the master's paper is intended to be a graduate level project that shows the graduate student can effectively write, identify problems, research the literature, summarize and synthesize knowledge, and draw conclusions applicable to professional practice needs. The key phrase here is "applicable to professional practice needs." The master's paper is your opportunity to prove you can draw upon the skills learned throughout your formal master's program to address a professional practice problem or need.

When developing a topic for your master's paper, try to aim for three key goals:

1. Aim for practicality.
   The paper is intended to be "used," actually or potentially, in the professional practice setting. Seek a topic that "scratches an itch" in the real world of adult education practice--a topic that addresses an issue you really care about and for which you need answers.
    
2. Aim for applicability.
   The paper is intended to produce a product that is actually useful to the practitioner--a conclusion that bridges formal research into the practice setting. You must not only study a topic, but formulate an application to the practice setting.
    
3. Aim for Sophistication.
   This paper is intended to show that you are able to comprehensively investigate the literature and/or a phenomenon. The investigation is then intended to produce a competent application to the practice setting, an application which reflects professional reasoning and design.

When developing a topic that is practical, applicable, and sophisticated, students have come up with a variety of foci. One of the exciting things about the master's paper is that it creates an opportunity for you to do something truly unique and to make a contribution to our field that is a personal statement of your knowledge, ideology, and critical thinking. Let's now examine a few of the ways previous graduates have addressed the topic issue.

Although the specific topics for a master's paper can vary (as we will see shortly) one component of a master's paper that will be seen in each master's paper is a comprehensive literature review. Unit 2 of this course will address the issue of how to develop such a comprehensive literature review. For now it is enough to understand that every topic chosen for a master's paper will build upon the foundation of a sophisticated review of pertinent literature within the field.

There are three primary forms master's papers can take:

1. A critical review of the literature on a topic with a specific application to the professional practice setting.
2. The development of a professional project.

Each of these is described below.

1. A Critical Review of the Literature

Many master's papers have taken the form of a critical review of the literature on a topic with a specific application to the professional practice setting. The applications can vary widely and have included such things as the development of agency policy, the design of training interventions, and the listing of recommendations for organizational redesign. Perhaps some sample titles will help to show the nature of this form of master's paper.

• "A Critical Review of the Literature on Mentoring and the Design of a Mentoring Workshop For Staff Development in a Literacy Agency"
• "A Critical review of the Literature on Adult Learner Motivation with Recommendations for Student Support Policies in a Community-College Setting"
• "A Critical Review of the Literature on Learning Organizations with Recommendations for HRD Training Priorities in a High Tech Company"

Get the idea? Your role, if you choose this approach for a master's paper, is to decide what issue really makes you "itch" and how answering such an issue could best impact your (and others) practice settings.

2. Development of a Professional Project

Another form of a master's paper is the Development of a Professional Project. This form also requires a critical review of the literature, but the application section of this form of master's paper is linked to an actual professional project. Such an approach can provide a student with the opportunity to "piggyback" the work tied to the master's paper while addressing actual work requirements. Let me give you sample titles that provide some examples of such an approach:

• "The Evaluation of a Work Place Safety Program in a Health Care Environment"
  This topic would involve a review of the literature on evaluation models and work place safety programs, the design of an evaluation process to measure learning outcomes rooted in the literature review, the actual evaluation activity, and the summary of findings.
• "Empowering Retired Adults in a Rural Pennsylvania Community"
  This topic would involve a review of the literature on community-development models and needs of retirement age learners in rural settings, the design of a community-based adult education program to empower and build community among such adults, and an analysis of outcomes from the intervention over a specified period of time.

The bottom line of this discussion is that you should carefully consider the topic and the form of the master's paper. Take your time and be sure you are doing something that will hold your interest and remain a priority over the next several months.

It is now time to begin to develop your proposal for the master's paper. Below is an outline of the form the fully-developed master's paper proposal will take. As a first step to developing this proposal, it will be necessary to work in your research/project proposal development group.

1. Proposed master's paper topic: In a one or two sentences (50 words) state the essence of the issue and the form of paper (refer back to the previous page) you are planning to produce.
    
2. Expanded master's paper proposal: Take the topic you identified and expand your discussion of that topic. Fully develop the following questions in 1000 to 1200 words:
   • What are the purposes of this proposed study?
   • Why do you think this topic is important?
   • How do you anticipate this study will benefit you and the field?
   • What research/professional literature topics are you likely to search to better understand the current state of knowledge of issues linked to your topic?
   • How, specifically, do you intend to be applying your findings?
   • At this point, what do you believe your research/project will reveal?
      
3. Draft title for master's paper: Based upon the proposal, formulate a working title for your master's paper that clearly identifies the topic and applications. Your final title is likely to be a modification of this initial working title.

There are four different ways in which the process of getting your proposal approved and completing your master’s paper can progress when you take this course. These are detailed below.

1) For those who start the course with a good idea of their topic, who have done some preliminary work on the topic (for example, written papers for other courses, done a literature search for an annotated bibliography, and/or collected and read articles on the topic), AND who have a lot of time to devote to the project, it may be possible to complete the paper and graduate in the semester you take ADTED 588. However, this necessitates having your paper finished (or at least close enough that your faculty reader is confident that it will be finished) and signed more than a month before the end of the semester, since the Graduate School requires that amount of notice about who has met the requirements for graduation. Because this is a difficult requirement for most students to meet, it’s unusual for students to graduate in the same semester in which they take ADTED 588.

2) Even having done some preliminary work, it often takes the entire 16 weeks to write the paper and get it approved by your faculty reader. In this case, although you would be finished with your course work and graduation requirements, you wouldn't be eligible to graduate in that semester because of the required notice to the Graduate School, noted in number 1, above. You would instead be eligible to graduate at the end of the next semester. (In this case, the Adult Education Program can provide you with documentation that you have met all the requirements for graduation as soon as your paper is approved. Some employers require this for reimbursement.)

3) Some students are able to identify their topic, do their literature search and review, and get a strong draft to their faculty member by the end of the semester in which they take 588, but don't have time to make the required revisions (and you should expect several rounds of revisions) by the end of the 16 week semester. In that case, you would not need to register for any further credits, but you would continue to work with your faculty reader during the next semester, revising your paper until your reader approves it. You would then graduate in this second semester (unless your revisions took too long to allow you to meet the Graduate School notification deadline for the semester).

4) Finally, still other students do not make adequate progress during the semester in which they take 588. If you are unable to get a complete draft of your paper to your faculty reader during that semester, or if your reader determines at the end of the semester that your paper still needs very significant work, you will need to register for ADTED 596 (Independent Study) during the semester following that in which you took 588. This requirement reflects the close direction and interaction that you will still need from your faculty reader in order to successfully complete this requirement for your degree.

As noted in the syllabus, students unable to finish the work on the master's paper within the 16 weeks of ADTED 588 (Scenarios 3 and 4, above) will be given a "R" grade--"R" standing for "research." The "R" grade will be changed to a letter grade upon submission of an acceptable master's paper. Please consider that the likelihood of successfully finishing a master's paper drops with each week that passes beyond the end of the formal ADTED 588 course, since other demands can begin to "crowd out" your work on the paper. Thus do NOT look at the "R" grade as an option to take a slow pace to finish the paper--that is simply too risky. Rather, if you need the "R" grade, use it to gain a few weeks (or a month or two at most) to finish your work.

REMEMBER: If you focus your efforts and stay on task, each of you should be able to finish (or nearly finish) your paper by the end of this 16-week period.