6.6 THE PROSPECTUS HEARING
6.6.1 GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE HEARING AND PRESENTATION
The oral defense of the prospectus is an open hearing that includes the student, the dissertation committee, student colleagues, and other Capital faculty. During open hearings, students take 10 minutes to present the rationale for the study and describe the proposed research design. This presentation is then followed by an approximate 75-minute dialogue with the dissertation committee and others attending the open hearing. The purpose of this dialogue is to help students refine, delimit, and/or clarify the research design.
The prospectus defense hearing will normally include the use of a PowerPoint slideshow. The style of the presentation is formal (business formal dress) and professional (quality of presentation materials).
6.6.2 PRESENTATION CONTENT
The prospectus presentation must consist of the following content common to all research designs, appearing in the following order:
- Dissertation Title (15-17 words maximum) followed by the Research Purpose Statement or Research Thesis as appropriate to the research design
- Delimitations of the Study
- Research Questions, Hypotheses, or Focus Statements as appropriate to the research design
- Terminology
- Research Assumptions
- Abbreviated reference list of the most significant literature to the research design, both theologically and educationally-correct citation format required
- Population and Sample
- Delimitations of the Sample and Limitations of Generalization
- Synopsis of the Research Process
- Proposed Instrumentation and Protocols
- Proposed Statistical Measures and Data Displays
- Value of Conducting the Research (anticipated contribution to the literature of the field)
The dissertation committee will recommend necessary changes to the prospectus and/or the research design during the hearing. The student and others in the room will be dismissed at the conclusion of the hearing so that the dissertation committee can determine that the student has passed or failed the prospectus defense hearing and to recommend future steps.
Doctoral students are required to record the open hearing in order to free themselves to interact with the dissertation committee rather than focusing on taking notes on changes to the research design made during the hearing.