Students who were enrolled in the EEB, MCDB, Genetics, and Microbiology graduate programs at IU Bloomington were invited to participate in this study. Most weeks throughout the 2005 fall semester, participants were asked to respond to questions about graduate education.

Each week's question(s) are listed below, linked to participants' responses.

What do you think might be some of the main things that Biology faculty tend to need, or at least hope to gain, from graduate students? (Week 1)

What sorts of skills would you guess that graduate students in our department tend to care most about working to improve? (Week 2)

What skills do you, yourself, care most about working to improve while in graduate school? (Week 3)

What do you think ought to be some of the main roles of your graduate program? (Week 3)

1. Do you think that graduate students should be encouraged, or at least allowed, to have a say in decisions that are made about what educational and advising opportunities are made available to them as well as in decisions that are made about which of those opportunities they should be required to take advantage of?
2. Do you think that graduate students should be encouraged, or at least allowed, to have a say in decisions that are made about the goals and design of their preliminary examinations? (Week 4)

1. Suppose that each student were involved in deciding the goals and design of his or her own prelim exam.
a. In what way(s), if any, can you imagine that your own education might be harmed by your having this involvement?
b. In what way(s), if any, can you imagine that your own education might benefit from your having this involvement?
2. Suppose that there were no prelim exams.
a. In what way(s), if any, can you imagine that your education might be harmed by your not having any sort of prelim exam?
b. In what way(s), if any, can you imagine that your education might benefit from your not having any sort of prelim exam? (Week 5)

Based on previous responses, it sounds as though the prelim exam can be a very useful educational experience. It also sounds as though there is a perception that students tend to be reluctant to think carefully about their research unless required to do so. With those ideas in mind, I'd like to ask:
1. What does it seem to you are some of the main skills that prelims are meant to help students to improve?
2. What would you guess might be some of the main reasons why students might tend to be reluctant to take time to think carefully about their research projects?
3. How often do you think that students should be required, through an examination, to think carefully about their research projects? Is it sufficient to require them to do so only twice during the whole time that they are in graduate school (i.e., for just their prelim exam and their thesis defense)?
4. If, after completing prelims, a student decides to develop a new research project, should that student be required to take the prelim exam again, to make sure that s/he thinks carefully about the new project? (Weeks 6 and 7)

Most of this week's questions are meant to probe views about what sorts of writing graduate students ought to be required to do.
1. Do you think that each student should be required to design and write at least one manuscript that s/he submits for publication?
2. Do you think that each student should be required to design and write at least one research proposal that s/he submits to a funding agency?
3. Do you think that students should be required to take a course that is meant to help them to design and write manuscripts?
4. Do you think that students should be required to take a course that is meant to help them to design and write research proposals?
5. In general, do you think that it tends to be better to 1) first conduct a good deal of experimental research before trying to design a manuscript that reports results of that research or 2) first design a manuscript before doing much experimental research, so that the design of the manuscript can guide decisions about what sorts of experiments to conduct in the first place? (Week 8)

1a. What do you think ought to be the main roles of departmental presentations that are given by students about their own research? What would you like for such presentations to accomplish? (Who ought to be trying to benefit in what ways from them?)
1b. How often do you think that each student whould be required to give a presentation to the department about his or her own research?
1c. How often do you think that each student should be required to attend such presentations. given by other students?
2a. What do you think ought to be the main roles of departmental presentations that are given by students about other people's research (e.g., journal club presentations)? What would you like for such presentations to accomplish? (Who ought to be trying to benefit in what ways from them?)
2b. How often do you think that each student should be required to give this type of presentation?
2c. How often do you think that each student should be required to attend such presentations, given by other students? (Week 9)

Graduate students and post-docs are sometimes considered to be professor apprentices (who are gaining training to become professors).
1. For which aspects of being a professor does it seem to you that graduate students and post-docs tend to gain the most training?
2. For which aspects of being a professor does it seem to you that graduate students and post-docs tend to gain the least training? (Week 10)

1. Do you think that graduate students who are planning to teach in their future jobs should be encouraged to take courses about teaching and learning?
2. What reasons, if any, can you imagine that faculty might have for not wanting to encourage graduate students to take courses about teaching and learning?
3. Do you think that graduate students who are planning to teach in their future jobs should be allowed and encouraged to design and teach portions of undergraduate courses?
4. What reasons, if any, can you imagine that faculty might have for not wanting to allow and encourage graduate students to design and teach portions of undergraduate courses? (Week 11)

This week's question is meant to probe views about possible roles and responsibilities of graduate students. Here's the question:
How important do you think that each of the following issues ought to be in faculty deliberations about whether or not to allow any student to pass the prelim exam (and so to allow any student to continue on in the Ph.D. program)?
1. Does the student seem to be maturely committed to being in the graduate program? a. Does he seem to have an accurate sense of his current abilities and of his career prospects? b. Has he thought carefully about what exactly he wants to learn during the remainder of his stay in graduate school, and has he planned carefully how we will actually learn those things?
2. Does the student seem to be genuinely and deeply engaged in his research?
3. Does it seem likely that the student will produce enough publishable research data to make up for the money, time, and effort that's going to be invested in him by his advisor and by the department? Or, might that money, time, and effort instead be better spent on other people or things (e.g., on a technician, a post-doc, or supplies and equipment)?
4. If this student seems to be weak in critical-thinking and/or other skills, does it seem likely that he will nevertheless be able to adequately improve those skills during the next few years (perhaps with the help of tutuoring)? (Week 12)

What do you consider to be some of the main roles to society of graduate programs in biology? (Week 13)