What about a "Biological Education PhD."? - (Nov/16/2012 )

Hi "BioCommunity",
i'm starting this topic to ask, of course, for some career advice. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Biology and I completed my Master Degree in Biology and Geology Teaching last year. I'm thinking about going for a PhD program to get some more advanced education but I would like to make a link between Biology and Education since they are two fields that i'm interested in but it seems that, in general, or you take a PhD in Education or a PhD in Biology. I found this particular one in the University of Northern Colorado called "Biological Education PhD." with the following description and program:


Doctoral Program -- Biological Education Ph.D.

This program is designed for graduate students interested in specializing in either biology education or an area of the biological sciences that matches current faculty interests and expertise. Areas of emphasis in this program prepare students to conduct and supervise biological or pedagogical research and to instruct biology courses at the college or university level.

General

The Doctoral program specializes in training biologists to be experts in their disciplines and outstanding college biology teachers. This degree program allows you to choose between an emphasis on the content of your chosen biology specialty or an emphasis on biology pedagogy. Regardless of which emphasis you choose, you will be trained in some of both to give you a rounded skill-set and the expertise to seek a career as an independent scientist, a college biology teacher, or both! For this reason, our Ph.D. degree is awarded in the area of Biological Education. The graduates of our doctoral program have found 100% employment in their fields. Many of our students have multiple job offers even before they graduate. We can do the same for you.

So, now the questions:

Do you think this program is worthy by itself? What do you think of it?


To whom this PhD is good for and, if you know, is there any place else with a similar program?

I'm just confused about the relevance of this PhD to my curricula.

Anything is already a help! Thank you so much!


António

I think the idea is a nice one, however, to some greater or lesser extent, many PhD programs require that you act as a teacher (typically demonstrating labs and tutorials) during the process, so there is already this component to the degree. If you are interested in teaching at a school level, as opposed to university, I think this course would be good (based on the description), but it is unlikely to secure you a faculty position in a university - first off because if you are going to be doing research and teaching, they will employ you based on your research skills largely, and second if you are going for a teaching only position, then you need to be specialized in the topic that you will be teaching already.

Yes, you're probably right. The best option would be following to a Master degree in Life Sciences, then a PhD (since now without a Master is difficult to get into one) and only then, maybe I could get a chance to teach in Universities.

Well, too hard and too late for that. Or maybe I'm just confused about my priorities at this point, i want to believe.

Anyway, thank you so much Bob1! =)