Dear Colleagues! In your opinion, how possible (and justified) is the implementation of the concept of Life Long Learning in the academic field by preparing and defending a second (third, etc.) doctoral dissertation in a new direction for a scientist? Do you know and can you give examples of such a scientific career development?
I want to share this aula de mayores
https://www.upo.es/aula-mayores/
Hi!
I do not associate the term Life-long-learning with any general right for an academic to do a series of doctoral dissertations in various directions. A doctoral students education and support is a big investment for the state/the taxpayers, the university and the individual. To reach a PhD level is for an individual to be recognised for the ability to really both learn and create new knowledge on ones own.
Then other students should get the possibility to PhD studies. There is possibility to change directions of interest in research anyway.
I don’t want to criticise people who have double PhDs, but to create new possibilities for academics to make a number of dissertations in different subjects is probably not an ideal use of resources.
In the field of medicine, lifelong learning is well-established as a core concept. At McMaster Medical School where I trained, this was taken to the point that it is the shortest medical curriculum in the world - at 3 years - and the emphasis is on learning problem-solving skills and approaches to biomedical problems rather than temporary solutions.
In psychiatry, lifelong learning is embraced as Continuing Medical Education and is encouraged or required by hospitals, licensing bodies, and most professional organizations in order to maintain one's license to practice or certification in a specialty or subspecialty.
Certainly for those professions that are considered practices, the concept of lifelong learning is essential. Anything that requires a practice requires endless adaptations and new solutions to problems old and new.
Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Psychology
- Attitude