PhD education in science: Producing the scientific mindset in biomedical sciences

The increasing number of PhD students, and the interest in research and knowledge production as a significant factor in innovation in post-industrial economies, have led to greater interest in ensuring that doctoral education is of high quality and relevant to contemporary needs (Denholm and Evans, 2007; Enders, 2004). Tensions are evident, however, as those responsible for doctoral education face competing pressures: to broaden the curriculum; to prepare students for variable career outcomes; and to do so more efficiently, that is within reduced timeframes. In this chapter we argue that these tensions can best be addressed in science doctoral education by focusing on both a doctoral curriculum and pedagogical practices that recognise the need for producing doctoral graduates who have the higher order skills of analysis and ability to make a scientific assessment of data and do this creatively, an approach which constitutes a scientific mindset. Graduates with a scientific mindset have the capacity for independence and innovation in research. They can identify and formulate responses to novel and complex questions and problems. This is in contrast to a ‘super-technician’ who is technically proficient but has limited capacity to initiate significant research activity. It is the former who are better equipped to adapt to varying work contexts inside and outside academia.