Currently, there are active conversations about the importance of higher education in a person’s life. Getting a doctorate is not only a guarantee of getting a good job with a stable and decent income. In addition, it significantly improves the process of cognition of people, allowing them to expand their knowledge. In addition, getting a higher education helps to enhance the thinking process, opening the boundaries of human consciousness. In the article Role of doctoral education in shaping minds and thinking: reflection on my doctoral education at Case Western Reserve University, Al-Adeem raises the issue about how a doctoral degree can be useful and emphasize such a quality as wisdom in a person.
The author of the article considers the importance of obtaining a doctorate in accounting and how it can assist in the formation of a person’s mind and thoughts. Many other studies also emphasize the value of doctoral education as an excellent source for personal development and the acquisition of new experiences (McCulloch, 2021; Shin et al., 2018).The first argument considered for such an impact is the teacher’s influence on people. It is impossible not to agree with the opinion that students are directly and indirectly influenced by a person with great knowledge and wisdom. This subconsciously motivates them to work harder to achieve the same level of knowledge. Moreover, a person with a higher education not only knows a lot of useful and necessary information, but can also be an excellent conversationalist and an excellent professional of the chosen business.
Then, the author raises the problem of the crisis of accounting education in the United States of America. Even though, Pincus et al. (2017, p. 1) write that “enrollments are up” there is still a problem in shortage of accounting students. Roos et al. (2021, p. 212) state that “dropout rates among doctoral students are high and the amount of time needed to complete studies successfully is relatively long”. This argument is convincing because many people are psychologically unable to cope with all the difficulties that occur during training (Ching et al., 2021). Many people experience extreme stress, but it is one of the driving forces that can awaken brain activity (Vogel et al., 2018; Henriksen et al., 2017; Bengtsen, 2021). It should be noted that this problem is quite difficult to deal with, however, with a sufficient level of motivation and desire, it can be solved fairly easily.
Moreover, going through difficulties and understanding how to behave in such difficult situations expands thinking and can inspire a person to share their knowledge. Al-Adeem (2017, p.500) highlights that “accounting doctoral programs graduates are supervised and trained by elites and may prefer to launch doctoral programs so that others will have the opportunity to further their education in accounting”. Essential aspects that a student can learn during obtaining a doctorate can be the utility of measurements and an empirical worldview. Moreover, they gain information about knowledge of generalizing types and the need to refer to past experience when learning something new.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the importance of doctoral education plays an important role and is invaluable in the development of personality, thoughts, and thinking of a person. First of all, this is due to the fact that training involves higher mental functions of a person. It is worth mentioning that many people note the positive impact of obtaining a doctorate in terms of acquiring new knowledge, acquaintances and valuable experience. Thus, this article is a well-founded work with reasonable arguments arising from each other and has no significant drawbacks.
In addition, thinking and the ability to perceive and process knowledge are significantly improved in stressful situations. It is during training that people experience stress due to lack of time, resources for work or desire. At such moments, the human brain is especially susceptible to new knowledge. In addition, as mentioned in the article under study, motivation on the part of teachers and mentors, who want to imitate even on a subconscious level, plays a critical role.
References
Al-Adeem, K. (2017). ‘Role of doctoral education in shaping minds and thinking: reflection on my doctoral education at Case Western Reserve University’, International Journal of Critical Accounting, 9(5/6), pp. 494-513.
Bengtsen, S. (2021). ‘Agency in doctoral education: Towards Graduate School cohesion and a heightened societal awareness’, The Future of Doctoral Research, pp. 18-27.
Ching, G. S., Hu, Y. L., and Roberts, A. (2021). ‘The part and parcel of doctoral education: A gap analysis between the importance and satisfaction of the experience’, Education Sciences, 11(9), 481.
Henriksen, D., Richardson, C., and Mehta, R. (2017). ‘Design thinking: A creative approach to educational problems of practice’, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 26, pp. 140-153.
McCulloch, A. (2021). ‘Serendipity in doctoral education: the importance of chance and the prepared mind in the PhD’, Journal of Further and Higher Education, pp. 1-14.
Pincus, K. V. et al. (2017). ‘Forces for change in higher education and implications for the accounting academy’, Journal of Accounting Education, 40, pp. 1-18.
Roos, L., Löfström, E., and Remmik, M. (2021). Individual and structural challenges in doctoral education: An ethical perspective.International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 16, pp. 211-236.
Shin, J. C., Kehm, B. M., and Jones, G. A. (2018). Doctoral Education for the Knowledge Society. Cham: Springer.
Vogel, S., Kluen, L. M., Fernández, G., & Schwabe, L. (2018). ‘Stress affects the neural ensemble for integrating new information and prior knowledge’, Neuroimage, 173, pp. 176-187.