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CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION, AND PEDAGOGY article

Front. Educ.
Sec. STEM Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1474588
This article is part of the Research Topic Building Tomorrow’s Biomedical Workforce: Evaluation of How Evidence-Based Training Programs Align Skill Development and Career Awareness with a Broad Array of Professions View all 12 articles

A New Paradigm in PhD Education: Mapping & Integrating Psychosocial Competencies to the PhD Curriculum

Provisionally accepted
Diane A. Safer Diane A. Safer 1*Victoria H Freedman Victoria H Freedman 1Art Markman Art Markman 2
  • 1 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, United States
  • 2 The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The development of a PhD student into a professional requires intellectual, technical, and psychosocial competencies. Verderame et al. (2018) proposed 10 core competencies "crucial to prepare PhDs for future success, no matter the field or occupation they ultimately choose." Half of these involve technical competencies, which can be developed through classes, from Hands-on experiential learning, and with guidance from mentors. The remaining half involve psychosocial competencies, which may not be explicitly covered within the framework of a guided mentorship.Here we suggest that the graduate school curriculum can play a vital role in teaching and developing these psychosocial competencies through training that involves honing foundational life skills, including students' motivational-organizational, self-regulation, and social-relational skills. This paper will provide an example of how psychosocial competencies were incorporated into the curriculum at distinct stages of PhD training at one institution.

    Keywords: compentency1, psychosocial2, curriculum3, PhD4, graduate5, Training6

    Received: 01 Aug 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Safer, Freedman and Markman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Diane A. Safer, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.