The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in beginning doctoral students’ perceptions of the disciplinary knowledge required to be successful in doctoral education and identify pre-doctoral characteristics and experiences that explain these differences.,This study relied on survey data of first-year PhD students enrolled at a large, research-intensive university. Survey responses were matched to institutional information, missing data were imputed and responses were weighted to account for groups’ differential probabilities of being included in the analytical sample. The authors used regression analysis to examine the relationship between students’ background characteristics, anticipatory socialization experiences, academic performance and perceived levels of disciplinary knowledge.,The study findings indicated significant differences in doctoral students’ perceived levels of disciplinary knowledge. Students who identify as female or URM had significantly lower levels of perceived disciplinary knowledge than students who identify as male or non-URM. Moreover, several anticipatory socialization experiences were significantly and positively related to perceived disciplinary knowledge.,While there is evidence that doctoral students start graduate school with varying identities and experiences, little is known about how students perceive their abilities and knowledge. This study reported that students differ in their self-assessment of disciplinary knowledge as they embark on doctoral work with implications for academic identity development and student success.

中文翻译：

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新博士生对学科知识的认知差异

这项研究的目的是检验博士生对成功进行博士教育所需的学科知识的理解是否存在差异，并确定能够解释这些差异的博士前特征和经验。一年级博士生就读于大型的研究型大学。将调查回复与机构信息相匹配，对缺失的数据进行估算，并对回答进行加权以说明各组被包括在分析样本中的不同概率。作者使用回归分析研究了学生的背景特征，预期的社会化经历，学业成绩和学科知识水平之间的关系。研究结果表明，博士生对学科知识的感知水平存在显着差异。识别为女性或URM的学生所掌握的学科知识水平明显低于识别为男性或非URM的学生。此外，一些预期的社会化经历与感知的学科知识显着正相关。尽管有证据表明博士生以不同的身份和经历开始研究生院，但对学生如何看待自己的能力和知识知之甚少。这项研究报告说，学生在从事博士工作时对学科知识的自我评估存在差异，这对学历发展和学生成功具有影响。