Study Objective/Motivational Statement (Example)

I am really interested in applying for the Fulbright Presidential Scholarship Program to pursue Ph.D. degree in the United States for two reasons. First, as an English lecturer in an Indonesian university, I really would like to improve my students’ critical thinking skills which are still insufficient for a dynamic academic life in university. I often find my students unwilling to exchange ideas critically and tend to accept ideas without evaluating them properly. Secondly, as a regional English trainer in East Java, I plan to disseminate elements of critical thinking to my trainees, especially English teachers at secondary schools, so that they can apply the critical thinking elements in their English classes. To achieve those two purposes, I believe taking a Ph.D. program in TEFL with the specialization of critical thinking in an American university would be the best decision since academic atmosphere and people in USA have got used to high level of critical thinking and have applied them in their daily life for long time.

Choosing TEFL in the area of critical thinking for my Ph.D. degree is really suitable with my educational background.  I got both B.Ed. and the first M.Ed. in English Language Education from Islamic University of Malang, Indonesia. Then, I obtained another M.Ed. in TESOL from Monash University, Australia and got an international teaching Certificate of ESOL Course from Cambridge University, England. In addition, both of my theses in undergraduate and master degrees were in the in the area of argumentation analysis – a research field which is much related to critical thinking.

In relation to my future objectives, by joining the Ph.D. course in the United States, I will get a valuable knowledge that I can use to develop human resources in my institution and region. The knowledge I received will potentially give positive impacts to my university students and my trainees in East Java in the form of transferring knowledge, fostering cross-cultural understanding, and applying critical thinking elements in their daily life, particularly in classroom situations. Consequently, they will have a positive thought on critical thinking and be more critical, reasonable, reflective, and evaluative to judge the validity and reliability of any ideas presented to them.

Finally, focusing on TEFL in critical thinking fits with my future steps of regional community development. First, I plan to include the notion of critical thinking in training sessions of leaderships for new cadres in Nahdlatul Ulama, an Islamic NGO in which I have been active for years. I will also disseminate the knowledge to my local people in the form of discussions and workshops. Then, I plan to conduct further research and write articles related to critical thinking for mass media and academic journals. I believe these efforts will spread out the notion of critical thinking and influence Indonesian people’s way of thinking significantly.

Malang, 17 August 2007

Rizha Romanza, M.Ed.
NIP. 19701007 199007 1 007