Supervising UG and Taught Masters Projects

1. Supervising UG and Taught Masters Projects Dr. Marita Grimwood

2. Outline Programme • What’s a successful project? • What’s your supervisory style? Recognising it and adapting to students • The perfect project brief • Managing projects & dissertations • Supervisory meetings • The final stages - write-up & assessment • Case study discussion

3. In trios… Imagine a student of yours has just finished their project. How do you know if you’ve done a good job? What kinds of evidence can help you?

4. Possible measures of the effectiveness of supervision • Student satisfaction • Student learning • An interesting project • Good project quality to time ratio • Student’s personal development • Publications for you! • Student progresses to higher degree • Main supervisor’s view

5. Lee – approaches to supervision (2008) 1. Functional – ‘the issue is one of project management’ 2. Enculturation – ‘encouraged to become a member of the disciplinary community’ 3. Critical thinking – ‘student is encouraged to question and analyse their work’ 4. Emancipation – ‘student is encouraged to question and develop themselves’ 5. Developing a quality relationship – ‘student is enthused, inspired and cared for’

6. Factors in determining supervisory style • How you were supervised • The norms of your discipline • Individual factors - personality, background, gender… • Beliefs or philosophy about learning and teaching What are your strengths as a supervisor? What might be areas to think about?

7. Problems in supervision (Dysthe, Samara and Westhrei, 2007) • Student too dependent on the supervisor, lack of ownership of project • Poor personality match between student and supervisor • Balancing supervisor’s authority and student’s independence. • Problems to do with authority and power HOW CAN THESE BE PREVENTED AND/OR MANAGED? NB. Individual supervision is complemented by student colloquia and supervision groups

8. Case study 1. Read the case study and, as a small group, tease out the issues in project supervision raised by it. 2. Using your thoughts, prepare a poster showing everything that students have a right to expect from their project supervision

9. Giving Feedback • Put yourself in the student’s shoes • Start by eliciting from them • Be clear about the positives • Depersonalise the negatives - relate feedback to standards and objectives • Always consider privacy • Make it timely!

10. Cultural sensitivity • Avoid preconceptions – be ready to learn! • Read body language and reactions • Don’t assume a student’s experience is similar to yours… …or to another student from the ‘same’ culture • Be clear about availability and welcoming questions See Manathunga (2011) ‘Moments of transculturation and assimilation: post-colonial explorations of supervision and culture’ Innovations in Education and Teaching International

11. Student expectations • To be supervised • To be given feedback • Supervisor to be available when needed • Supervisor to be friendly and supportive • Supervisor to be knowledgeable • Supervisor to be interested (research and careers) Adapted from “How to get a PhD” Phillips and Pugh

12. Meetings and record keeping Meetings can be used to feed back, motivate, guide, plan, check work or progress, suggest readings and references, monitor safety, develop skills, assess… … so they need planning and record-keeping! (By whom?)

13. Why are PhD students important to taught project supervision? • The time they are able to offer • More approachable than the academic lead of the project The Undergraduate-Postgraduate-Faculty Triad cellbioed 1 December 2010: 543-553.

14. The Perfect Project Brief List 6 features of a perfect project brief. You could think about • Ambition vs. time constraints • Support and expertise available • Skills required • Resources

15. What will you do differently as a result of this session? Think of one key point, before sharing with the group.