Supervising UG and Taught Masters Projects

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

2. Key learning outcomes • To be able to identify and adapt your supervisory style • To be able to design, critique and/or modify an effective project brief • To identify and pre-empt issues in managing projects & dissertations

3. In trios… Imagine a student of yours has just finished their project. How many ways can you think of to evaluate your success as a supervisor?

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. Approaches to supervision 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’ Lee (2008) ‘How are doctoral students supervised?’ Studies in Higher Education 33:3, 267-281)

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 YOUR ROLE BE HELPFUL HERE?

8. 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.

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. 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

13. 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?)

14. 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 with bullet points showing what students have a right to expect of supervision

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