Best Practice in Supervisor Feedback to Thesis Writers

Project Summary

This completed project investigated what supervisors and thesis students in New Zealand universities identified as best practice in the feedback that is typically given in three main discipline areas:

• Humanities,
• Sciences / Mathematics, and
• Commerce.

The study used a multi-method approach. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires (with separate questionnaires for supervisors and students), follow-up one-to-one interviews with a sub-set of questionnaire respondents, and samples of written feedback provided by supervisors in drafts of a student’s thesis.

Findings indicated that:

• A wide range of beliefs and practices about feedback are held by supervisors and these are consistent across the disciplines represented in the study.
• Best practice was typically explained as that which is most appropriate for an individual student at the time feedback is provided. Such feedback takes into account student characteristics and the stage that the thesis has reached. Sometimes there was a mismatch between what supervisors said they believed or practised and what the textual feedback revealed.
• How feedback is communicated varies from supervisor to supervisor. Supervisors tend to select direct and indirect feedback strategies according to the focus of the feedback (the areas referred to).
• Supervisors and students recognized the fact that the relationship between them needs to be framed as a partnership of equals.
• From the student perspective, direct or ‘to-the-point’ feedback is easier to understand and act on. It also needs to offer positive and constructive comments when critiques are given.
• Written feedback, followed by face-to-face meetings, is useful in allowing discussion to ‘flesh out’ and clarify points that are made and to help students move forward to the next stage.

Project Team

• Professor John Bitchener (Project Leader), AUT University
• Dr Helen Basturkmen, University of Auckland
• Dr Martin East, Unitec and University of Auckland
• Heather Meyer, AUT University

• Project Funding

  $85,268 GST exc.

  Key Dates

  Project commenced: early 2009.

  The project was completed in 2011.

  Project Outputs

  Final report:

  Bitchener, J., Basturkmen, H., East, M., Meyer, H. Best Practice in Supervisor Feedback to Thesis Students Wellington, New Zealand: Ako Aotearoa

   

  

  Presentation about the project at the Ako Aotearoa Research in Progress Colloquium 2010 (click on ppt image to left)

   

   

   

  Presentation about the project at the Ako Aotearoa Research in Progress Colloquium 2009 (click on ppt image to left)