Preparing doctoral candidates for the viva: issues for students and supervisors

The PhD viva has been described as mysterious (Burnham 1994 Burnham, P. 1994. Surviving the doctoral viva: Unravelling the mystery of the Ph.D. oral. Journal of Graduate Education, 1: 30–34.  [Google Scholar]; Morley et al. 2002 Morley, L., Leonard, D. and David, M. 2002. Variations in vivas: Quality and equality in British PhD assessments. Studies in Higher Education, 27(3): 263–273. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), unpredictable (Rugg & Petre 2004 Rugg, G. and Petre, M. 2004. The unwritten rules of PhD research, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]) and potentially frightening for students (Delamont et al. 2004 Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. and Parry, O. 2004. Supervising the doctorate: A guide to success, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]), with its form and duration a function of the predilections of individual examiners as well as a function of differences across disciplines. Despite its myriad manifestations, the PhD viva voce (live voice), as oral examination of the doctoral thesis, constitutes the final ‘test’ of the PhD endeavour. In the UK, this is a private event, though in some countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, the viva is conducted in a public arena (Delamont et al. 2004 Delamont, S., Atkinson, P. and Parry, O. 2004. Supervising the doctorate: A guide to success, Maidenhead: Open University Press.  [Google Scholar]). Although there is no standard or prescribed format, students across all disciplines can expect to defend their thesis through a process involving questioning, clarification and discussion of key elements. This critical commentary discusses a number of issues that inform the preparation of students, focusing on the role of the internal and external examiner, the viva voce process, guidance for students and some practical suggestions for supervisors and students, particularly the value of full role-play in building students’ confidence. The extent to which the doctoral viva, in its current ‘secret’ form, can be seen as a fully accountable and independently rigorous process is taken up in the conclusion that highlights the phenomenon of ‘cosy’ reciprocal examining arrangements, the spectre of litigation when things go wrong and the need to consider a fundamental review of both the purpose and conduct of the viva.     

Psychological health of doctoral candidates,study-related challenges and perceived performance

Psychological distress is prevalent in doctoral degree training and affects students' completion time. It is crucial to monitor the amount of distress experienced and understand the causes for it to inform the type of support most needed. This mixed method study explored challenges related to candidature, self-reported progress and measures of perceived and actual psychological distress with a convenience sample of 81 doctoral candidates in an Australian university. Using validated survey instruments, participants reported higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress than age-matched general population normative data. Additionally, those who self-reported being behind or exceeding their study schedule had significantly higher scores for depression, anxiety and stress than those who reported they were meeting schedule. Conversely, stage of candidature did not affect any of these attribute scores. The responses to open-ended questions about challenges associated with doctoral study were coded and explored with an existing typology. The most frequent challenge reported in doctoral study is related to the development of generic skills, followed by management of self, including motivation. Given that not all challenges could be included in the existing typology, we recommend expansion to the typology.     

教育叙事研究的理想追求与现实困境

随着叙事研究逐渐透入教育研究领域,体悟教育生活、反思教育过程、沟通理论与实践成为教育叙事研究的理想追求.然而我国的教育叙事研究在发展的过程中面临着叙事主体单一化、叙事视野狭窄化、叙事体悟肤浅化、叙事形式模式化等现实困境.转变传统思维方式、扩大学术视野是走出困境的关键,寻求叙事研究本真、确立基本定位则是走出困境的根本.     

Trust: the power that binds in team supervision of doctoral students

Team supervision of doctoral students adds new dimensions and complexities to relationships within the teams that impact functionality of the team. Trust emerged as a significant theme in recent qualitative research into the quality of team supervision of doctoral students. Trust was cited as a key component in successful team collaborations, and the missing component in dysfunctional teams. Definitions refer to trust as the belief of truthfulness, reliability or faith in another person’s abilities. My hypothesis is that trust operates as a form of power in team supervision. It is a form of power that enables voice, resilience and creativity in teams. This article concludes that placing trust in others in supervisory teams is a deliberate decision by candidates and supervisors. It is a decision to engage in a team context despite known risks and may be understood as a gamble on the reliability of others in the expectation of reciprocity. By conceptualising trust as a form of power, strategies that engender and maintain trust may be utilised more intentionally.     

提高认识、强化管理,进一步提升化学专业本科毕业论文质量

本科毕业论文质量关系着高等学校的人才培养质量和学生的专业综合素质水平,也是衡量教学管理水平的重要依据.本文从商丘师范学院化学专业本科毕业论文的现状及在具体实施环节中存在的主要问题入手,结合本专业自身特点,探讨了进一步提高本专业毕业论文整体质量与学术水平的若干有效措施.     

African international doctoral students in New Zealand: Englishes,doctoral writing and intercultural supervision

While the experiences of international doctoral students, especially those from Asian countries, have been well researched, fewer studies have explored the experiences of African students in Southern countries like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article reports on doctoral writing and student and supervisor perspectives on English languages in a small study of supervisors and African students in New Zealand. It challenges deficit constructions of African students and illustrates how the growing internationalisation of higher education is adding to the complexities of doctoral writing, raising questions as to how students and supervisors recognise and navigate differences in Englishes and doctoral writing. It makes a number of recommendations about how supervisors might work effectively with African and other doctoral students.     

浅析实验选题与本科毕业论文质量的提高——以地理科学专业为例

本科毕业论文是高校授予毕业生学位的重要依据之一,提高本科生毕业论文质量对提高本科生的教学和实践能力均具有重要意义。在地理科学专业本科生毕业论文选题中增加实验内容的选题,通过野外和室内实验数据整理、分析和总结,有助于培养学生分析及解决实际问题的能力,同时避免了毕业论文内容空泛和创新点不足等问题,也有助于促进教师科研课题的开展和实验室的建设,对提高本科生毕业论文质量有实质性的帮助。     

Into the academy: preparing and mentoring international doctoral students

This qualitative case study was an examination of a team-based faculty/mentor-led International Doctoral Student Support Group (IDSSG) designed specifically around issues in preparing and mentoring international doctoral students for careers in academia. Twelve participants were selected to participate in a support/focus group that met twice a month for an academic year to attend workshops and discuss their lives as doctoral students. The data set was comprised of two pre- and post-surveys and two in-depth pre- and post-interviews. Findings in the themes of international doctoral students’ graduate school experiences and the impact of the faculty-led support group are presented and discussed.

Student and faculty attributions of attrition in high and low-completing doctoral programs in the United States

Sixty doctoral students and 34 faculty members were interviewed in departments identified as having high and low doctoral student completion rates at one institution in the United States in order to examine the cultural contexts and structures that facilitate or hinder doctoral student completion. This paper outlines the differences in understandings of doctoral student attrition by role and by department using attribution theory. Implications for policy, practice, and further research are included.     

本科生毕业论文设计中的问题与对策思考

本科毕业论文是本科生四年专业学习的综合展示,也是本科生科学实践的初步尝试过程,同时也是衡量高校教学质量的重要环节。本文对本科毕业论文设计和实践中存在的一些问题和不足进行总结,并提出了一些应对措施。     

Seeing red: poetry and metaphor as responses to representational challenges in critical narrative research

Research with young people who ‘do not fit the mould’ requires innovative and unconventional methods, but what are the implications of such methods for scholarly representation? This paper reports on the development of such a method with students diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and offers one view of the borderland spaces and tensions between critical theory and narrative inquiry. In particular, the paper defines the methodology that underpins the ‘critical cover narratives’ method, describes the application of this approach within a doctoral study, and identifies resultant issues of representation when combining narrative and critical approaches. The paper then details the use of a tapestry metaphor to reconcile these issues. The central premise of the paper is that differing methods produce different knowledge, which demands different forms of representation. In making this case, the paper discusses the importance of a balance between the epistemological and aesthetic within scholarly representations of narrative inquiry.     

The secret between storytelling and retelling: tea,school, & narrative

In this paper, I will tell two of my personal stories to try to explore the secret or opaque space between the original telling and retelling of stories in narrative inquiry. Based upon my difficult struggles with the two stories of tea, school, and narrative, I suggest that narrative inquiry has to be a complex loop of relationship, reflexivity, responsibility, and recursion.     

Handling the loss of innocence: first-time exchange of writing and feedback in doctoral supervision

ABSTRACT

The first time of many significant encounters is the most intense, raising awkwardness, anxiety and hope. This article presents data from doctoral students (n?=?80) who described the first time that they submitted writing to their supervisor and received feedback. The first writing/feedback exchange is an initiation into the cultures of academia. Student accounts captured the intensity of the initiation for students, excitement or dread on submitting writing, with increased emotional reaction when going through the feedback process, that liminal first time. Close focus on the first-time writing feedback exchange makes a contribution to the literature on the social interactions of doctoral writing. Data backs our argument that students and supervisors need to carefully manage the first-time exchange of writing. Our findings are analysed thematically and through an autoethnographic lens of the lead author, who was both a research assistant for the research survey and an international doctoral student experiencing the same processes in his cross-disciplinary joint doctorate. We draw on conceptual threshold-crossing theories established in regard to doctoral learning.     

英语专业毕业论文写作的问题及对策

英语毕业论文是每个本科生在毕业之前最重要的一项学习任务。通过对2004届英语专业学生毕业论文选题以及在撰写过程中出现有关选题、英文写作、格式规范、外文资料不足等问题的分析和探讨,提出了加强思想教育、建立健全的管理体系、加强论文撰写各个环节的指导和外文图书资料建设等一些富有建设性的对策。     

Unexpected self-expression and the limits of narrative inquiry: exploring unconscious dynamics in a community-based digital storytelling workshop

In parallel with many nations’ education policies, national education policies in Australia seek to foster students’ intercultural understanding. Due to Australia’s location in the Asia-Pacific region, the Australian government has focused on students becoming “Asia literate” to support Australia’s economic and cultural engagement with Asian countries. Drawing on Allport’s optimal contact principles and key factors supporting intercultural understanding, this study examines two “sister school” cultural immersion trips in Indonesia and East Timor to explore ways in which their different approaches supported positive intergroup contact and helped foster intercultural understanding among students. Focus groups and interviews with school project teams and analysis of both researcher and teacher project field notes and documents suggested that these schools’ programmes could be mapped onto Allport’s contact principles in different ways. The paper concludes with promising approaches that can help to inform sister school programmes.     

Growth and diversity in doctoral education: assessing the Australian experience

The major growth of doctoral education in recent decades has attracted attention from policy makers and researchers. In this article we explore the growth of doctoral education in Australia, its impact on diversity in respect of the doctoral population, shifts in disciplinary strengths, institutional concentration and award programs. We conclude that there has been both change and continuity in the provision of doctoral education with extensive variation at the level of practice in what is a reasonably stable system featuring continuing hierarchical institutional diversification. The limitations of available data and issues for further research, policy and practice are discussed.

The importance of affects,self-regulation and relationships in the writing of a master's thesis

While the number of postgraduate students is increasing, the writing of a master's dissertation still poses numerous challenges to them. The outcome of this work depends just as much on technical and methodological skills as on affects, self-regulation, and the relationship to the supervisor. In order to test a comprehensive model including all these dimensions for this specific task, we sent a questionnaire to students who had recently completed their master's thesis. The collected answers highlight the importance of the self-regulation of both cognition and affects in such an endeavor. The quality of the relationship with the supervisor is also essential. In light of these results, changes regarding the training of students and the coaching methods of supervisors seem necessary.