A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Supervising projects and dissertations
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Interrogating practice
Reflect on projects or dissertations you have supervised or, indeed, have
recently completed. How was the learning strategy used to promote the aims
of the curriculum?
STRUCTURED VERSUS UNSTRUCTURED
There has been much written in favour of both structured and unstructured projects
and dissertations. At one end of the spectrum it is agreed that providing students with
a structure reduces the risk of failure at the same time as making the supervisory role
easier in the sense that the supervisor will be able to monitor student progress through
clearly prescribed stages (Race and Brown, 1998). The main critique of such a method
is that projects and dissertations can appear insufficiently open-ended, thus being
too prescriptive, offering a rationalist approach to learning rather than a constructivist
approach and presenting a number of students with little real challenge. However,
provided the purpose of this approach is clear, significant value added can be
gained.
At the other end of the spectrum, it is agreed that providing students with extended
project and dissertation work allows them to collect a range of evidence, proceeding on
to test a range of theories and explanations, to promote a deep approach to learning and
allowing the potential for students to progress along a hierarchy of understanding, such
as that offered by the SOLO taxonomy outlined in Chapter 2. The result should thus be
a demonstration of familiarity with key theories (which at best will be conceptualised at
a high level of abstraction), and an awareness of the importance of using sufficient
evidence. However, the main criticism of adopting the unstructured approach is that
students, in being given too much choice and scope, may flounder. Alongside student
autonomy, academic staff will be forced to supervise too great a range of projects, thus
testing the facilitatory supervision skills of some staff. Both of these factors may result in
a compromise of quality.
Interrogating practice
Reflect on the parameters offered for projects within your department. Would
you classify these as structured or unstructured? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the approach adopted by your department?