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

Supervising projects and dissertations
❘
161
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
What information do you need to refer to?
• supervisee’s written progress reports;
• supervisee’s draft material;
• departmental project regulations and assessment criteria.
Arrangements for the supervisory meeting:
• ensure ‘quality time’ free from interruption;
• ensure the venue is conducive to open discussion.
The supervision meeting must be structured and well organised:
• opening – use this to clarify the purpose and agree the agenda;
• middle – you should facilitate discussion of ideas, discuss specific issues;
• monitor progress, give constructive feedback, question effectively, set and
agree objectives leading to the next supervision meeting;
• end – you should record an action plan, to include short-term objectives and
end on a positive note.
(Professor Stephanie Marshall, University of York)
By adopting such methods as offered in Case study 3 and checklists presented elsewhere
(Wilkins, 1995; Day et al., 1998), both supervisor and supervisee will share a sense of
purpose and progress. Another means of assisting rigour in approach is to ensure that
there are open and transparent assessment criteria, which will aid the supervisor to assist
the supervisee in ensuring that adequate attention is paid to the weighting of various
components. An example of such rigour is offered in Case study 4, which offers a marker’s
assessment pro forma (see pages 162–163).
By supervisors adopting a rigorous approach to project and dissertation completion
that entails, first, transparency in formative and summative assessment criteria, combined
with, second, professional supervisory skills, supervision will be viewed as a constructive
means of monitoring the milestones on the route to successful project and dissertation
completion.