Transcript Council for Research Education Supporting a culture of

Council for Research Education
SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITET
Supporting a culture of research and education
8th November 2011
Dr Anne Lee
[email protected]
www.drannelee.wordpress.com
• Trends in doctoral education
• Identifying ‘doctorateness’
• Recent developments in the UK
relating to learning outcomes
• Creating appropriate milestones
Trends in doctoral education
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Massification
Globalisation
Diversification
Commodification
“McDonaldisation”
Regulation
Capitalisation
Multiplication
(Taylor 2009)
Implications for supervisory practice
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Group supervision
Supporting diversity
Meeting institutional demands for completion
Following polices and procedures
Generic skills and careers advice
Meeting student expectations
What do students want? Identifying
student motivation, objectives and needs
What
students
might be
seeking
Functional
Enculturation
Critical
thinking
Emancipation
Relationship
Development
Certainty
Belonging
Self
Awareness
Friendship
Clear
signposts
and learning
outcomes
Direction
Ability to
think in new
ways
Nurturing
Autonomy
Career
opportunities
Ability to
analyse, to
recognise
flaws in
arguments
Equality
Self
actualisation
Evidence of
Progress
Role models
Beliefs about
how people
learn
Absorbing
Regurgitating
Emulating
Replicating
Theorise
Analyse
Constructivism
Values
Performativity
Belonging
Rigour
Autonomy
Discovery
Being
affirmed
Love
Agape
Identifying ‘doctorateness’
• UK Framework for Higher
Education
• Dublin Descriptors
• Researcher Development
Framework
• Stepping stones to the Doctorate
Dublin Descriptors: The Third Cycle
Qualifications are awarded to students who:
• have demonstrated a systematic understanding of a field of study
and mastery of the skills and methods of research associated with
that field;
• have demonstrated the ability to conceive, design, implement and
adapt a substantial process of research with scholarly integrity;
• have made a contribution through original research that extends
the frontier of knowledge by developing a substantial body of
work, some of which merits national or international refereed
publication;
• are capable of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of new
and complex ideas;
• can communicate with their peers, the larger scholarly community
and with society in general about their areas of expertise;
• can be expected to be able to promote, within academic and
professional contexts, technological, social or cultural
advancement in a knowledge based society;
The Researcher Development Framework
• Major new approach to researcher development
• Builds the UK research base
• Develops world-class researchers
• Enhances the personal, professional and career development of
researchers
• Developed through UK-wide interviews
with successful researchers in a range
of disciplines
• Led by Vitae in collaboration with the
HE sector and other stakeholders
The Researcher Development
Framework
Framework of the knowledge, behaviour and attributes of
successful researchers
Enables self-assessment of strengths and areas for further
development
Common framework across institutions in the UK
Universal language for
communicating researcher
capabilities
Using the RDF
Researchers:
identify strengths and priorities for
professional and career development
Managers and supervisors of researchers
fundamental to planning researcher development
Staff supporting researchers in HEIs
underpins strategies for researcher development
Policy makers, employers and other stakeholders
realising researchers’ potential for all sectors of the economy
and society
4 domains
12 sub-domains
63 descriptors
PLACING QUESTIONS FOR ASSESSING A THESIS
Adapted from Trafford V and Leshem S (2008) Stepping Stones to Achieving your Doctorate: by focussing on
your viva from the start. Maidenhead. McGraw Hill/Open University Press
INNOVATION AND
DEVELOPMENT
(High)
SCHOLARSHIP Practice of
Demonstrating
AND
research
doctorateness
INTERPRETATION
(Low)
Technology Theoretical
of the thesis perspectives
(Low)
(High)
PLACING QUESTIONS FOR ASSESSING A THESIS
Adapted from Trafford V and Leshem S (2008) Stepping Stones to Achieving your Doctorate: by focussing on
your viva from the start. Maidenhead. McGraw Hill/Open University Press
INNOVATION AND
DEVELOPMENT
(High)
Research questions
Choice of topic
Location of study
SCHOLARSHIP
AND
(Low)
INTERPRETATION
Research design and
operational fieldwork
issues (also
Resolving practical
research problems
Content of the thesis
Structure of the thesis
Defending doctorateness
Contribution to knowledge
Conceptualising findings
Synthesising findings
Developing conceptual
frameworks
Establishing links, concepts
Identifying the research approach
and the paradigms
Implications of findings
Awareness of wider literature
Familiarity with relevant literature
(Low)
(High)
Some typical examination questions
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Why did you choose this topic for your doctorate?
How did you arrive at your conceptual framework?
How did you design your research?
How would you justify your choice of methodology?
Why did you decide to use XYZ as your main instrument(s)?
How did you select your respondents/material/area?
How did you arrive at your conceptual conclusions?
How generalisable are your findings and why?
What is your contribution to knowledge?
We would like you to critique your thesis for us
What are you going to do after you gain your doctorate?
Is there anything else you could tell us about your thesis which you
have not had the opportunity to tell us during the viva?
Pp20-22 Trafford and Leshman (2008)
How to prepare the student for their assessment
Functional
Enculturation
Critical
Thinking
Emancipation
• Ensure that the • Encourage
• Explore the • Involve the
assessment
students to
implications
students in the
criteria are
pre-assess
of the
design of
clear.
each other’s
assessment
appropriate
• Ensure the
work against
criteria early
assessment
timetable is
the
on.
criteria.
clear.
assessment • Get the
• Give the
criteria.
students to • Help the
assessors all
• Get previous
identify the
students to prethe
students to
questions
assess their own
information
talk about
they might
work and
they need.
their
be asked.
identify how
• Enable
experience
• Rehearse
secure they felt
formative
of the
the process
about each
assessment
assessment
and reflect
judgement.
and feedback
• Rehearse
on it
in good time.
the process
afterwards
• Rehearse the
Relationship
Development
• Ensure that no
student could
believe that a
personal
relationship
with any other
student might
prejudice the
assessor’s
judgement.
• Ensure that
students feel
that you
recognise the
amount of
work they
have put in, as
Creating appropriate milestones?
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Regular supervision meetings
Completion of summary forms of supervision discussion
Log books signed off
Agenda for supervision meetings planned a year ahead
Self assessment on progress towards meeting learning
outcomes presented to supervisor
• Presentations to colleagues
• Agreed deadlines for papers to be written
– First draft
– Soliciting feedback
– Submissions
• Mock defence
RDF Links and resources
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RDF: www.vitae.ac.uk/rdf
RDS: www.vitae.ac.uk/rds
RDF profiles:www.vitae.ac.uk/rdfprofiles
Downloadable CPD tool: www.vitae.ac.uk/rdftool
Contact: [email protected]
References
Dublin Descriptors (2004) www.jointquality.org
Higher Education Funding Council. (October 2011/33) PhD study. Trends and Profiles
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2011/11_33/
Higher Education Academy: Postgraduate Research Experience Survey
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/postgraduate/PRES_2011_report
Higher Education Academy Professional Standards Framework
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/ukpsf/ukpsf.pdf
Lee A (2012) Successful Research Supervision. Abingdon. Routledge.
QAA (2004) Code of Practice for Postgraduate Research Programmes
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/postgrad2004.pdf
QAA (2008) Framework for Higher Education Qualifications
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/FHEQ08.pdf
Taylor, S. (2009) The Post-Humboldtian Doctorate: Implications for Supervisory Practice. in V.King,
F.Deepwell, L. Clouder, L. and C. Broughan (eds.) Academic Futures: Inquiries into Higher Education and
Pedagogy. Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Trafford V and Leshem S (2008) Stepping Stones to Achieving your Doctorate: by focussing on your viva
from the start. Maidenhead. McGraw Hill/Open University Press