Supervisory feedback on thesis drafts and presentations is arguably the most important source of information for graduate students, particularly those writing their theses in ...English-as-a-foreign-language contexts, to conduct, complete, report and improve graduate research and benefit from the process. Despite its critical role in scaffolding students' research and thesis writing, supervisory feedback on master's theses has been under-researched, compared with the attention given to doctoral supervision. This is particularly the case in non-Western, developing countries such as Nepal. The present study examined supervisory comments on thesis drafts (n = 97) in four disciplinary areas (education, English studies, physics and engineering). Supervisors' beliefs underlying their practices and students' expectations were explored through interviews with 16 supervisors and 16 students. Analyses revealed that supervisory feedback varied across the disciplinary areas and, in many cases, did not cater to students' needs or expectations. Pedagogical implications of these findings are derived with a view to improving the effectiveness of supervisory feedback.
Student engagement has attracted much research attention in higher education because of various potential benefits associated with improved engagement. Despite extensive research on student ...engagement in higher education, little has been written about graduate students’ engagement with supervisory feedback. This paper reports on a study on student engagement with supervisory feedback on master’s theses conducted in the context of Nepalese higher education. The study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design that drew on interviews and a questionnaire-based survey involving supervisors and students from four disciplines at a comprehensive university in Nepal. Analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data revealed significant differences between supervisors’ and students’ perceptions of all types (i.e., affective, cognitive, and behavioral) of student engagement. Significant disciplinary variations were also observed in supervisors’ and students’ perceptions of negative affect, cognitive engagement, and behavioral engagement. Furthermore, disciplinary background and feedback role interacted to shape perceptions of student engagement. These findings have implications for improving student engagement with supervisory feedback.
•102 master’s supervisors and 462 master’s students participated in this study.•We examined their perceptions of student engagement with supervisory feedback.•Students rated their feedback engagement markedly higher than supervisors did.•There were also significant variations in perceptions of engagement across disciplines.•Disciplinary background and feedback role jointly shaped the participants’ perceptions.
We examined the reliability of grading master's theses at a New Zealand university, where a variant of the academic journal review system is employed. The overall correlation between the grades ...recommended by internal and external markers of master's theses in psychology and applied psychology at this university was 0.39, which is similar to that produced between reviewers of submissions to academic journals. We conclude that thesis grading is about as reliable as the determination of the merit of journal submissions, which is usually regarded as rather poor. Applying a more objective rubric to thesis marking might raise the reliability, but such a change might also lower the creative and unique nature of theses, and hence reduce the contribution that an individual thesis can make to its particular discipline.
English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) results in an increasing number of students writing their master’s theses in English as a second language (L2). The thesis process is challenging for many ...students, and academic writing in L2 English could add to these challenges. However, in EMI contexts, little is known about students’ writing and language-related conceptions and their relationship with writing success. Hence, this study investigates variation within and interconnections between master’s thesis writers’ (N = 283, both L1 and L2 writers) self-efficacy for thesis writing, writing conceptions, apprehension about grammar, and thesis grade in a multilingual EMI university context in Finland. Data analyses included various statistical methods such as t-tests, two-step clustering, and ANOVAs. The findings indicate a positive connection between adaptive writing conceptions, thesis grade, and self-efficacy for thesis writing. Three groups of writers were identified, reflecting different combinations of writing conceptions, with significant differences in thesis grade, self-efficacy for thesis writing and apprehension about grammar. No significant differences were found between L1 and L2 writers.
•Maladaptive writing conceptions are related to lower thesis grade and self-efficacy.•Adaptive writing conceptions are related to higher thesis grade and self-efficacy.•Apprehension about grammar is positively related to block and perfectionism.•Three groups of master’s thesis writers identified through a person-oriented analysis.•No significant differences were found between L1 and L2 thesis writers.
This paper provides insights into thesis supervisors' perceptions of the supervisory relationship and process in English-medium international master's degree programmes (IMDPs). It contributes to the ...field of supervisory pedagogy in a master's level education by examining how supervisors perceive their supervisory practices and what they consider to be the most important features for successful supervision. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with thesis supervisors employed in five different Finnish universities. Qualitative content analysis was conducted. The results revealed that most of the interviewees perceive supervision as an asymmetric relationship in the context of a teaching model similar to Dysthe's (
2002
). Trust, topic selection, supervisors' support and the initial stage of supervision were regarded as the most important features during supervision. The article concludes with the recommendation that supervisors should have more opportunities to reflect on their supervisory practices.
•A theory or perspective help students unravel discoveries.•Theories and perspectives are consolidations to explain or understand a phenomenon.•In diversified research fields multiple theories and ...perspectives is a strength.•Theorizing requires a basic familiarity with different theories and perspectives.
The present paper is a reply to Brunsson (2021b), who wrote a commentary on the edited volume Theories and Perspectives in Business Administration (Eriksson-Zetterquist, Hansson & Nilsson, 2020). Although we agree with Brunsson on several points, we nevertheless argue that students need to learn about different theories and perspectives. First, the use of theories and perspectives as analytical tools will help students to describe and analyze a certain phenomenon. Second, to be able to theorize students need to acquire fundamental knowledge of the background and the specificities of the theory or perspective in use. Third, an awareness of the diversity of theories and perspectives that exists within the business administration discipline is a prerequisite to being able to contribute to the creation of new knowledge. Finally, we do not agree with Brunsson that the multitude of theories and perspectives in the business administration discipline is a sign of “an inferiority complex”. It is the outcome of the vitality and viability of the discipline.
Using a model of inputs-environment-process-outcomes, our focus is the students' point of view on writing the master's thesis in accounting. We analyze the factors that influence the complexity of a ...thesis and the satisfaction of students with it. We used the answers received on two matched questionnaires distributed during the second semester of the academic year 2021-2022. The results of the path analysis show that planning and involvement in research and university support can increase the effectiveness of students' time management and improve satisfaction with the research outcome. Resource use increases the thesis complexity, too. The paper comprises a couple of implications: first, the quality of the thesis depends to a great extent on the initial planning phase, indicating that university support is crucial during preliminary work; second, university management must ensure the existence of necessary resources, which are a complex mix of supervision, collaboration, guidelines, and scientific sources.
The power of metaphor in thesis writing process Hanić, Jasmina; Pavlović, Tanja; Jašić, Alma Jahić
ExELL : explorations in English language and linguistics,
12/2023, Volume:
11, Issue:
2
Journal Article, Paper
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract The article contributes to the discussion of writing at the master’s level by investigating metaphors underlying the process of writing a master’s thesis from the perspective of graduate ...students. The analysis focuses on the use of metaphors in semi-structured interviews conducted with graduate students who defended their thesis and reflected on the whole process. Their metaphor use is non-elicited and this rhetorical device is spontaneously used showing that thesis writers conceptualize their research and all it entails in metaphorical terms to a significant extent. Despite the fact that thesis writers themselves were not encouraged to pay attention to or use metaphorical language, their narratives reveal the interplay of metaphors when describing the writing process.
