•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.
Knowledge construction at graduate level discursively engages writers in building the connection between disciplinary literature and their authority of individual creation. Existing research often ...sees this construction as social and dialogic and has widely examined its rhetorical and interactional features within its disciplinary local contexts. However, little attention seems to be drawn to the interplay between the expected presentation of knowledge and students' actual knowledge-making. Through detailed discourse and intertextual analyses, this study explores supervisory orientations offered through written feedback and their impact on two L2 students' restructuring of knowledge in their master's theses. Findings reveal these students' incorporation of justifiable, interpretive and intertextually pertinent knowledge as concrete responses to these orientations. The ways they organized their conceptual and intertextual resources were shaped by explicit supervisory scaffold and how they wished to present a refined self (critical, self-reflexive, credible, socially-grounded) in writing.
•Master’s students were unsatisfied with the supervisory feedback that they received.•They faced challenges related to themselves, their supervisors, and material resources.•They reported ...emotional/cognitive/behavioural engagement with supervisory feedback.•Their feedback perceptions were related to their disciplinary background.•Perceptions of various aspects of feedback were related to self-reported engagement.
Students’ perceptions of supervisory feedback can have a profound impact on their engagement with and agency in learning. Understanding students’ perceptions is vital to tailoring feedback to their needs. However, little is known about student perceptions of supervisory feedback on master’s theses. To address this lacuna, the present study collected feedback perceptions with a written questionnaire from 434 students in four disciplines (English Education, English Studies, Physics, and Engineering) at a Nepalese university. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that the students as a group did not receive sufficient supervisory support and found their supervisors’ feedback practices unsatisfactory. Despite the inadequate support, they reported emotional, cognitive, and behavioural engagement with the supervisory feedback that they received, and their perceptions of supervisory feedback significantly predicted their self-reported engagement. Furthermore, perceptions of supervisory feedback and self-reported engagement varied significantly across the disciplines. Implications are derived from these findings for improving supervisory feedback practices.
The viva is a crucial component of the master's thesis examination process. It offers students opportunities to defend their thesis and engage in scholarly dialogue with disciplinary experts. As the ...viva involves participants with unequal and hierarchical power relations, the possibility of a scholarly dialogue in the viva is primarily shaped by the positioning of the examiners in relation to the students. Although master's students writing a thesis outnumber those doing a PhD, the research on master's thesis viva is in the embryonic stage. This study set out to extend this research by examining ten master's thesis vivas at a comprehensive university in Nepal. The analysis of audio-recorded feedback sessions revealed that the vivas were primarily examiners' monologic and directive talk. There was little negotiation of power because the students contributed minimally to the dialogue. The examiners acted as custodians and gatekeepers of the discipline to ensure the reproduction of academic norms and conventions. The implications of the study for enhancing the effectiveness of the viva are provided.
Urbanized environment design and study is a promising inter-disciplinary subject area at the intersection of architectural environment design, urban planning, and architecture. This paper presents a ...review of the range of challenges and conceptual contents in this area treated in several dozens of recent master's degree theses that received awards at international review competitions in 2019-2022. The research objects of the theses were various urbanized spaces (spaces as places and spaces as communications), as well as some aspects of these spaces (components of spaces, factors of influence on spaces, methods of space development). Semantic analysis revealed not only specific problems and remarkable conceptual solutions, but also universal concepts and approaches to improving various urban environments as internally diverse systems at all levels (urban planning, architecture, environment). The general conceptual field in relation to urbanized environments as viewed by modern master's degree authors may be characterized by the paradigm of "Three Is" (3i-Paradigm): Individualization, Integration, Intellectualization, which includes universal notions and concepts such as "environment targeting", "design code", "scenario approach", "environment permeability", "densification", etc. The article may be of interest to students and graduate project advisers at higher schools of architecture and design.
Academic emotions in the context of master's thesis work is a highly understudied issue. This study examined the association between self-regulated learning skills and academic emotions elicited by ...master's thesis work. Altogether, 84 behavioural sciences students conducting their master's theses completed a survey comprised of a modified version of Pintrich's Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MLSQ) and academic emotions derived from Pekrun's (2006) Achievement Emotions Questionnaire complemented by enthusiasm. Linear and logistic regressions were employed in the data analyses. Higher skills in combining prior and new knowledge, application of theories, self-assessment and the combination of all learning skills were associated with higher positive academic emotions. Higher skills in self-assessment were associated with lower negative academic emotions. Higher combined learning skills were associated with higher pride and enthusiasm and lower shame elicited by master's thesis work. Supporting students to develop their self-regulated learning skills might reflect positively on their academic emotions and vice versa.
Abbreviation: Self-regulated learning skills - (SRL) skills
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