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point of trying to keep out of view of his supervisor. This made life
particularly difficult, as they had rooms just along the corridor from each
other.
150 HOW TO GET A PhD
Dr Chadwick, however, still felt that things between them were reason-
ably satisfactory:
Our relationship is friendly, even though I never see him outside the
formal interview situation. Our meetings are irregular but fairly
often, about once every two or three weeks, usually at his initiative.
They last up to half an hour but could be as little as 15 minutes. Most
of the time we meet to consider details of the computer program he s
working on, so he has to explain the nature of the problem and then
we discuss it. These programs will be used a lot and so have to be very
efficient.
It is clear that Dr Chadwick does make himself available when Charles
requests a meeting and takes it as a sign of success that Charles asks to see
him. Although Charles avoids using Dr Chadwick s name when talking to
him, the fact that he brings problems along confirms his supervisor in his
belief that he is being friendly, open and supportive. Unfortunately, Dr
Chadwick is totally unaware of Charles s inability to talk to him about
research matters that are bothering him. An effective supervisor, on the
other hand, would not merely stick to academic issues but would create
regular opportunities to discuss their relationship.
Students expect their supervisors to be constructively critical
This is a particularly sensitive area. It is the supervisor s job to criticize and
provide feedback but the manner in which this information is given is
absolutely vital. If the criticism is harsh, or perceived as such by the stu-
dent, considerable damage may be done. It is important to remember also,
that giving praise whenever appropriate is one part, often neglected, of
providing feedback. During interviews with people who had achieved
their PhDs, there were as many unexpected floods of tears (from both men
and women) when this topic came up as there were in interviews with
those who had dropped out of their PhDs before completing. Doing a PhD
is a very emotional, as well as intellectual, experience for most research
students.
Supervisors will be concerned with such questions as: Is the work clearly
organized? Is the coverage of the topic comprehensive? How does the
information relate to prior work in the area? Are the research methods
appropriate and described accurately? Is the discussion clear? Will the
work make a significant contribution to the discipline? Does it have policy
implications? It is very important indeed that students should have
learned how to answer these questions and so evaluate their work without
recourse to their supervisors by the time they are ready to submit their
theses. We have already discussed this in some detail in Chapter 7.
It is essential that in the course of discussions with you, your students
HOW TO SUPERVISE AND EXAMINE 151
gradually become familiar with the criteria against which their work is
being measured. As they become better able to mediate for themselves
between their efforts and the results, by comparing what has happened
with what they expected would happen, they will need to rely less and less
on you for feedback. Relying on their own judgement about their work
involves confidence, and this will come only from exposure to continual
constructive criticism from a supportive and sensitive supervisor.
If students do not receive helpful information of this sort, there is a high
probability that they will become discouraged, lose confidence and decide
that they are incapable of ever reaching the standard necessary to do a
PhD, which, of course, will affect their future careers. The techniques of
giving effective feedback are discussed later in this chapter (see p. 155).
Students expect their supervisors to have a good knowledge of the
research area
Very often this is the reason that a particular supervisor has been selected.
But, especially when students and supervisors have been assigned to each
other after registration, it is possible that the supervisor is not expert in the
student s area of research. Provided the student has access to others who
are expert in the area, it may be more important that the supervisor s style
of work and expectations of the supervisory role coincide with those of the
student.
Students should be able to use other members of the academic staff as a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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