Learning and Teaching Centre

Development and Evaluation of Resources to Enhance Skills in Higher Degree Research Supervision in a Cross-cultural Context

Overview

This project addresses the Carrick Institutes priority area relating to strategic approaches to learning and teaching that address the increasing diversity of the student body. It aims to develop best practice guidelines and resources to augment current professional development for higher degree research (HDR) supervision, with a specific focus on cross-cultural communication with international students. It is intended that the resources would be widely accessible through the Carrick website for use nationally within the Australian university sector.

Project Aims

This project arises from the need to address cross-cultural issues in relation to the supervision of the rising number of international HDR students in Australian universities, many of whom are from non-English speaking backgrounds. The project also recognizes that there is increasing pressure on universities to ensure and optimize timely completion among HDR students. Drop out and failure to complete in a timely manner brings high cost to universities (inefficient allocation of staff and physical resources), to the community (opportunity cost of lost employment time etc) and to students and their families (high cost of international student fees). Such issues make timely completion of HDR studies an imperative. Most universities have developed professional development programs for their HDR supervisors, and several national projects have been conducted to provide best-practice guidelines and resources to facilitate this process. Examples of such are the fIRST website (which collects developmental activities that can be shared among the academic community), the USYD ITL site (that provides case studies of best practice derived from their professional development program), the University of Melbourne site (which includes a case-study on cross-cultural communication) and the MQ site (that has collected best practice web resources). However, current initiatives pay only cursory attention to cross-cultural communication issues that may affect outcomes in the process of HDR supervision.

The project involves a collaboration between two universities (Macquarie and Newcastle) where the two institutions will build on their ongoing joint study that investigates factors associated with HDR completion and attrition. The present project will incorporate research, development and evaluation phases, informed by area experts from a broad range of institutions which will enable the development of resources targeted towards best practice. In addition, it aims to provide broad scale dissemination of resources for a wider impact on advancement of learning and teaching, in the area of higher degree research, across the higher education sector nationally. We acknowledge that a good deal of work already exists in relation to best-practice in the training of HDR supervision skills and therefore the project builds on existing knowledge from previous and ongoing initiatives within the sector. It aims to extend current knowledge regarding best practice in HDR supervision, and to embed this specific area of supervisor training within the context of best practice HDR supervision more broadly.

We recognise that different institutions do things differently and resources are more likely to be used if they can be employed flexibly and embedded within existing institutionally-based HDR supervisor training and individual just-in-time activity. We will aim therefore to develop resources that can be used by tertiary institutions as an adjunct to their existing HDR supervisor training, within their own institutional systems. Drawing on existing evidence and knowledge, we will contextualize the enhancement of HDR supervision skills relating to cross-cultural issues within an overall framework of best-practice in HDR supervision. For example, issues relating to cross-cultural communication will be examined within the context of specific supervisor activities, such as negotiating research contracts that support innovative student research, setting agendas for the supervision session, identifying subtasks within the project that build student autonomy, setting timelines, negotiating authorships, dealing with challenging situations (eg. boundaries, referring to others for expert or professional assistance, and resolving conflicts), and providing feedback to students. We also recognise that the training needs of staff in this area will be influenced by differing levels of experience in HDR supervision and in cross-cultural interactions.

Outcomes/Outputs

The deliverables of the project will be tangible, web-based resources that can be downloaded and used as an adjunct to professional development programs for training of HDR supervisors. These materials will also be available in CD-Rom format. They will include:

  • Best practice guidelines relating to cross-cultural issues in HDR supervision
  • Written case illustrations
  • Quicktime videostream downloads, illustrating issues and skills, with prompts for reflection, problem solving, and generation of sophisticated role play scenarios
  • Downloadable tip sheets
  • Self-evaluation questionnaire

Contacts

A/Prof Judi Homewood (Leader)
A/Prof Anna Reid (Leader)
Dr Theresa Winchester-Seeto (Manager)

A/Prof Anna Reid
Program Director - Research Development
Email: anna.reid@mq.edu.au
Tel: 02 9850 9780

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