:
- Distribution of time allocated to supervision
- Expectations of the supervisor’s role and function
- Expectations of the student’s role
- How to comment on drafts
- Expectations of revision of drafts
- Evaluation during the supervisory process
The supervision contract and guidelines for supervision form the basis of the supervisory relationship. Ethical guidelines at UiO are also relevant.
Below are suggestions on how to discuss the topics. These comments are suggestions and will have to be adapted to each situation. What is important is that either party may bring up questions and considerations not directly linked to the subject of supervision.
1. Distribution of time allocated to supervision
The time allocated to supervision is regulated by the supervision contract. It is useful to discuss how much time should be used for pre-supervision (conversation about what the student will do) and post-supervision (conversation about what the student has done), and make a plan for such a distribution of hours over the course of the project.
Expections of how to plan the supervisory sessions should also be discussed: Possible alternatives may be:
- Regular intervals between sessions
- The student contacts the supervisor when needed
- A new session is planned at the end of each meeting
- How much time for preparation the supervisor needs prior to each session
2. Expectation of supervisor’s role and function
It would be useful to discuss how active both parties think the supervisor should be regarding development of problem questions, choice of theories, analysis, as well as the supervisor’s role regarding choice and search for literature. If the project is in cooperation with an external sponsor or employer, this should also be discussed.
The form of feedback should be discussed. Possible considerations could be:
- Positive feedback on what is well done, more than critique what is not so good or the other way around
- Correct language
- Ensure that the progress plan is being followed
- Push the student forward as fast and far as possible or not
- Contact the student or not if the student doesn’t show for supervision
3. Expectations of the student’s role:
What is the responsibility of the student regarding preparations for each supervisory session? Would the parties like the student to set an agenda, for example?
To what extent should the student keep the supervisor informed about the progress of the project, and about who else the student recieves guidance from?
4. How to comment on drafts
What kind of comments on drafts will be most constructive for the student’s work? What does the student expect from the comments, and how do such expectations align with those of the supervisor?
Possible alternatives may be:
- The supervisor gives only oral comments face to face.
- Both go over the draft face to face, and the student receives a copy of the draft with written comments
- The supervisor sends a draft with written comments the day before the supervisory session, so that the face to face meeting may be used for the topics the student needs to be discussed or elaborated
- The supervisor gives only minimal feedback early in the project (this is good enough as a draft), and goes into more detailed feedback when the drafts are more extensive
- The student may give the supervisor a reading task that points to what the student wants feedback on from the supervisor
5. Expectations of revision of drafts:
This should be a recurrent topic to discuss during the entire project. Possible extremes on this scale could be:
- By first drafts the text should always be revised immediately after supervision.
- From the first draft the pattern should be writing – supervision – revision – supervision of one part of the project until the quality is satisfactory and before start of the next part.
Where on this scale will be most productive for the project?
6. Evaluation during the supervisory process
The parties should go through the contract and guidelines and agree on when and how to evaluate the supervision. In such an evaluation one important question is whether the sessions have a good disciplinary focus.