Postgraduate Education - Form and Function

Description

This anthology presents integrated discussions of three central themes: learning in postgraduate education, developing a curriculum for postgraduate education, and supervising postgraduate learning. These themes are vital for a close understanding of how postgraduate education can be fostered in higher education, both in facilitating learning and as students' learning outcome. The book's theoretical contributions address questions such as: What is the theory behind learning in postgraduate education? How is the curriculum for postgraduate programs developed? Practical contributions address questions like: What constitutes learning in postgraduate education? What are the features of curricula in postgraduate education? In practice, how do we improve students' learning in postgraduate studies? 

This book is a response to concerns that policies and practices of higher education have tended to draw too much attention toward academic content and to teaching as a core discipline. Yet literature suggests that students are often ill-prepared for the changes in learning, teaching, and curriculum approaches from the undergraduate to postgraduate levels. While the dominant belief appears to be that students learn when teachers transfer knowledge to them, the students themselves expect to function more independently in postgraduate education. 

This anthology presents an alternative view, moving from a discipline-based view to a learning-based view on higher education. Working with quality enhancement is the art of positively matching multiple stakeholder relations and at the same time continuously innovating within existing good practice. The chapter authors reflect upon proposed strategies for managing stakeholder relations.

Informations

• Publié par: Libri Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912969555
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Postgraduate Educatîon – Form and Functîon

Postgraduate Educatîon – Form and Functîon

First publised in 2011 by Libri Publising

Copyrigt © Libri Publising

Autors retain copyrigt of individual capters.

he rigt of Nigel Courtney, Liezel Frick and Claus Nygaard to be identified as te editors of tis work as been asserted in accordance wit te Copyrigt, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

ISBN 978 1 907471 26 1eISBN 978-1-912969-55-5

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Contents

Capter One

Capter Two

Capter hree

Capter Four

Capter Five

Foreword Eli Bitzer

Postgraduate Education: Considering Form and Function Liezel Frick, Nigel Courtney and Claus Nygaard

Developing a Framework for Postgraduate Education Andrea Raiker

Taking te Mystery out of Mastery: Unpacking te Taugt Postgraduate Experience Mark Atlay and Lesley Lawrence

vii

1

9

27

Quality of Doctoral Supervision: Supervisors’ Conceptions of Learning, Supervision and Students’ Profiles 43 Ana Vitória Baptista, Isabel Huet and Alan Jenkins Distributed Approaces to Promote Stakeolder Ownersip of Postgraduate Programme Design 59 Paul Bartolomew, Stuart Brand and Derek Cassidy v

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Capter Six

Capter Seven

Capter Eigt

Capter Nine

Capter Ten

Capter Eleven

Capter Twelve

Learning to Dance and Dancing to Learn Jean Mitcell and Willa Louw

77

he Contribution of a Community of Practice to Quality Learning in Career-oriented Postgraduate Education 91 Zena Scoltz and Toliwe Ceore

Artful Making in Vocational Postgraduate Programme Claus Nygaard and Eirik J. Irgens

109

Developing a Postgraduate Curriculum for Non-researc Oriented Future Professional Workers: a Reflection on Master’s-only Institutions of Higer Education 129 Gary Hoban Enabling Postgraduate Students to Become Autonomous Etnograpers of teir Disciplines 149 Micelle Picard, Ricard Warner and Lalita Velautam Collaborative Teacing and Learning in Postgraduate Researc Supervision: a Case Study 167 Hesta Friedric-Nel and Sydney G. Masalla

he Possibilities and Problems of Dialogical Pedagogy: Lessons from an Australian University Survey Questionnaire for Supervising Postgraduate Learning Henriette van Rensburg and P. A. Danaer

Collected Bibliograpy

187

205

Foreword

Learning in iger education is an important and vast scolarly terrain to explore. Consequently, muc as been written and publised on te issue and merely to recap te essence of existing publised knowledge in tis regard would span several book volumes. In November 2010 one furter small, but important, contribution was made to te area of learning in iger education wen te fourt Learning in Higer Education (LIHE) four-day symposium took place in te beautiful mountain setting of Mont Fleur, near Stellenbosc in te Cape Winelands, Sout Africa. It was a first for Sout Africa and Africa and we at Stellenbosc were privileged to ost te event on te topic:Postgraduate Education: Form and Function, involving international and local participants. his event was a key mile- stone in LIHE’s twelve-mont editorial process from call to publication. May I add my congratulations to te editors of tis antology for te initiative taken and for bringing te conference to African soil. In some respects, postgraduate education is a topic already well explored. For example, in teir overview of te (post)graduate curriculum in iger education inhe Encyclopedia of Higer Education(Volume 3, 1992) Clifton Conrad and Bolyard Millar take a istorical perspective on te postgraduate curriculum and its development from te time wen

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F o r e w o r d te University of Bologna conferred te first doctoral degree in te 12t century. Since tose early days, as aptly pointed out by te autors, post- graduate education as become an important part of iger education in many countries trougout te world – at first troug instructional forms and later troug instruction and researc. Still later, postgrad- uate education was mainly associated wit researc. However, it is widely agreed tat postgraduate education, particularly at te master’s and doctoral level, as troug te ages played a prominent role in countries wit systems of iger education and significantly contributed to leader- sip in te scientific, economic, social, educational and political speres. Moreover, researc activity associated wit te postgraduate curriculum is a valuable source of new knowledge and innovation in many parts of te world. It is against tis background tatPostgraduate Education: Form and Functionmakes a valuable contribution by recording and exploring new options and opportunities in te field of postgraduate education studies. A recent report on postgraduate education in te United States (he Pat Forward: he future of graduate education in te United States, 2010) indicated tat te fruits of postgraduate education touc many lives in countless ways every day. For example: people drive automobiles wit systems designed by engineers wit postgraduate degrees; people send teir cildren to scools were a growing number of teacers ave post- graduate degrees and were trained by people wit advanced degrees temselves; tey pick up prescriptions for medicines designed and tested by scientists wit postgraduate degrees; tey visit museums and view displays arranged by curators wit postgraduate degrees; and tey go to movies enanced by sopisticated computer-generated special effects designed by men and women wo ave postgraduate degrees. Wile some would argue tat an undergraduate degree today is not wort muc more tan a ig scool certificate a number of years ago, oters would propose tat a postgraduate qualification in modern times is essential to participate in a global knowledge economy in a meaningful way. It is terefore not premature to investigate and debate postgraduate educa- tion, te forms it takes and te functions it serves. Indeed, it migt be a critical time to address and understand te real value of postgraduate education. Finding innovative solutions for many of te great callenges facing te world in te 21st century will in all probability depend upon aving

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F o r e w o r d a igly skilled workforce. Tasks suc as finding efficient alternative energy sources, improving agricultural practices in developing countries to feed a growing world population and understanding oter cultures tat must coexist in te global village will require te leadersip provided by individuals wit a postgraduate-level education. Undergraduate educa- tion is important to te creation of a stable economy, providing students wit foundational knowledge and work skills and offering graduates a wide range of employment options. But postgraduate education goes beyond just providing students wit advanced knowledge and skills – it also furter develops critical tinking skills and produces innovators. However, it is te application of knowledge and skills in creative and innovative ways tat elps to enance future economic prosperity, influ- ence social growt and assist countries to maintain leadersip positions in a global context. he assumption is tat te competitiveness of any country and te capacity for innovation inges fundamentally on a strong system of postgraduate education. It tus seems clear tat in many respects postgraduate education is more callenging tan researc training only. To tis extent I ave argued, in alignment wit some capters in tis volume, tat supervisors of post- graduate studies sould assess and approac teir supervisory roles more critically (Bitzer, 2010). Wen te researc education role of supervisors is broadened to include functions suc as mentoring, coacing and crit- ical reflection, it appears to enance te quality of supervision practices as well as te innovative forms postgraduate studies take. Amidst super- visor and student callenges, tere seems to be a need for supervision practices to become more educative, implying supervision pedagogy – someting wic cannot be learnt troug experience alone. Supervisor professional development, as planned and promoted at national levels in several countries, is probably te ideal. In Sout Africa (and across Africa for tat matter), owever, were no suc developmental scemes exist and were postgraduate student numbers are on te increase, researc and interventions migt increasingly be needed to assist in saping te forms and functions of postgraduate studies. It as also been sown, mainly by te writings of Angela Brew in Australia and oters tat supervisors’ and students’ conceptions of researc, scolarsip and supervision affect te quality of postgraduate studies. Scolarly investigation and researc can be mecanisms for

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F o r e w o r d surfacing tese underlying beliefs, values and conceptions of postgraduate studies and success. Examples ave indicated ow students and supervi- sors’ conceptions of quality in postgraduate education migt cange after and because of suc investigative actions. his, in turn, migt elp ow bot students and supervisors manage te sometimes callenging tran- sition from dependence to independence in researc (also see te work of Gina Wisker in te United Kingdom) and wat forms postgraduate studies eventually take. In view of te importance of researc for postgraduate education and te current gaps tat exist in tis field, four salient points seem impor- tant in te context of tis book. Firstly, researc seems to be essential to investigate te developmental role of intellectual communities of practice in te formation of postgraduate scolarsip. Autors suc as Walker, Golde, Jones, Buescel and Hutcings (2008) propose tat te point is not simply to create occasions for suc communities to be promoted but to foster te intellectual and professional development of postgraduate students as stewards and teir supervisors as scolars. Researc is needed on te outcomes tat tese communities can produce and strategies ow participation, moving witin and moving beyond intellectual communi- ties can be enanced. How to “learn about” and “learn to be” part of suc communities (also see Brown & Duguid 2000) seems callenging and needs furter exploration in publications suc as tis one – bot for students and supervisors. Secondly, in rapidly canging environments and in particular devel- oping contexts suc as Sout African iger education, more researc migt also be needed on ow tese canges impact on supervisory practices and wat development strategies are required. Literature (for example: Eley & Murray, 2009; Ryan & Zuber-Skerrit, 1999) as well as feedback from worksops and conferences point to increasing callenges posed by, for instance, supervising international students (in particular tose from oter African countries), supervising distance students, providing writing support for students and supervising in culturally diverse contexts. Failure to provide guidelines and pedagogy in tis respect will negatively affect supervisors and institutions alike. hirdly, debate and increased clarity migt be needed as to te academic and oter expectations at te master’s and doctoral level of studies. In Sout Africa, for instance, te level descriptors for level 9

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