Identity lies at the heart of doctoral study--a mysterious learning process which culminates in Ph.D. students' metamorphosis into doctors. This paper explores the identity-related experiences of six international Ph.D. students enrolled at an Australian university by examining how different individuals, events and interactions contributed to (or…

Team supervision of PhDs is increasingly the norm in Australian and UK universities; while this model brings many improvements on the traditional one-on-one research supervision, it also introduces new complexities. In particular, many students find the diversity of opinions expressed in teams to be confusing. Such diversity in supervisor feedback…

Supervision of research degrees is currently undergoing significant re-evaluation, as the research environment itself responds to new and ongoing external policy and funding pressures, internationalisation, increasing cross-disciplinarity and the proliferation of sub-specialisations amongst other factors. The Exploring Supervision Program is…

In this presentation I will share some reflections on how I have dealt with methodology design in the early stages of my PhD candidature leading up to data collection. I will particularly focus on the dilemmas that I have encountered so far as I search for a methodology that would allow me to ethically report on the educational experiences of…

This paper reports on a research case study, conducted in a school in Western Sydney, Australia, in which teachers worked with researchers and students to create learning experiences that reflected both intellectual quality and significance--two dimensions of the NSW Quality Teaching Framework (QTF). Findings suggest that these dimensions of the…

This paper puts forward a set of criteria for ensuring trustworthiness in design research studies undertaken by Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. Design research is aimed at exploring educational problems and refining theory and practice by defining a pedagogical outcome and is a methodological approach often associated with the Learning…

For marginalised secondary school students, mainstream education may no longer appear to be an inviting place. While proposed solutions to problems of disengagement and marginalisation appear to concentrate on finding ways to coerce students back to mainstream education through, for example, "learning or earning" legislation, this…

Honours research projects in the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide are run with small groups of students working with an academic supervisor in a chosen area for one year. The research project is mainly self-directed study, which makes it very difficult to fairly assess the contribution of…

Most research into research supervision practice focuses on functional, collegial or problematic power-related experiences. Work developing the supervisory role concentrates on new supervisors, and on taught development and support programmes. Most literature on academics' professional learning concentrates on learning to be a university teacher…

Purpose: E-Portfolio is a powerful tool for demonstrating evidence of learning and achievements in graduate research. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept, structure and functions of e-Portfolio in graduate research and discuss the significance of the role of e-Portfolio in enhancing the quality of graduate research students and…

During this past decade the level of interest in building research capacity has intensified in Australia and internationally, with a particular emphasis on the development of postgraduate research students, but also extending to undergraduate research experience. This study investigated the student experience across a diverse range of fourth-year…

Honours study is viewed as a transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study and/or to enhanced career prospects. In Australia, Honours is usually an adjunct to the standard undergraduate degree. This paper provides an ethnographic study of 10 Australian Honours students. Seeing their experience through their reflections, in their own voices,…

This paper describes and analyses a method of self- and cohort-directed design of research training tutorials for final-year research-oriented undergraduate students at the University of Queensland, Australia. The design methodology centered on a research skills self-assessment document used at the university, and utilized Personal Response System…

This paper introduces a novel focus of undergraduate research of which there have been few similar reports. Examples of staff-student research partnerships in teaching and learning are starting to appear in the literature but pedagogic research conducted entirely by undergraduate students is exceptional. The Undergraduate Learning and Teaching…

There is a paucity of studies investigating how early career academics (ECAs) form attitudes towards aspects of their work and gain skills in research, teaching and service. This is especially the case with respect to research. A review of the pertinent literature revealed the prominence of a notion of research self-efficacy (or confidence) and…