Models & Styles of Supervision
The purpose of this session is to explore the various models of supervision while at the same time giving you an opportunity to reflect on your own understanding of the role of the supervisor and that of the other role players in the supervisory process.
The literature on supervision distinguishes between approaches or styles of supervision on the one hand and models of supervision on the other. Approaches/styles are about your conduct and personality and how you interact with your students, whereas models are about the structure of the supervision team. These different issues affect each other.
There are a variety of models that can be used for supervision. One-on-one supervision is typical in the Humanities whereas group or project-based supervision is fairly common in the Natural Sciences, and there is great variation across the disciplines. In this discussion explore the functions of the supervisor or supervisors within the different supervisory models.
What, in your view, would the roles and responsibilities of the supervisor be within each of the models below?
- Individual, one-on-one supervision,
- Co-supervision,
- Panel supervision, where each person in the panel has a particular role,
- Project supervision, where a team of postgraduate scholars and possibly a team of supervisors work together on a related set of research problems,
- Cohort supervision, where groups who enter the programme in a particular year work through the research stages together, and
- Other models?
How might the model of supervision impact on the following stages of the research process?
- Development of research design,
- Securing funding,
- Feedback on writing,
- Providing subject matter expertise,
- Quality assurance and compliance,
- Monitoring progress,
- Reporting on progress, and
- Selecting examiners.
Please complete this self-reflective questionnaire. Simply click “Start quiz” to begin.
In this individual activity you are given the opportunity to reflect on your own style of supervision, and related to that, the kind of style that you might favour.