Understanding the up, back, and forward-component in master's thesis supervision with adaptivity

Abstract

Despite the importance of goals in educational theories, goals in master's thesis projects are rarely investigated. Therefore, this study explores how goals play a role in master's thesis supervision in terms of: defining the goals (up-component); locating where the student stands in relation to the goals (back-component); and how the student can more closely reach the goals (forward-component). Twelve supervisors and students were interviewed and the adaptive approach of supervision emerged as a recurrent theme. Applying qualitative content analysis, findings indicated that the role of goals can be described as: aiming to reach the goals (up-component) by adapting supervision strategies (forward-component), based on students' specific needs and where they stand (back-component). This was termed ‘adaptivity’. Providing adaptive supervision can also involve tensions concerning the level of regulation and the severity of their critique (ranging from mild to heavy-handed). Findings are discussed in relation to other studies concerning research supervision.