Exploring student engagement with supervisor feedback on master’s thesis: Insights from a case study

ABSTRACT

This case study shows how three Master’s students engage affectively, behaviourally and cognitively with supervisor feedback on thesis drafts. The data sources are students’ drafts, supervisor’s oral and written feedback, and student interviews. Six themes of student engagement are identified in the data, namely (1) gaining reassurance from the supervisor’s compliments, (2) trusting the supervisor’s feedback due to his position of authority, (3) following the supervisor’s advice selectively, (4) engaging with academia by incorporating more citations, (5) not fully understanding the feedback and (6) ‘letting it go and moving on’.

KEYWORDS:

• Student engagement
• thesis writing
• supervisor feedback
• postgraduate students

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our paper and their helpful suggestions. We would also like to express our thanks to the three student participants for their time and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yao Zheng

Yao Zheng is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Education, University of Macau, China. She has obtained her Master of Arts degree from Nanyang Technological University and Master of Translation and Interpretation degree from Sichuan University. Her research interests include second language writing, language education and teacher education. Her publications have appeared in Assessing Writing, and Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5264-943X.

Shulin Yu

Shulin Yu, PhD, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and second language education. His publications have appeared in Assessing Writing, Language Teaching Research, Language Teaching, TESOL Quarterly, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, System, Studies in Higher Education, Educational Research Review, and Teaching in Higher Education.

Bo Wang

Bo Wang is a lecturer at the College of Foreign Languages, Shandong University of Science and Technology, China. She obtained her PhD degree in Education at the University of Macau. Her research interests include teacher feedback and second language education. Her publications have appeared in System, Educational Research Review, and Journal of Education for Teaching.

Yiran Zhang

Yiran Zhang is a PhD student at Faculty of Education, University of Macau. Her research interest focuses on feedback in higher education, second language writing, and second language teacher education and professional development. Her publications have appeared in Global Education, Teaching in Higher Education, and Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education.