Group supervision in graduate education: a process of supervision skill development and text improvement

Abstract

This paper is an investigation of group supervision of the Master of Education thesis at the University of Bergen, Norway. Four recorded group supervision sessions are analysed. The group participants are five students and three supervisors. The sessions are analysed from a qualitative, phenomenological perspective. The results show that group supervision enables the development of supervision skills, has an impact on the students' writing process and facilitates the students' enculturation into the particular discipline. The article refers briefly to contextual elements that influence the above processes and makes claims about the function group supervision can serve in higher education.

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Professor Olga Dysthe, of the Department of Education and Health Promotion, UiB; to my faculty writing group; to Bjarne Holmes, for his help with the language; and to two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.