Opportunities to learn scientific thinking in joint doctoral supervision

Abstract

Research into doctoral supervision has increased rapidly over the last decades, yet our understanding of how doctoral students learn scientific thinking from supervision is limited. Most studies are based on interviews with little work being reported that is based on observation of actual supervision. While joint supervision has become widely used, its learning dynamics remains under-researched and this paper aims to address these gaps in research by exploring learning opportunities in doctoral supervision with two supervisors. The study explores how the tensions in scientific discussion between supervisors can become learning opportunities. We combine two different theoretical perspectives, using participation and positioning theory as a sociocultural perspective and variation theory as an individual constructivist perspective on learning. Based on our analysis of a complex episode we suggest that multiple supervisors can add value to supervision through authentic practice of scientific argumentation.

Keywords:

• PhD supervision
• multiple supervisors
• interaction
• positioning theory
• storylines
• experiencing variation

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Graduate School of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, for financial support for this research into doctoral supervision. We are also grateful to the supervisors and PhD students who opened their doors to their supervisory space to us.

Additional information

Funding

Funding. This research was conducted at the University of Copenhagen and funded by the Graduate School of Life Sciences, and the Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.