Peer-to-peer Learning in the Higher Degree by Research Context: A Creative Writing Case Study

Abstract

Peer-to-peer learning is nowadays firmly embedded in the undergraduate teaching context, understood as a way of enhancing the experience of both students (encouraging collaborative learning and building independent skills, for example) and staff (offering flexible teaching methods and a means of implementing innovative assessment, for example). Despite Boud and Lee's argument that peer-to-peer learning is a particularly relevant kind of pedagogy in the context of the Higher Degree by Research (HDR), its potential as a model of practice for candidates and supervisors remains relatively unexplored. In most universities around the world, the traditional candidate-supervisor model remains the most common method of supervision. The question we still need to ask, then, is: What might peer-to-peer learning bring to the HDR field, for both the candidate and their supervisor? In 2012, Australia's RMIT University piloted HDR peer-to-peer learning groups in three discipline areas across its three Colleges, to explore their usefulness and effectiveness in enhancing both the candidate's engagement and learning and the supervisor's practice. This paper discusses one of these groups, in the discipline area of Creative Writing, and focuses in particular on the benefits offered to the supervisor/facilitator in leading this type of activity. By exploring areas such as logistical practices, peer reviewing and critique, benchmarking skills and capabilities, and the collective experience, we will detail both the experiences and the dynamics of the group, from the supervisor/facilitator's perspective. We will draw on examples from the group's activities, and argue that supplementing conventional one-on-one supervision practices with peer-to-peer learning can enhance candidates' learning, and can be instructive and empowering for both candidates and the facilitator/supervisor.

Keywords:

• higher degree by research
• peer-to-peer
• creative writing
• PhD supervision
• research training
• writing workshop

Notes on contributors

Dr Craig Batty is a Creative Practice Research Leader at RMIT University, Australia, where he supervises many practice-based Higher Degree by Research candidates. He is a writer and script consultant, and has worked on various short film, feature film, television and online projects. He is co-author of Writing for the Screen: Creative and Critical Approaches (2008), Media Writing: A Practical Introduction (2010) and The Creative Screenwriter: Exercises to Expand Your Craft (2012), author of Movies That Move Us: Screenwriting and the Power of the Protagonist's Journey (2011) and Screenplays: How to Write and Sell Them (2012), and editor of Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context.

Dr Jennifer Sinclair works in the Research Education and Development Unit at La Trobe University, Australia, where her work involves assisting researchers to develop their research practice, including supervision practice. She has particular interests in the social and emotional aspects of research, the HDR experience and the creative aspects of research and research practice. She has published articles on research education and development in Studies in Higher Education and Higher Education Research and Development. She also recently published a chapter on creativity and research in Re-imagining the Creative University for the 21st Century (2013).

Notes

1. Business; Design and Social Context; and Science, Engineering and Health.

2. ‘Appropriate’ here refers to issues of quality and adherence to accepted definitions of research; not, for example, issues of subject matter and taste.