Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash
Last year, I was lucky enough to begin supervision of Professional Doctorate students before I finished my Research Fellow role early last year and have obtained PhD students early into my Assistant Professor position in August/ September 2023. Now being part of so many exciting and influential projects for student’s roles and organisational funders is something that I find highly rewarding. I’ve been part of this process before but as a student undertaking my own PhD and potentially felt like I was siloed into my own research, without really acknowledging the work of others in my development. Now overseeing these projects as a supervisor and collaborating both internally and externally has allowed for a much more well-rounded experience that I’m passing onto my students.
Beginning these projects in such a short period of time has meant many projects are working on similar timelines with students either beginning data collection or finalising their planning for their research. With students being in a similar situation, I’m sure they get the feeling that they’re doing a lot of “leg work” for not a lot of outcomes and somewhat like they’re “stuck in a rut”. I see this is a perfect opportunity for developing students skillsets when finding the best solution for themselves. Although being in this moment for too long may cause students to feel disengaged and disheartened, through consistent guidance, questions and praise, I believe this approach is the best for nurturing students and facilitating their growth as a researcher.
Although I’m sure that this isn’t my own unique approach, in my view it has huge benefits that are in line with what the Graduate School of Sport and Professional Practice is about in “developing high performing, impactful people”. Through allowing this in a guided discovery approach is where we feel that the student can learn the most and develop greater. For more information on our Doctorate programme see here.
L.Anderson.4@bham.ac.uk