The postgraduate student experience of study support: a phenomenographic analysis

Abstract

This study seeks to examine variation in the study support experiences of a group of students on a taught master's programme in the United Kingdom. Whilst this offers a very specific UK focus, the article draws upon related work in Australian, American and African contexts on study support, academic development and academic literacy. A phenomenographic analysis is used in order to ascertain the variation in perceptions of study support within the postgraduate student group under study, and the resulting 'outcome space' is analysed with respect to current thinking about learner development. This study concludes with an examination of how the tensions and conflicts that arise through a lack of shared meanings and aspirations can serve as an indicator of the need for a common understanding of both the range of student profiles in higher education, and of what we mean by study support.

Strategy and Strategic Management Concepts: Are They Recognised by Management Students?

“…This model contains a set of categories hierarchically structuralized around the phenomenon under study [36]. Consequently, the researcher aims at constituting a logical structure relative to different meanings.…”

Troublesome learning journey

“…The other perspective reflects students' concerns about their inadequate levels of academic competency and some literature, for example Conway (2011) and Butler (2009) certainly suggest that there is a percentage (again not quantified) of students for whom these self-doubts are well placed. Lea and Street's (1998) work is drawn on by Hallett (2010) and Strauss and Mooney (2011), to identify different dimensions of postgraduate students academic competency needs. These were, firstly, skills such as grammar and spelling, developing appropriate search terms to source relevant reading sources and structuring writing for different purposes.…”

Strategy and strategic management concepts: are they recognised by management students?

“…However studies on the field of education [5], [13], [19], [36], [63], [82] and on consumer behaviour [87] also played their role in the methodological decisions taken over the course of this research project.…”

“…After an exhaustive search of available scientific databases, only one study of a similar nature was found, the Shanahan and Gerber [75] research on the concept of quality in HEIs, which proved the inspiration for the research set out here. Most of the other phenomenography studies found deal with educational teaching methods [5], [13], [19], [36], [63], [82] or, in fewer cases, the behaviour of consumers [88]. In the field of strategy, they both represent an innovation and a new alternative for research.…”