Adelaide Graduate Centre publications

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Browsing Adelaide Graduate Centre publications by Author "Adams, K."

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    Knowing that the other knows: using experience and reflection to enhance communication in cross-cultural postgraduate supervisory relationships
    (HERDSA, 2003) Adams, K.; Cargill, M.; Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Conference (26th : 2003 : Christchurch, NZ); Bond, C.; Bright, P.
    International postgraduate research students and their supervisors sail into an unknown future when they embark on their supervisory relationships. Difficulties may arise when their beliefs and expectations about the relationship are not complementary. Differences may derive from expectations based on past learning experiences, understandings about the rights and responsibilities of the parties involved, and beliefs about appropriate communicative behaviours and politeness strategies. Communication may be further hampered by either party's lack of awareness of his or her own communicative behaviour and how it influences the responses of the other person. As a result, without ways to enhance communication and clarify issues, international students and their supervisors can spend a good deal of time and energy miscommunicating, especially early in the relationship. Occasionally these difficulties become entrenched and may threaten the student's candidature. This paper describes a workshop for commencing international postgraduate research students and their supervisors that aims to address these concerns. Structured around a pyramid discussion format, the workshop engages participants in a process of critiquing viewpoints and negotiating consensus in a cross-cultural environment. Participants also reflect on their own communicative behaviours as well as those of others. The workshop encourages students and supervisors to consider the way they ... [more]communicate their points of view in group settings and how this is relevant to their interactions in supervisory meetings. Observation and participant feedback indicate that students and supervisors gain valuable insights into the way they communicate with each other, and that the shared experience of the workshop process - knowing that the other knows - provides a supportive background for future communication
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    Modelling success: enhancing international postgraduate research students' self-efficacy for research seminar presentations
    (Carfax Publishing Ltd, 2004) Adams, K.
    Most postgraduate research students face the task of presenting an oral seminar on their proposed research early in their candidature. Those of us who work with international postgraduate research students know that they can find this task daunting, and the literature both in Australia and abroad confirms that these students often lack confidence in this task. This paper presents findings of a small case study which compared the influence of observing a seminar performance of a peer to that of a senior academic on the confidence, or self-efficacy, for seminar presentations of participants in a bridging program for international postgraduate research students at an Australian university. Participants responded to a 19-item questionnaire which measured self-efficacy for four areas of seminar presentation: speech, display, content, and presenter presence. The results indicated that the use of a peer model performance was the more effective pedagogical method for enhancing student confidence in this context.
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    Postgraduate induction: Emerging evidence from a discipline-based program
    (Australian Universities Quality Agency, 2004) Adams, K.; Zander, A.; Australian Universities Quality Forum (3rd : 2004 : Adelaide, Australia); Carmichael, R.
    This paper describes the process of developing a structured induction program for postgraduate research students. The program curriculum attempts to make explicit elements of research and professional cultures in the field of Mechanical Engineering, and to foster the skills and knowledge needed by students to participate in them. Initial findings from surveys of students and staff reveal that the program has succeeded in improving students’ research communication and general progression through candidature. They also suggest that students appear to be showing less initiative in their approach to research, a finding that has particular relevance to the Engineering profession.