Graduate Students’ Perceived Needs and Preferences for Supervisor Written Feedback for Thesis Writing

Yenus Nurie

doi:10.17323/jle.2020.10340

Abstract

A plethora of previous research has explored students’ preferences for written feedback from teachers to respond to students’ writing in the classroom. However, little or no research has investigated graduate students’ needs and preferences regarding written feedback provided by their supervisors in response to thesis writing. This study examined the feedback needs and preferences of EFL graduate students to the three nominated themes defining supervisor written feedback to thesis writing in this study: content, genre, and linguistic feedback to thesis writing. Data was collected from 32 master’s students from the TEFL and Media and Communications at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia using a questionnaire and an unstructured interview. The participants’ responses were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that both groups commonly preferred feedback on content the most. When sub-categories of this feedback were examined further, it was found that TEFL students favored gaps in theoretical understanding, but Media and Communications students preferred coverage and gaps in the literature. They also showed discrepancies regarding their preferences for part-genres in thesis writing and the various features of linguistic accuracy. The results of this study suggest that feedback on theses should be realized in regard to the needs and preferences of graduate students. Finally, implications for further research that could shed light on the resonant understanding of feedback on thesis writing are presented.

Highlights

Written feedback on a student thesis is a critical aspect of supervision in higher education
As the purpose of this study is to explore the perceived written feedback needs of postgraduate students, this study focuses on three distinct feedback types provided by supervisors in response to student thesis writing; these are feedback on content, feedback on genre, and feedback on linguistic accuracy and appropriateness
The results obtained from the questionnaire and interview data were organized according to the order in which the two research questions were structured: (1) the types of written feedback graduate students emphasized and (2) the comparison results of feedback preferences between TEFL and Media and Communication students

Summary

Introduction

Written feedback on a student thesis is a critical aspect of supervision in higher education. The mounting evidence on the role of feedback has attracted considerable attention in higher education where effective and high quality feedback is found to be a key element of quality teaching in higher education (Ali, Watson, & Dhingra, 2016; Basturkmen, East, & Bitchener, 2014; Ghandi, & Maghsoudi, 2014; Hoomanfard, Jafarigohar, Jalilifar, & Hosseini, 2018; Leng, 2014; Wang & Jiang, 2015) Another interesting recent development in the field of writing is that while the value of feedback in teaching and learning is consistently reiterated in educational literature, a considerable amount of research has provided important assertions about the critical role of feedback in helping graduate students determine the parts of writing that are correct and the parts that need correction for improved writing as well as alerting students of their strengths and weaknesses in academic writing (Manjet, 2016). This insight has significant pedagogical implications for supervisors of thesis writing, suggesting that instruction should be usually given either on written or oral feedback or both by supervisors when students are writing a thesis (Bitchener, Basturkmen, & East, 2010)

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