Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) doctoral seminar

In Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES)’s doctoral seminars, PhD and EdD students present their research in the field of higher education studies.

This month, hear from two final year doctoral students, Lesley and Eshan. 

The seminar is open to UCL students and staff, and will be of particular interest to doctoral students, especially those preparing for their final submission and viva, as well as UCL staff.

Presentations

‘Peer power’, ‘critical friends’ and ‘safe spaces’: Reappraising the role(s) of peers, friends and tutors in effective feedback provision during the first term of master’s study

Lesley Price, EdD candidate

Using written feedback reflections and interviews with postgraduate education students and tutors, I explore how students’ initial perspectives on what constitutes effective feedback evolve in dialogic interaction with peers, friends and tutors using an Activity Theory approach (Engstrom, 1987). This approach focuses on the inter-relationships between different elements of an activity system (subject, object, tools, rules, community and division of labour or roles) identifying the changing dynamics between them. In this study incidental encounters with negative critical feedback acted as catalysts for deeper reflection, leading to enhanced self-efficacy and greater personal responsibility for feedback effectiveness. Through an increased understanding of the factors that can prompt reevaluation of effective feedback involvement, practitioners can design peer-led activities to better support such incidental encounters with critical feedback.

Experiencing Self-Regulated Learning in Contemporary Higher Education

Eshan Dauhoo, PhD Candidate

Drawing on qualitative research in higher education, this study explores how students navigate learning in contemporary contexts. Using semi-structured interviews, it examines self-regulated learning as a contextually shaped practice and considers implications for engagement and agency.

CHES doctoral seminars

If any supervisors have a postgraduate research student working in any area of Higher Education Studies and approaching submission, who might like to present at a CHES Seminar, please contact holly.smith@ucl.ac.uk.
 

Links

• CHES research events
• Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES)
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Image: Unsplash/bantersnaps.