Supervising
Changing The Supervisor-Student Dynamic
Supervisory sessions can be made more dynamic with user-friendly activities and tools to support discussions. Students can receive up to five hours of supervisory support throughout the reflective project process. Within this time allowance, there must be three formal meetings for students which inform their official reflections in the RPPF as well as to give feedback on their one draft. By the supervisor taking the role of the caring inquirer, students become better critical thinkers.
Coordinators might find this short think-piece on the challenges of academic integrity for the core, useful. It supports academic integrity in the reflective project process. See also links to exploring academic integrity and the use of AI.
Spotlight on academic integrity
Academic Integrity is a fundamental aspect of the CP course and no greater way is played out than in the reflective project process. For schools offering CP or multiple IB programmes including CP, this is familiar territory indeed. Academic Integrity is also an area that all stakeholders need refreshing about every year so ensuring that Core, DP and CRS staff are up to speed with what malpractice can look like and what to do if they are suspect issues, is crucial. Now with the emergence of AI, arguably we are better equipped to face further challenges.
In regards to the use of AI, the IB's stance is relatively straightforward: it must be sited like any other source. The key to using AI is exactly that - it must become part of the way students are taught academic integrity and a helpful research tool. The transparency we have always expected has not changed. At the IB conference in Dublin in 2023, it was discussed in a session that the key to identifying the overuse of AI, compromising students is the student losing their own voice completely; this struck me as a good way of describing any piece of work that has not been referenced properly and where plagiarism is in evidence, irrespective of whether AI is in the picture or not. What is different now is the need to know our students, and to really use the supervisory process effectively has stepped up several notches in urgency. Giving feedback
Interestingly, in the core guidance it is the reflective project area that needs arguably more attention. It details the need here for supervision to move remotely and how this can be carried out. Remember the role of the supervisor is to witness the reflective project process in a way that they can verify that the work is the student’s own authentic research and exploration. It might be that remote supervision calls for supervisors to pay close attention to comparing previous work with current work to check that the student’s work is consistently progressing without anomalies. Certainly, it is also sensible to ask students to provide excerpts and evidence of the research they have done to confirm not only the amount of work they have done but also how they have used it.
It remains that the supervisor’s key role is to ask good open questions that guides students into getting the most out of the reflective project so the more the student feels they can interact in as natural way as possible with their supervisor the better; making real use of a shared online RSS – essentially a journal with vlogs, blogs, photos, videos, comments, questions, extended reflections can make the job of tracking the student’s reflective project process a lot easier and also more enjoyable. Arguably it establishes a use for the Research and Reflection Space in a far more authentic and useful way than is often utilized by students in ‘normal’ times. Many centres also use plagiarism software which can be really helpful but obviously results need to be scrutinized and not taken at face value.
The supervisor's role is limited
Wrong. The supervisor's role in the production of the reflective project can unfortunately become understood in terms of what they cannot do rather than what they can. This may well be because it is immediately seen through the eyes of familiar roles of teacher and examiner. It is important to get the perception of the supervisor right as it is a unique role that demands, irrespective of career-related subject, the ability to ask open questions consistently throughout the process and to be able to listen.
You cannot be a supervisor if you are not a career-related studies specialist
Wrong. In fact, arguably, it is better when the supervisor does not have expert knowledge in the student's chosen topic as it removes the temptation to 'teach'. The ideal outcome for this process is that the student truly becomes the expert and in charge of their research and understanding so that the supervisor can learn from them.
The supervisor marks multiple drafts
No. The supervisor gives feedback on one full draft.
The supervisor does not mark the final essay
Yes they do and submit this to the IB assisted by the reflective project coordinator. Furthermore, the supervisor will authenticate the piece of work as they have witnessed the whole process and can verify the academic integrity of the final reflective project.
Discuss the implications of the role of the supervisor and who will be supervisors for your school's context. What could be done to improve the delivery of the reflective project in your school?
Overview of the supervisor's role
The supervisor needs to understand the reflective project process and end product so they can fill in the gaps for students as they come to terms with what they need to do. In addition to this, they need to be able to recommend appropriate research methods. The next step is for the supervisor to help the student plan their research and their final piece. Students are expected to complete this piece themselves but it is over a substantial period of time so a key element of the supervisor's role is to help their student keep engaged in the process which can be difficult. The main aim of the supervisor is to keep their student on the right ethical and assessment path. Most of all they will use discussion to become aware of what they need to produce as well as to access the assessment criteria so they build skills and realise the significance of their research, understanding and thinking processes. Of course, too little assistance from the supervisor or too much from another source must be recorded in the RPPF.
Summary of the requirements of the supervisor's role
The supervisor is required to check that the reflective project process is carried out with academic integrity the entire time.
Expanding on the summary above, supervisors must:
- check that their students understand the meaning of ethics especially in relation to the career-related studies
- check that their students understand the assessment criteria and what it means to work with academic integrity
- use discussion to help formulate a good research question that is safe to carry out
- support the student in reading and writing according to their needs
- give students access to exemplars and helping them understand how to reference and cite
- hold informal and formal meetings with the student with the latter used to complete the RPPF reviews
- mark and give criteria based feedback on one full draft (see Giving feedback)
- mark the final copy and confirm the piece as an authentic piece of work with their own comments.
- report any plagiarism or suspicions fo plagiarism to the CP coordinator
Summary of the recommendations of the supervisor's role
Supervisors might read reflective project assessment reports to help their understanding.
They should meet a number of times with students (as well as 3 formal meetings) altogether totalling 3-5 hours.
Make sure the research question is appropriate particularly in relation to the student's career-related study.
Advise students on where to find resources, what to do with them and how to record them.
Further thoughts to consider
Idea: Rather than allocate supervisors to students, allocate supervisors to questions. Better still ask supervisors to choose a question that they have a particular interest or engagement with.
For supervisors to be effective they need access to resources on ethical, critical, reflective thinking as well as research, writing and assessment skills to assist discussions. This can obviously be the same resources that the students have been introduced to in PPS and specific reflective project lessons so they use the same advice. This is a way of providing a consistency to the experience of all students too.
Links to resources that explore:
Ethical understanding
Research skills
Critical thinking methods
Reflective questions
Self assessment and exemplars
Writing skills