From Supervisory Dialogues to Successful PhDs: Strategies supporting and enabling the learning conversations of staff and students at postgraduate level

Results from action research conducted at APU largely with Israeli PhD students, start to identify good practice in supervisory dialogues, peer support and in facilitative strategies as part of research development programmes. Our results, focusing on learning conversations between students and supervisors, students and peers on research development programmes, identify strategies, supervisory relationships and support, which aid completion. This research builds on earlier studies (Wisker, 1999; Wisker et al ., 2003) into PhD students' development of research methods and conceptual frameworks, and on the work of others (Moses, 1984; Pearson, 2000) into supervisory relationships. Focus groups, workshops, questionnaires and individual supervisory dialogues with PhD students, have been conducted using an action research format. This paper concentrates on elements of the action research taking place at completion stage in students' PhDs and during the research development workshop programme (stage 3, 2000, 2001, 2002)