7.3 Co-ordinated supervision

The most accessible, and sometimes best, advice can come from the peer group. Student working practices do not always encourage this, while project work should engender the practice of asking for and providing support.

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This bundle requires students to account for their progress and discuss problems, with each other.

The way it works is by the supervisor requiring groups of individual project students to meet in a structured setting, usually meaning a minuted meeting of fixed duration?an hour normally suffices.

Working partnerships can grow spontaneously, and mature problem solving mechanisms can be developed. The formal presentation of progress requires student reflection on their achievement and plans and usually provokes conversation and debate on possibilities that are often outside the supervisor's experience.

If the group meetings are formal (minuted) and of manageable size - 5 students can meet a supervisor and exchange business within an hour. The peer pressure to attend with something positive to say is an aid that is quite absent in individual supervisions. There can also be a significant time saving over a sequence of individual supervisions, but it is important not to let the students see this as a motivation for the practice.

A variant is to rotate the tasks of chair and secretary around the students, thereby giving them experience of these organisational roles. Another variation is to alternate group meetings with individual supervisions; this provides reassurance to those who might feel the need of specialist input.

This may not work if the group of students are studying projects in disparate areas, since they may not have interest or knowledge in the work of some others. In fact, this idea has been seen to work well in such scenarios but it is necessary for the supervisor to ensure the organisational benefits are drawn out, and that no "lame ducks" develop. It may also, therefore, not work if the supervisor is wedded to the idea of 1-1 supervision.

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So: devise ways of encouraging "vicarious learning" by requiring students to explain their project triumphs and obstacles to each other.