Thesis Finalisation Self-efficacy – A Useful Concept for Improving Undergraduate Thesis Supervision

Abstract

Although undergraduate thesis finalisation tends to improve when combining individual and group supervision activities, the theoretical justifications for forming such combinations and the evaluation of their sub-components’ comparative impact on students’ progression is lacking. We introduce the concept of thesis finalisation self-efficacy (TFSE) and explore the application of the TFSE-supporting supervision model in one undergraduate programme. The five-stage design research, including the analysis of input from surveys and interviews with participating students and supervisors, showed that the TFSE-supporting supervision model supported TFSE the most through vicarious experiences provided by group meetings, mastery experiences stemming from the supervisor’s feedback to thesis plans and thesis drafts, and verbal persuasion by the supervisor during group meetings. Improving students’ abilities, through activities for the entire student cohort, and interactions between students outside of group meetings had a less strong impact on TFSE. Still, complementing traditional individual supervision with group supervision and cohort activities, in the form of thesis seminar courses, appeared to be rewarding. Our application of such a model led to an improvement in graduation rates, without a decrease in thesis quality, while simultaneously improving students’ thesis writing experience. It also created time-savings for thesis supervisors and enabled more focused attention on the content of the thesis.