Towards Increasing Supervision Capacity: The Pyramid Cohort Supervision Model

Abstract

Supervision capacity is under pressure since the increase in the number of postgraduate students has not been met with a corresponding increase in competent supervisors. To meet this demand, lecturers without any supervision experience have had to start supervising. Therefore the need is not only for increasing student supervision; staff members need experiential supervision training. This paper describes the design, implementation and first evaluation of the pyramid cohort supervision model (PCSM) for honours students. PCSM increases supervision capacity while supporting novice supervisors through research-based scaffolding interventions that integrate technology into the supervision process. Design Science research was used to develop the model and it was implemented with a group of honours students at the University of South Africa. The contribution is an innovative supervision model based on the principles of co-operative learning, conversational theory and scaffolding. This paper should be of interest to lecturers and researchers dealing with the challenge of providing quality supervision to large numbers of students while mentoring novice supervisors.