The development of an evaluation tool to assess doctoral research supervision at a South African University

Abstract

The Council on Higher Education (CHE) inaugural doctoral audit in South Africa underscored the importance of systematically examining different aspects of supervision. Supervision can be a facilitator or an inhibitor of success. Assessment of supervision practices must be contextually appropriate in terms of the institutional culture and local context, as well as the South African doctoral standards. The present study used a triangulated conceptual framework combining Rossiter’s C-OAR-SE framework and DeVellis’ model of test development. The study aimed to develop an instrument to measure doctoral research supervision located in the institutional context of the University of the Western Cape. Triangulation was used at the level of overarching design resulting in a multiphase study - each with its own methodology. The construction included a scoping review to identify existing instruments, an active construction phase and a validation phase. The scoping review underscored the lack of instruments focused on and appropriate for evaluating doctoral supervision. The construction phase followed explicit steps to establish a sound theoretical base complimented with operationalised scale decisions that resulted in a draft measure. Validation established conceptual construct validity. Ethics clearance was issued by the Human and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee of UWC. The resultant instrument, Doctoral Supervision Research Evaluation Tool (DoSET), was a static, selfreport, evaluation tool with five domains that was found to have a high level of conceptual construct validity.