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'The Books Don't Talk To Me!': Postgraduate Student Groups And Research Student Identity Formation, Felicity Bell, Rita Shackel, Linda Roslyn Steele

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores alternative spaces for learning amongst postgraduate research (PGR) students in the form of research-related groups such as reading and discussion groups, writing groups, seminar series or social groups. Our research with PGR students and academics explores the pedagogy and role of such groups in student learning and identity formation. In this paper, we discuss our findings related to PGR student needs and the factors prompting the formation of research-related groups. A survey of 36 PGR students revealed that students were reasonably satisfied with the formal components of their research degrees such as supervision and mandatory units of …