Education for Research: The Changing Constructs of the Postgraduate

The development of research skills was investigated in case studies of seven Ph.D. students and their supervisors. A combination of repertory grids and interviews was used to monitor changes over time. Focus and Core analyses, together with feedback sessions, helped to isolate specific areas of importance to the postgraduates. Results indicated that (a) it was necessary for the students to develop an ability to evaluate their own work; (b) the pace of this development appeared to be related to the degree to which the students were allowed to remain dependent on their supervisors; (c) their enthusiasm for their Ph.D. diminished due to the length of time they had to spend working on a single problem. In addition, it appeared that providing information from the repertory grid to the students helped them to learn from their experiences of the research training process.