Practicing Dialogic Pedagogy to Support Alignment of Student-Supervisor Expectations

The misalignment of student-supervisor expectations has been suggested as a major contributor to slow completion times and high attrition rates for doctoral students. This study provided the first in-depth direct comparison of student-supervisor expectations in Malaysia. A hierarchical model of student-supervisor expectations was presented, describing the extent to which both students and supervisors clarify their expectations. It also explored the potential reasons for expectations misalignment and proposed the Dialogic Practice to Negotiate Student-Supervisor Expectations in postgraduate supervision in Malaysia. This research can enhance university policies and offer a new way to apply dialogic pedagogy to align student-supervisor expectations.