Varying performance

Supervisors are skeptic about the varying
levels of performance among students.

Students vary in their performance throughout their programmes. Thus, it does not surprise that the same variation of performance levels among students becomes evident when they engage their final academic project. The difference, however, is that during this often more demanding phase of a study programme, the variance of performance can become even more amplified due to challenge and stress. Moreover, previously capable students might get themselves stuck with overly demanding projects or merely due to feeling the pressure. Thus, there is not only variance among student capability, but also from start to finish of a thesis project. 

In The Student’s Research Companion, we discuss the topic from several perspectives. First, varying performance becomes particularly apparent in projects that are not well-adjusted to the capabilities and growth plans of their authors and that are designed to be too complex and demanding. Of course, a lack of performance does not only depend on project-researcher-fit, but also on behaviour while researching. We discuss the downsides of comparison behaviour, the fuzziness of frustration while working on the project, being plagued with writer’s block, and risking mental overload. There seem to be countless ways of turning an otherwise capable and energetic mind into a self-disabling mess. And we have not even spoken about actual lack of talent or technique. 

Instead of acknowledging that not all students are performing brilliantly, let’s help them to carefully and consciously tailor their projects to their set of capabilities and targets for growth and try to help them avoid the biggest pitfalls.

First, lacking performance can be avoided by conservatively choosing and designing a project that has a high likeliness to succeed in high quality due to a plausible, fitting degree of difficulty. This does not mean that demanding standards need to be forgotten – to the contrary: only by setting students up on projects of manageable complexity, high standards can truly be expected and requested. Let’s be demanding by setting students up on manageable journeys and expecting excellence, rather than setting students up on risky ventures and crossing our fingers that they might make it to a degree that can still be counted as successful. Second, let’s consider our mentoring efforts as a coaching to avoid the most critical pitfalls that would threaten our students’ drive to self-lead. If the self-leadership of our students is intact and sufficiently motivated, they will manage to regain the necessary strength to build up a good performance even from a bad one. Most stuck students get unstuck. 

How do you deal with the variation of observable performance among your students during the thesis? Do you have a rule of thumb of when to help and when to encourage students to find their own way?