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Helping with the viva
Useful tool for helping researchers with their viva
The following book is extremely helpful for both researchers and supervisors in preparation for the viva - ‘The Doctoral Examination Process, A handbook for students, examiners and supervisors' by Penny Tinkler, and Carolyn Jackson (ISBN 0-335-21305-7).
The table below is taken from this book, and is helpful in developing questions for you to give you researcher in a mock viva:
|
Examination and developmental purposes |
Types of questions |
|
Clarification |
"How many ...?", "How did ...?", "When ...?", "What ...?", "What do you mean by ...?" |
|
Check understanding |
"Explain how ...", "Explain the meaning of ..." |
|
Prompt justification/defence |
"Why" types of question - "Why did you ...?", "Can you explain why ...?", "Can you account for ...?" |
|
Link to broader context |
Questions about application, relevance, contribution to field, originality. Also comparative questions - "How does your approach compare with ...?" |
|
Prompt evaluation |
Questions that encourage reflection on the candidate's work and self-assessment; "Can you reflect on ...?", "How would you assess ...?", "How might you ...?", "To what extent ...?", Also hypothetical questions - "What if you ...?" |