PhD Think Tank

On Monday all of my PhD students met in Sydney – traveling from as far as Fiji to be together. We rarely spend time in the same location since everyone is based in a different city. Each student had 1.5 hours to present their work to the others and to gain feedback from the group about any aspect of their PhD. Sarah Verdon gained feedback about data collected during her 5 month trip across 5 continents to visit places where educators and speech pathologists worked with multilingual children. Suzanne Hopf discussed how the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was going to be used as the theoretical framework to underpin her work to consider Fijian children's speech, language, and literacy. Sarah Masso discussed how she was using factor and cluster analyses to differentiate children with speech sound disorders based on their production of polysyllables. Kate Crowe shared advice for success in the final stages of writing a PhD. It was such a useful day and everyone gained insights into each others’ work, as well as their own. My students continually keep in touch throughout the year, sharing papers, techniques, tips, and encouraging one another. Being together in a face-to-face context strengthens this community of practice. 

Dr Kate Crowe, Sarah Masso, Sarah Verdon, Suzanne Hopf, and Sharynne in Sydney