ABSTRACT
Based on the shared interest of six academics with master supervision responsibilities within accounting and auditing master’s programmes in Norway, we explore how the supervisor supports the personal academic growth of accounting and auditing students during their master’s thesis writing. We theorise students’ personal academic growth, by combining the notion of theory development and revised Bloom’s taxonomy on learning, teaching and assessing. Empirically, we bring to the readers our own experience as supervisors of master students via the use of memory work methodology. We claim that master students, regardless of their background, need clear guidance and support from the supervisor in defining answers to the three major questions around their master theses: “What and why?”, “How?” and “So what?”, from the start of the research. This facilitates students’ transition from the level of remembering and understanding to the level of application and analysis, evaluation and creation. We suggest ways to address the challenges and provide examples of fostering students’ analytical skills and critical thinking, which are in high demand in the modern accounting and auditing profession.
