Thesis Supervision – Balancing student support and students’ autonomy (D/E)


Amount of working units : 8 AE
Max. Number of participants: 12

Date:

  • October 12, 2017, 9 am - 5 pm


Please register until September 30, 2017.

Venue:

  • Waldweg 26, room 3.117, 3rd floor

  • Content:
    What are common prerequisites for being a good supervisor? How can I provide an appropriate amount of supervision without feeling like ‘spoon feeding’ the students or leaving them all by themselves?
    The workshop addresses these questions as well as other supervisory challenges and provides an opportunity to reflect on student supervision from the viewpoint of both the supervisor and of the supervised student. Participants will review supervising method alternatives, the process of selecting appropriate supervision approaches and adapting to individual student requirements. The workshop will also explore evaluation of the supervision process and qualitative evaluation of student thesis work. This includes the concept of the supervisor-student contract, delineation of responsibilities, dealing with conflict, methodological supervising dialogue and the provision of relevant constructive feedback.The workshop will proceed step-by-step from the participant’s individual perception and preconceptions regarding the role of the supervisor and the student to the first meeting, the development of the supervisor-student relationship from the initial moment and throughout the thesis work progress to conclusion and eventual follow-up.

    Goals:
    At the end of the workshop the participant should be able to

    • define and operationalize your own role as supervisor and your expectations towards the student,
    • identify and select strategies for supervising individual students,
    • provide relevant and timely constructive support and to handle critical incidents.

    • Used methods:
      The workshop will be based on facilitator input, small-group discussions and exercises and plenary discussions. Participants will be
      invited to share their experiences as “mini-cases” in order to explore and expand the knowledge base.

      Keywords
      Supervision, student support, feedback, role of the supervisor, role of the student, critical incidents, individual responsibility, teacher-student contract

      Trainer:
      Geir Gunnlaugsson has a background as a teacher and researcher at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, but has worked full-time as an educational developer at the Unit for Academic Teaching and Learning at Uppsala University since 2012. Besides arranging and facilitating competence training programs for university staff he is coordinator for the unit’s consultative operations both within and outside the organization. He develops and facilitates professional competence training programs for Swedish government agencies such as the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of university networks such as the Uppsala-Göttingen-Groningen-Gent U4-network,as well as acting as educational development consultant for numerous organizations. He specializes in issues regarding curriculum development and quality teaching and learning, the internationalization of the curriculum and the classroom, on developing the Case-methodology in academic disciplines, presentation technique and lecturing, IT and technology in teaching and learning and the evolution and development of distance and blended learning.