Writing their final thesis often feels like an unsurmountable, monolithic task for many students. However, it is actually rather a combination of a multitude of diverse tasks and challenges. The supervisor should ideally support students in identifying these and should adapt their assistance to different phases of writing and individual students’ needs.

Finding a balance between demanding independent work and support often turns into a challenge for the supervisors. In this workshop, we will reflect on our role as supervisors, different strategies for support, and constructive feedback. We will also work on grading criteria, your experiences, and possible solutions.

Learning outcomes: The participants will …

• be aware of their duties and responsibilities in supervising.
• be able to find out about students’ abilities.
• have ideas of how to adequately support students in the writing process.
• train to adapt communication when supervision gets difficult.

Content:

• Topic definition
• Strategies for motivating and supporting students
• Providing constructive feedback
• Evaluation criteria and making them transparent

Preparation and further information:

The workshop is supplemented by tasks for independent work and reflection. These self-study units add up to an additional half workshop day and are credited accordingly.

This workshop can be recognized for the Higher Education Teaching Certificate (wird in neuem Tab geöffnet) “Basic Competencies” (Elective Subject Area “advising & supporting”; 16 working units).