Supervision of High School Students

Target audience

PhD candidates in the first, second or third year of their PhD. Note that the actual research work has to be started when the thesis track commences. English speaking PhD’s are also invited to join.

Course description

If you love doing research and like to motivate talented high school students to become enthusiastic as well, this course could be exactly what you are looking for. In this hands-on course you will learn both communicating about your subject and supervise young students from the U-Talent Academy in their research thesis. See https://u-talent.nl/academy/ (Dutch only) for more information about the U-Talent Academy.

You will supervise a group of three high school students of the U-Talent Academy (age: 16-18) in performing research for their thesis at your working space during 4 days. Next to this actual supervision you will attend four course sessions. Before the first session you will be asked to give your specific learning objectives, so that we can address the topics that are most wanted.

For more information about the U-Talent thesis project, please contact Anita Kokelaar (J.J.Kokelaar@uu.nl).

Learning objectives

At the end of this course:

• You know how to supervise high school students (16-18 years old) who have little to no research experience.
• You can communicate about your work at a relatively simple level to the students.
• You can identify a small but relevant research topic (relevant for you and the students).
• You know how to use the research cycle in explaining the set-up of a research project.
• You will know the different ways of giving feedback and how to use them.

Instructional method

During the four course sessions you will:

• Learn the do’s and don’ts in how to supervise the students during the set-up of their research and their actual four days of ‘practical’ work (U-Talent Academy teachers).
• Learn how to discuss the results with the students and keep them motivated to work like a professional scientist (former supervisors and U-Talent teachers).
• Learn how to use the research cycle in setting up a research and learn which feedback tools you can use when they evaluate their results and present them to you (lecturers of the Freudenthal Institute).
• Meet your group of students.
• Set up your own learning goals in agreement with the Freudenthal lecturer who will also assess if these goals were achieved.

Course trainers

Part of the course will be given by people from U-Talent who have a lot of experience in teaching high school students. Anita Kokelaar, PhD, was a high school chemist teacher and is now curriculum coordinator at the U-Talent Academy. The teachers at the U-Talent Academy all have or have had a job as a high school teacher and are experienced in guiding/supervising U-Talent students with their thesis. The trainers form the Freudenthal Institute (PhD’s) have experience with training students at the Graduate School of Teaching.

Group size

max. 25 participants

Number of credits

2.0 EC

Course schedule

In February 2021, you have to provide a title and a short text on your field of research (max. 100 words).

You will attend four meetings of ~2 hours:

1. April 19 or 20, 2021 (exact date and time will follow) – Information on thesis project, do‘s and don’ts
   Meeting with peer PhD candidates, pitching your project to peers and others present, learning about the U-Talent thesis track by U-Talent teachers and presentations of scientists who already supervised one or more groups. Set up your own learning goals: when will this course be a success to you?
2. May 25, 2021 (exact time will follow) – Supervision styles
   Meeting with lecturer of the Graduate School of Teaching of the Freudenthal Institute on teaching and supervising high school students.
3. May/June 2021 (by appointment) – Meeting with students
   Meeting with ‘your’ students and present your work and the possibilities for them to work at.
4. October 2021 (by appointment) - Reflection and evaluation
   Meeting with your peer PhD candidates and sharing experiences. Reflecting on the supervision and on your role as a supervisor. Filling out an evaluation of the process. Assessment by lecturer of Freudenthal Institute.

In addition to the meetings, you will have

1. Communication with the student/U-Talent staff (8 to 12 hours)
2. Assignments: 1 hour per session (4 hours)
3. Actual supervision of students during research days (4 days of 6 to 8 hours). Preferably in September 2021 or earlier.

Course certificate

You will receive a certificate after actively participating in all course sessions.

Course fee

This course is free for PhD candidates.

Our no-show policy

We are happy to offer courses and workshops for free to all GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Our activities tend to be fully booked well in advance. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. 

This is how we work: 

• Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend;
• If you need to cancel your registration, do so at the earliest possible moment, at least four weeks before the start of the course;
• If you really have to, you are allowed to miss up to one session of this course in total. You always have to attend the first course session.