Supervision of Master's students - FULLY BOOKED

Course description

This is a two-days course for those who have little experience with supervision of master research. During this course you will learn about supervising tasks, roles and criteria. We will also touch upon mutual expectations of the Master’s student and the supervisor. You will learn how to design and plan a supervision route. We will practice basic conversation skills and written feedback on texts. Specific issues based on the questionnaire, that you fill in at the start of the course, will be considered as well.

Learning objectives

This course will improve your supervision skills from ‘simply copying what you experienced as a master student’ to knowing what to do, when to do it and how to do it. You will learn how to work with a student towards a good end result in a pleasant and effective way. You will gain insight and develop skills on a variety of topics:

• Developing a perspective:
  • What is the goal of master research? What does it aim for? 
  • Assessment criteria: how is assessment done properly?
  • Mutual expectations of student and supervisor: what is reasonable and workable?
  • Supervisor roles: becoming flexible in how you relate to the actual situation and task
• Developing a supervision plan: 
  • What is the structure of the research process?
  • What to do when and how? (student’s and supervisor tasks)
  • Critical phases of the process: pitfalls and how to prevent them
• Communication skills: how to use various interview skills?
• Providing constructive (written) feedback
• How to handle difficult situations that individual participants have encountered (or fear to encounter)

There will be a short amount of time spent on regulations of the GSLS.

Instructional method

This course requires active engagement of the participants. Personal experiences with supervision are used as a basis. Reflection, both in smaller and larger groups, and discussion, will help to place this in the context of what we know from theory. Written assignments, role play and peer coaching will be used as well.

Please note that a homework assignment is an important part of this course. After the first meeting you will develop a supervision plan, exchange this with a fellow participant and give each other feedback on your work. The estimated time for this is about 2 hours.

Intake

Before the start of the course you are asked to fill in an orientation questionnaire for two reasons: 1) to adjust the course to the specific questions and needs of the participants and 2) to make sure this course is the right one for you: based on your prior training and experiences you will get an advice to join, or partially join (for instance in case you have followed a communication skills training).

Trainer

Marjan Ossebaard – Instituut voor Innovatie en Leren

Group size

10 to 12 participants

Number of credits

0.6 EC

Course schedule

Course certificate

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

This course counts as didactic training for your University Teaching Qualification (BKO). 
Learn more about achieving a University Teaching Qualification (BKO).

Course fee

Internal PhD candidates: €0
UU/UMC academic staff: €395
External participants (space permitting): €655
 

• Internal PhD candidates are PhD candidates who are registered with the Graduate School of Life Sciences via MyPhD. 
• UU/UMC academic staff are PhD candidates of Utrecht University who are not registered to the Graduate School of Life Sciences via MyPhD, postdocs employed by Utrecht University or UMC Utrecht and other academic staff employed at Utrecht University or UMC Utrecht.
• External participants are all other participants.

Our no-show policy

We are happy to offer courses and workshops for free to all GSLS PhDs. 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;
• You have to attend both full course sessions;
• Not meeting the attendance requirements or cancelling within four weeks before the course starts means you will be charged no-show fee (€200 for this course);
• We are unable to make any exceptions.

This course is good way of getting to know the most important aspects of what it entails to be(come) a good supervisor. Both the experience from the teacher as well as from the other students really helped me gain more insight into the supervision process.

The course provided me useful tools to supervise and support a student during a master project (e.g. the writing of a supervision plan, advises on giving feedbacks, the different roles of a supervisors).