SDU UP: Newsletter
About PhD Students and Their Teaching
Gain insight into the teaching challenges PhD students face — and learn how SDU CTL’s courses help strengthen their skills as new teachers.
We have more than 1000 PhD students at SDU. Most of them have, to some extent, a teaching obligation — which means that, sooner or later, they find themselves standing outside a classroom door, well prepared and with a slight flutter in their stomach.
One of the things that can spark a sense of unease is the idea that the students might ask questions the PhD student cannot answer, that the academic level will not be high enough, that they have planned too little to fill out the lesson, that the students will not respond to the questions they ask, and many other worrying scenarios.
SDU CTL offers courses that support PhD students in their role as teachers. Module I consists of two introductory days focusing on general aspects of the teaching situation. Here, we prefer to mix participants from as many faculties as possible, as our experience shows that they benefit greatly from talking to peers who may do things differently from themselves.
Module II, planned to launch this spring, aims to group participants according to the specific conditions relevant to their teaching tasks — for example, whether they teach small or large groups of students, teach in laboratories, supervise students, teach only a few times or are responsible for an entire semester of teaching, and so on. Module II consists of a single course day supplemented by preparatory work.
Active Teaching
In Module I, we take our starting point in the challenges the participants have submitted in advance — for example, the unease that can arise when facing a group of inactive students who are not easily persuaded to speak up during class. We explore different ways of encouraging students to talk to one another and engage with the material at hand, enabling the teacher to support students in developing an active understanding rather than passive knowledge. We work partly by discussing various teaching methods, but just as importantly by involving participants in a wide range of learning activities that can be adapted and transferred to their own teaching context.
Quote from PhD student: : Riccardo Terrenzi
I had never taught before, so this course was particularly important for me.
It gave me a first structured introduction to pedagogy and what teaching really involves. I realized that many of the doubts I had are actually common among new teachers. That was reassuring and helped me feel more confident about starting to teach.
I especially appreciated how interactive the course was rather than purely theoretical. The games and exercises made the concepts concrete and directly applicable. Many of my initial questions were answered naturally through these activities. I also learned that teachers are not expected to know everything, which was very relieving. Instead, teaching is about guiding students and learning alongside them.
Overall, the course gave me both practical tools and the confidence to take my first steps as a teacher.
- Riccardo Terrenzi, PhD student SDU Center for Industrial Software - CIS, MMMI
Safety in the classroom
Another recurring theme is the importance of a safe learning environment. This is partly connected to the use of active teaching methods. We occasionally hear from students that they do not always wish to answer or ask questions, or comment during class, because they fear appearing uninformed or being laughed at; in other words, they feel somewhat unsafe in the teaching space.
We encourage PhD students to legitimise the idea that it is entirely expected for students to “not know yet.” They are in the process of being educated, discovering a field, and learning strategies for mastering a discipline and its methods. ‘Not knowing’ is, in fact, a fundamental driving force behind the very existence of the university.
When students ask questions during class, we encourage PhD students not to offer answers immediately, but instead invite other students to explore possible answers. This approach recognises that the search for answers is an essential academic competence and a valuable learning strategy.
Such a practice creates a framework that signals and legitimises that this is a space where we work with things we do not yet know. In fact, the teacher can lead by example in the inevitable and slightly uncomfortable moments when a student asks a question they genuinely cannot answer: “I actually don’t have an answer to that right now — what do the rest of you think?”
Quote from PhD student: Amanda Ryssel Hovman
“I participated in the PhD course for new teachers in November last year. I found it particularly valuable to discuss teaching methods and approaches with other PhD students and, through these conversations, gain new inspiration and ideas for my own teaching. During the course, we had productive discussions about learning methods, and how teaching can be structured to support learning at different levels, as well as what characterise a good student, a good teacher, and good teaching. This has made it easier for me to identify which teaching approach I should use to help students achieve the learning objectives of the course.”
- Amanda Ryssel Hovman, Psychologist and PhD student
National Centre for Psychotraumatology, Department of Psychology
International PhD Students
A large proportion of our PhD students come from international backgrounds. While there is no major difference in what they highlight as challenging about being new teachers, certain questions do surface from time to time — such as “Is it acceptable that students knit during class?” or “How do I get Danish students to prepare for teaching sessions?” These are questions many would like to have a clear and simple answer to. At times, we simply ask the participants themselves: What would make you prepare for class? On other occasions, some of the Danish participants help point to what may hinder students’ preparation. They might, for instance say:
- Excessive amounts of reading or assignments
- Teachers going through exactly what students have already prepared
- The prepared material not being addressed during class
- Students cannot find relevance or purpose in the tasks or texts they are asked to prepare
Such contributions give us an opportunity to encourage participants to reflect on how these aspects may play a role in their own teaching. It also allows them to consider why they ask students to prepare the material they do, how that preparation contributes to overall understanding, and — not least — how they can communicate the meaningfulness of the preparation, if they know themselves. We discuss reading questions and the importance of making explicit what is central and constitutive for the discipline — and therefore worth engaging with using deep-learning strategies.
Teaching Planning
Along the way, we visit the participants’ course descriptions and discuss learning objectives, taxonomic levels, and the coherence between learning activities, learning objectives, and the exam. The difference between a skill and a competence is not always clear, and it is generally very different how well the learning objectives help PhD students plan the content of the course. Module I gives participants the opportunity to examine and describe their course descriptions in a language they understand, making it easier to plan the course and create a common thread throughout it.
Years of Experience
As a backdrop to the course content, the participants also share their perspectives on what they consider to be good and well-functioning teachers from their own experience. They discuss and share what characteristics 'the good lecturer' has, what actions she takes, and the learning environment she creates. This usually also leads to an awareness that good teaching comes in many forms and that each teacher must find their own version of a being a good teacher.
Module II
Teaching roles is one of the main topics we will work with in Module II. Along with 'research-based teaching' we will dive into how participants can integrate research into their teaching and what teaching positions are possible. The participants will also be introduced to a range of research-informed approaches to the topic — approaches you can read much more about in the next edition of SDU CTL’s newsletter.
Offers for sparring or workshops
If any of the above topics have sparked your interest - even if you are not a PhD student - please get in touch. We are happy to discuss your specific teaching or organise a workshop for you and your colleagues.
Upcoming PhD courses from SDU UP:
Responsible for this month's newsletter
Lea Stær Eskesen
Pedagogical consultant
See also
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