Newsletter March 2022: PhD students’ pedagogical competence development

There are approx. 900 PhD students at SDU. Their main task is research training, but their tasks also include an obligation to disseminate knowledge. According to the Ministerial order on PhD training (pdf) the PhD students must ‘gain experience of teaching activities or other form of knowledge dissemination which is related to the student’s PhD project’ (Part 3, par. 7, 4)), and there must be a plan for ‘teaching activities or other types of knowledge dissemination’ (Part 3, par. 9, 6)). It is the university’s obligation to offer the PhD student a teaching course and teaching guidance (Part 3, par. 8, 3) and 4)). 

The PhD student can earn credits for prior activities, and the obligation to disseminate knowledge can be achieved in different ways. The PhD plan is made in cooperation with the PhD school and the principal supervisor. The dissemination of knowledge is often carried out as teaching in the faculty’s education programs; here the PhD students will meet very different assignments – from being a student teacher to having the full responsibility for an entire course, including exams. Each faculty determines how the dissemination of knowledge should be carried out, including the type of knowledge dissemination.

Whatever kind of teaching task  the individual PhD student carries out, it must be well integrated in the PhD plan, and the PhD students must obtain relevant support in the form of courses and guidance. In support SDUUP (SDU Center for Teaching and Learning) offers the cross-faculty course ‘Getting started on your teaching’ (pdf),  which gives the PhD students the opportunity to develop their teaching competencies. The course is announced on the webpage for staff development courses.

The intention of the course is to prepare the participants to carry out their teaching tasks, but the course cannot stand alone in the development of the PhD student’s pedagogical competences. The concrete teaching experience, discussions and feedback from colleagues or a mentor are all important aspects of developing the PhD students’ competences to carry out the dissemination tasks, that is part of the PhD programme.

This course, specially arranged for PhD students, is a 2-day course with special focus on letting the participants work with active teaching and learning – an approach which is aligned with the underlying principle of education at SDU. During the course the participants work with reflections on their own role as a lecturer, matching expectations with students, and first and foremost they practice planning a course, including work with learning goals and the development of learning activities. 

It is up to the faculties to decide whether their PhD students should attend the course ‘Getting started on your teaching'. Most significantly is that the faculties support the PhD students in the planning and development of their pedagogical competencies. 

Many PhD students have their first teaching experiences at the university, and this in itself is often the first challenge they meet. Others may have little og some teaching experience on their résumé, but regardless of previous education assignments they are facing new challenges. Their challenges are many and varied and may resemble those that other lecturers are dealing with. Read more about:

• The challenges that the PhD students face
• An interview with PhD-student Karsten Thomsen about his teaching experiences and involvement in competence development