THEME: How can student independence be promoted in thesis guidance?

Many thesis supervisors have a desire to promote student independence. It may be, for example, that the student themself must take responsibility for the thesis process and not simply leave it to the supervisor. Or that you, as a supervisor, will not provide complete answers to all academic doubts that the student may have. But in practice, you often end up taking on more responsibility for the process and delivering more finished answers than you had originally intended. It is often easier in the situation, and the students are usually happy about it. So, if you want your tutoring to actually promote student independence, you can advantageously select some concrete tutoring strategies to achieve this goal. For example, asking the student to:

• to send an agenda before each guidance meeting and review/adapt it together at the meeting, as well as to end the meeting by summarising what he/she perceives as the next steps in the process.
• to include a cover letter when sending text with information on what guidance/feedback is particularly desired and reasons for this, as well as how previous feedback has been incorporated.
• formulate possible solutions to professional questions and consider the implications of these solutions.
• to seek out and use relevant resources yourself, for example on academic writing, literature search or specific methods.

The examples can form a starting point for a reflection on how one's own guidance practice on a concrete level can promote student independence.

Tine Wirenfeldt Jensen has written a PhD thesis on the Danish university specialism and has published a number of texts on for example, tutoring and academic writing, some of which are listed below. She is an independent consultant in her company METoDo, lecturer and author.

Nordentoft, H. M., Jensen, T. W., & Bengtsen, S. S. 2020. " Vi er rigtig meget ens": Peer-dynamik i samarbejdet mellem specialeskrivende par. Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 15(28), 107-123.

Jensen, TW. 2018. Det danske universitetsspeciale - topografi, tekster og tendenser. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

Wichmann-Hansen, G & Jensen, TW. 2015. Supervision: Process management and communication. I L Rienecker, PS Jørgensen, J Dolin & G Holten Ingerslev (red), University Teaching and Learning. Samfundslitteratur, s. 327-349.

Andersen, H. L., & Jensen, T. W. J. 2007. Specialevejledning-rammer og roller: en universitetspædagogisk undersøgelse. Samfundslitteratur.