Within the Comenius programme Teaching Fellows 2023 Mark Vlutters of the Faculty of Engineering Technology obtained a grant of 50.000 euro for his small-scale innovation in education. He introduced an agile-based group form of graduate supervision, where evaluation of project and supervision process are an integral part of the supervision itself, and the autonomy, competence, and connectedness of students is promoted.
Students may end up in isolation during a bachelor- or master thesis project. Students often work on a project alone while supervised by a single staff member. Contact with the supervisor is often sparse, which makes students collect their technical problems between meetings, and subsequently request the supervisor for input during the next formal meeting. These meetings are therefore mostly problem-oriented, and do not invite students to review the supervision process, or address challenges in their learning. Furthermore, students are hardly stimulated to engage with peers.
Student well-being
The scope, quality, and frequency of contact with others throughout a thesis project play a role in student well-being. For example, students may not take the initiative in seeking aid or discussing their needs, depending on their self-perceived relation with the supervisor(s). Hence the need for an inclusive thesis environment that safeguards contact frequency and contact quality with supervisors and peers.
Self-organizing teams
Agile proposes project principles involving self-organizing teams that can make iterative improvements despite potential changes in circumstances. Although the various existing agile-based frameworks are unlikely to be directly applicable to thesis supervision, they contain elements that address contact scope, frequency, and quality. By forming a team that consists of a supervisor and several students who work on individual thesis projects, by hosting agile-inspired supervisory meetings, and by making the review of- and adaptation to student needs an integral part of the supervision process itself, the aim of this Comenius project is to create an adaptive thesis supervision framework that strives towards meeting student autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Comenius grants
Every spring, the National Educational Research Organisation (NRO) awards Comenius grants to education professionals in higher education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has made €6.2 million available for the Comenius Programme 2023. The fellowships range from up to €50,000 for Teaching Fellowships (27 projects this year), up to €100,000 for Senior Fellowships (25 projects this year) and up to €500,000 for Leadership Fellowships (4 projects this year). They enable education professionals to put their ideas for educational innovation into practice. In this way, the Comenius programme contributes to the renewal and improvement of higher education in the Netherlands.
Source: website NRO
Previously granted Comenius projects | NRO
