Professor Shen Guochang, a distinguished professor and Ph.D. supervisor from the School of Education at Huazhong Normal University, at the invitation of School of Teacher Education (Physical Education) of Taizhou University, gave a lecture titled “How Supervisors Guide Postgraduates in Thesis Writing” for supervisors of Master of Education students on the afternoon of June 6th. Dean Zhang Fuwei presided over the lecture, which was attended by graduate supervisors from various directions of the Master of Education program.
Professor Shen Guochang giving a lecture
The lecture primarily focused on aspects of the thesis supervision process for Master of Education students, including topic selection, outlining, drafting, and revision/polishing. It detailed common issues supervisors might encounter when guiding students in topic selection and writing, such as students choosing topics deviating from their major, plagiarism, and low writing quality. It emphasized that supervisors should start with themselves, master guidance methods, and enhance their supervisory capabilities.
Shen stressed that a supervisor’s guidance approach and ability significantly impact postgraduate training. Supervisors must establish a sense of responsibility for postgraduate cultivation, adopt regular group meeting formats, strictly monitor students’ research progress, and prevent low-quality theses from entering the blind review stage. Through in-depth case analysis, using examples from his own postgraduate students, he elaborated on how to guide students from different disciplinary backgrounds. This included tailored guidance based on students’ post-graduation intentions and development directions, and he emphasized the supervisor’s role in guiding students’ physical and mental health.
This lecture provided a platform for the school’s Master of Education supervisors to dialogue with an experienced supervisor, helping teachers expand their guidance approaches and enhance their supervisory abilities, which is of great significance for promoting the construction of the school’s master’s programs.
