When I plan the classes I think about the students I have, what they need to understand and develop to qualify their research proposals, or their report of a study since they come to class with a topic they already have chosen and have been working on. Therefore, I make a general but flexible schedule, since some students require less time to strengthen their proposal or report and others more. I use two modalities: academic writing and oral presentations with a checklist, examples of other presentations that have been effective, presentations with the progress of each student, readings on how to build doctoral theses and how to make academic presentations to carry out the defense, as well as specific readings on the topics and methodologies of each work.
In addition, students must present their work to peers and experts in order to strengthen their competencies for the thesis proposal or defense. They receive feedback from their peers, from the class professor, in this case me, from invited professors of the doctoral program and from experts in the subject and methodology (national and international guests). Every year there are one or two invited experts who are native speakers of the English language, therefore in these cases, I accompany the student for the writing and oral presentation in English. We do at least two trainings prior to the presentation with experts.
The most advanced students with the support of the professor develop a webinar on the study they have been working on, addressed to the external academic community in the company of one or two national or international guests. However, in seven years, we have only conducted one webinar in English.
The purpose of the above is to strengthen the students’ communication, written and oral argumentation, analysis and synthesis skills, as well as to improve their thematic and methodological mastery to support their research proposals and for the defense of their doctoral thesis.