The notepad is full of notes, the books are at the ready, and yet the topic still eludes her: the Lernwerkstatt run by the Central Study Counselling Service offers support with academic writing. Stephanie Lamping and Stefan Grazius took part in the courses.
“After the course, I finally just got round to writing,” says Lamping. Although she is usually well organised, the courses at the Lernwerkstatt gave her an extra boost. “I simply had more energy to tackle my Bachelor’s thesis,” says Lamping, who studied French and Philosophy at Bachelor’s level.
Through numerous workshops, the Lernwerkstatt supports students with their academic projects; here they find guidance on choosing a topic, structuring their work, time management and effective reading. “Sometimes it’s simply a matter of guiding the students’ ideas in the right direction, for example when choosing the appropriate methodology,” says Anke Görres, whose workshops Lamping and Grazius attended. Through short presentations, group discussions and lectures, participants learn how to analyse texts critically and how to work with empirical data.
In small groups,
The atmosphere in the Lernwerkstatt is very personal, explains Lamping. “That’s something that perhaps gets neglected in large degree programmes.” She found it very helpful to discuss questions and problems together in a small group. “With the help of mind maps and through discussions with others, I was eventually able to narrow down my topic more precisely,” she says.
Stefan Grazius also attended the Lernwerkstatt’s courses – three of them, in fact. “I’ve realised that it helps me to look for solutions together with others.” This is because students from other subjects often see completely different possibilities for a topic, says Grazius, who is studying for a Master of Education in Business Education and Politics in Oldenburg.
benefits from the input in the Lernwerkstatt
Especially when planning a larger empirical section of your thesis for the first time, you can only benefit from the input in the Lernwerkstatt. “In the courses, I was also able to refine my skills in working with texts and gained inspiration for putting ideas into practice.” Bringing ideas to life seems to be Grazius’s strength: last year, he won the ‘Special Prize for Media Literacy’ in the ‘Teaching for Life’ ideas competition organised by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. Together with a fellow student, he developed an internet-based learning platform in the form of a fictional dating community, which enables pupils to explore the risks and dangers of the internet for themselves.
Grazius is currently writing his Master’s thesis. Afterwards, the qualified insurance specialist will undertake teacher training in Lower Saxony to become a teacher at vocational schools. Lamping has already successfully completed her Bachelor’s thesis and is now studying for a Master’s degree in ‘Complex Decision-Making’ in Bremen. She isn’t worried about her Master’s thesis – after all, this time she knows what to expect.
