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  • Assignments

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      PREPARING FOR THE COURSE BY ATTENDING TWO DOCTORAL DEFENCES Assignment

      Dear future participants of the Knowledge Making for Sustainability course starting in April. One of the tasks you'll need to complete the course is attend two relevant doctoral defences and document them in a "learning passport". Details about how to write that and submit it will be given in April, but you can and should start thinking about the assignment already. You were emailed about it in October.

      Look for dissertations that are interesting to you and fall within the very broad umbrella of research on creative sustainability. Information about doctoral dissertation defences can be found online on the Aalto.fi website under "events", then scroll down to "dissertations". You need not confine your choice to your department! You can even go to another institution.

      Here is what you should do when you find an interesting defense that you want to use for the assignment:

      Go to the venue in good time. They are rather formal events and the audience is expected to be there well in advance and to stay for at least 45 minutes or so, if not the entire thing, which can go on for some time. You may not use electronic devices but you can take notes on paper. Nobody except the three people performing is expected/permitted to speak.

      You can usually also download the whole thesis on the relevant department's website.

      For the learning passport write up about 500 - 600 words about what you learned. This can relate to anything that you can reasonably understand under the heading "knowledge making for sustainability". That includes what the PhD candidate and the examiner (called "opponent" in the Finnish system) say during the event, but you can also include your thoughts on the format if you find that interesting. There will be further instructions on how to complete the assignment in the spring, and you will be asked to submit a hard copy. For now, KEEP YOUR TEXT SAFE SOMEWHERE, perhaps even in a folder or file marked "Knowledge Making" for you to retrieve when the time comes.

       

    • Assignment icon
      Information resources assignment
    • Assignment icon
      Problems, stakeholders and landscapes of sustainability research Assignment
    • File icon
      Assignment groups for presentations File
      Word 2007 document
    • Assignment icon
      Learning passport Assignment
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