Group Discussions
The course comprises a combination of lectures and smaller group discussions. Lectures will be held in weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. Weeks 1, 2, and 11 there will be 2 hours of lectures. Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9 there will be one hour of lecture and one hour discussion for GROUP 1. Weeks, 4, 6, 8, 10 there will be small group discussions only (1 hour GROUP 2, 1 hour GROUP 3). The groups will be determined after final enrollment is completed.
There is one required reading (total of 4) on which the group discussions are based. There will be questions related to the readings that you will need to answer online prior to the seminar and that also serve as points for the discussion. As part of the goal of this course is to understand, interpret and critically engage with academic writing you will also be asked to focus on particular parts of the readings (eg. introduction) in detail. How do researchers set up a paper? How do they arrive at interesting research questions? What methodology do they use? What is the point of the conclusions? Also, if you have questions about the readings we will work through them in the seminars. Notice that the readings are related to the topics of the lectures. The lectures situate the readings.
Each week there are additional readings, which will help you understand the lecture material better. Especially for those not attending lectures this will be an important source for the final exam.