USUN AARH IVER SITE TINFORMATION GUIDE FO...
Transcript of USUN AARH IVER SITE TINFORMATION GUIDE FO...
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
AARHUS UNIVERSITY
USUNSITE AARHIVERT
INFORMATION GUIDE FOR
EXCHANGE STUDENTS
3
Contents
Part 1 – when you arrive .......................................................................................... 5 The Introduction Day by the student counsellors .............................................. 5 Which seminars to expect ............................................................................................. 6 Organisation of seminars ............................................................................................... 6 AULA – the teaching web-site ..................................................................................... 7 Writing a home assignment ......................................................................................... 7 An intensive course on information search on political science ........... 11 Oral presentation techniques ................................................................................... 12 Academic integrity and professional ethics – also a ‘must’ for
students of political science ...................................................................................... 15
Part 2 – Teaching from three different perspectives ....................................... 18 Seminars as learning environments – the framework for
research-based teaching ........................................................................................... 18 The lecturer’s perspective ........................................................................................... 25 The students’ perspective on learning and seminar participation ...... 28 Student counsellors ........................................................................................................ 32
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Part 1 – when you arrive
The Introduction Day by the student
counsellors
The semester starts on September 1st and
on February 1st, and being present at the
Department during the first week of classes
is vital.
You will be welcomed by the head of De-
partment and you will have the opportunity
to meet some of your future lecturers. You
will get practical information among other
things about the computer lab, how to print,
and how to find information and borrow
books at the libraries on campus.
The seminars that you will be attending will
have the first session during this week. The
first class gives you an introduction to the
content of the seminar, and the lecturer’s
expectations about your participation. Thus,
attending the first class is crucial for you to
understand the expectations and require-
ments you will be faced with later on dur-
ing the final examination.
In short, do not miss the first week!
For the students arriving at the university for
the autumn semester, an introductory week
called "rus-uge" takes place the week prior
to semester start. This event functions as a
social icebreaker for international and Da-
nish students attending the Department of
Political Science. As some international
students arrive in Denmark too late to par-
ticipate in the Denmark Today or Destina-
tion Denmark programme, the introduction
week for international students focuses
more on helping the students to get to
know Aarhus. However, there will still be
social activities for international students
exclusively and together with the Danish
freshmen. The schedule for the internation-
INFORMATION GUIDE FOR
EXCHANGE STUDENTS
Studying at the Department of Political Science,
Aarhus University
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al students can be found on
http://www.stat-rus.dk/Program_ENG.html
where you will also find a presentation of
students’ clubs, students’ associations and
other information.
Which seminars to expect
Each semester the Department offers semi-
nars at the advanced BA-level/MA-level
covering the following three themes: 1)
Danish politics and the Welfare state. This
seminar is compulsory for the department’s
exchange students and exchange students
from other Departments are welcome; 2)
Globalisation; and 3) EU, EU-politics and
Europeanization.
In addition, the Department offers 8 to 10
MA-seminars within the six main sub-
disciplines of political science: comparative
politics, international relations, political
theory, public policy, public administration,
and sociology. The topics of the seminars
vary each semester as they are closely
linked with the current research topics of
the academic staff. The seminar topics will
be announced on the website in May and
November. Please check the website fre-
quently for possible changes
http://mit.au.dk/kursuskatalog/
Organisation of seminars
Seminars are mostly organised as two-hour
sessions once a week for 10 to 15 weeks
depending on the type of examination.
There will be between 15 and 22 partici-
pants in each seminar. With the exception
of the seminar Danish politics and the wel-
fare state, you will be sitting in a class room
with both Danish and fellow exchange stu-
dents.
Seminars are held in a relaxing and infor-
mal atmosphere. This may be unusual to
some of you compared with your home
university. Always remember that you
should feel free to ask questions and to
make comments. Your active participation
during sessions is expected and will be to
the benefit of everyone involved.
Choices on the practical organisation of
seminars often reflect the type of examina-
tion. At present the types of examination
are as follows:
1) Home assignment on a subject of the
student’s own choice – maximum
6,000 words
2) oral examination based on a synopsis
in a subject of the student’s own
choice – 800-1.200 words
3) oral examination with 30 minutes’
preparation time in a randomly
picked subject
4) 7-days home assignment
5) 6-hour written examination.
Seminars that require a written home as-
signment on a subject of your own choice
will often give you an outline of existing li-
terature and analysis within a broader
thematic research issue. The main bulk of
your work, however, is on utilising theories,
approaches and methods on a research
topic that you select yourself.
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Seminars with an oral examination based
on a synopsis vary somewhat depending
on the lecturer, but in general you are re-
quired to do some research on a topic of
your choice and to account for any other
issues in the seminar curriculum. Hence, the
requirements on your own research part
are not as thorough as in the case of a
home assignment.
Seminars with examination types 3 to 5 are
more focused on the curriculum and re-
quire more in-depth knowledge and dis-
cussions of the chosen texts.
All students want to pass the exam with an
A (12) or at least a B (10), but as the aca-
demic standards at the Department are
very high, only very few students do, how-
ever. And even fewer students manage to
get all A’s and B’s. This should not discou-
rage you from making the effort to do so.
Mostly, the students own efforts when
studying a subject, writing a paper or pre-
paring an oral performance are reflected in
the final grade. You will also face other
challenges, which for non-English speakers
means doing your studies in a foreign lan-
guage. You should therefore not be too
harsh on yourself when passing with a C
(7), maybe a D (4), or even be happy that
you do pass at all with an E (02).
If you do not pass – FX (00) or F (-3) – you
may have a re-examination in the form of
a home assignment regardless of the type
of examination of the seminar. This home
assignment may be written from your
home country. However, in contrast to
some other university systems be aware
that if you pass an examination, you do not
have a second chance to improve your
grade.
AULA – the teaching web-site
In most cases there will be a website for
your seminar at www.aula.au.dk. At the
seminar website you will find a plan for the
seminar, curriculum, links to articles etc. The
website is also a means for communication
between lecturer and class, and you may
be asked to upload different assignments
on the website. It is therefore important that
you register at the website and that you in-
dicate your most frequently used e-mail
address.
At first you may find it complicated to navi-
gate at AULA. But you will soon get to know
it, and once you have registered at the se-
minar site there should be no more compli-
cations. In any case you will find a manual
for AULA at the secretariat.
Writing a home assignment
To many this is perhaps the most challeng-
ing type of examination. But at the same
time it gives you the best preparation for
writing your Master’s Thesis regardless of
what country you come from. So do sign up
for seminars that require you to write a pa-
per. On the other hand, it is hardly recom-
mendable to sign up for more than one
seminar with home assignments since writ-
ing and researching a paper is a very time
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The Danish grading scale
THE GRADING SCALE
Danish Grade
Definition ECTS Grade
12 For an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material, with no or only a few minor weaknesses
A
10 For a very good performance displaying a high level of command of most aspects of the relevant material, with only minor weaknesses
B
7 For a good performance displaying good command of the relevant material but also some weaknesses
C
4 For a fair performance displaying some command of the relevant material but also some major weaknesses
D
02 For a performance meeting only the minimum requirements for acceptance
E
00 For a performance which does not meet the minimum re-quirements for acceptance
FX
-3 For a performance which is unacceptable in all respects F
consuming process. This may leave you
with a limited number of seminars that you
can select in a semester, but keep in mind
that although the seminar title does not in-
trigue you, you may always – within the
broad subject of the seminar – find an an-
gle that is interesting also to you when you
select a topic for your research paper. A
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written report or paper consists of a maxi-
mum of 6,000 words excluding table of
contents and references. The maximum
must be taken literally. If your paper ex-
ceeds the maximum amount of words, it
will not be accepted. And it is always pos-
sible to shorten a text. This is especially true
when we write in a foreign language. We
tend to become more ‘wordy’ than we
would otherwise be, and experience shows
that when rewriting a text you can easily
cut 10 per cent.
In a home assignment you have to demon-
strate the following skills: 1) knowledge and
familiarity with the subject at hand, 2) ac-
tive use of theories and methodologies that
you have learned, and 3) collecting your
own material, articles, documents etc. To
be able to do your own research, a special
course on information search at the library
will be arranged (see below).
A home assignment is based on your own
research, i.e. the process where on the ba-
sis of a preliminary problem formulation,
you collect and analyse data in order to
shed light on a research problem. The
clearer your research question, the easier it
will be for you to establish and maintain the
focus required throughout the paper.
To get through the different aspects of a
term paper, please consider how you
would answer the following five questions:
1) What is your research question?
2) Why is it interesting or relevant to study
the question?
3) What case or cases will you investi-
gate?
4) Based upon a specific theory, what is
your expected answer to the research
question?
5) What methods and research design will
you use to answer the question?
Seminars that end with a home assignment
often offer the students an opportunity to
get comments on their draft paper from the
lecturer and from fellow students. Similarly,
students are often required to give oppo-
nent critique on fellow students’ papers.
When giving opponent critique, your main
task is to identify the writer’s research ques-
tion and assess whether the inherent ques-
tion or hypothesis has been answered. In
addition, you should give recommenda-
tions on how the writer may improve the
paper. You may follow the five questions
listed above when preparing to give oppo-
nent critique.
How to make references
In academic work it is of outmost impor-
tance that references are thorough and
correct. This is important because others
must be able to control your sources as the
basis for academic discussions. There are
many different ways to make references.
Some of you are used to make references
in footnotes or even endnotes. The follow-
ing will introduce you to the way refer-
ences most frequently are made at our De-
partment.
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When you make a reference to a work
immediately after having mentioned it in
the text, you should state surname, year,
and page in that order.
In-text references
(Berger 1968: 68)
If you are referring to more than one
work, do as follows: (Berger 1968: 68;
Luhmann 1992: 13)
If you are referring to the same work
you may use "ibid." (ibidem = the
same): (Ibid.: 477)
References
The works you have referred to shall be
listed at the end of your manuscript with
the title References in alphabetic order. It is
important that your referencing method is
consistent, i.e. you use one and only one
system for all your references. If the same
author appears more than once, the oldest
work shall be listed first. Make only one list
of references.
Monographs
Sir name, first name (year): Title of the mo-
nograph in italics. Place of publication:
publisher.
Holmes, Leslie (2006) Rotten States?
Corruption, Post-Communism and
Neo-liberalism. Durham: Duke Univer-
sity Press.
Chapters in an anthology
Surname, first name (year): “Title of the
chapter within “-“, relevant pages in first
name and surname(s) of the editor(s), of
the anthology in italic. Place of publication:
publisher.
Watt, David, Rachel Flanary and Robin
Theobald (2000): ”Democratisation or
the Democratisation of Corruption? The
case of Uganda”, pp 37-64 in Doig,
Alan & Robin Theobald (eds), (2000)
Corruption and Democratisation. Lon-
don, Portland: Frank Cass.
Articles in journals
Surname, first name (year): “Title of the ar-
ticle within “-“ “, Title of the journal in italics,
Volume, (number): relevant pages.
Castells, Manuel (2000): ”Materials for
an Exploratory Theory of the Network
Society”, British Journal of Sociology, 51
(1): 5-24.
Web sites
#Surname#, #First name#/or institutional
affiliation# (#publication year#): #Title in
quotation marks#, #webside adress# #date
for downloading the text#
Department of Health (2007): ”Shaping
health care for the next decade”,
Wednesday 4 July 2007 13:00,
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/full
Deail.asp?ReleaseID=296706&NewsArea
ID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True
(14/8 2007)
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An intensive course on information
search on political science
Place: State and University Library.
Meeting place: the main lobby.
Date: to be announced – 4-5 weeks in the
semester. Check the exchange students’
website.
The general aim of the course is as follows:
1) to make the participants familiar with the
contents and facilities of the most impor-
tant social science databases; and 2) to
train the participants in the use of the social
science databases as an integrated ele-
ment in academic problem-based learning
focusing on political science.
The specific aims of the course are as fol-
lows: 1) to demonstrate the databases of
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Web of
Science, Scopus and others and to intro-
duce the bibliographic and full text content,
criteria for inclusion, search facilities, spe-
cial points of interest; and 2) via hands-on,
questions and answers, exercises and dis-
cussions to train the use of social science
databases and in particular how to do a
systematic search, how to plan a search
strategy, how to evaluate search results etc.
Instead of going through a list of recom-
mended literature, we recommend you to
prepare for this course by taking a look at
one or two of these tutorials:
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/eurostudies
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/government
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/intlrelations
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/sociologist
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/social-
research-methods
Also please bring your ideas for papers,
theses etc. as it will be possible to work on
these during the course.
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Oral presentation techniques
(Revision of a text by late professor, Ole
Nørgaard)
The ability to communicate professional in-
sight and understanding is an important
capability for political science candidates,
and is a trademark of the education at the
Department.
Insight and knowledge, however important
it is, do not always result in an interesting
and successful presentation. To get your
message understood and heard by the au-
dience, you must make the effort to pre-
pare your performance. The following will
take you through some problems and
techniques that you should keep in mind
when an oral presentation is being pre-
pared. However – the only way to learn the
skill is by means of practical exercise. So
take every opportunity to practice the oral
presentation at seminars, when presenting
a report or giving an opponent critique to
the work of others. This will help you be-
come a better presenter – something that
also will assist you in your oral examina-
tions. At the same time, studying at semi-
nars will also be more exciting and fruitful
for you and your fellow students.
What is an oral presentation?
An oral presentation is the superstructure
where you present the main key points and
arguments of a larger work. This work can
be your own analysis of a subject, articles
included in the curriculum, or a critical as-
sessment of one of your fellow students’
written reports. In the case of oral examina-
tions the presentation is also where you
demonstrate that you indeed are well in-
formed about the curriculum.
Before the presentation – preparation is
needed
When preparing an oral presentation for a
typical seminar, you must remember that
you only have 10 to 15 minutes for your
presentation. You will therefore have to
stick to the most important points and build
up you own reasoning and argument for
why this is important. Often you will be
given a concrete question that you have to
build you presentation around – the most
important thing is to focus your presenta-
tion by simply answering the question.
The first step in your preparation is the
creative part. Some of you may have heard
about ‘mind maps’. ‘Mind mapping’ is a
technique where you write down every
possible thought that you find related to the
subject you are going to present. At this
stage it is important not to try to organise
and structure your thoughts but to let your
imagination and creativity work. A simple
tool to let your creativity work is to turn your
paper 90 degrees. Place your subject in the
centre of the paper and draw your associa-
tions from the subject in different lines and
sub lines. Rather than sentences use key
words, pictures, colours etc. That will help
you remember the different aspects of your
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speech. At this stage quantity is more im-
portant than quality (although quality never
harm). After five to ten minutes stop and
look at your paper – you may be surprised
how much you actually know about your
subject. Then you are prepared for the next
step.
The second step is to organise your presen-
tation. First find out what the main informa-
tion that you want to pass on is. Second,
underline or colour the subordinate issues
to this information. You will probably turn
up with two or three lines of arguments.
The third step is to rank your key informa-
tion so they end up making one argument
on the subject you are talking about. At this
stage you think goal-oriented on your
presentation. What is the goal of your pres-
entation and how do you want to reach it?
Organise your presentation in the main
elements of your argument: Subject =>
relevant elements/examples => point of
view =>conclusion and relevance for next
subject etc. You may imagine this as a
Christmas tree. The tree trunk is the core
substance (spend the most of your time on
this), the greens are important elements
and the pins are details (use less time on
those).
The shorter the time allowed for
the presentation, the more
thorough preparation you will have
to undertake.
The presentation
When structuring the content of the presen-
tation it is important to be aware of the au-
dience’s attention curve. In the beginning
of a presentation the audience’s attention
will normally be high, it will then start to fall
and increase again towards the end.
Therefore the first two to three minutes are
crucial for the successful presentation. The
opening of a presentation shall accordingly
contain something relevant, interesting,
and exciting along with insight. These are
high demands, but if the preparation has
been of substantial quality it is a possible
demand and it almost guarantees success.
A good rule-of-thumb is to “tell them what
you want to say – say it – and tell them
what you have said”. It emphasises the im-
portance of making a short introduction to
the contents and the structure of the pres-
entation, it stresses the importance that
each section should be rounded off by
short summaries – and that a thorough
summary on the entire presentation should
be given. In the end it is important that you
– with emphasis and charisma – stress what
the audience has heard and learned from
your presentation.
Being aware of the Audience
Never overestimate your audience’s
knowledge and never underestimate their
intelligence!
When you make a presentation of part of
the seminar’s curriculum or of your own re-
port, you should be aware that the audi-
ence’s reading and qualifications are dif-
14
fused. Some have carefully studied the ma-
terial while others just show up. But they will
always be offended if being talked down
to. The middle road is in this case the most
recommendable. Make sure that the audi-
ence gets the main points from the texts
and the main arguments, but do not try to
give a thorough report of all the points and
arguments. You will never have the time
and the result will be that neither you nor
the audience will find out what your pres-
entation has been about.
In general this is also true when you make
a presentation for an oral examination.
Your evaluators will want to hear you say-
ing what they already know. But in addition
they want you to add to this you own re-
flections, analysis and considerations!
Being the audience
It takes two to tango – and an active audi-
ence is important in a good presentation. If
the audience looks hostile, the presenter
does not perform as well as if the audience
looks friendly. So keep this in mind when
you are the audience. If you look friendly
and encouraging – even if the presentation
lacks content and insight – this will help the
presenter. You may then in the discussion
question the content and challenge the in-
sight – that is what discussions are for. But
help the presenter through and accept that
being nervous is fully legitimate.
Some technical advice
Use figures and tables that are relatively
simple and can be explained in full within
a reasonable amount of time. Always re-
move a figure or a table when you have
finished using it – otherwise the audience
will keep studying it – instead of listening to
what is being said.
15
Academic integrity and professional
ethics – also a ‘must’ for students of
political science
by Jørgen Elklit, professor at the
Department
Academic integrity and professional ethics’
may sound somewhat formal but it con-
cerns some essential basic problems in
academic work. In any circumstances,
therefore, the topic is of crucial importance
in connection with seminar assignments
and master level theses in all university
studies, including political science. The core
of the question about academic integrity is
that we must be able to have confidence
when concrete analyses and investigations
are reported, when lines of procedure are
described, methodical considerations are
presented, and when conclusions are ar-
rived at.
If we cannot be certain that what is pre-
sented in an article or a seminar paper is
‘right’ and correct and completely docu-
mented, how then may we be able to
know whether it is worth taking seriously?
This goes for serious scientific articles and
theses (including PhD dissertations), student
assignments at all levels, master level the-
ses, and anything else with an ambition of
being taken seriously in an academic con-
nection.
If one cannot be certain that the claimed
experiments (analyses, tests) have actually
been carried out, and that the results were
as reported, or that the correlation coeffi-
cient was as reported, and that the stated
response rate corresponds with the actual
attainment, where would we be then? In
that case one would have to go back and
repeat every investigation and analysis be-
cause nothing could any longer be taken
for granted. Then everything would col-
lapse because the academic conversation
would be rendered impossible.
Establishment of ‘cheating’ in analyses and
experiments, as well as in reports and as-
signments, is a serious matter and the sanc-
tions are usually exclusion from academic
accept and cooperation (cf. also ‘Rules
about disciplinary provisions’ in the univer-
sity regulations).
The core of the question about
academic integrity is that we must
be able to have confidence.
About using the work of others
All university studies and all academic work
is built upon being able to have confidence
in earlier research (some of which may of
course be out dated), and hence that one
may build on the results of others. Cumula-
tivity (i.e. building upon others’ work and
thus getting ahead) is both a prerequisite
for academic work and a characteristic of
it.
Consequently, you must be honest and
give precise account of what it is you are
16
building upon, so that it does not seem as if
you are going to take credit for the accom-
plishment of others. There are two reasons
why you must state what you are building
upon: 1) a professional one - i.e. it is impor-
tant to demonstrate the development of
the argument, earlier argumentation and
writings about the topic; and a moral one –
i.e. you do not represent something as you
own accomplishment when it is actually
the work of others.
However, if you state the necessary refer-
ences, it is absolutely fine and also quite
necessary to build upon the results of others
be they published in recognised, academic
journals, in books that may be unprocur-
able, or in the seminar assignments or mas-
ter level theses of your fellow students. But
you can only make use of others’ work if
you can be confident that it is ‘right’. Thus in
the academic community you are quite
dependent on each other.
This is why the use of notes and references
is a special characteristic of academic and
serious professional work, and an indication
that you do not cheat and take the credit
for the accomplishment of others. Hence,
you must carry out a regular search of lit-
erature (employing all forms of biblio-
graphical resources) to make your use of
previous literature as adequately and hon-
est as possible.
Accordingly, there is nothing wrong in
building upon the work of others that you
trust, if you state clearly and unmistakably
(i.e. exhaustively and bibliographically cor-
rect, cf. above text on how to make refer-
ences) what it is you are building upon, no
matter whether you agree with him/her or
because you wish to dissociate yourself
from his/her use of theory, methods, data or
whatever.
The use of notes and references is
a special characteristic of
academic and serious professional
work.
To enable control of your use of others’
work (also in assignments), references must
be precise and enable easy location of
what you are referring to. It means that you
must state the particular pages (tables, fig-
ures, notes etc.) you are building upon. If
your reference is direct (i.e. a direct copy
because it is formulated better that you
would otherwise have been able to) you
must insert quotation marks (‘……’) or other
forms of typographical marking so that it
does not look as if you are going to take
credit (or responsibility) for the piece of text
in question.
During the reading process, it is important
to carefully mark quotations etc. because
otherwise it is easy to forget that the quota-
tion was from somebody else. And then it is
similarly easy to get to use it as your own –
especially if it sounds good and seems
convincing.
If you do not quote word-for-word but re-
phrases and possibly paraphrases the text,
17
you must indicate that this is what you have
done. By way of example you could say
something like this: ‘the following section
builds considerably on pp xx-yy in NN’s
book since it discusses the question better
than for example MM or ZZ’.
Evidently, saying something like that of
course presupposes knowledge of at least
some of the writers who have treated the
topic in question – otherwise the formula-
tion is dishonest, a violation of accepted
norms – since you are actually claiming to
have compared NN’s book and results with
MM and ZZ who have treated the topic as
well. And if this is not the case, then the
formulation gives a dishonest picture of
what you have actually done and of the re-
liability of your statement.
Professional ethics
Professional ethical problems of the kind
you meet within for example medicine are
not present within the social sciences, or at
least they are of another nature. However,
one problem you should pay attention to
concerns identifying information about in-
dividuals, and possibly details that he/she
does not wish to bring forward.
One example is questionnaire surveys or
analyses based on public statistics where
your cross tabulation may be so exhaustive
that you will know who you are dealing
with; e.g. by certain combinations of gen-
der, age, residence, education, profession
etc. Information to that degree of detail is
not required (and is usually also profes-
sionally uninteresting).
Similarly, if you have agreed with the inter-
viewees that you will make them appear
unidentifiable then you must keep your
promise. You cannot promise anonymity
and then write about what for example a
former Social Democratic Minister for
Transport, who was also political spokes-
man, would think about some internal issue
in the parliamentary party, which he said
something about trusting that it would not
be reported so that he could be identified.
That type of breach of confidence is not
just morally unacceptable in relation to the
interviewee concerned, it also has reper-
cussions on other researchers’ and students’
possibilities for accessing centrally placed
sources and obtaining necessary informa-
tion; possibly about entirely different topics.
Conclusion
Academic integrity and professional ethics
is not just a question about not cheating
and not presenting insufficiently thought-
out results so you can identify individuals
who had been promised anonymity.
It is also about easing the control of your
own effort by stating all necessary refer-
ences so that others may easily control
what you must be credited for and what is
the work of others. As simple as that! At the
same time this approach characterises
regular, acceptable practice within all
types of academic work, including the stu-
dent level.
18
Part 2 – Teaching from
three different perspectives
Seminars as learning environments –
the framework for research-based
teaching
by Torben K. Jensen, Centre for Learning
and Education, Aarhus University
Teaching at the master level of political
science usually takes place as seminars
with a comparatively small number of stu-
dents. Teaching could be organised in a lot
of different ways implying that seminar
teaching is based on deliberate, educa-
tional choices. Generally speaking, if
teaching is supposed to support and opti-
mise the student’s learning and their moti-
vation to learn, knowing the educational
background for the chosen teaching
method is important. In the following I shall
explain the educational reasons to seminar
teaching at master level and give some
advice on how to make the most of semi-
nar teaching.
Teaching must support and
optimise students’ learning and
motivation
Seminar teaching – educational choices
In formal and general terms, the seminar
method at the master level education is
applied because it has proven an effective
and flexible framework for research based
teaching and for the students’ ability to pick
up knowledge, skills, and competences.
The Department (the research environ-
ment) considers acquisition of such abilities
important also in the light of meeting la-
bour market demands.
In more concrete terms, the idea with
seminar teaching has been to provide op-
portunity for free choice of courses, spe-
cialisation, immersion, meeting active re-
searchers, research-like teaching, in-depth
learning, Master’s Thesis preparation, and
flexibility.
Free choice of courses
At the bachelor programme, we emphasise
the importance of common basic module
teaching with matching core curriculum
laid down by the Board of Studies. In con-
trast, at the master level we emphasise that
the seminar teaching provides a free
choice in the selection of subjects, topics,
lecturers, examination- and teaching
methods. We seek to respect the students’
various educational interests. Furthermore,
options and student participation alone are
motivating and activating approaches and
contribute to better and funnier teaching.
Ideally speaking, you sign up for a seminar
out of educational interest and motivation
to discuss and study a subject in common
cause. Actually this is the definition of a
seminar.
Specialisation
Free choices provide the opportunity for a
certain specialisation or ‘colouring’ of your
own education. Even if you do not always
19
get to participate in the seminars with
highest priority, there is usually good possi-
bilities to pursue you own educational in-
terest or leitmotif across the subjects. If for
example you are interested in equal rights,
international issues, power theory, quantita-
tive method, decision processes, China, or
something completely different, you will of-
ten find that papers, presentations and
choice of literature to a certain degree may
be considered from your approach no mat-
ter which subject the seminar is offered
through.
Immersion
Furthermore, the seminar is conceived as
an opportunity to immerse oneself in a
topic but now with a point of departure in
the acquired knowledge about theory,
empiricism, and method which was
learned through profound introductions of
the subjects at the bachelor level. Seminar
teaching may take a lot for granted and
does not start at the bottom. From that
point of view there is progression from
bachelor level to seminar teaching at mas-
ter level.
Meeting active researchers
Seminars are offered by the academic staff
at the Department implying that teaching is
headed by active researchers within the
field of study. Thus, most recent knowledge
can form part of the teaching all the time
which is one of the defining characteristics
of research based teaching. From a teach-
ing perspective, the lecturers’ research ac-
tivities may be considered continuous sup-
plementary training.
The Department of Political Science, Aar-
hus University, has a high ranking among
research institutions of political science and
the lecturers are well-integrated in interna-
tional research networks which also spill
over into the teaching at our Department.
In practice, the seminar offer at the De-
partment (the curriculum) is precisely char-
acterised by a continuous renewal of topics
based on the newest literature and re-
search in the fields of study. Consequently,
seminar teaching provides the students
with opportunity to meet and directly dis-
cuss professional problems with experts
within a variety of topics.
Research-based teaching
Research based teaching is not defined
alone by teaching handled by an active
researcher. An often overlooked but at
least equally important characteristic is that
regular research based teaching must be
research-like. A university education must
introduce the students to the newest
knowledge at all times but a university
education must also teach the students to
produce knowledge.
The hallmark of university educations is that
students learn to apply theories and meth-
ods with regard to research, and that they
learn about their subject by using those
tools. Good research based teaching is thus
characterised as follows:
20
1) working with the primary subject-
matter, sources, and data and not just
working with textbooks and already
formulated theories;
2) central professional activities and
methods are being employed in
teaching rather than just being re-
ferred to;
3) students feel invited to participate ac-
tively in a professional community;
4) students receive feedback in working
and writing with regard to research;
5) students get opportunity to apply
theories and methods to new prob-
lems;
6) students get opportunity to partici-
pate in authentic research projects.
The argument is that students must learn to
work with regard to research, not because
all of them should be researchers but be-
cause all of them in their future job func-
tions in the information society must: 1) be
able to handle knowledge skilfully, i.e. be
able to decide when and to what degree
conclusions are well-founded; 2) be able to
keep up their knowledge; 3) be able to
change; and 4) be able to contribute to
changes in the organisation.
Establishing research-like teaching is the
main argument for seminar teaching and
for maintaining classes under 20 students!
Obviously it is annoying not to be enrolled
at the seminar of one’s first choice but there
are no indications of a close connection
between the topics/the contents of the
seminars and master’s theses and future
job possibilities. In that sense it does not
matter much being enrolled at the most
popular seminars. In contrast it is crucial to
have solid analytical abilities which can
only be trained by delivering solid analyses.
In-depth learning
The aim of carrying out research-like
teaching may also be formulated in tech-
nical terms of learning targets for seminar
teaching. Usually the curriculum clearly
states the contents of seminars
(books/articles/pages to read, theo-
ries/problems/works to go through). The
lecturers usually also give a short justifica-
tion of why a particular topic is worth deal-
ing with.
However, early in the teaching course it is
important to discuss not simply the syllabus
to go through but also what seminar par-
ticipants are expected to be able to do
with the subject matter after 15 weeks of
effort. In simple terms: it is not enough to
delimit a seminar to deal with e.g. recent
power theories. It is important to discuss
what you as a student is supposed to be
able to do with the new power theories: are
you expected to learn by heart what the
lecturer said about the theories or what the
articles said? Are you expected to give an
account of the theories and sum up the ar-
guments in your own words? Are you ex-
pected to give a more demanding analysis
of the theories e.g. by discussing similarities
and differences, and/or strengths and
weaknesses, or beginning to identify possi-
21
ble answers to reasons for and effects of
different incidents and events? Or is the ob-
jective to be able to theorise (i.e. being
able to estimate whether the discussed
theories about power are supporting, bal-
ancing, modifying, criticising or possibly fal-
sifying other theory formations about
power, democracy, representation etc.). Or
is it rather to be able to reflect (i.e. to esti-
mate to what degree academic theoretic
arguments claiming that new knowledge is
produced have been fulfilled) and to be
able to apply acquired knowledge in the
analysis of concrete social events, phe-
nomena, and cases? Furthermore it is im-
portant to discuss which skills the students
are expected to acquire or train at which
level.
The original objective of research based
university educations is in-depth learning,
i.e. that the students become increasingly
familiar with the professional argumenta-
tion of the subject and become competent
participants in the professional debate.
Figure one below gives examples of a
more systematic usage for learning targets
regarding knowledge and skills in a course
of research based teaching.
As a principal rule, the objective for semi-
nar teaching at master level at the De-
partment is -to get a high ranking in the
SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Out-
comes) taxonomy. Behind the SOLO tax-
onomy’s description of the level at which
you can master a subject the research
process faintly appears. A High ranking in
the SOLO taxonomy is another and more
precise way of describing what character-
ises research based teaching. For several
reasons it is important that lecturer and stu-
dents at an early stage discuss and coordi-
nate expectations and level of ambition
and agree on the learning targets:
1) students are motivated by knowledge
about the objective of their efforts;
2) choosing appropriate examination-
and teaching methods and prioritising
activities provides a far better ground-
ing;
3) this grounding provides the basis for
the awarding of marks where the mark
is an expression of the ‘degree of reali-
sation of the learning target’.
Master’s Thesis preparation
Seminar teaching is also conceived as a
means to prepare the students for writing
the Master’s Thesis. Many seminars are car-
ried out as assignment seminars where at
first the participants read themselves into
the subject matter, and then they choose a
problem to give further analysis and to re-
port on through a home assignment (which
will receive a mark). The lecturer and fel-
low students will give tutorials and feed-
back on synopsis and assignments. Having
written a number of seminar assignments,
writing the Master’s Thesis basically means
to do something well-known only in a
slightly larger format.
22
Figure 1. Taxonomies for learning targets
In-depth learning
Surface learning
SOLO – Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes
Abstract/progressive
Apply (on unknown case), examine, criticize, test,
argue, predict, assess, discuss
Reflect
(theoretical scientific basis for knowledge)
Theorize, generalize, hypothesize
(support, balance, modify, criticize known theory)
Relational/relatedAnalyze
compare, relate, explain (similarities-differences,
strengths-weaknesses, cause-effect)
Multistructural/complexsummarize
describe
Structural/simplelist
paraphrase, summarize
identify, recognizememorize
Prestructural: misses point
Skills
High level skills
- Openness to changes of own ideas and perception
- Interpretation and assessment of evidence
- Arguing for and substantiating own research results
- Choosing and assessing (own) research design
Basic skills- Communication:
• written presentation of professional problems• oral presentation of professional problems• mastering a foreign language
- Practical (research) skills: collection and analysis of data
(interview technique, statistical analysis etc.)
- Bibliographical skills
- Organisation of own work (study technique, work discipline)
- ...
23
Flexibility
The seminar method is a very flexible
framework for teaching, and at the De-
partment seminar teaching is carried out in
numerous ways.
The academic regulations allow for a
number of different examination methods
and does not tie-down choices of teaching
methods. Within the framework of the 10
ECTS and naturally certain practical con-
siderations, lecturer and student may agree
upon any choice of method. The teaching
course may be constructed as a package
of many different teaching methods: lec-
tures; going through subject-matter with
fellow students; case-teaching; discussion
based teaching; problem based learning;
consultancy tasks; research projects.
Seminars may be planned with a point of
departure in the approx. 30 contact hours:
when to go through and discuss which sub-
ject-matter? Or the seminar may be de-
vised with point of departure in the stu-
dents’ work: what must take place during
contact hours to ensure that the students
get the most out of their 280 hours of work-
ing with the subject-matter? Or the seminar
may be planned from a research logic
model: with approx. 4,600 man-hours at
our disposal, what can 20 participants do of
collective research work?
Top seminars come close to being a
community of individuals engaged in
evidently essential activities with a
high level of enthusiasm and
seriousness.
Seminar teaching – advice for the students
First piece of advice: Even if you will only
have a few contact-hours in your timetable
(three seminars = six contact hours), the
master level education is a full-time study
requiring full-time work. Actually, there is a
connection between ECTS and working
hours. In round figures, the calculation goes
as follows: 60 ECTS (a year of study) corre-
spond to 1,680 hours (a year of work). One
ECTS corresponds to 28 hours of work and
hence a seminar of 10 ECTS corresponds to
approx. 280 hours (including everything
also examination). During the 15 weeks of
teaching, it is reasonable to expect that the
seminar participants put in 10-15 hours of
work a week per seminar. In other words:
do plan your time considering that the
master level education is a full-time study.
Second piece of advice: In consequence of
the few contact-hours in your timetable, the
majority of the learning work happens out-
side sessions. Usually it is beneficial to es-
tablish a working partnership with one or
several fellow students attending the semi-
nar.
Third piece of advice: Always attend the
first session where the objective of the
seminar is being discussed. Most lecturers
are open to ideas and wishes, and so it is
often possible to have an influence on the
form of the seminar. Considering you input
in advance is a good idea. Do contribute to
a thorough discussion of the connection
between learning targets, examination and
teaching methods. As already mentioned,
24
getting an impression about the objective
of your work is positive and motivating. Be-
sides, without learning targets it will be dif-
ficult to assess the use of various teaching
and learning activities and to determine
priorities for your activities. Finally the latest
notice on rewarding marks (as of 1 Sep-
tember 2007) defines the mark as the de-
gree of realisation of the objectives. Ac-
cordingly, every subject must have clearly
defined learning targets in writing. The
learning targets are simply the basis for
awarding marks.
Fourth piece of advice: Be an active par-
ticipant. The value of the seminars as a
framework for learning depends (almost)
as much on the students as on the lecturers.
The precondition for good seminars is that
everybody contributes actively to the elu-
cidation of the topic. Top seminars come
close to being ‘a community of individuals
engaged in evidently essential activities
with a high level of enthusiasm and seri-
ousness’. This type of seminar is exceptional
but a little less may meet the case as well.
The worst seminars are stripped from activ-
ity and inspiration and can be terribly bor-
ing with low learning benefit. Small contri-
bution correlates more or less with little
learning but it is also theft from the com-
munity. Non-active lecturing and stodgy
presentations is not a good way of educat-
ing small classes. Remember that everyone
in the session can take the initiative to dis-
cuss whether the time spent together is
used appropriately.
25
The lecturer’s perspective
by Christoffer Green-Pedersen, professor at
the Department
With this contribution I wish to present a
lecturer’s considerations when organising a
seminar. A successful seminar is character-
ised by a strong professional dialogue be-
tween lecturer and students and amongst
the students. As a lecturer you have an in-
fluence on the social relations but you can-
not control them and that makes seminar
teaching a challenging task. You may ex-
perience sessions running smoothly with
high level discussions and sessions where
you present a well-prepared topic which
should result in a good discussion and for
no apparent reason it all comes to nothing.
The character of seminar teaching implies
that there is no magic formula for a suc-
cessful seminar. The topic of the seminar
and the curriculum, the students, the lec-
turer, and finally the examination method
must form a synthesis and for that there is
no simple solution. Conversely, of course as
a lecturer you also gain experience on how
to influence the four elements and thereby
increase the chances of making everything
form a synthesis.
A successful seminar is
characterised by a strong
professional dialogue between
lecturer and students and
amongst the students.
The students represent the element over
which you have the least control, and at
the same time it is the most important ele-
ment. However, as matters stand the stu-
dents are the ones who should benefit from
teaching primarily. The main challenge as
a lecturer is to make the students partici-
pate actively in the professional discussions
as a group instead of just a few active stu-
dents. Sometimes it happens all by itself but
my experience is also that to a high degree
it can and should be promoted through the
organisation of the seminar teaching.
A big issue in this context is the use of stu-
dent presentations as introduction to dis-
cussions during sessions. That model has
inherent risks which to my knowledge al-
most every lecturer at the Department has
encountered. The group of students with
responsibility for the presentation of the
week spends days on the presentation
which is going to take twice the planned
time leaving only little time for questions
and practically no time for discussion. The
problem with this type of presentation is the
enormous asymmetry between the level of
preparation and the rest. Students get the
impression that active seminar participa-
tion means doing one presentation and
that is it. Bad experience with presentations
often leads to avoiding it.
Nevertheless, there are good reasons to try
one’s hand at the presentation model
anyway. First of all, a good presentation is a
good start of a discussion. If the introductory
speakers are able to sum up the essential
26
points of the texts in 10-15 minutes and
raise a number of relevant questions for
discussion, we have a good basis for further
discussion. Second, being able to do a
good presentation in short time is an essen-
tial competence which the education must
promote. No matter what you will be doing
after the degree, sometimes you will be
asked to work through a large body of in-
formation in a short time and to present the
main points in short for an impatient audi-
ence. This is not a situation where you
spend twice the allotted time without get-
ting at the essential points.
From my own seminars I have good ex-
perience with a model combining presen-
tation with group work. The students are
put into groups of three to four participants
who will meet before each session to dis-
cuss the curriculum and make a short pres-
entation for discussion. I then pick a group
of students at random who will actually
perform their presentation in front of their
peers.
This method may seem overwhelming to
some students but it is crucial to clear up
the expectations for the presentations. The
intention is for the students to meet a few
hours before contact hour to discuss the
text and sum up their discussion in a pres-
entation. In that way the students come to
work under pressure of time forcing them to
focus on the most essential points. At the
same time we now have a clear symmetry
between level of preparation amongst the
seminar participants which will further dis-
cussion during sessions. In addition, there is
now time for other groups to raise some
points for discussion that they have treated
during preparation.
A weakness of this method may be that
some groups will be running out of time
and thus make very unstructured presenta-
tions. Here it is important to make the stu-
dents understand that they must organise
their work so that the preparation can be
done in two hours. Group work offers the
advantage that the students get to know
each other better, and hence they feel
more free to take part in discussions. One of
the problems with seminar teaching is pre-
cisely that the students do not know each
other very well and some may thus take up
a reserved attitude to take part in discus-
sions.
It goes without saying that you are in con-
trol of the lecturer role but the real question
is which role to play. How much teaching
as lectures should you do and how much
should you intervene in the seminar discus-
sions? As a lecturer you of course possess
considerable professional competences
which should play an essential role, and it is
my experience that to a large extent the
students ask for it. Conversely, it is evident
that as a lecturer you can quickly sit on a
session and thus put down the students’
own struggle with the subject-matter and
prevent them from advancing in their in-
depth learning process.
27
In my experience a thorough introduction
to the seminar and attempts at summing
up discussions are some of the forms of
teaching with the best outcome. The ques-
tion about controlling discussions is more
complex. In my capacity as a lecturer I al-
ways have a few points for discussion
which I try to make sure we get around to
during sessions. Furthermore, I try to pose
questions which may lead the discussion in
other directions, if I think it has gone in an
unproductive direction. Should this attempt
succeed, the students hardly realise the
control which has actually taken place.
As regards material the seminars differ
enormously. Sometimes a seminar is of-
fered on a topic with a tremendous amount
of literature and the task of giving a survey
of the literature is the essential aspect.
Other times almost all relevant material
can be dealt with at the seminar. In my ex-
perience it is crucial that you actually do
present the curriculum for the students and
make them aware of its strengths and
weaknesses; not least if they must deal with
texts which may be difficult to understand
or requires reading of a lot of pages to get
at few points. What is important here is that
everybody realises why the material has
been included.
The seminar form as such is the least sig-
nificant element. What matters is the differ-
ence between home assignments and
other examination methods. To my knowl-
edge the students are widely experienced
in various examination methods whereas
written assignments often give them a lot of
trouble. The biggest problem about semi-
nar assignments is actually quite simple:
you get started too late. A late start gives
problems in collecting material, reduces
your possibilities for effective use of super-
visor, and it often means that you get a lim-
ited benefit from synopsis and feedback
sessions. Thus you miss out on a fantastic
opportunity of having a lot of competent
people reading and commenting on your
text. There are probably a number of rea-
sons why the students get started too late,
but in my experience early synopsis feed-
back, a continued discussion about topics
in connection with sessions may speed up
the process.
Most importantly however, the seminar
should be characterised by an open and
constructive atmosphere between lecturer
and students. Lecturers must pick up signals
from the students, but it is equally important
that the students are engaged and that
they will comment on things that do not
work before the evaluations. Evaluations
can be very useful for the lecturer but does
not help the students who have been at-
tending seminar sessions.
Most importantly however, the
seminar should be characterised
by an open and constructive
atmosphere between lecturer and
students.
28
The students’ perspective on learning
and seminar participation
by Anne Sofie Kjær Jacobsen and Maiken
Hjortbak,
MA’s in political science, former students at
the Department
With this contribution, we would like to pass
on our experiences as students with learn-
ing on master level seminars. Our experi-
ence is partly from the master level educa-
tion at the Department of Political Science
and partly from study visits outside the De-
partment and abroad. Maiken has studied
political communication and management
at Copenhagen Business School while
Anne Sofie has studied public manage-
ment and health care policy at the London
School of Economics, UK.
From our point of view, learning is a proc-
ess about obtaining general and specific
competences in interaction with lecturer
and fellow students. We shall focus on
three aspects of seminar participation:
preparation; participation in the teaching;
and examination preparation. The purpose
is to give some suggestions on how you as
a student may advance the learning proc-
ess in connection with seminar participa-
tion.
Seminar preparation
Basically of course it is an advantage to the
learning process that you read the curricu-
lum. The lecturer has chosen the texts be-
cause they contain essential points – not to
pester the students or simply to fill out the
curriculum requirements. However, to our
experience sporadic, yellow highlighting in
the curriculum is rarely a good indicator as
to how much you actually understood from
a text. It is about active reading, i.e. to re-
late critically to the argumentation of the
text which may be done by employing the
instructions for reading.
The instructions for reading may be more or
less relevant in connection with the actual
process of reading the text but in general it
is a useful tool when preparing for sessions.
Giving a detailed summary of a text is quite
easy, but disclosing the essential points in
your own words that is what it is all about.
Giving a detailed summary of a
text is quite easy, but disclosing
the essential points in your own
words that is what it is all about.
Ideally speaking, every seminar participant
has read and has taken a position on the
curriculum for each session. However, it is
no secret that busy periods in other subjects
and at home makes it difficult to be well-
prepared each time. Nevertheless, we be-
lieve that a little – but focused – preparation
is better than none at all. One hour of fo-
cused reading is better than giving up
when thinking of the pile of texts to read.
Participating in teaching
Participating in teaching is central for learn-
ing during a seminar. Too often, seminars
29
Instructions for reading
Focus Problem definition in the text?
Background Theoretical frame of reference in the text?
Results Essential points in the text?
Criticism Argument of the text:
- How is the connection between problem definition and
choice of theory?
choice of empirical laboratory?
Perspective:
- Could the problem definition of the text be highlighted through other theoretical perspectives? How would this influence on the conclusions?
- How do results of the analysis relate to results of other studies of a similar problem definition?
- How does the text relate to other texts in the seminar curriculum or other texts you have read during your study?
end up with a few students participating
actively, possibly because the other semi-
nar participants are not certain that their
questions and comments are sufficiently
‘smart’ to be accepted. It is a myth that stu-
dents are expected to understand the en-
tire curriculum of the day when they ap-
pear for teaching. Here it should be noted
that sessions are not examinations but
rather fora for discussion and clarification of
questions.
Participating in teaching is not an
examination but a possibility to
clarify and discuss nuances and
perspectives of the curriculum.
By way of example, it is quite all right to
express one’s difficulties in understanding
an argument or a text – you are definitely
not the only one with that experience. Fur-
thermore questions may form the basis for
a very good discussion of the topic to the
benefit of all participants. The best semi-
nars are the ones where questions are put
by other participants than the two ‘wise
guys’ on the front row.
Student presentations also deserve our
comments since both of us have experi-
enced this method of active participation
to be problematic from a learning perspec-
tive. It is a frequent misunderstanding that
the purpose of the presentations is to im-
30
press the lecturer. The best student presen-
tations are primarily directed to the fellow
students, moving beyond the texts, thinking
problem-centered and across texts. Put dif-
ferently, good presentations introduce new
angles and ideas and hence open up for
subsequent discussion which may contrib-
ute to the learning at the seminar.
Examination preparation
In our experience, examination preparation
at the end of the semester is considerably
facilitated if the reading is adjusted to the
examination method of the seminar; i.e.
examination preparation begins when
seminar teaching begins.
Examination preparation begins
when seminar teaching begins.
In general you may say that there are two
types of examination. By one examination
type you actively choose a problem defini-
tion (oral examination with synopsis and
home assignment), by the other type you
must react to an already fixed problem
definition (written and oral examination
without synopsis and a 7-days home as-
signment). The two types of examination
have different requirements of curriculum
knowledge. Consequently it is practical to
adjust the reading to the examination
method.
Adjusting reading method to
examination method is
advantageous.
By examinations with demands about an
independent preparation of a problem
definition, it is advantageous to read with a
problem-based focus. Here you should
identify strengths and weaknesses in ar-
guments, think creatively, and collect inspi-
ration to formulation of a problem defini-
tion which may contribute to the existing
literature in the field. In this connection the
curriculum may be considered as a basis to
generate ideas. Thus by this examination
method, it may be beneficial to prioritise
the curriculum – it is better to read the cen-
tral texts critically than to read all texts ex-
tensively.
When reading for seminars where the ex-
amination method implies that the student
must relate to a fixed problem definition, it
is better to read with a ‘point focus’; e.g.
based on the above instructions for read-
ing. It may be very useful to group the texts
according to topics and main points to
avoid a sense of confusion. Thereby points
are clarified at the same time as differ-
ences and similarities between arguments
and approaches may be discovered. Espe-
cially by this type of examination it is ad-
vantageous to read as many texts as possi-
ble and at the same time make a few (re-
flecting) notes about each text.
31
By both methods of examination you may
profit from contact with your peers at the
seminar or with fellow students. You often
learn a lot more through a discussion with
fellow students than over the fifth cup of
coffee in the reading room. Accordingly
time has often been allotted at the seminar
to discuss synopsis and possible draft as-
signments. This is an obvious forum to learn
about the workmanship of doing an as-
signment and about the topic of the semi-
nar. However, learning is completely de-
pendent on the approach of the student. A
constructive approach to the discussion of
presentations done by others implies that
you make an effort to contribute with useful
suggestions to improvements of the draft
argument. By the discussion of your own
presentation it is essential to receive the
criticism and avoiding the defensive. It is
about receiving the comments you believe
are useful.
The role of the lecturer
The lecturer plays an essential role for the
students’ learning, and as students we have
an effect on this role. By way of example
we found it useful when, as conclusion of
each session, the lecturer made a short
presentation of the curriculum for the com-
ing week and commented on the underly-
ing thought of the chosen texts. This ap-
proach gives a good basis for the prepara-
tion irrespective of whether you have time
to read the entire curriculum or is forced to
prioritise between different parts of the ma-
terial. Usually, the lecturers are open to
such a request.
Don’t be afraid to make demands
on the lecturer – most lecturers
appreciate suggestions from
engaged students.
Those were our experiences with learning
at the master level seminars. We hope our
reflections may help you to get the most of
your seminars!
32
Student counsellors
The Student Counsellors at the Department
of Political Science are here to guide you,
give advice, and to serve as a link between
the students and the administration.
We are four Student Counsellors. We are all
students at the Department, but as Coun-
sellors we are assigned to the rules of pro-
fessional secrecy. This means that you can
be sure that whatever you tell us, it will not
be passed on to the administration, your
fellow students, or anybody else.
Come and talk with us if you have any kind
of questions or problems during your stay
concerning not getting used to the
way we study in Denmark,
or doubts about your seminar, your
exam or the like,
personal problems,
or other questions.
Our office is situated next to the Board of
Studies, Building 1331, office 101.
You are always welcome to come by dur-
ing opening hours. You do not need a res-
ervation. You can also call us or send us an
e-mail.
You may contact us on weekdays
during opening hours from 11 am to 2 pm,
by telephone 8942 1267 from 10 am to 11 am,
or by e-mail: [email protected]
K A IFS
Department of Political Science,
Aarhus University
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE Faculty of Social Sciences
Aarhus University
Bartholins Allé 7
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Tel +45 8942 1111
E-mail [email protected]
Fax +45 8613 9839
Website www.ps.au.dk/en