233021 KO Discussion Class Key-questions and Concepts (2022W)

The discussion class engages with the issues addressed in the lecture class through debating texts or any other additional material indicated in the handout. It builds on discussion and the active participation of all students. For each workshop one group of students will act as 'workshop leaders'. The distribution of tasks to the students will be done in the lecture unit on 5 October 2021.
A discussion workshop generally has three phases:
1) go through each text and discuss their key points; the lead discussants for the workshop should get the discussion going;
2) we connect the texts with the lectures, discuss additional questions emerging and elaborate the key issues to retain from them, i.e. what have we learned;
3) reflect on how the papers potentially relate to the cases;

To pass the discussion class, students are expected to:
1) Read the literature for the respective discussion workshop and;
2) Prepare for the discussion: analyse the paper(s) along the six questions (take short notes and upload them to moodle before the class; not all questions are equally relevant for each text):
a) What are the core questions that the text asks? Express them in your own words. 2-3 sentences.
b) What are the problems/tensions the text is pointing at?
c) What hypothesis/es does the text defend? Identify key passages.
d) What are core concepts/terms that the text operates with and that you identified as being important?
e) What is the empirical field addressed in the text?
f) Where did you meet problems when reading the text?
3) Participate actively in all the discussions.
4) Take a leadership role in the discussion at one of the workshops (role will be distributed at the start of the semester) – hand in 3 days before the discussion class a short paper outlining how you plan to organise the discussion.
5) Adhere to the general standards of good academic practice.

The seminar mainly builds on careful reading of the papers, the preparation of assignments before the respective unit, as well as the active participation in discussions of all students. For each of the seminar units (except the first one) a group of students will act as leaders. The distribution of tasks to the students will be done in the first unit. To pass the seminar, students are expected to complete the following tasks:
• actively participate in classes (skills assessed: ability to provide constructive written feedback on other students’ work and to orally develop ideas, intervene appropriately, and ask questions)
• provide for each unit the designated assignment and send it two days before the course (skills assessed: ability to relate to authors seen in class to support a point or argument + ability to refer to the exact terminology used by the authors). The first assignment is expected by October 16, 2022, 5 pm (the first class will be an introduction to the course with no preparation required).
• provide a final essay, building on the assignments previously handed in (improved through feedback by peers), augmented by an introduction, a conclusion, a table of contents and a bibliography (of the authors actually used in the writing).
The essay should be uploaded to Moodle by February 15th, 2023.

This course uses the plagiarism-detection service Turnitin for the final essay.