Tutorials and Seminars
Seminars fulfil a number of objectives within Higher Education:
- They provide an opportunity for you to get to know some of the members of staff
- To develop a more personalised contact with the Department
- They provide a method of obtaining informal feedback from students about the course
- If you have complaints (or positive views) the seminar is the obvious forum within which to voice them in the first instance
- From the educational viewpoint, however, seminars can be used for a variety of purposes:
- To explain novel or difficult ideas
- To allow you to practice techniques of problem-solving
- To further your development of communication skills
- To relate different parts of the course to one another
- To place course material in a broader context
- To provide feedback on your writing skills
- To identify and resolve any misconceptions you may have
- To explain novel or difficult ideas
Whatever the educational purpose for which they are being used, seminars have one common feature: to be effective they require active participation by students.
This means that you:
- must have read your assigned work in advance
- should be mentally (and emotionally?) prepared to contribute to seminar discussion
- have finished the assigned workhave maked a particular note of points that seem difficult or obscure
- should be willing to raise such issues for discussion
If you do not understand a point it is highly unlikely that you will be the only person in the group in that position; you will invariably be undertaking a service for the entire group if you come to the seminar equipped with questions on matters which you feel you did not fully understand.
Seminars are not designed to be mini-lectures. Their educational role is to provide an opportunity for you to discuss interesting and/or difficult aspects of the course. This is founded on the assumption that it is only by actively trying to use the knowledge that you have acquired from lectures and texts that you can achieve an adequate understanding of the subject; it is only by trying to speak a language that you can appreciate how well you have grasped it.
What is expected from students?
The following information give an idea of what lecturers from different Schools expect from students:
History
- Be there - on time. Seminars are compulsory, registers are kept, and reports are written.
- Come fully prepared.
- Participate in the discussion, listen to other students, ask questions, and offer points of view.
Art History and Archaeology
Seminars are participatory and you should come prepared to contribute to discussion. Higher Education values discussion as well as reading and writing. You can often develop ideas of your own in discussion with friends on the course, as well as engaging verbally in seminars.
School of Modern Languages
Seminar participation only works with an active group of participants. Having listened to a presentation and jotted down points for clarification or discussion, be prepared to respond, ask questions, and formulate ideas. Lack of confidence in one's knowledge and opinions is a widespread problem, but one which seminar discussion should help to overcome.
Preparing a Seminar Paper
Different tutors have different ways of organising seminars and will have different ideas about how seminar papers should be written. Remember that seminar papers are not essays - they are intended to introduce and provoke a discussion. Here are some general pointers about how to prepare a seminar paper:
- Give your paper a clear structure
- Say what the theme of the paper is
- Make the central section easy to follow, perhaps by numbering the points you are making
- If there is a set question, have you answered it?
- If it is a written paper, write and space it neatly and clearly
- You may want to number the paragraphs for reference during the discussion
- If you are reading the paper in person, speak clearly and slowly. Speak to the group, not down at your notes
- Stick to your brief. Don't try and give lots of detail, and particularly don't pad out a paper with irrelevant details
- Don't try and summarise everything you have read
- Assume that other people in the group have some prior knowledge of the subject!
Material adapted from guidance written by Professor Martin Loughlin, fornerly of the School of Law, (now at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)) and Study Skills in History, Booklet 3.