Aims

This module aims to introduce Stage One students to a range of study skills that are essential for the kind of independent study that university level education demands. The module includes generic study skills, learning how to apply those skills to sociology, and a set of sociology specific study skills.

The teaching for this module progresses, with a series of lectures, workshops and seminars, through the essential and sociology-focussed skills for learning in higher education, such as how to build a persuasive argument using appropriate academic evidence, how to use academic references in essay writing, time management and critical reading and thinking in order to be able to evaluate academic research.

Overall, the module offers an opportunity to think and learn about all the fundamental skills that student need to understand, and study within, the discipline of Sociology.

Specific module aims:
To introduce students to study skills related to the type of independent study associated with University-based learning.
To understand and practice the skills needed for developing and presenting sociological argument.
To introduce study skills related to critical thinking and apply these to the discipline of sociology.

Outline Of Syllabus

Lectures and related workshops and seminars covering learning in higher education, the sociological imagination, bibliographies and referencing, library skills, time management, developing writing and presentation skills, critical thinking and evaluating written work. Included are two assignment preparation workshops and an assessment feedback session.

Sociology is the systematic study of human society. It examines the interactions among social institutions, cultures, groups and individuals. It allows for the study of social life and social change and the exploration of the social and cultural causes and consequences of human behaviour. This module provides an introduction to the ‘doing’ of sociology, providing you with the skills with which to become a sociologist. This module will help you develop your own set of practical and analytical tools in order to develop and engage your sociological imagination, both practically and theoretically, through oral presentations, learning about structuring academic work, reflecting critically and analysing ideas.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The lectures will introduce and provide an analytic framework for the different issues being examined in the seminars, and these skills will be consolidated in the workshops. The focus of the contact time is therefore on the seminars and workshops to allow students to work together and practice the different skills being examined with the support of an appropriately experienced staff member or postgraduate teaching assistant. The seminar schedule is supported by the large group teaching sessions (lectures and workshops) to ensure that links between the content and the assessments are made explicit to students.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The variety of assessments are geared to assessing the range of skills taught in the module and to involve students in learning how to make use of feedback on their development within the module.