Module HIST2922: CONVERSATIONS WITH HISTORY

Department: History

HIST2922: CONVERSATIONS WITH HISTORY

Prerequisites

• A pass mark in at least ONE level one module in History

Corequisites

• 20 credits of History modules concurrently.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To encourage students to develop advanced study skills including identifying and defining their own questions within the context of a given set of historical and historiographical issues, developing effective strategies for dealing with them, planning and writing long, independent projects, discussing and explaining their ideas in a small-group context, and engaging reflexively with bodies of historical literature that require them to think harder about how we "know" the past.
• To enhance progression from Level 1 and to facilitate progression to Level 3 in single honours History, in particular the demands of the combination of the Research-based Dissertation, Special Subject and level 3 single module.

Content

• This module will enable students to develop more advanced study skills through working in a small, intensive seminar requiring extensive reading, discussion, and writing about problems of historical understanding in connection with defined historical themes. The module will include:
• information skills workshops designed to improve students' ability to make best use of library and other (principally online) learning resources as independent learners;
• overview lectures explaining course objectives, methods, and procedures;
• staff-directed seminars examining key texts and problems of historiographical interpretation within the areas of the defined themes;
• student-directed seminars requiring students to present aspects of their work-in-progress while they are developing their long independent projects on historiographical and/or methodological issues or problems connected with these themes;
• and individual meetings between students and tutors to provide support for developing the students’ research projects.

Learning Outcomes

• In-depth understanding of key aspects of problems of historical research and historiographical interpretation within the area of the defined themes.
• In-depth understanding of the way historians use evidence to approach historical problems.

• Subject specific skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/history.internal/local/ModuleProformaMap/ and will include, in particular:
• identifying and defining their own questions within the context of a given set of historical and historiographical issues;
• developing effective strategies for dealing with them;
• planning and writing long, independent projects; discussing and explaining their ideas in a small-group context;
• engaging reflexively with bodies of historical literature and the evidence that supports them, requiring students to think harder about how we "know" the past;
• engaging reflectively with peer group discussion.

• Key skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/history.internal/local/ModuleProformaMap/

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student learning is facilitated by a combination of the following teaching methods:
• seminars to allow students to present and critically reflect upon the acquired subject-specific knowledge, methodologies and theories, and to identify and debate a range of issues and differing opinions. The seminar is the forum in which students are given the opportunity to communicate ideas, jointly exploring themes and arguments. Seminars are structured to develop understanding and designed to maximise student participation related to prior independent preparation. Seminars give students the opportunity to develop oral communication skills, encourage critical and tolerant approaches to reasoned argument and historical discussion, build the students' ability to marshal historical evidence, and facilitate the development of the ability to summarise historical arguments, think in a rapidly changing environment and communicate in a persuasive and articulate manner, whilst recognising the value of working with others and, occasionally, towards shared goals;
• the introductory lecture will explain the module's distinctive structure and rationale, its place in the overall framework of the students' learning, and our expectations of students in terms of their commitment to prepare for all seminars, to participate actively, and to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. The information skills workshops, to be provided in collaboration with professional colleagues in the University Library, will be designed to enhance students' ability to develop and research their projects independently by taking the initiative to move beyond reliance on tutors' guidance as to their reading. They will acquire enhanced bibliographic skills, improved awareness of electronic journals and other (e.g. primary source) online information provision, and a greater ability to make independent judgements about the quality and sufficiency of information available to them to enable them to address their own research questions;
• individual meetings between tutors and students. These are necessary for the development of an independent project. The purpose of these meetings is to help students develop approaches to research questions, to provide support for understanding historians’ approaches to these questions, to provide bibliographical guidance, to advise on the handling of evidence and to support the development of students’ written style.
• Assessment:
• Presentation skills will be summatively assessed against a criterion matrix permitting the fair and consistent evaluation of students' abilities to convey necessary information and explain their arguments orally (with the aid of handouts or other teaching aids, e.g. illustrations, Powerpoint) and to respond to questions;
• a formative critical commentary will support students in developing an understanding of the contribution particular secondary works make to historians’ understanding of research questions. This will help students develop the intellectual ‘tools’ required for carrying out the independent project;
• a summative essay will assess students’ understanding of the ways in which historians use evidence to approach historical problems. Summative essays remain a central component of assessment in history, due to the integrative high-order skills they develop. Essays allow students the opportunity to recognise, represent and critically reflect upon ideas, concepts and problems; students can demonstrate awareness of, and the ability to use and evaluate, a diverse range of resources and identify, represent and debate a range of subject-specific issues and opinions. Through the essay, students can synthesise information, adopt critical appraisals and develop reasoned argument based on individual research. Students should be able to communicate ideas in writing, with clarity and coherence; and to show the ability to integrate and critically assess material from a wide range of sources. This assessment will further help students develop the intellectual ‘tools’ required for carrying out the independent project;
• the independent project will assess students’ capacity to identify an historical problem, to identify historians’ work on this and related problems using appropriate bibliographical tools, to identify and to evaluate critically ways in which evidence has been used to support historians’ approaches to the problem and to carry out independent research. Students should be able to develop a sustained argument over a substantial piece of written work. The formative essay submitted during Term 2 will give students an opportunity to receive feedback on the development of these skills in preparation for the independent project.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

At least one oral presentation, a formative critical commentary on secondary literature of 1,000 words and a formative essay of 2,000 words in Term 1, plus formative benefits from the summative assessment in Term 2.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University