Methodical approaches of political issues

Course content

This course introduces students to the fundamental methodological tools needed to complete an academic program in the social sciences, and more specifically in political science. During our sessions, we will address

- the active practice of reading necessary for a good understanding of texts of a high level of complexity or technicality, notably through their contextualization,

- the best methods for synthesizing and summarizing academic works or political texts,

- the rules to follow in structuring and writing a coherent and plagiarism-free academic work,

- the production of a relevant bibliography on a given subject and its referencing according to the discipline’s canon

- the general principles that establish the scientific nature of a research in social science

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Social studies have shown that Belgian secondary education is deeply inegalitarian. Regardless of their personal efforts, students joining university have very distinct skills and background knowledge. The ambition of this course is to fill this gap partially by providing students with a basic set of skills essential to their cursus in political science.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

There are no prerequisite skills or knowledge for this course.

Teaching methods and learning activities

This teaching seminar is divided into two distinct parts.

The professor will give a series of theoretical lectures to all students. These lectures will present the basic methodological tools of political science, as well as their functioning.

For the practical work, students will be divided into small seminar groups, supervised by a teaching assistant. Within the framework of these seminars, the students must participate to 3 distinct written tests.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

The slides presented during the lectures and of the texts discussed during the seminar sessions are available on the course's webpage on the UV.

Course notes

Université virtuelle

Contribution to the teaching profile

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

Explain orally, in his/her own words, a social science text after an initial reading
Summarize a scientific text in a short written format using appropriate social science terms
Reference a bibliographic source according to the discipline's standards
Distinguish between plagiarism and acknowledged borrowing of an idea from an author
Identify and obtain access to bibliographic resources relevant to a social science research project
situate a social science text in its broader socio-historical context
Write in a rigorous and accurate style consistent with academic expectations
Provide a reasoned interpretation of a social science text

Other information

Additional information

The course will be divided into two types of sessions:

lectures with the professor
and practical work with the teaching assistants.

Contacts

Professor

Martin DELEIXHE - martin.deleixhe@ulb.be

Coordinator
Ekaterina PIERSON - ekaterina.lyzhina@ulb.be

Teaching assistants

Simone BENAZZO (4 groups) – simone.benazzo@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

written examination
Continuous assessment

written examination

Out-of-session examination

Open question with short answer
Open question with developed answer
Closed question with multiple choices (MCQ)

Continuous assessment

The final grade (out of 20) will aggregate the results of 3 partial grades, based on 3 written tests :

Writing a summary of a political speech or argument (33%)
Building a relevant bibliography to study the political speech or argument (33%)
Producing a critical contextualization of the same political speech or argument (33%)

To pass this class, students must have participated to the tests and have a final grade of 10/20 or above. (It is therefore possible to fail one test and to pass the class nonetheless.)

The students who failed the class in June can resit their failed test(s) (and only the failed tests) in August for a new evaluation. The grades of their successful tests in the first session will be reported to the second session.

Absences:

An unjustified absence from an assessment results in a grade of 0/20 for that assessment. An unjustified absence from an assessment automatically entails participation in the second examination session, since passing the course in the first session requires participation in all three assessments and an average grade of at least 10/20. Absence from one assessment, even if unjustified, does not prevent the student from taking the other two assessments during the first session.
A student who, for serious and exceptional reasons, is unable to attend an assessment must send their teaching assistant a medical certificate (or any other official document justifying the absence). The student will then be authorized to take the missed assessment during a special session organized at the beginning of May, while remaining in the first examination session.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Test 1 : Writing a summary of a political speech or argument (33%)

Test 2 : Building a relevant bibliography to study the political speech or argument (33%)

Test 3 : Producing a critical contextualization of the same political speech or argument (33%

Language(s) of evaluation

english
(if applicable french )