Beyond Teaching Social Sciences

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Beyond Teaching Social Sciences

• Velislava Petrova
• PhD Candidate
• Cultural Studies Dpt., Sofia University

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Contextualization of the course

• Cultural Anthropology (guided lecturesseminars)
• BA Level
• 2 semester long
• Mandatory
• Theory and History of Culture Dpt. (between
  Humanities and Social Sciences)

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Principal questions

• How to develop a course according to students
  (cap)abilities?
• How to organize a syllabus in order to develop
  theoretical knowledge, but also to prepare
  students for the labor market?
• Insist on transferable skills or on academic
  approaches?
• What should be the role of university education?

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Structure of the presentation

• Argumentation
• Philosophy of Teaching
• Teaching Cultural Anthropology 2005-2006
• Teaching Cultural Anthropology 2006-2007
• Conclusion

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Main problems(by intuition, not empirically
grounded)

• Devalorization of higher education in general and
  especially that in Social Sciences
• Gap between higher and secondary education
• Problem of acculturation
• University entering procedures
• What do those procedures assess really?
• Deskilling (last year of secondary education)

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Teaching Philosophy

• Role of the teacher, class policies and methods
  of teaching
• Self-initiative (?)
• Learning-through-doing (What is Anthropology?
  Research techniques and skills)
• The teacher as a tutor (not an authority)

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Teaching Cultural Anthropology 1/2

• Expectations about what skills students had have
• Goals of the course
• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
• Research techniques transferable skills
• Teaching methods
• Discussion of key texts
• Learning-through-doing conducting their own
  micro research project and presenting it, both
  orally and in written form
• Additional readings

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Teaching Cultural Anthropology 2/2Assessment
procedure

• Seminars
• Project proposal ()
• Oral presentation ()
• Research paper ()
• Class participation (Bonus)
• Not respecting deadlines (Malus)

• Lectures (seminars)
• Final exam

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Teaching Cultural Anthropology 2005-2006

• Expectations about students (cap)abilities
• Reality
• Impact on the spring syllabus (after the research
  project proposal)

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Teaching Cultural Anthropology 2006-2007

• Self-evaluation and discussions with students
• Course logic
• Towards a transformation of teacher-students
  interaction
• Course materials
• Assessment criteria

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And after Bishkek
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What should be the role of university education?

• Filling the gaps of secondary education or
  insisting on academic excellence?

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• Thank you for your attention!