Participating and presenting in seminars and classes

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Participating and presenting in seminars and
classes

• Neil McLean

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Overview

• Seminars and the teaching cycle
• Ice breaking
• Arguing, disagreeing and debating
• Making presentations

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The teaching cycle

• Read lecture read seminar task
• Read for general background and overview
• Lecture for the literature, research, arguments
• Read for detailed understanding
• Seminar - check your understanding, define your
  own position
• Task - use the new information essay (course
  work / exam), literature review, timeline, flow
  chart, mind map, questions to consider, pub
  argument

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Purpose of seminars / classes

• To check your understanding of your reading/the
  lecture and to define your position. Therefore
• Read and go to the lecture!
• Look at your reading list. Which text will
  provide an overview? Which article summarises the
  positions and research in the literature? Read
  this first.
• Write questions to ask
• Think about your response. What do you think and
  why?

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Seminars

• Given the purpose of seminars, the teaching
  method is to have a discussion. Some tutors will
  use hand outs, others just ask questions.
• (A secondary goal for you is to use seminars to
  meet people to form study groups.)

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Overview

• Seminars and the teaching cycle
• Ice breaking
• Arguing, disagreeing and debating
• Making presentations

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Ice breaking

• In the US geographical link
• Where are you from?
• Im from Cincinnati.
• No way, my uncles dog was born in Cincinnati.
• Awesome, tell me more.
• Well,

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Ice breaking

• In the UK discuss what is immediately true for
  both (e.g. the weather), find things that are
  true for both of you / similarities
• Useful topics
• Your course, themes, topics
• Your class teacher
• The lecturers curious behaviour
• London
• Not income, family, religion, politics at least
  at first

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Overview

• Seminars and the teaching cycle
• Ice breaking
• Arguing, disagreeing and debating
• Making presentations

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Arguing, disagreeing and debating

• Politicians friend speak in 3s
• Answer (thesis)
• Reason (justification)
• Evidence (support)

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Speaking in 3s

• Answer 1
• Yeah, well, you know, its kind of difficult.
  What I mean is its like, hard to say, but
  probably.
• Answer 2
• Ummmm
• Answer 3
• Its hard to say. Research is inconclusive or
  results are contradictory. Anderson Dill, for
  instance, suggest a link between video games and
  short-term aggression. But at the same time,
  Greenfield seems to have demonstrated a
  connection between electronic game usage and
  computer literacy.

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How to practice

• Devils advocate
• idea / answer reason evidence
• Agree with one of the following ideas
• The world is flat
• Binge drinking is a good thing
• LSE tuition fees should be higher
• George W. was a fine president

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How to practise

• The person next to you agrees with one of the
  following ideas
• The world is flat
• Binge drinking is a good thing
• LSE tuition fees should be higher
• George W. is a fine president
• Listen to their explanation, then ask key
  questions that undermine their argument

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Disagreeing

• Killer questions
• e.g. What were the initial aims of the mission?
  And where are we now?
• Think of the reason you disagree and ask a
  question that this reason is the answer to - then
  watch and smile
• Contradictory examples
• e.g. Central control of the economy works well
  and leads to fairer distribution of wealth.
• You mean like in North Korea?
• Easy, theres an example to prove / disprove
  everything

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Key point to consider

• The Jeremy Paxman halo its easier to ask
  than to answer. Therefore
• ask the key question and let the other person
  keep digging
• then ask another key question
• you dont have to be brilliant, you just have to
  avoid having to give a plausible answer yourself!

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Conclusion - seminars

• Use the seminars to check your understanding and
  develop your view / position you need to
  participate to do this
• Use the seminars to learn to argue effectively
  (speak in 3s)

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Final point

• Confucius said
• The person who is smiling while speaking slowly
  and clearly looks like he / she is winning.

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Overview

• Seminars and the teaching cycle
• Ice breaking
• Arguing, disagreeing and debating
• Making presentations

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Making presentations

• Giving presentations is another task designed to
  train you to communicate (and therefore to think)
  in the ways of your discipline
• Thinking strategically, these are opportunities
  to practise this ahead of the exam/dissertation,
  etc.

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Communicating academically
Pragmatics Rhetoric
Locution what you say Ethos credibility of message and sender
Illocution how you say it Pathos effect on the audience
Perlocution purpose of the communication (provides context) Logos flow of ideas / narrative structure
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Making presentations

• Planning
• Writing
• Delivery

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Planning

• Start from a question
• Sources of questions are
• Lecture series questions to consider
• Past exam papers (gets the groups attention!)
• Key divisions in the literature
• Your class tutor

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Timing

• 10 -12 minutes is long enough to answer any
  question.
• Intro answer reasons 2 mins.
• Section 1 2 mins.
• Section 2 2 mins.
• Section 3 2 mins.
• Section 4 2 mins.
• Conclusion 1 min.

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Writing

• Divide your sections up just like an exam essay
• Answer main reasons (prob. 4 or 5)
• Have 4 or 5 sections, one for each reason
• In each section
• Main idea that answers your question
• Justification (reasons) give references
• Support your reasoning give detailed examples
• Conclusion summary so what

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Example

• Main idea
• Intervention in Somalia in operation Restore
  Hope underestimated the problems involved.
• Justification
• The missions stated purpose was to safeguard UN
  food convoys from the docks in Mogadishu to the
  countryside, where the resources were needed
  most. The problem, however, was not that the
  roads were unsafe, but why they were unsafe. In
  a society splintered by tribal and war lord
  groupings, the distribution of food, or of any
  resource, is an intensely political act. To make
  the roads safe, essentially meant making society
  less fragmented.
• Support
• The failure to appreciate this from the beginning
  meant that attempts to clear the roads had to
  involve more than the close order protection
  missions UN forces were ready for. This
  inevitably led to mission creep and the doomed
  attempt to capture Farrah Aideed.

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Writing a PowerPoint presentation

• PowerPoint is a key points tool, it is designed
  to give structure to speech, not to be read.
• Therefore
• Start with your question
• Overview answer reasons
• Sections main idea notes on reasons / examples
• Conclusion answer so what? (note form)

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Example

• Operation Restore Hope underestimated the scale
  of the problem
• Roads were dangerous, but were dangerous because
  of the political situation / societal
  fragmentation
• Making the roads safe, meant making the society
  safe
• Therefore, the mission crept and figures such
  as General Aideed became the enemy

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Bad example

• Intervention in Somalia in operation Restore
  Hope underestimated the problems involved.The
  missions stated purpose was to safeguard UN food
  convoys from the docks in Mogadishu to the
  countryside, where the resources were needed
  most. The problem, however, was not only that the
  roads were unsafe, but that in a society
  splintered by tribal and war lord groupings, the
  distribution of food, or of any resource, was an
  intensely political act. The failure to
  appreciate this from the beginning meant that
  attempts to clear the roads involved more than
  close order protection missions. This inevitably
  led to the famous mission creep and the doomed
  attempt to capture Farrah Aideed.

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Delivery

• Key points
• Dont read your notes out
• Make eye-contact with the furthest people at the
  start
• Dont read your notes out
• Speak to the listeners, keep eye-contact around
  the room, slow down pause after each idea
• Dont read your notes out
• Start clearly, explain the relevance of your
  presentation to the group sell it!

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Selling the presentation

• Explain the value of listening Relevance / Exam
  / Interest
• In the lecture, Professor Herring discussed the
  need to understand the construction of identity
  in order to follow the whole course. This
  presentation is related to one of the key
  elements of identity self image.
• This presentation answers the exam question,
  Why dig holes? This question, or one very
  similar, has been in the exam for the last four
  years.
• While the figures vary, a recent study published
  in the Lancet put civilian deaths in Iraq at
  566,000 since the invasion. This presentation
  tries to account for this death toll and the
  reasons Iraq is slipping inexorably into civil
  war.

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Conclusions - presentations

• Plan it like an exam essay
• intro (answer reasons)
• 1 section per reason (idea / reasoning /
  evidence)
• conclusion (summary so what?)

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Conclusions - presentations

• Dont read your notes out, know the arguments and
  speak to the audience
• Make a coherent answer to the question, keep
  eye-contact and a good speed
• Before you start, tell them why listening is
  valuable

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Links

• http//video.mit.edu/watch/charles-fishman-decembe
  r-14-2011-excerpt-12869/
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vaTzMsPqssOY
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vjfMvYuvM0xE

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Conclusions

• Presenting and discussion in classes and seminars
  is an opportunity to perfect the kind of thinking
  and communication required here
• Taking this opportunity requires preparation and
  practice

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Epilogue

• Inspirational quote
• Talk low, talk slow and dont say too f
  much.
• John Wayne offering career advice to Michael
  Caine
• in the lobby toilet of the Beverley Hills
  Wiltshire hotel, 1973