Project week at Philosophy

Outline

The project week is a part of the curriculum at Philosophy and is placed in the induction week. The course is 2 ECTS which translates to a workload of 56 hours (including 33 hours in the project week). The content is connected to two additional introductory courses.
The examination is a group presentation based on a synopsis, and furthermore a group of opponents (peers) take part in the examination.

The project week is organized by a coordinated lecturer team, who introduce the students to various academic perspectives in connection to the philosophical topics, basic argumentation theory and presentation techniques.
Group work and collaboration is one of the main parts of the project week. Student instructors supervise the group work, answer questions, and clarify when needed.

Main purpose

• To gain basic insights into philosophical constructs.
• To introduce new students to basic academic and philosophical methodology and argumentation theory.
• To work on collaboration skills

Goals

Goals/objectives

• To train basic academic tools and to ease into academia.
• To collaborate with peers, discuss objectives and work out differences.
• To phrase, outline and work on philosophical questions
• To master basic argumentation and use of literature in an academic setting
• To convey new knowledge to peers and act as opponents

Target group

Students involvement

Students are involved as instructors during the project week.

Success criteria

3 elements that make it successful

• The attention on relevancy of the “everyday topic” to be discussed and dissected academically and philosophically.
• Working project-based with expectations, academia, and academic community.
• The collaborative work with students as instructors.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

Yes, but not in a systematic way every year.
The latest evaluation shows, that the students are especially fond of the collaborative work and group presentations. It gives them an idea of what is expected of them and “eases” the way into academia via practical experiences. And secondly, the students respond positively to the philosophical topic and the discussions from various perspectives/paradigms.

Communication

The project week is a part of the curriculum, and the students get more information on the content leading up to the event via the LMS.

Timing

First week in the semester/the induction week.

Resources

Staff involved

• A coordinator to plan and coordinate the project week.
• Lecturers to participate and give presentations.
• Students as instructors and support

Transferability

We think it is somewhat transferable to other contexts or groups.

The concept of a project week introducing academia, matching expectations, and getting practical experience with relevant aspects of a study programme and collaborative work is transferable. The more specific content and academic priorities are less transferable.