Uni seminars - what works and what doesn't?

I will be a seminar leader for the first time this academic year and want to hear from all students (not just psychology ones) about what they find useful and not so much when it comes to seminars.

A bit of scene setting would be good, how many people in a seminar (this varies a lot) and are you expected to link to a specific lecture course, cover a set of pre-defined problems etc or is it a free for all Q and A session ? Is there any assessment attached – that can radically change the student-staff dynamic . Brace for some grade grubbing and the occasional “that’s so unfair I am going to give you a low course review” if so. Do you have someone senior sitting in once or twice to give you some feedback - that can be both terrifying and super useful. Any presentation / IT requirements, are you “real” or virtual this term ? In either case, make sure you know what every switch / screen / light in the room does and practice well in advance.

How is your voice modualtion and crowd control skills .

Oh, and what year group, if its freshers you need intro and bonding sessions, a plan for how to seat people etc and if its "real world" do you know what your institutions PPE and social distancing plans are. If its an older year group, expect to have to do a bit of memory jogging to knock the summer and lockdown dust out of peoples thought processes. A few slides and a quick chat about you and your research interests to introduce yourself is always a good idea as well.

And best of luck, welcome to the team .....

So much to think about and digest, thank you so much!

Hey lovely TSR peeps,

I will be a seminar leader for the first time this academic year and want to hear from all students (not just psychology ones) about what they find useful and not so much when it comes to seminars.

Thanks!

Yey! I bet you'll do great! Mr Wednesday has pretty much covered it, but I have a few suggestions from observations I've made.

I think the best seminar leaders make the seminar a 'safe space' for discussion, so no one feels silly to voice their opinion or volunteer a response. This can be tricky with a group of majority international students though, as their cultures can value saving face, so don't worry if you don't get much from them.

Also, something NOT to do (as I've found it rarely helps with students' confidence and the student-staff dynamic) is picking on people to answer Qs. I had a lecturer do this in every seminar, would call you out if she deemed that you weren't listening, wouldn't accept duplicate answers, that kind of thing. The number of students who attended those seminars dropped dramatically once people realised that she was going to do that every time. It just made everyone uncomfortable, and she was very much a 'teacher', not a colleague/advisor.

to be honest i really didn’t like it when we’re asked to ‘discuss the issue/question with your neighbour’ like literally never got anything out of that because one of you is never prepaired enough for seminar or both of you don’t have ultimate words of wisdom to share with each other, so you just have a fat chat and hope the seminar leader overhears you say something thoughtful or doesn’t hear you talking about your upcoming weekend. i’d rather just have a group discussion and take notes cuz you’re more likely to hear something useful and/or get your own imagination working. jmho

So much to think about and digest, thank you so much!

So long as it doesn't give you indigestion .

A key thing to think about is what you want your students to have achieved by the time they leave the room, and how you are going to make that happen (for most of them anyway - you can't save all of them from themselves). That might be gaining a better understanding of a specific concept, having some preconceptions challenged, knowing how to tackle a particularly tricky exam style question etc. Whatever it is, know how you are going to kick off the session and what the first and last ~10 words out of your mouth will be. It's a seminar, so you don't have to script it all, but you to give it a clear start and finish. Those 1st few words are also critical in establishing your control of the room and to get people in place, phones off etc so it's clearly "seminar time" not "checking instagram".