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 Activities Study strategy: Discussion of academic objectives

Study strategy: Discussion of academic objectives

Brief description

The exercise should encourage the students to reflect on the academic objectives of the course. The students must discuss in groups and in class the academic objectives listed in the academic regulations to gain a concrete understanding of the purpose of the course. This will inform the students what outcome they are expected to gain from the course, and what they need to demonstrate at the exam.

Motivation for the exercise and required outcome

Most students consider the academic objectives in the academic regulations to be abstract. By discussing the objectives among them and in class, the objectives become more concrete and tangible. Afterwards, the students can use the academic objectives actively in their preparation for class and in their exams.

Performing the exercise

  • As a teacher you must print the academic objectives from the academic regulations on coloured paper. One objective on each sheet, each objective on its own colour paper. Print enough copies for each student to be given a sheet with each objective.
  • Divide the students into groups, making sure that the number of groups corresponds to the number of academic objectives from the academic regulations. Students in each group should now discuss one objective, printed on the same colour paper.
  • The students discuss the content and meaning of the academic objective for about five minutes.
  • Then the students team up in a number of expert groups. The expert groups consist of one representative from each of the first groups. The expert group members now discuss all the academic objectives – now from different colour paper. This discussion lasts 10 minutes.

Options:

  • You may choose to let the expert groups present their understanding of the academic objectives at the end of the session, allowing time for questions to you as their teacher. 15 minutes should be allowed for this. In this step, you may ask the expert groups to present only a few and not all of the academic objectives. This will eliminate the risk that the last expert groups repeat what the other expert groups just said. During the individual group presentations, you may ask if other expert groups have anything to add.
  • If there are many students in a class, you may divide them into smaller groups, in which case several groups will be discussing the same academic objective. This will help to ensure that all students contribute to the discussion of the academic objectives.
  • You as a teacher may define some concrete questions which the students should address when discussing the academic objectives. “How do you understand this concrete expression?” or “How do you think you can achieve these objectives?” You may write the questions below the academic objective in the coloured sheet. The questions may help opening the discussion and provide the students with concrete topics to relate to.

Activities

    Examples of practice

      You will need:

      • The academic objectives for the course as stated in the course description in AU’s course catalogue, printed on different colour paper. If you do not have coloured paper available, you may change the font colour.

      Worth considering:

      • At what time during the semester do you want to run the exercise?
      • Do you want to take part in the discussion of academic objectives in the group presentations? Or would you prefer to close the session by presenting to the students how you have planned your teaching to ensure that the students will achieve the academic objectives?
      • Are there academic objectives which the students should pay extra attention to?
      Revised 09.10.2023
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      AU Educate