LSE100 The LSE Course:
Understanding the causes of things
A large-scale, multi-discipinary approach
to teaching research methods
Jonathan Leape
Director of LSE100
HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching research methods
23-24 May 2013
Overview
 Motivation and aims
 Course strategy
 Some examples from the course
2
The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Aims of LSE100
 To deepen and broaden students’
understanding of social scientific thinking,
with its core elements of evidence,
explanation and theory
 To strengthen the critical skills that underpin
the study and application of the social
sciences
– Methodological skills
– Information skills
– Communication skills
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Methodological skills
 Evaluate and interpret different types of
evidence
 Explain the roles of questions, theories,
evidence and explanations
 Identify and critically assess causal
claims in social science explanations
 Analyse problems from different
disciplinary perspectives
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
And also
Communication skills
 Construct coherent and persuasive arguments – in
writing and in presentations
Information skills
 Find, evaluate, and manage information effectively
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Course strategy
 Important issues of public debate used as vehicles for
examining research methods (‘deep embedding’)
 Contrasting disciplinary approaches to each issue to highlight
methodological differences;
 Emphasis on argumentation to motivate research method
learning and to foster critical thinking about research methods;
 Continuous feedback.
 Intensive teacher training and support; all in a
 Large scale approach – compulsory for all UG students (1350
students, 108 weekly classes, 20 lecturers, 30 seminar
teachers).
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Course topics
 LSE100 examines ‘big’ questions such as:
– How should we manage climate change?
– Do nations matter?
– Why are great events so difficult to predict?
– What caused the financial crisis?
– Is population growth a threat or an opportunity?
– Who owns ideas?
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Intensive feedback strategy
Feedback on LSE100 is
 high-frequency, to stimulate and support learning in lectures
(group PRS, muddy points) as well as classes (task-based group
work);
 ‘just in time’, to match student needs and ensure motivation;
 varied, to accommodate different learning styles (real-time and
deliberative, collective and individual, audio, written and
dialogical); and
 relationship-based, to facilitate skills and personal development
(121 feedback, classes limited to 12 students)
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Class tasks – Poverty
 Measuring
poverty:
Analysis and
argumentation
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Class tasks – Climate change
 Different
ways of
thinking about
risk
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Class tasks – End of the Cold War
 Connecting
evidence and
explanations
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Class tasks – Financial crisis
 Analysing
causes
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
HEA Project
 Establish a permanent web presence
to share course strategy and
resources, while expanding the range
of self-paced online resources;
 Invite external consultant to review
existing approach and advise on
creative integrative assessment
strategies appropriate to the course.
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The LSE Course: Understanding the causes of things
Giving feedback on formative assessments
Progression F1-F2-S1-S2
– Formative 1 – in class short
answer text (week 4)
– Formative 2 – in class short
essay (week 6)
– Summative 1 – in class short
essay (week 9)
– Summative 2 – end of term
coursework essay (week 11)
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The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Giving feedback on formative assessments
Media resource page
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The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Feedback on formative assessments
Planning F1 – Week 4 Class
 The first formative task (F1)
requires students to draw on two
contrasting disciplinary
approaches (economics and
international relations) in
assessing the failure of
international collective action on
climate change.
 It also supports the
communicative outcome of cogent
written argumentation.
16
The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Feedback on formative assessments
Formative 1 – dialogical feedback
 The feedback approach taken
on LSE100 is dialogical:
students are asked to nominate
what kind of feedback they
would like on their written work
 Tutors explicitly address this
request and structure their
feedback to answer it
17
The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Feedback on formative assessments
Marking database
 LSE100 marking data is captured
through a central marking database
 Marking follows the course criteria,
which relate in particular to the
communicative outcomes
 This database enables comparisons
over time for individual students or
across markers
 The database also builds in a
referral system that encourages
students to be responsible to their
own development
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The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Feedback on formative assessments
F1 Feedback
 The database produces reports
that bring together the marking
criteria, individual feedback and
referral recommendations
 On the reverse, there are details
of the ‘LSE100 writing lab’, a
system of one to one guidance
on writing and argumentation
19
The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Feedback on formative assessments
Examples of Feedback on F1
Pass level
Merit level
Distinction level
This essay demonstrates understanding
of the key issues, but it doesn't go far
enough to present a really credible
academic argument. You need to flesh
out your points with more references to
key ideas, references to the literature, and
examples to support your assertions.
This essay starts out with a very strong
introduction. It is engaging and well-written,
and it includes a clear thesis statement.
Your definition/summary of the two
approaches is also excellent, as it is concise
and clear, and yet demonstrates excellent
understanding.
This is a clearly written, well-thought and convincing essay.
The argument is clear and consistently supported and justified
throughout the analysis. It is a compelling argument since it
offers a complementary approach to tackling the issue of
collective action on mitigation. Therefore I gave you D for
Thesis.
You should take yourself out of the
argument (so avoid phrases like "I
believe," "I agree," etc.) - instead, just
write an assertive statement and back it
up with explanation (drawing on the
literature) and evidence. This will give
you a more academically sophisticated
voice, and will also save time.
There are a couple of things you could do to
improve your essay. First, use language
that is not emotive and more reflective of
social science. I've noted a couple of
places in the essay where you could
substitute words that are less "loaded" and
are more objective. It is important to
recognise that in social science research,
people rarely "always" behave in certain
ways. Also, be sure to refer to specific facts
or events or actions to support your points,
rather than things that are harder to
demonstrate, like general attitudes. Avoid
stereotypes (even if you are pretty sure they
are valid!), and instead refer to actions.
While the substance of your argument is
correct, it really doesn't go far enough. In
a short answer essay, aim to write an
introduction that sets out a clear argument
(2-3 sentences), introduce around three
points that support that argument, and
write a conclusion that reinforces your
argument and then takes things a step
further by discussing the implications.
Prior to next week, be sure to complete
the writing tutorial on Moodle. I think that
will help you to think about how to
approach that issue
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Finally, be sure to include more citations/
references to the reading. This
demonstrates engagement with the
literature. It is important to demonstrate
some breadth as well as depth, so in this
essay, you could have referred to Hare et
al. as well as Stern (either the lectures or
the readings).
The justification of your points is also very good and the
reasoning in the argumentation is very strong. You explain
some of the strengths of building blocks approach in relation
to the weaknesses in global deal. However, the only
justification you use for your key argument on the need for a
adopting multiple approaches is that building blocks may not
achieve the aim for 2 C. Building blocks have other
weaknesses that leads to the necessity of adopting multiple
approaches. For instance, building blocks might lead states to
loose their focus on more ambitious aim to tackle the climate
change. Also, free riding problem might exacerbate in this
approach, etc. Therefore I gave you M for Justification.
The use of examples and supporting arguments from the
literature is quite good. You could derive some explicit
connections to the public goods theory and non-excludable
and non-rivalrous character of climate and what implications
this might have on building blocks and global deal
approaches. I gave you M for Support and D for Concepts.
Your grasp of the concepts and issues in the topic, and
understanding of the connections between its different aspects
is impressive. However, you need to bring in more information
on the limitations and strengths of the two approaches and
use these in a way that derives comparisons and contrasts
more explicitly. Well done!
The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Giving feedback on formative assessments
Support: Moodle essay writing
 Another form of referral
recommendation is to the
self-study materials on the
LSE100 Moodle site
 These include an essay writing
tutorial, guidance on literature
searching and information
literacy and further resources
on argumentation, such as
marking tasks in line with the
course marking criteria
21
The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning
Giving feedback on formative assessments
F2 1-2-1 feedback session (week 7)
 Following the second formative
task (F2), all students visit their
class tutor’s ‘feedback session’
to get their work back and have
a one to one conversation about
both F1 and F2
 Office hours for the term are
clustered in certain weeks, so all
students have the chance to
meet their tutor in person
 The feedback slot is an oral
continuation of the feedback
dialogue started in F1
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The LSE Course: Understanding
the
causes
ofstrategic
thingsproject
HEA
Social
Sciences
LSE100: An innovative, multi-disciplinary approach to assessing research methods learning