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Drugs, Society, and Behavior |
Goals of this course |
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I
had several very specific goals in designing this seminar. The goals were established
to build on some of the skills that I have sometimes found to be less
developed among my first year students in the past. The
most important goal is, of course, related to the content of the course. I
want you to read and think carefully about the use and abuse of drugs in our
society in a variety of contexts. About the public policies that govern it,
about the harms and benefits associated with their use, about the bases of
decisions made by medical and mental health professionals. Reading materials,
occasional lectures, films, and discussions are all used, first and foremost,
to convey all this to you. The
second major goal has to do with first year seminars’ designation as college
writing courses. Good writing will be more than a goal. It will also be a
vehicle for learning. To this end you will be required to revise your work in
response to comments made by your professor, your peers, and your
peer-writing tutor. There
also other goals we will pursue: In
my experience, first year students do not always learn to use the library as
early in their college career as they should. I have taught many sophomores
who did not know the appropriate way to go about searching for information in
our library. During this semester you will spend quite a bit of time doing
that. In your papers I will expect you to cite a reasonable amount of
appropriate scholarly sources to substantiate each one of your arguments. To
do that you will have to access professional library collections. Another
goal is to have you learn how to read research reports. Psychology is an
empirical discipline in which the publication of reports on scholarly
activity is highly regulated. For example, for a research report to be
considered valuable it needs to have undergone a process known a peer review.
In this process, experts in a given field within the discipline conduct a
blind review of a particular piece of work. Only after these acknowledged
experts agree that the work makes a clear contribution to the field is the
work accepted for publication. The format and content of the written report
are also highly regulated. You will need to become familiar with some of
these regulations to make sense of what you read. I
have also noticed that many students have a difficult time expressing their
ideas verbally. This is a crucial skill we will work on during the semester.
As implied in the name of the program, this is a First Year SEMINAR. In a
seminar it is the students who carry the burden of making the class an
interesting and productive endeavor. The emphasis will be on informed and
well-reasoned discussion rather than on lectures. I will look to you every
week to engage each other in a polite but honest oral give-and-take in which
you express your opinions (always supported with some sort of evidence) and
intently listen to the opinions of others in the class. I expect you to
disagree with each other and with me. Disagreement is the fuel of
conversation. However, I also expect you to acknowledge that every one's
opinions are as important and deserving of attention as yours. You
will also sharpen your public speaking skills by participating in two formal
debates during the semester. Presenting material to an audience in a logical,
clear, and concise manner is a difficult enterprise. How do you keep your
audience engaged? How do you present the material so that it is at the same
time clearly understood and interesting? Is it better to make many brief
points or a few larger ones? You will face these questions over and over in
this seminar and throughout your professional life. Whether you are a teacher
trying to communicate with your students, an architect trying to persuade a
customer to choose your plans, or a graduate student defending your masters
or doctoral thesis, public speaking is an invaluable skill. I
also want you to learn how to critically review a manuscript. A couple of
times during the semester you will have the opportunity to read the work of
one of your peers. Your responsibility is to help this person to make his or
her work better. To do this you will have to think long and hard about the
content of what you read. You will also have to be well informed about the
content of the work. In my experience two problems tend to arise: (1) Many
students are uncomfortable critiquing the work of a peer. The tendency in
this case is to say very little that is helpful fearing offending the author;
(2) Many students do the opposite, the become harsh and insensitive in their
criticism. You need to resist both of these tendencies. Valuable criticism is
that which points to what needs improvement in an honest but kind manner,
while also offering praise for what is good. |
