Attendance.
Your attendance is required. Unexcused absences will be reflected in your final grade. Of course, sometimes emergencies or other unexpected circumstances arise that make attendance impossible. Just let me know! Afterwards, you are responsible for obtaining the information discussed in class from your classmates. If you will be absent from a class for a university-sponsored activity, please make arrangements with me — beforehand — regarding any work you might miss.
<aside> ⚠️ To makeup participation for missing class time, please submit an additional response paper (Critical Analysis of one of that days’ assigned readings). If you know in advance you will be missing class, please submit your paper in advance so that you can still contribute to our learning that day. These papers do not count toward your required 8 paper submissions
</aside>
Engagement. Student engagement and participation is key to the success of this course. Please come to class ready to discuss all of the assigned materials with your peers and contribute to each other’s learning. Public speaking is hard. But cooperative learning leads to greater knowledge acquisition and retention of information, as well as time management, conflict-resolution, active-listening skills, and much more (Fifer, Brooks, & O’Connor, 2019). Wherever your future takes you, something tells me you will need to engage and collaborate with other humans 🙂
<aside> 🤔 An exceptionally engaged and collaborative student:
☑️ Comes prepared to discuss reactions, issues, applications, implications, and research ideas about the materials (readings, podcast, videos, etc) every day ☑️ Regularly engages in group discussions, enhancing the depth and rigor of conversation even outside of class (e.g., via Slack) ☑️ Helps clarify their own understanding of course content, and helps others learn too ☑️ Contributes insights to whole group discussions and/or amplifies the insights of others
</aside>
In this class we will communicate entirely through Slack, a versatile platform with dedicated “channels” (discussion rooms) where we can post questions, have informal discussions about course content, and share resources such as podcasts and articles. I will make announcements over the Slack platform and encourage you to communicate with me and each other via Slack. Please join our Slack Community here. Instructions for using Slack and can be found in the #official-announcements channel.
You will be responsible for 2 small group presentations over the course of the semester. In these presentations, you and your co-presenter will make a 15-20 minute powerpoint presentation on one empirical article, integrating the readings with other work in the field, highlighting directions for future research, connecting the research findings to theoretical models, and offering critiques of the study design/methods. Please avoid simply summarizing the readings, as all students will have read them. After the brief presentation, the group will facilitate a class discussion on the readings. The group should prepare open-ended questions to promote student participation.
Handout: In-Class Presentations
To facilitate class discussion and the development of your critical thinking skills, you will write 8 reading responses over the course of the semester: 6 critical analysis papers, 1 wrongful conviction case, and 1 media feature. Reading responses are designed to prepare you for class discussion and encourage you to organize your thoughts, present a critique of the readings, propose future questions for research, integrate material from other areas of the course, and/or highlight a topic that was of particular interest to you. You must submit response papers by 7 pm the day before a seminar meeting to give me time to read + grade your papers and incorporate them into the next day’s discussion. Detailed instructions available here:
Handout: How to Write Response Papers
<aside> 👉🏽 Note: You should be prepared to discuss the contents of your papers in detail in class as I may reference your questions directly during the discussion. Your performance will count towards your course grade.
</aside>
<aside> 📝 Prepare an in-depth analysis of an article of your choice. To complete this analysis, you’ll choose 2 critical thinking (CT) stems from the table handout in Handout: How to Write Response Papers , create 2 questions that you think best represent the depth of understanding and your ability to critically analyze the paper, and answer each of your 2 questions.
</aside>
<aside> 📝 Identify a case of wrongful conviction from the Innocence Project or the National Registry of Exonerations websites and discuss its relation to the day’s readings.
</aside>