Overview

Your tutorials support your other core modules in human and physical geography. The tutorials assist you in enhancing and gaining confidence in all the fundamental skills that you learnt in Semester 1, such as essay writing, communication skills, critical thinking, independent work and teamwork. As in semester 1, you will also work on a group assignment. Here you will critically engage with a research geographer, by reading selected pieces of their work and interviewing them to further understand their research background, including trajectory, methods, and critical approach. The interview and your analysis will be conducted, written and submitted as a group. Support will be provided through your tutorial programme; however careful time project and time management skills will need to be employed in this student-led piece of work.

Note that tutorials run through the whole year. In Semester 1 the unit code for your tutorials was GEOG12011.

Aims

Further develop and reinforece general study skills.

Further develop skills in essay writing and writing persuasive academic arguments.

Enhance oral communication in tutorial discussions and debates.

Explore ideas, theories and concepts from compulsaory course units.

Further develop group, team-working skills.

Increase understanding of the research process by interviewing a Geographer.

Syllabus

Topics covered include refreshers on referencing and plagiarism, exercises on how to do an interview as a group, time management, essay writing (e.g. answering an essay question effectively, and how to construct a paragraph), and critical thinking.

Teaching and learning methods

Tutorials are group sessions where discussion is the key to sharing ideas and developing geographical knowledge. A key expectation is your engagement and preparation; you will learn a lot more if you really participate in the sessions. There will be lots of opportunities to receive personalised feedback and reflect upon your performance, both in tutorials and in the one-to-one Academic Advisory sessions. You will meet with your group and Tutor in a regular timeslot during most teaching weeks. Tasks will vary as the semester progresses, but you will be expected to come to each tutorial prepared for discussion with your peers, and Tutors may set you small pieces of homework between sessions. You will be set a mix of individual tasks and group work, for example the profile of a research geographer essay.

Tutorials are partly student-led, so will be tailored to assist your academic performance wherever possible – if you would like to spend a little more time on referencing, for example, just ask your Tutor. You will also be assigned Peer-Assisted Study Session (PASS) Mentors, and will meet with them regularly through the semester.

Course and assignment information will be made available on the VLE or from your Tutor. All essays will be submitted via the VLE.

Knowledge and understanding

Consolidate knowledge and understanding of your course units through both oral and written work.

Understand the geographical research process.

Intellectual skills

Source, select, and cite appropriate academic material.

Demonstrate experience of empirical data collection through the profile of a research geographer interview.

Demonstrate the use of a range of skills relating to referencing, plagiarism, reading and note taking, essay writing, time management, active listening, revision techniques and examination skills.

Discover, select, source and cite appropriate material including journals and periodicals.

Display critical thinking, evaluation and reflection skills.

Practical skills

Source, collect, analyse and use information.

Transferable skills and personal qualities.

Reflect on feedback to improve performance.

Be more confident about your contributions to tutorial discussions.

Demonstrate experience of working in a team to fulfil a number of tasks.

Exhibit self-directed learning.

Recommended reading

Bowman, D. et al. (2009) ‘Fire in the Earth system’, Science 324 (5926): pp. 481-484

Davies, G.M. (2013) ‘Understanding fire regimes and the ecological effects of fire’. In: Belcher, C.M., Fire Phenomena and the Earth System. An Interdisciplinary Guide to Fire Science. Chichester: Wiley

Mitchell, D. (1996) The lie of the land: Migrant workers and the California landscape. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Rojas, J. (2003). The Enacted Environment: Examining the Streets and Yards of East Los Angeles. In Wilson, C. and Groth, P. (Eds) Everyday America: Cultural Landscape Studies after J. B. Jackson. Berkeley: University of California Press.