Year
2013
Units
4.5
Contact
1 x 2-hour workshop weekly
Prerequisites
Admission into BAHA-Bachelor of Arts - Enhanced Program for High Achievers
Assessment
Assignment(s); Tutorial Presentation
Topic description
This topic will introduce inquiry and research methodologies, address broad questions affecting the modes and practices of study across Arts disciplines and apply critical thinking to the assumptions that unite and differentiate the intellectual communities of the Humanities, Sciences and the Social Sciences. The need to situate BA studies within a national and international context will be emphasised. Students will produce written work on a research-based project pertinent to their general studies as well as communicate their ideas to one another in oral presentations.
Educational aims
The aims of this topic are to:

  • encourage students to address broad questions affecting the modes and practices of study across Arts disciplines

  • inspire students to investigate the seminal assumptions that unite and differentiate the intellectual communities of the Humanities, Sciences and the Social Sciences

  • train students to be able to identify modes of inquiry and research methodologies from across a range of disciplines with a view to establishing where and how their own chosen major path fits into the research landscape on the university as a whole

  • encourage students to recognise and appreciate methodologies and knowledge models from areas of study different from their own

  • establish among the students in the High Achievers stream a sense of cohort and group identity through collaborative study and projects
Expected learning outcomes
At the completion of the topic, students will be able to:

  • collect, analyse, evaluate and organize information in a range of contexts;

  • identify, compare and contrast fundamental assumptions that operate within the Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences disciplines

  • identify research methodologies that are appropriate for various types of inquiry within Arts-related disciplines

  • utilize an appropriate research methodology to pursue a project-based inquiry within a BA major area

  • communicate in writing and orally the outcomes and other salient features of project-based inquiry, both individually and in collaborative arrangements with other students in the topic