Post by WIDboard on Sept 21, 2011 5:59:15 GMT -5
What is a "Conceptual Archeology" anyway?
A conceptual archeology is an assignment initially conceived by GW librarian Dolsy Smith, and developed further with Randi Kristensen for use in her UW20 Classes. The basic premise of the assignment is that students trace the history of an idea from author to author, to understand how scholars use research in their work.
Um...what?
So glad you asked. To clarify: students each find an article, book, or other academic source, and select one idea or concept in it that they find particularly interesting, and which the author has cited as coming from another source. The students then go find the source cited by the author, and attempt to find the fact or concept as the cited author used it. Usually, this results in the discovery that that author actually found that idea in another article, whom the author cites. In this manner, the students trace the origins of the idea back a number of steps (usually 3 in UW20 classes, perhaps more in higher-level classes), to get a sense of its history.
Once the research has been done, students write up a short paper explaining and analyzing their findings. Questions such as "How has the idea changed or been used differently by each author" are excellent topics for discussion in such papers. See the attached assignment for details.
Why use a Conceptual Archeology? What does it accomplish?
A Conceptual Archeology assignment accomplishes quite a lot, actually. All of the following are great possible learning outcomes:
a) Students improve their understanding of how scholars conduct research.
b) Students become more comfortable and less intimidated by the research process.
c) Students build source-finding skills for their own future research.
d) Students learn how to ethically credit sources of ideas, and then how to use those ideas in their own work responsibly.
e) Students learn to think critically about how authors use information obtained from sources.
f) Students, in some lucky cases, may become more comfortable with the Big Names in the discipline they research. For example, if a student's research leads back to analyzing an original Freud's essay, that student may feel less intimidated by Freud's work in the future.
See the attached example assignment to see how Dr. Kristensen organizes her own classes' first Conceptual Archeology of the semester: Look Who's Talking
A conceptual archeology is an assignment initially conceived by GW librarian Dolsy Smith, and developed further with Randi Kristensen for use in her UW20 Classes. The basic premise of the assignment is that students trace the history of an idea from author to author, to understand how scholars use research in their work.
Um...what?
So glad you asked. To clarify: students each find an article, book, or other academic source, and select one idea or concept in it that they find particularly interesting, and which the author has cited as coming from another source. The students then go find the source cited by the author, and attempt to find the fact or concept as the cited author used it. Usually, this results in the discovery that that author actually found that idea in another article, whom the author cites. In this manner, the students trace the origins of the idea back a number of steps (usually 3 in UW20 classes, perhaps more in higher-level classes), to get a sense of its history.
Once the research has been done, students write up a short paper explaining and analyzing their findings. Questions such as "How has the idea changed or been used differently by each author" are excellent topics for discussion in such papers. See the attached assignment for details.
Why use a Conceptual Archeology? What does it accomplish?
A Conceptual Archeology assignment accomplishes quite a lot, actually. All of the following are great possible learning outcomes:
a) Students improve their understanding of how scholars conduct research.
b) Students become more comfortable and less intimidated by the research process.
c) Students build source-finding skills for their own future research.
d) Students learn how to ethically credit sources of ideas, and then how to use those ideas in their own work responsibly.
e) Students learn to think critically about how authors use information obtained from sources.
f) Students, in some lucky cases, may become more comfortable with the Big Names in the discipline they research. For example, if a student's research leads back to analyzing an original Freud's essay, that student may feel less intimidated by Freud's work in the future.
See the attached example assignment to see how Dr. Kristensen organizes her own classes' first Conceptual Archeology of the semester: Look Who's Talking
Attachments:
