WHAT IS IN  A SEMINAR? 

A seminar brings together an interested group of learners who have done some preparation, including having read, thought about and written about a particularly good book or set of articles.  This solitary preparation should include marking the text for interesting passages, reviewing those sections, organizing one's thoughts on paper and producing significant questions that need to be prepared.  

In the seminar the group is responsible for exploring the text and probing the ideas people have brought from their individual reading of the text.  It is time to "mine", " to dig into" the text, to work it over as a group, to think out loud about it, and to test some ideas against the group.  For example the following might be overheard in a seminar: "I don't know if this is valid but it seems that the author is saying..." or, " Here on page 15 at the bottom of the page the author says [read from text].  This seems to be his/her/their most important point.  What I think he/she/they are saying..."

A seminar is not an arena for performance to show you've read the text or a reporting session to read your papers.  It is more than a class discussion and it definitely is not a time for a lecture from an expert who will tell the group what they should get from this book.  There may be places for those activities but not in seminar.  Seminar is a special time for a unique intellectual activity.  The exchange of ideas is focused on a source (a book, play or film).

A good way to keep focused on the text at hand is to respond to the following three questions:

1 What is the author saying?- point to the exact page and paragraph so everyone can read along.

2 What does the author mean?-Explain the passage in your own words

3 Why is this point important?-Agree or disagree, or compare it to other ideas.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

A seminar is an interactive educational or discussionoriented meeting or session where a group of pa... View the full answer