What are seminars?

Seminars are an accompaniment to your lectures and will help you to further engage with the themes, topics and debates covered in the lectures. Seminars typically take place in smaller groups in a classroom setting and will give you the opportunity to discuss, ask questions, and explore in more detail. They are a great forum for knowledge sharing. There will often be reading or tasks to complete before the session and you may be ask to work within a group of students and/or present your work to the rest of the group.

Before the seminar

• Go to the lecture

Seminars are designed to complement your lecture and will pick up and expand upon themes taught in the lecture. Therefore in order to get the most out of your seminar sessions you need to go to the lecture and be familiar with the material covered in there. Don’t worry if you don’t understand it all yet, the seminar is your opportunity to discuss this in more detail with your fellow students and to ask questions.

• Do the prep

You will have been asked to do reading or tasks before the session and your seminar leader will expect you to have done this. The material covered in the reading and tasks will help you to further understand the topic. Once again, don’t worry if you don’t understand it all yet. The seminar is your opportunity to learn more.

• Read over lecture notes

Some seminars will take place immediately after the lecture in which case the information covered will be fresh in your mind. But if this isn’t the case and the seminar takes place several days later, read over your lecture notes beforehand to remind yourself of the key points of the lecture and any questions or discussion topics you wanted to raise.

During the seminar

• Be prepared to discuss and answer questions

A seminar is the opportunity to ask questions and raise ideas you didn’t get the chance to do in the lecture. While this can be a daunting prospect, you will get the most out of the session if you engage with the discussions within there. Seminars are not about getting the ‘right’ answer but instead about exploring the material further.

• Your seminar leader is there to guide but not to formally ‘teach’ the session

After the seminar

• Revisit your notes – build on the notes you made during the lecture noting down new ideas and areas you’d be interested in exploring further.

Summary

• Seminars will help you to further engage with the, sometimes complex, material you learn in lectures and through your own reading.
• Go to the lectures.
• Turn up to the seminar on time, having completed any tasks you were asked to do.
• Be prepared to discuss, debate and ask and answer questions.
• Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything straight away.
• Use seminars as an opportunity to build on your lecture notes, fill in any gaps, and answer any questions that came from the lecture.
• Revisit your notes after the seminar. Do you understand the topics more clearly? Have all your questions been answered?

Further reading

https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/libraryservices/library/skills/asc/documents/public/Toptipsforseminars.pdf