Background
POLS3803 Landmarks of Political Science is a capstone course in the Political Science Major in which students study classic works of political theory. The focus is on textual and conceptual analysis, with short- and long-form comprehension questions forming a weekly assessment, while a long essay is the major item (45%). There are 100-120 students each year.
The Experiment
In lieu of a take-home assignment, in 2022 an exam oral (25%) was introduced. At the beginning of the exam, students nominated two texts studied in the course and were then asked, “What would the author of text A think of text B?”, or the reverse, at the examiners’ discretion.
Further details:
- Answers were 4-5 minutes with a timer sounding at 4.30;
- Two follow-up questions were then asked; answers could only improve the grade;
- The exams were taken in front of two academics who both marked the assessment and then averaged their grades. Marks were divided between eloquence (50%) and content (50%);
- Every effort was made to establish a relaxed atmosphere. Exams were recorded.
I also use this assessment in Constructing the West (WCIV3200)
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 10-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100, 100-500
- CLASS LEVEL
- Second year, Third year, Post-graduate
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- High security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Low time
- CONDITIONS
- Identity verified, Work-related, Time limited
- FEATURES
- Authentic
Advantages
- Quick and efficient and enjoyable to mark
- Students enjoy the assessment
- Builds real-world skills
Challenges
Building speaking skills during the semester
Learning outcomes
Textual mastery; rhetorical skill; critical comparison
Associate Professor Ryan Walter
r.walter1@uq.edu.au
Supervised by the late Barry Hindess, I wrote my PhD on the history of economic thought in Britain, focusing on how the rise of political economy changed political discourse. My current research continues this inquiry but in relaton to the emergence of the political economist as a distinctive intellectual persona, focusing on Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, and David Ricardo. A major result has been to clarify the nature of the opposition that greeted the first economists. In short, 'theorising' had not been established as a prestigious activity; the presumption of intellectuals to reform their societies on the basis of 'theory' was perceived as an instance of philosophical enthusiasm, an intellectual pathology thought to underlie the French Revolution. Political economists responded to this opposition in divergent ways, producing fractiousness within their own ranks.
The long-range hypothesis to test in future work is that these teething issues were never resolved, with the result that the office of the economist in relation to government has never been stabilised by the development of a set of professional ethics and disciplines internal to economics of the type that lawyers and doctors innovated. If correct, this suggests that, while some economists have been domesticated by the imposition of bureaucratic offices, as for those working in central banks and treasury departments, most economists continue to roam wild, leaving our political institutions as exposed to their enthusiasm/truth as they were 200 years ago. The key statement of the initial stage of this research is Before Method and Models (Oxford, 2021). A series of subsidiary findings are published in Modern Intellectual History, Journal of the History of Ideas, Historical Journal, and Intellectual History Review. Find out more