Constructive comments for unit evaluation

-
The comment below made by a particular student of mine some years ago in his or her unit evaluation is featured in the student evaluation segment of my unit learning guides for all the units I teach. Check my learning guides to differentiate unconstructive from constructive comments.
“I recommend that wev have more international relations lecturer in order for we the students to have a broader understanding of IR.”
Firstly, I find it disturbing that we graduated someone with very poor English. He or she could not spell the word 'we' and forgot to put the letter 'S' at the end of the word 'lecturer'.

I labelled the comment as unconstructive because this particular student has not suggested any thing constructive to help me improve the unit. He or she did not comment on my learning map or strategy. Also he or she did not say whether the learning outcomes where achieved after the implementation of my teaching and learning strategy.

You do not need more international relations lecturers in order to have a broader or deeper understanding of this sub-field of political science. The Friendship Library is full of books written by highly qualified scholars. I have made it my business to order new books every year for the library with the help of the chief librarian.

I play my part by reading and sharing with you my understanding. You as a student must make it your business to read the books in the library, or the eBooks from the internet, in order to learn more or as stated by your friend to have a 'broader understanding of IR'. 

Each student has a maximum of 500MB every day that renews at midnight. Thus, apart from listening or reading my understanding (here on this blog) of international relations you have options online.

There is a big A3 flyer on the library notice board produced by library staff with links to sites where you can download free eBooks. You also have access to other online resources via the Friendship Library intranet page.

For example, you can read articles from the Lowy Institute to have a practical understanding of the theories that we learnt in class. The Lowy Institute has a strong presence on social media as well.


 
We are in the twenty first century where we have access to information from both online and offline sources. Apart from what we share with you in class, you have to make an effort to consult other sources to gain more information about international relations. Sadly, this particular student has not done that.

He or she thinks that DWU needs to recruit more lecturers with international relations background in order for him or her to have a broader understanding. I have argued against his or her notion and labelled his or her comment as unconstructive in the context of unit evaluation.

Your comments should be your critical reflection of how we planned the unit and whether you achieved the learning outcomes. You should tell us where we need to adjust or amend in order to make our teaching and learning strategy more effective or commend us if our strategy helped you to achieve the learning outcomes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FPA: Organizational Process Model

-
This model centers on the fact that different bureaucracies have different standard operating procedures. These procedures are made in order to allow day to day operations to be carried out. Thus, a foreign policy decision is made based on these standard operating procedures. It is hard for a bureaucracy to make a decision or let alone function out of character or contrary to their standard operating procedure. The reading Chapter 4: Foreign policy shares a straight forward explanation of the OPM: "An alternative to the rational model of decision making is the organizational process model. In this model, foreign policy decision makers generally skip the labor-intensive process of identifying goals and alternative actions, relying instead for most decisions on standardized responses or standard operating procedures. For example, the U.S. State Department everyday receives more than a thousand reports or inquiries from its embassies around the world and sends out more than a ...
Read more

Commercial liberalism and the six norms

-
Image
Liberal internationalism is defined by Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (2008, p.190) as a project to transform international relations so that they conform to models of peace, freedom, and prosperity allegedly enjoyed within constitutional liberal democracies. The same scholars go further by dividing liberalism into three distinct groups. They say these are the three ways to implement the project. The way they present liberal internationalism as a project makes their work interesting. Three distinct groups Firstly, commercial liberalism is about free trade between states. States bilaterally or multilaterally via a platform like APEC pursue the goal of trade liberalization. Griffiths, O'Callagahan and Roach (ibid.) argued that economic interdependence would decrease the likelihood of going to war. Republican liberalism is about democratic peace. The scholars argued that the spread of democracy among states so that governments will be accountable to their citizens makes it di...
Read more

Allison's rational actor model

-
There are 3 common models of foreign policy decision making according to Graham Allison: rational actor model organizational process mode government politics model.  We will discuss the 3 models and compare them with the 3 levels of analysis. However, I challenge you to use your own initiative to learn about the other models of decision making. This will help you as future decision makers or analysts to understand how decisions are made and the processes. When one wakes up from bed he or she decides whether or not to brush their teeth, comb their hair and have a shower. These decisions are paramount, they affect and influence how the individual interacts in a social setting. This highlights the fact that as human beings we make decisions every day. Decision making is defined as the thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options. In the case of the ‘Kibung peles boy’ analogy; the male student had a choice of approaching the girl to ask he...
Read more