Welcome to Century of Revolution

1
Welcome to Century of Revolution

• POLS 3025 3.0
• Ross Rudolph

2
Introduction

• Ross Rudolph
• S654 Ross
• Office hours Monday and Wednesday, 130- 3 p.m.,
  and by appointment
• 736-5265 ext. 22564
• e-mail directed to rrudolph_at_yorku.ca guaranteed a
  response within 24 hours
• PowerPoint presentations are available for
  downloading on the course Web site

3
Overview

• Announcements
• Student survey
• Big questions this course addresses
• Course organization
• My teaching and learning philosophy, or, my goals
  for this course

4
Announcements

• Reading for next Monday
• Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution, Part
  One 1603-1640
• Write down 2-3 of what you consider to be the
  most important distinguishing features of
  Canadian government and politics in 2007
• Login to Moodle, and introduce yourself to others
  in your online study group. On Monday you will
  get a chance to meet them

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Step 1

• Start by going to the following URL
  http//moodle.arts.yorku.ca/
• This will bring you to the following page

6
Step 2

• To log in to moodle, click on the link Login at
  the top right corner of the page

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Step 3

• Login using your Passport York username and
  password

8
Step 4

• Once you have logged in, select the course you
  are registered in. POLS 3025.
• You are now registered in the course.

9

• Please note, if you do not know your Passport
  York account, please contact helpdesk_at_yorku.ca .

10
Student survey

• Many reasons students enrol in courses have
  nothing to do with learning objectives forget
  those!
• Significant learning and research both respond to
  big questions
• What are you looking to get out of this course
  what would you like, what do you expect, to
  learn?
• Introduce yourself to your online study group
• Background in politics and political theory
• Specific interests in this course
• What you would like to know and be able to do at
  the conclusion of this course

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Big questions

• Political theories
• are constructed
• frame the way we understand political issues
• Seventeenth century witnessed the emergence of
  our system of government
• Some major issues
• When and why did people stop believing they were
  ruled by divine right kings?
• How did doctrine of popular sovereignty become
  established?
• When and why did shift occur from Christian
  commonwealth to pursuit of private wealth and
  national prosperity?

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Questions

• Fantasy echo
• I am committed that you will never regret asking
  a question
• Different options
• Post a question to your online study group
• Lecture
• Office hours
• E-mail response within 24 hours

13
Calculating final grade

• 2 papers, first on material in first half, second
  on material in 2d half
• draft circulated to other member of study group,
  who gives feedback
• What is main point of paper?
• Strengths?
• Suggestions for improvement?
• final revised version, taking into account
  feedback (20,30)
• Participation (25)
• Your feedback on two written assignments
• Question to list, and contributions that advance
  the discussion
• Participation in class
• Periodic 1-minute papers
• At the end of the course, you will be asked to
  self-assess, citing preceding kinds of evidence
• Take-home final examination, covering whole
  course, distributed in final class, with one week
  deadline (25)

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Policy on unacademic practice

• Rules require you to acknowledge and cite source
  of materials not original with you
• Breaches of the rule are
• theft violation of intellectual property
• fraud representing as your own what is not
• Penalties
• severe
• easily avoided

15
Texts

• Required books available
• for purchase at the bookstore
• for loan on reserve at Scott Library
• Pdfs of extracts on Course Website
• Complete original Early English Books online
  through York University Libraries
• Importance of reading and discussing with your
  online study group in advance of classes in which
  texts are discussed

16
Deep vs. surface learning

• Preparing democratic citizens is integral to
  liberal education
• Not a monopoly of political scientists
• Requires inculcation of distinct skills
• To be successful, political education must be
  transformative
• Grades are not necessarily an index of learning
• Arizona State University experiments
• Everyones sense of reality is constructed
• Deep learning only takes place when expectations
  fail
• No one ever learnt anything by being told
• Practical relevance of all this is that
• the way you get a good grade in this course is by
  trying as often as it takes to master material,
  without penalty for repeated attempts
• study groups, assignments, and exam are all
  designed to promote and assess you achievement of
  course learning goals

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Political theory as a form of political action

• Politics is a species of practical knowledge
• Political theorists are intensely partisan
• They seek to advance a variety of interests
• I.e., they dont just say things, they seek to do
  things
• Interpretation of theory is also contested

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Political theory as political education

• All theories make explicit the implicit
  assumptions of their followers
• Some theories seek to solve problems
• Critical theories submit those assumptions to
  critical scrutiny
• The past is like a foreign country, even an alien
  planet
• Studying theory historically sensitizes students
  to
• difference between past and present
• present day diversity