International Staff

The website for international staff moving to UK universities

• Home page
• Pre-arrival essentials
• Your first few weeks
• Living in the UK
• Things to do in the UK
• Jobs in the UK
• Education in the UK
• Learning and Teaching in the UK
• • Assessing oral presentations
  • Assessing projects and dissertations
  • Assessing using multiple-choice questions
  • Computer-based assessment
  • Peer assessment
  • Self-assessment
  • Written examinations
  • Using technology in teaching
  • Aims and outcomes
  • Benchmark statements
  • E-learning
  • Fieldwork
  • Group work
  • Lectures
  • Levels and level descriptors
  • Particular learning needs
  • Personal tutorials
  • Practical or laboratory classes
  • Problem classes
  • Seminars and tutorials
  • Teaching in the English language
  • Workshops
• Acronyms in the UK
• Contact us
• Help
• About us
• A - Z of site

• Map of UK universities
• International HE news
• UKHE International Unit

Seminars and academic tutorials

1. Terminology.
2. Style.
3. Types of seminar.
4. Advantages.
5. Disadvantages.
6. Hints, tips and suggestions.
7. Further information.  

 Download PDF version here

1. Terminology 

Terminology varies from place to place and from discipline to discipline - one department's seminar is another school's tutorial - for ease ‘seminars' will be used here, but it is important to check out the terminology in your university. 

The purpose of the seminar is threefold:

• To deepen and develop students' understanding of the topics being studied.
• To enhance academic skills such as critical evaluation and argument-building.
• For students to practise a wide range of ‘transferable' or ‘key' skills, such as communication skills and group working.

Seminars are commonly used in many disciplines but are very significant in the arts and social sciences. They are usually one hour in length but maybe longer.  Student numbers are kept low in seminars (typically 15 - 25 students in seminars, maybe lower in tutorials) or larger cohorts are divided into small working groups of about five students per group.  For larger year cohorts of students it is often necessary to run parallel seminar sessions with a team of tutors.  A challenge for course leaders in this situation is to ensure parity and some degree of consistency of experience for the students. In some instances tutors will be provided with set readings, questions and tasks by the coordinating course leader - so that each tutor will be asked to lead the seminar in the same way.

 

2. Style 

In style the teacher or tutor is aiming to guide and facilitate class discussions and interactions, rather than instruct or lecture.  Students' structured engagement in learning tasks, (such as debates, problem-solving or strategy-building exercises, or analysis of case studies or texts), is common in seminars.  Such activities may be summatively assessed, although this isn't common practice in many schools.

 

3. Types of seminar

A common type of seminar in the UK is the ‘student-led' seminar in which a student or students are asked to prepare and lead a seminar on a designated topic.  In rotation the students will share the role of seminar leader and be responsible for introducing the key features of the topic to be studied before facilitating a discussion between their classmates.  It is very likely that students will need quite a lot of support and clear guidance to do this.  Some tutors divide the two roles and give the responsibility of leading a seminar to a pair of students. In such circumstances one student would take the role as the ‘presenter' whilst the second would take the role as the ‘facilitator or discussant'.

 

4. Advantages

A "good" seminar:

• Encourages students to learn actively and to participate in class.
• Provides a forum for deeper and more critical engagement with a topic.
• Allows the tutor to give feedback and support to individuals.
• Requires the students to take responsibility for their own preparation and learning.
• Facilitates collaboration and group learning.
• Develops many forms of communication, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Allows a greater amount of interaction between teacher and students - it is the place you get to know your students.
• Allows students to explore a topic, and guided by the learning outcomes for the course, take responsibility for their own learning.

 

5. Disadvantages

A seminar also:

• Requires significant investment of resources especially in tutor time.
• Depends on the facilitation skills of the tutor and so may be variable in quality.
• Needs to be organised and well managed to allow discussion but to also ensure coverage of specific learning outcomes in a limited timeframe.
• Requires all students to participate (even shy or quiet people) and be encouraged and supported to do so.
• May be less effective if all students do not prepare adequately (this is not uncommon in some courses).

 

6. Hints, tips and suggestions

It is important to have clear aims and learning outcomes for each seminar and to communicate these to your students.

It is helpful if you are able to design appropriate learning tasks which will require your students to actively engage with ideas, concepts and topics - such as a worksheet or a set of seminar questions, a problem to solve or debate and a quiz to summarise.

Getting all the students to prepare properly for seminars is a common concern for tutors.  Approaches that people use include:

• Setting pre-seminar reading which is very specific and has accompanying questions or tasks associated with it.
• Beginning seminars with a quick factual quiz that checks basic understanding of the preparatory work.
• Rrequiring students to submit brief summaries or questions before the class, perhaps via a virtual learning environment such as Blackboard or WebCT as a group shared email.
• Giving specific roles or tasks to individual students (or groups of students) before the seminar, for example, "Could group A be prepared to present the viewpoint of the East and group B lead on the Western view".

A good tutor provides a very clear summary at the end of the seminar which seeks to underline the main points considered, their implications and limitations and where to find out more.  ‘Making something together' is also a much appreciated teaching approach in seminars.  

For example

1. Create a table together, perhaps for revision purposes, showing the pros and cons of a decision or the different views on a contended issue or a timeline of the development of an idea or concept .
2. Generate a diagram that explains the way different models or concepts relate to each other.

A final tip would be to make sure you don't overrun your time. Students will lose concentration and be worrying about getting to their next lecture or class if you do.

 

7. Further information

Exley, K. and Dennick, R., 2004.  Small Group Teaching: Tutorials, Seminars, and Beyond.  London, RoutledgeFalmer.

Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. & Marshall, S., 2002.  A Handbook for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education.  2nd edition Kogan Page.

Jaques, D., 2000. Learning in Groups: A handbook for improving group work. 4^th edition Routledge.

Jaques, D., and Salmon, G., 2007. Learning in Groups: A handbook for face-to-face and online environments. 3^rd edition Kogan Page.

On the Web

Small Group Teaching - Promoting Enhanced Student Learning (PESL) - The University of Nottingham

Small Group Teaching - TLC Teaching Tips - Eastern Kentucky University

Small group teaching at Glasgow University