Course Catalog 2009-2010 International Basic Pori International Postgraduate Open University |Degrees|     |Study blocks|     |Courses|

Person responsible

John Shepherd

Implementations

	Lecture times and places	Target group recommended to
Implementation 1	Periods 1 1 - 2
Implementation 2	Per 3 : Friday 14 - 15, K2245
Implementation 3	Periods Summer - 0

Requirements

Completion of several shorter assignments and one longer assignment, as directed by the teacher.

Principles and baselines related to teaching and learning

There will be one optional meeting at the beginning of each course, but then all the work will be carried out in the Moodle environment.

Learning outcomes

Students will receive and internalise up to date information on and a critical view of contemporary UK society and institutions and be able to compare them with those of other countries; they will gain an insight into working life, business, industry and culture in the UK and be able to interpret current issues, develop critical thinking and research skills, practice and develop reading comprehension, listening comprehension and writing skills. By the end of the course students will be capable of researching and writing a competent academic paper in English.

Content

Content	Core content	Complementary knowledge	Specialist knowledge
1.	Introduction: UK identity formation; regions, language and culture; history as part of identity formation; current issues in identity such as Islamic identity; immigration, population expansion	Language skills: reading and listening comprehension, writing a short assignment (c. 2 pages); research skills: locating and evaluating new source material, development of critical thinking about the issues featured
2.	Education: overview of education system in the UK, particularly in England and Wales, with the focus especially on higher education	Ditto
3.	Politics and the economy: Thatcherism and its effects in the UK and elsewhere	Ditto
4.	Business and industry in the UK, corporate culture and working in the UK	Ditto
5.	Employment and unemployment in the UK and the EU	Ditto
6.	The environment. Environmental problems. Threats and opportunities. Carbon footprint	Ditto
7.	Science and technology in the UK: history of development and current issues in the field	Ditto
8.	Central and local government: conflict between the center and the periphery	Ditto
9.	Health, medicine and social care. Current issues in the medical field. The NHS	Ditto
10.	Living in the UK: housing, leisure, sport, the class system.	Ditto
11.	Writing in English: how to write academically and present a paper; referencing; plagiarism

Evaluation criteria for the course

Continuous assessment of 3 shorter assignments and one longer one. The final grade will be derived from all of these, but greater weight will be placed on the final,longer assignment.

Assessment scale:

Numerical evaluation scale (1-5) will be used on the course

Study material

Type	Name	Author	ISBN	URL	Edition, availability, ...	Examination material	Language
Other online content	Course content online	Teachers own material					Suomi

Prerequisites

Additional information about prerequisites
A reasonably good level of writing skill in English is assumed for this course

Correspondence of content

There is no equivalence with any other courses

More precise information per implementation

	Description	Methods of instruction	Implementation
Implementation 1	Short meeting on 11 September to introduce the course. Starting at 14.15 in Language studio. Course then takes place by distance learning.	Lectures Excercises Practical works	Contact teaching: 0 % Distance learning: 0 % Self-directed learning: 0 %
Implementation 2	Short meeting Jan 8th in Language studio starting at 14.15. Course then proceeds by distance learning.	Lectures Excercises Practical works	Contact teaching: 0 % Distance learning: 0 % Self-directed learning: 0 %
Implementation 3	Society and State course in Moodle Summer University: summer 2010

Last modified	10.03.2010
Modifier	John Shepherd