Steven Curtis

What Feedback Do Students Want

The feedback that students receive on their assignments has been subject to a great deal of debate in universities across the globe. Whereas academics regularly complain that students do not engage with feedback by citing uncollected coursework, students repeatedly protest about the timeliness and quality of feedback, citing illegible, overly critical and a lack of verbal feedback. In this article we report on the findings of feedback practices from a survey of 308 undergraduate students studying combined degree programmes of Politics, History and International Relations at two British universities. This article seeks to offer a clearer understanding of the feedback practices that students want and from the analysis of the research findings we offer a range of strategies for improving feedback practices.

Public Diplomacy at Home in the UK: Engaging Diasporas and Preventing Terrorism

SummaryNot every foreign ministry communicates with its home audience. For some it is unconstitutional; for many it serves no purpose. But for multicultural and particularly former colonial powers, communicating with the home audience has the potential to be a vital tool for engagement, especially as the boundaries between domestic and international are blurred by international travel, migration and global connectivity. This article examines ‘public diplomacy at home’ in the United Kingdom, both as a general policy of the last Labour government and more specifically in the context of initiatives to tackle Islamist terrorism. In terms of the latter, it explores the strengths and limitations of both faith-based approaches to outreach to Muslim communities and a country-based approach to outreach, using Pakistan as a case study.

How Relevant are Other Ways to Learn

The teaching of Politics and International Relations has traditionally taken place through lectures and seminars. However, in recent years we have seen the emergence and rising prominence of other ways to learn about politics. The UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education’s ‘benchmark statement’ for Politics and International Relations includes a place for class-based debates, role-play and simulations, which can be conducted within regular teaching arrangements; but, in addition, mentions ‘contact with political actors through visits, speakers, websites and, in some cases, experiential learning such as internships, placements or action research in the UK or abroad’ (QAA, 2007, p. 9). This chapter argues that such activities form an important addition to the armoury of the Politics lecturer. Along with improving students’ knowledge and understanding of Politics and International Relations, they can help to develop personal transferable skills, such as working independently and with others, self-organization and time-management, as well as facilitating deep learning, with students taking responsibility for their own learning; these are also benchmark goals (QAA, 2007, p. 8).