Welcome to Century of Revolution

Welcome to Century of Revolution POLS 3025 3.0 Ross Rudolph

Introduction • Ross Rudolph • S654 Ross • Office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 1:30- 3 p.m., and by appointment • 736-5265 ext. 22564 • e-mail directed to rrudolph@yorku.ca guaranteed a response within 24 hours • PowerPoint presentations are available for downloading on the course Web site

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

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

Step 1 • Start by going to the following URL: http://moodle.arts.yorku.ca/ • This will bring you to the following page

Step 2 • To log in to moodle, click on the link “Login” at the top right corner of the page

Step 3 • Login using your Passport York username and password

Step 4 • Once you have logged in, select the course you are registered in. POLS 3025. • You are now registered in the course.

Please note, if you do not know your Passport York account, please contact helpdesk@yorku.ca.

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

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?

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

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%)

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

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

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 • Everyone’s 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

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 don’t just say things, they seek to do things • Interpretation of theory is also contested

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

Welcome to Century of Revolution