Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3204: Politics through the Life Course

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to improve (1) your understanding of political socialisation processes over the life-course and how this interacts with social and political structures, (2) your ability to analyse empirical, quantitative data on political attitudes and behaviour especially longitudinal data, and (3) your capacity to critically evaluate the interdisciplinary research on life cycle events, identity, communication, inter-personal and social networks and political behaviour. Finally, the module aims to improve your ability to communicate thoughts and ideas through an original research report.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Critically assess how political attitudes and behaviour develops over the life course 2. Understand and apply the key theories and approaches explaining the effects of life cycle events on political behaviour and attitudes
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Use statistical methods to analyse data and model political life cycle effects 4. Critically evaluate political science research according to its assumptions, methods, and conclusions
Personal and Key Skills	5. Confidently select relevant data, assimilate and synthesise multiple data sources 6. Integrate political science and other relevant disciplinary research with independent statistical analysis

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Individual presentation to the class on research report	10 minutes	1-7	Global and oral feedback
In-class participation in discussion and exercises	20 x 2 hours	1-7	Oral feedback - assessed on contribution to class discussion, feedback on student presentation and familiarity with assigned reading.

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Research report	50	3,000 words & 8-10 charts, figures and/or data tables.	1-7	Written feedback
Critical review	25	1,500 words	1-7	Written feedback
Data analysis exercise on research report theme including in-class presentation	25	10 minute presentation, 5 PowerPoint slides, 1 page explaining exercise & instructional data set	1-7	Oral and written feedback

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Research report	Research report	1-7	Aug/Sept assessment period
Critical review	Critical review	1-7	Aug/Sept assessment period
Data analysis exercise on course theme	Write up of the presentation (1500 words)	1-7	Aug/Sept assessment period