Semester: AY18/19 Sem II
Professor(s): Ivan Kwek
Workload: Light to Heavy
Overall: I enjoyed this course as a whole but it was due to many factors all coming together very nicely. I managed to somehow get my friends the same group of me and not take on any new members and my group had a contact for our project. TLDR, my group went into the mod kinda with a plan and banking on the fact that no one else would join us (thankfully we managed to do this). This is a methodology course so it meant that it was rather hands on. I also really like Prof Ivan. He really tries so hard to remember everyone’s names and call us by it :”) The only prof I’ve seen trying to do that in all my years in Sociology. This course can be rather abstract as it talks about camera angles and reflexivity among other concepts but was insightful for me as it was so different from anything I have ever learnt before.
Assignments: This is a 100% CA module (a plus for me cuz I hate exams but it means more work during the semester). We had a mix of individual, pair and group assignment with the group component coming up to around 50%. The individual assignment had us use of photograph we took during the CNY holidays and craft a reflection. The pairwork involved some form of interview and a reflection on the interview process. The individual and pairwork components were mostly to help us understand reflexivity and to put ourselves in the shoes of our participants before we actually go out and do our fieldwork (aka group assignment). The groupwork component is the one which was the largest variable in this course. It could go so well or go so badly. My group and I thankfully were friends with our participant even before the course started so it really helped us cut down time. Other groups were not as lucky and struggled to find participants for their projects. The fieldwork cumulated into a 1.5k photo-essay, a tutorial presentation on the project, an individual reflection piece and peer review. At this juncture, the hardest thing was probably choosing which photographs best highlighted and complemented the essay my group was writing.
Exams: No exams.
Professors: I think I can’t stop saying how much I like Prof Ivan. He is really a very sweet, nice and approachable professor. He really has so much heart when it comes to teaching. Nuff said, he is a great guy!
Tutorials: We had Prof Ivan for tutorials. Tutorials were not teaching-based but were instead very focused on the group project. Most tutorial sessions involved group discussion on how to move forward with the project, followed by Prof Ivan and other classmates going around giving suggestions and ideas to improve the topic and then group discussion again. Tutorials was also when the group assignment presentation would take place. My class was super small and had like 8 people so it was pretty cozy. Also note that your groupmates would come from your tutorial group, so you should try to get the same tutorial with your friends.
Recommend? I would recommend this module as the method module to clear. While it might not be as useful as qualitative/quantitative methods, it is such a unique experience. I would like to think of this course as adding on to the usual qualitative and quantitative methods that Soci majors are exposed to in SC2101 or other 3k modules. And while you could technically get away with not reading any of the readings, I think it is a course that you learn/gain out of the process as much as you are willing to put in (hence the light to heavy workload). Also, PLEASE HAVE GOOD GROUPMATES for this course. I think my experience could have been so much worse if not for my trusty groupmates beside me who were equally passionate about the community which we were learning more about.
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