BECOMING A CRIMINOLOGIST - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module is designed to help students successfully make the transition from further to higher education, in context of experiences and reflections from semester 1 and into semester 2, and lays the groundwork for thriving at university. It introduces students to the academic, employability and professional, and other skills and capabilities that they will need throughout their course (and beyond) and provides foundations upon which to build their confidence in meeting the varying demands of their degree programme. As such, the module aims to introduce and develop resourcefulness and resilience amongst students (alongside other skills and capabilities – see ‘other information’, below) that will prepare them for concurrent and future module requirements.

 

Rather than simply being about ‘study skills’, this module approaches the development of academic learning, employability, and professional and other relevant skills and capabilities from a holistic, subject area-specific perspective. The intention here is to enable students to situate their learning within the expectations of the social sciences more generally, but within the demands of criminology more specifically, with a particular focus on the interconnectivity of what might initially appear to be discreet and/or loosely related components. Moreover, the module is ‘outward facing’ in the sense that it recognises the requirements of other modules across the programme and further integrates the development of the capabilities required for those here. Namely, this includes development of skills in international and comparative approaches to crime and deviance, victimisation and criminal justice, helping to address Global and Cultural Competences in students.

 

The module is delivered in semester 2 in order to enable students to draw upon their experiences thus far from semester 1 and to capitalize on their readiness and receptiveness for self-reflection and personal development.

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

DONNELLY Theo (FABSS Admin)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative module content includes: understanding the demands and requirements of the social sciences (both generally and subject-specific); an introduction to critical thinking; writing for specific tasks (academic and professional); recognising the interconnected nature of specific tasks; information literacy; applied and flipped learning; reading and writing in HE; proofreading and editing written work; successful presentations; understanding assessment types; understanding and using grade descriptors; interpreting and evaluating different sources; conducting literature searches; self-reflection; understanding and situating the subject areas; career choices; using the library; time management; making the most of the academic support and resources available to students; subject-specific employability capabilities; and skills and resources for continuing to adapt to life at university beyond academia.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

The alternative assessment for the group presentation would be an individual presentation (virtual or in-person as determined on a case-by-case basis).

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to support students with the transition to university life and learning and to provide students with a mutually supportive means of recognising and reflecting on individual and collective learning needs and to help them with the development of resourcefulness and resilience right at the start of their learning journey.

 

The skills acquired and tested are intended to provide the foundations for success in future modules.  The strategy is designed to foster confidence in learners across a range of diverse learning needs and to allow students to learn from the diverse backgrounds present within the cohort.

 

  Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

 

• Peer assessed group presentation (30%). Addresses learning outcomes 1, 2 and 5.  Students will deliver a short, peer assessed, group presentation that discusses the transition from further to higher education and their reflections on what action they feel they need to take to maximise their potential to succeed at university, based on experiences thus far and expectations going forward.


• Portfolio of Learning (70%). Addresses learning outcomes 3, 4, 5 and 6. Students will produce a portfolio of learning that charts their progress in relation to the reflections identified as part of their presentation, as described above. Students will be required to reflect upon the practical actions that they have taken during the semesters to address any perceived gaps in their personal and academic development needs, why and how they did this, what they perceive the outcome to be, and how they will use their newfound knowledge to strengthen their academic skills and capabilities in the future.

 

 

Formative assessment

 

Informal formative assessment is conducted throughout the module during workshops where students have the opportunity to engage in a variety of activities and to receive both peer and tutor feedback, with the aim of allowing students to assess their progress week by week.

 

  Feedback

 

Feedback and feedforward on summative assignments will be provided via SurreyLearn. This will indicate what students did well, less well, and what they need to do to improve in the future and will relate both to issues specific to the module and to transferable skills. Formative feedback will be provided throughout the module within in-class discussions and activities, and tutorials.

Module aims

• Ease students¿ transition from further to higher education
• Help students to grow in confidence in relation to a range of pertinent academic, employability, and other relevant transferable skills
• Facilitate student engagement and enable a sense of community amongst the cohort

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Allow students practical opportunities to learn, develop, and practice/rehearse a range of pertinent skills required for success at degree level.


• Build a strong sense of community within the cohort through a range of engagement opportunities


• Foster a mutually supportive learning environment

 

The learning and teaching methods include lectures, workshops, class exercises and discussions, video and other media input, and independent study. Collectively, these methods will combine guided learning, independent learning, and self-reflection, within a mutually supportive environment. The module recognises the importance of exploring and examining the interrelationships between engaging with and making sense of ‘evidence’, making and taking ‘meaning’ from this, and writing, across a specific range of tasks.

 

In order to build confidence and to engage students with diverse learning backgrounds, students will be encouraged to share their thoughts, ideas, and reflections, including those relating to their own experiences. Ongoing feedback opportunities from staff and peers will be variously present in seminars and tutorials, and online.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOC1060

Other information

The School of Sociology’s Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas:

 

Employability: The content of the module, together with the assessment strategy, will introduce students not only to the types of career options available to graduates within the field, but it will also begin to identify and develop the types of skills required within these careers, as well as in the social sciences more generally. This will also provide the platform to further develop the employability skills and capabilities contained within other modules across the programme.

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities: The workshops and elements of the assessment will require students to work collectively. This is intended to help foster a sense of community amongst the cohort from the start of the programme, and to allow students to work together, to reflect, and to share experiences with people from different backgrounds to solve problems and to address new, common challenges. In doing so, students will have the opportunity to broaden their own worldview, perspectives, and to challenge stereotypes, by actively engaging with against a broader spectrum of ideas, experiences, and representations held by others, both through facilitated in-class discussions and as elements of the portfolio assessment.

 

Digital Capabilities: Students will begin their digital capability journey through the use of SurreyLearn, where they will learn to navigate and utilise the VLE for multiple aspects of the module online provision. Students will also utilise Microsoft Teams as a means of communication and collaboration and engage with other online platforms and databases.

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience: The approach of this module is one that allows students to share the collective challenges of the transition to higher education together, sharing experiences and providing support and empathy. Through the workshops students are encouraged to develop their own resourcefulness, capabilities, and problem-solving skills, and in so doing to grow their confidence, self-efficacy, and resilience in the face of the challenges presented by their new learning environment. Students will be encouraged to self-reflect and to recognize and address learning challenges through engagement with a range of methods, techniques, and resources, all within a mutually supportive environment. The assessment will encourage collective working, peer support, leadership, contribution to constructive dialogue, and mutually beneficial learning. It will further allow students to create a preliminary personal learning needs analysis which can be shared, discussed, and will receive feedback from peers and tutors.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.