Seminar

We explain what a seminar is, the origin of the term and its characteristics. Also, what are its objectives and types.

What is a seminar?

Commonly, a seminar is understood as a meeting for academic purposes in which a finite number of specialists and interested parties meet on the subject, to exchange, comment, present and debate about it during one or more days of continuous activity. This is an event similar to congresses or meetings, but more intensive and prolonged in time.

The word seminar comes from Latin seminarius (“place of sowing of knowledge”), a word linked to the Latin term for “seed”, which is seminisand the suffix –ariumwhich expresses a place for things to live or grow. So, the original idea of ​​a seminar was a place where ideas, like seeds, could grow and bear new fruit.

With this meaning, precisely, from the European Middle Ages onwards, the word seminar was used to refer to the houses of clerical and religious training of priests, administered by those who were at that time the bearers of truth and knowledge: the Christian churches, especially the Catholic one. Today, however, we distinguish between a religious seminary (place) and an academic seminary (activity).

Finally, the seminars They are very common activities in professional societies and collegiate bodies.as well as among cultivators of some specialized knowledge. They usually take place in academic facilities, conference rooms or any place that allows meeting and exchanging ideas.

Characteristics of a seminar

In general, the seminars are characterized by the following:

• They are intensive and prolonged over timebeing able to meet periodically for a certain period of time, for example, weekly throughout a year, or several consecutive days, or an entire weekend.
• Those attending a seminar have always a topic or a set of topics of common interestand they usually have a relatively similar academic or informative level, in order to participate in a discussion between peers or at least at a very high technical level.
• The objective of the seminar is to delve deeper into the chosen topic using very diverse sources. For this, various activities are carried outwhich will have been planned and announced by the organizers from the beginning.
• The results of a seminar belong to the participating group and they are your responsibility. They are usually recorded in written minutes that testify to the progress achieved.
• The work of debate and discussion can occur in different wayssome of them in group and general exhibition format, others through work in small focused groups.

Objectives of a seminar

The seminars, in general, meet three fundamental objectives:

• Cognitive objective: Seminars must function as laboratories for generating knowledge and putting academic knowledge into practice, incorporating students and interested parties as an active part of the process, and not as mere listeners or recipients of information.
• Educational objective: Seminars form educational spaces that are different and complementary to the classroom, in which debate, one's own and original ideas are encouraged and recognized, collectivism and a critical spirit are tested, allowing a freer exchange between seminarians.
• Documentary objective: A set of documentation remains in the minutes from the seminars, and different essays, presentations, articles and other materials emerge that increase the documentary collection of the subject studied, that is, they produce specialized bibliography.

Types of seminar

Seminars can be run however their organizers prefer, and there is no universal classification for the options available. However, the following seminar formats are known:

• Socratic seminar. Inspired by what is said about the great Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399 BC), these seminars use dialogue or interrogation as the main mechanism for exchanging knowledge and debate, through a selection of questions that must be answered meaningfully. critical. They are very common among legal academies, where the interpretation of the law is encouraged.
• Presentation seminar. This method is close to the notion of a symposium, in the sense that participants must prepare presentations with their ideas that, once read to the public, will be subjected to questions, comments and criticism to generate new ideas about what was said. This requires someone to act as a moderator.
• Small group seminar. As its name indicates, it is focused on the exchange of a few participants, so, after one or several presentations or presentations, attendees are grouped into small discussion groups, in which they critically address the topic just presented. Then the groups join the general debate, to share their newly obtained ideas with the rest.
• Concentric circles seminar. In this case, a method is applied that distributes the seminarians into two groups, each sitting in a circle, with a minority group acting as the inner circle and a larger group, around them, as the outer circle. Members of the inner circle should make presentations, take notes, and debate critically, while those in the outer circle simply take notes and witness the exchange. Subsequently, the two groups will change their locations and their respective roles, giving each other the opportunity to be both audience and protagonists of the seminar.

Continue with: Workshop

References

• “Seminar (meeting)” on Wikipedia.
• “Seminario, ria” in the Dictionary of the language of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• “Seminar” on Gerza.com.
• “What is a Seminar?” (audio) at The Audiopedia.
• “What is the difference between tutorials, lectures and seminars?” at Bond University (Australia).