THOUGHTS ABOUT GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore

Having prior completed GET1023 and GEH1056, I have decided to bid for GES1041 to complete my last GE (S) pillar.

As per NUSMods, GES1041 Everyday Ethics in Singapore is a philosophy module taught by Dr Chin:

This module examines the ethical dimensions of everyday life in Singapore. It focuses on moral dilemmas that arise in the nation’s pursuit of ‘happiness, prosperity, and progress’. We will explore how moral reasoning from multiple perspectives applies to local concerns such as equality, meritocracy, multiculturalism, immigration, and marriage. This will challenge us to identify moral problems created by social and technological changes, combine ethical principles with practical constraints, and balance the interests of individuals and communities. We will also consider how moral dialogue can be cultivated in Singapore’s multicultural society, so as to manage diverse traditions and divergent values

Due to the Covid-19 situation, all the lessons and tutorials were conducted online. Dr Chin habitually uploads his presentation slides and video a day before the actual lecture slot, so that a moral dialogue session can be conducted (live on ZOOM) instead. This allows him to go through some of the questions posed on PollEv, and also go through some of the bi-weekly MCQ quizzes. However, I have not personally attended any of the moral dialogue sessions, and instead chose to watch the recorded sessions at 2x speed during Reading Week instead.

As this was a philosophy module, I was initially worried about writing long essays and having to compete with FASS students taking this module (whose standards sure surpass my QET abilities). Additionally, if this module was anything like the Philosophy section taught in GEQ1000, I for sure will be feeling super lost and confused. Thankfully though, this module was quite manageable and I was still able to understand the readings and lecture slides. While we were expected to write journal entries bi-weekly, the marking scheme was more focused on sharing our personal experiences and drawing links to the readings and topic of the week rather than our English abilities.

For the journals, we were expected to write no less than 500 words, with regards to a moral value or conflict in our readings based on the topic of the week. There will be suggested topics to work on, but we do not have to follow them strictly. Personally, I do like to frame my journal entry around my personal examples, so I didn’t really follow the suggested topics given. While most people struggled to write 500 words, I had the tendency to overwrite to ~700 words for most of the journal entries ( I tended to overshare my personal experiences), but the Prof was okay with it as long as we kept it to a maximum of 800 words per entry.

Below are the grading criteria for the journal entry ( 5 marks ):

1. Ethical meaning
2. Singapore context
3. Personal Perspective
4. Social Perspective
5. Bonus

From what I have heard from my seniors and friends, the Prof is quite lenient with his marking as long as you hit the relevant points above. Most students hit an average of 4 out of 5 marks for each journal entry. The Bonus marks however were harder to attain, as they were only given to a selected few students who use a more original and creative approach in writing their journal entries. This means that your journal entry should not be too predictable. I was able to get the bonus points for three out of the four journal entries by sharing my internship/work/school/family experiences. Thereby, my advice will be to use a more personal approach to write your journal entry, perhaps by embedding your personal examples or life experiences to make the topic more illuminating. Additionally, sharing your personal experiences will for sure make sharing your journal entries in class more exciting 😀

For weeks where there were no journal entries, we were expected to do quizzes on LumiNUS. For more details about the MCQ, I have already shared them under my Year 2 Sem 1 Reviews. Don’t feel too stressed out for not scoring well for your quizzes. Personally, I only scored 3/5 marks for the first 2 quizzes, but later on managed to score full marks for the last 2 quizzes. This does not mean that the quizzes got easier, but rather we got more familiarized with the answering techniques and knowing how to interpret and spotting trick questions.

There was also a project component, comprising of a report submission and project presentation. More details have also been shared under my Year 2 Sem 1 Reviews. We were able to see our marks and grading distribution under the Gradebook a few days after submission. The median marks for the group report was 8/10, while the group presentation was 16/20. My group scored perfect scores for the group report and presentation (10/10 and 20/20). Perhaps some advice for those who are taking/intending to take this module will be to read the marking scheme carefully, and also making sure your topic connects to at least two module themes. Use the ethical toolbox learnt in class, such as the Moral Clusters to draw out your arguments. Additionally, don’t choose conventional topics and try to be more unique. ( I heard many groups did their topics on the migrant workers’ dormitories during the pandemic. Try to avoid doing this topic if you don’t want to compete with others for the same points.)

The last component was the finals. Format was the same as the four MCQ quizzes conducted throughout the semester. One tip to prepare for Finals is to download all the readings and place them all in one file/ print them out for easy reference. I did a 3-page cheat sheet containing all the lecture materials and important sentences within the readings as well. There is no point memorizing the content in the readings, but rather, understanding what the author is trying to draw across. Sadly, the finals grades wasn’t released, so I didn’t really know how well I scored. Overall though, I have attained a solid A+ for this module :D.

Last thoughts about GES1041:

Honestly, I really did had the intention to S/U GES1041 this semester because I was struggling with my biz core modules. Additionally, I was getting dispirited from the high workload per week, from readings to quizzes and journal entries. However, things were only rough at the beginning of the semester. In the later half of the semester, more focus was allocated to the project tips and also MCQ clinics, which meant that there were lesser readings in the second half of the semester. Since there were no mid-terms, I only briefly read through the readings in preparation for tutorial and quizzes. It was only during Reading Week that I sat down and really read through the readings thoroughly, highlighting the important points, make cheat sheets. Getting high marks for the project also boosted my morale and encouraged me to study harder for finals 🙂 If you are looking for a GES module to take, do consider taking this module (GES1041)!

voez

24/12/2020