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A Quarterly Publication of
The American Sociological Association
ABSTRACTS
Volume 34, Number 1, January 2006INTRODUCTION
- Cultivating Quantitative Literacy: The Role of Sociology ..... Stephen Sweet and Kerry Strand
ARTICLES
- 2005 Hans O. Mauksch Award Address
Articulation of Goals and Means in Sociology Courses ..... Liz Grauerholz and Greg Gibson
- Integrating Data Analysis: Working with Sociology Departments to Address the Quantitative Literacy Gap ..... Carla Howery and Havidan Rodriguez
- Overcoming "Doom and Gloom": Empowering Students in Courses on Social Problems, Injustice, and Inequality ..... Susan Caulfield and Caroline Hodges Persell
- Integrating Sociological Research into Large Introductory Courses: Learning Sociological Content and Research Techniques Together ..... Maxine Atkinson, Ronald Czaja, and Zachary Brewster
NOTES
- Dollars and Sense: Convincing Students That They Can Learn and Want to Learn Statistics ..... Pamela Paxton
- The Importance of Being Right: Some Methodological Notes from a Study of AIDS Knowledge ..... Donald P. Levy
- Incorporating Web-Based Data Analysis into the Introductory Curriculum ..... Christ Scheitle
2005 Hans O. Mauksch Award Address
Articulation of Goals and Means in Sociology Courses: What We Can Learn from SyllabiThis paper examines the articulation of goals and means of sociological instruction in course syllabi. Three questions guide this inquiry. First, do sociology instructors articulate common learning goals? Second, what pedagogical means do instructors commonly employ to meet these goals? Third, to what extent have sociology instructors incorporated the recommendations presented in Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major (Eberts et al. 1990) and in its updated version (McKinney et al. 2004)? To answer these questions, we analyzed syllabi from 418 courses published by the American Sociological Association’s Teaching Resource Center. We found that aside from course-specific goals, most syllabi shared only a few general, abstract goals in common. The pedagogical methods or requirements of students tended to be fairly traditional (readings, writing, and exams). Requirements that required more active types of learning were less common. While these goals and means do seem to reflect what sociologists consider to be important, they do not correspond closely to the American Sociological Association’s Taskforce on the Undergraduate Major’s recommendations for the sociology major.
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Integrating Data Analysis: Working with Sociology Departments to Address the Quantitative Literacy Gap
Teaching a course that is about sexuality but also about larger cultural themes, social processes, and political struggles poses many challenges. These include: 1) choosing readings from a sexuality literature that is ever-expanding; 2) negotiating student expectations that the course will focus on the sexual behavior of individuals when much of it is on sexual ideologies and sexual regimes; 3) allowing multiple voices to be heard in class, not just those of sexual libertines, sexual extraverts, and those with nonstigmatized sexual identities; 4) creating a safe classroom climate that allows personal disclosures about sexuality; 5) navigating the emotional intensity of discussing sexual violence and other issues cloaked in normativity, anxiety, and pain; 6) balancing student interest in the local with attention to the historical, comparative, and global; and 7) underscoring the potential for change in sexual scripts, sexual violence, and sexual regimes. This article explores these challenges and some strategies to address them.
Teaching Social Science Reasoning and Quantitative Literacy: The Role of Collaborative Groups
In this paper, we discuss ways collaborative research groups can be used and what students appear to learn about social science reasoning and quantitative literacy from such groups. Data are from field observations, pre- and post-semester surveys in both collaborative and traditional courses, end of the semester student comments, and student work on semester-long group-based projects. The findings illuminate teaching and learning processes, cognitive and personal learning outcomes, and remaining challenges. Students resist having to work in groups, while simultaneously becoming attached to their group and acknowledging its importance. In the end, many students see the importance of both social science reasoning and quantitative skills and demonstrate the ability to articulate key components of both. Challenges that remain include more specific measures of particular skills, potential group conflicts, and active learning within a culture of consumerism and entitlement.
Integrating Sociological Research into Large Introductory Courses: Learning Sociological Content and Research Techniques Together
Sociologists can make meaningful contributions to quantitative literacy by teaching sociological research skills in sociology classes, including introductory courses. We report on the effectiveness of requiring a research module in a large introductory class. The module is designed to teach both basic research skills and to increase awareness of race and gender inequality. We find that a majority of students are able to interpret basic percentage tables with a minimum of instruction. Under the condition that students are willing to acknowledge inequality in our occupational system, completing the research assignment increases their awareness of race and gender inequality. We argue that one of sociology’s most powerful contributions to quantitative literacy is that our core content provides a challenging and relevant context in which to learn quantitative skills.
Dollars and Sense: Convincing Students That They Can Learn and Want to Learn Statisticx
Student motivation is a critical problem in an undergraduate statistics course. In this paper I present a teaching technique for the first day of class to motivate students and reduce their levels of anxiety. In this technique, I give students a list of common first occupations for people with a BA in sociology, their starting salaries, and whether each occupation uses statistics or not. I ask students to “play around” with the numbers and discuss findings as a group. Jobs using statistics pay substantially more than those that do not and students are able to demonstrate this fairly easily. By showing that knowledge of statistics can earn students a higher salary, the technique provides an incentive to students to invest in the class. By showing students that they can understand statistics on the first day, the technique also increases students’ level of comfort with the course. Preliminary student evaluations suggest the technique is effective in achieving these overall goals.
The Importance of Being Right: Some Methodological Notes from a Study of AIDS Knowledge
In this paper I present an exercise which can sensitize students to the importance of choices made during the early stages of data analysis by illustrating the consequences of coding variations in quantitative data analysis. I use the 1989 National Health Interview Survey for the exercise, treating the definition of a correct answer to a series of AIDS knowledge questions as problematic due to ambiguities in question wording. I contrast three different ways of coding the data in terms of their underlying logic and I show students empirical outcomes for each. The representations of AIDS knowledge diverge sharply based on the definition of a correct response. I discuss the impact of coding choices on subsequent bivariate relationships as well.
Incorporating Web-Based Data Analysis into the Introductory Curriculum
Many instructors of undergraduate sociology courses would like to show students how quantitative data are used in social research. However, they often decide against trying to do so because it is difficult to teach such material to students who may have little or no statistical background. Fortunately, Web-based data analysis is making it easier for both instructors and students to use quantitative data. The following is a discussion of the advantages of such tools with suggestions for how Web-based data analysis assignments can be incorporated into the classroom.
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