Abstract
Many countries are now specifying standards for graduates in different disciplines, including sociology. In Australia, the Australian Sociological Association (TASA) has developed Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) for sociology to provide the learning outcomes that students graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology should achieve. These TLOs have encouraged universities to think explicitly about their sociology curriculum in a holistic way. This paper reports on a project that investigated the skills and concepts sociology students need to learn in first year to meet the TLOs by the time they graduate. The project identified the needs of students as they transition from school or work into the study of sociology in first year through a study of literature of first-year pedagogy and a student survey. A workshop was held for sociology that involved 37 academics from 14 universities. The workshop was used to promote a rethink of teaching of sociology in the light of the new TLOs as well as to collect ideas from the participants. The student surveys, workshop ideas and relevant literature were analyzed and synthesized for each TLO to determine what skills and concepts first-year students needed to learn, identify what they might find difficult and propose strategies for teaching. The paper also provides practical ideas for engaging academics with thinking holistically about the sociology curriculum and for teaching and learning sociology in the first year of an undergraduate degree.
Highlights
A sociology major in a liberal arts or social science degree is usually made up of an “Introduction to Sociology” subject followed by a wide selection of more advanced sociology subjects each covering a different topic
This paper provides the context for the study by describing standards and guidelines for designing sociology curricula, paying attention to the threshold learning outcomes (TLOs) for sociology developed in Australia and used in this investigation
The workshop had the dual purpose of engaging lecturers with the Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) and their implications for first year, and of using the expertise of the group to collect ideas for what could be undertaken in first year to prepare students to meet the TLOs on graduation; iv. a working group of three academics who had participated in the workshop and had been consulting throughout the project with the project team brought the ideas from the literature study, student survey and workshop together to formulate the website
Summary
A sociology major in a liberal arts or social science degree is usually made up of an “Introduction to Sociology” subject followed by a wide selection of more advanced sociology subjects each covering a different topic. The advanced sociology subjects will provide greater depth in each of the topics This method of curriculum development has been criticised as it may prevent students from engaging with sociology in an in-depth fashion from first year (Fujieda, 2009). The project teams consulted with academics, practitioners and employers to develop TLOs across a wide spectrum of discipline areas including Law, Accounting, History, Geography, Sciences and Creative Arts. While agreement about this approach to curriculum development and education is not universal, TLOs and other discipline standards offer a flexible framework for what has been identified as the need for sociology academics to explicitly and reflexively consider curriculum issues in sociology (Marshall, 2009)
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