Sociology Classes Research Articles

Competing Perspectives in the Classroom: The Effect of Sociology Students' Perceptions of “Balance” on Evaluations

“Balance” in the classroom has been the subject of recent debate in academic and public spheres, with some calling for legislation to prevent instructors from “indoctrinating” students. The debate over balance is important to sociology because the discipline is sometimes characterized as overtly liberal and activist; but the implications of balance for teaching and learning remain unclear. In this article, we present the results of a study in which we operation-alized balance as students' perceptions of whether instructors discussed points of view other than their own and invited criticism of their ideas. Using OLS regression on undergraduate classes' quantitative evaluations of sociology instructors at Indiana University during the 2002-2003 academic year (N=99 classes), we asked whether classes perceived their sociology instructors to be balanced and whether positive perceptions led to better evaluations. We also asked about the relative influence of sociology classes' perceptions of balance compared to other influences. We found that most classes perceived their instructors as balanced and instructors who were perceived as being more balanced received better evaluations. However, we also found that balance was not as important as other factors in influencing evaluations. We discuss implications.

Integrating Sociological Research Into Large Introductory Courses: Learning Content and Increasing Quantitative Literacy

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.

Negotiating the Politics of Space: Teaching Women's Studies in a Women's Prison

pat downs that occur at every entrance, make us very cognizant of the daily privileges of our lives, of the small liberties that might otherwise remain unseen and unnoted. We three began team-teaching an introductory women's studies course, Understanding Women, to 27 inmates at a local correctional facility for women in 2003 to 2004 under the auspices of the American Friends Service Committee. This year, under our own steam and with University of Michigan-Dearborn support, Linker and Bergeron, a philosopher and a political economist, have continued offering Understanding Women to an additional 33 inmates; Lempert, a sociologist, began offering Understanding Society, an introduction to sociology class, to 27 others. We constructed these courses to mirror those that we teach at the university, utilizing many of the same texts, assignments, and in-class exercises. In this essay, we reflect on prison security procedures and other experiences involved in teaching incarcerated women, as well as on the successes and difficulties of translating theory applications from a conventional university to a prison site. Our discussion of the intersections of material conditions, privilege, and agency in these processes are presented in the format of a layered (Ronai 1992; 1995), a narrative form designed to loosely represent, and to produce for the reader, an ongoing dialectic of experience. In an attempt to process the variety of impressionistic experiences we had teaching in prison, we recorded a series of our own conversations about our prison classes. The dialectic account offered here emerges from the transcribed discussions of our experiences, and we frame our commentaries and analyses in the interplay between unnamed speakers. In processing the experience of teaching Women's Studies in a women's prison, we have come to see how we share similar views; our

Computer Mediated Communication and Student Learning in Large Introductory Sociology Classes

Over the past several years, scholars of teaching and learning have demonstrated the potential of collaborative learning strategies for improving student learning. This paper examines the use of computer-mediated communication to promote collaborative student learning in large introductory sociology courses. Specifically, we summarize a project we conducted during the 2000-2001 academic year in which we added online collaborative learning activities to the curriculum of two large sections of introductory sociology. Drawing on Novak et al.'s (1999) Just-In-Time Teaching methods, we developed online activities to help prepare students for subsequent in-class work and to cultivate a sense of group solidarity among smaller teams within the larger class. The results suggest that student engagement in the online group learning activities was strongly predictive of better student academic achievement on the biweekly quizzes, cumulative final exam, and course paper. These findings highlight the potential value of online group work for fostering collaborative learning environments in large lecture courses as well as for enhancing student learning.

Introducing Methods of Sociological Inquiry Using Living-Data Exercises

learning techniques into the sociology classroom for many years, but the types of applications and evaluations are quite varied. Crone (1997), for example, uses panel debates in introductory sociology classes and finds that students report high levels of enjoyment in the exercises and they would like to keep the debates as part of the class. Similarly, Reinertsen and DaCruz (1996) report that the majority of students in their study would keep an exercise involving newspaper reading and journal writing in future classes. The assignments helped students to connect sociological concepts with real life news events, fleshing out concepts that otherwise remained abstract.

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP): A Tool for Teaching With an International Perspective

gists teaching Swiss students, we had to broaden our U.S.-centered sociological perspective in the classroom. In courses on statistics and research methods, social inequality, economic sociology, sociology of the family, and sociology of work, we needed to find international examples and data that we could use to illustrate points made during lectures, in small-group and seminar discussions, and for statistics examples and assignments. At a Workshop on Comparative Analysis of Longitudinal Data held in NeuchAtel, Switzerland in February 1999, James A. Davis introduced us to his work in developing the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Since this workshop, we have used the ISSP extensively in our teaching. We find it an invaluable tool for increasing global literacy and scientific literacy in our sociology lectures and class activities.

“That's Not Fair!”: A Simulation Exercise in Social Stratification and Structural Inequality

Social stratification may be one of the most difficult topics covered in sociology classes. This article describes an interactive learning exercise, using a modified version of the game Monopoly, intended to stress the structural nature of social inequality and to stimulate student reflection and class discussion on social stratification in the United States. The primary focus of this exercise is to help students experience different levels of social stratification and to challenge the idea that individual talents or aspirations are enough to overcome structural barriers to upward class mobility. Student reactions to the experience suggest that it is an effective tool for demonstrating the structural nature of social inequality in the United States and for stimulating discussion on social inequality and related topics. This exercise has worked well in introductory sociology, social problems, and social inequality classes.

Rumors of Indiscretion: the University of Missouri "Sex Questionnaire" Scandal in the Jazz Age

In March 1929 hundreds of students at the University of Missouri received a questionnaire that asked their opinions of marriage, family, and sexual issues. Several questions were regarded as too intimate for university students, especially females. The so-called Sex Questionnaire, the product of a sociology class project, soon fell into the hands of the university s president, dean of women, and the local press, which deemed it A Filthy Questionnaire. The Missouri legislature soon jumped into the controversy as the ensuing uproar went statewide and attracted national attention; a cry arose for the expulsion of the students and professors responsible. Beyond the questionnaire, rumors also circulated that something too terrible to mention had gone on at the university. Investigations followed, including one by the American Association of University Professors. Although the controversy surrounding the questionnaire was not limited to sharp generational lines, college students part of the decade s modern youth challenged Victorian ideas held by those who were frightened by the path American society seemed to be following during the 1920s. Nelson places the episode within the history and development of the University of Missouri as well as the culture war in America during the Jazz Age. He argues that the decade was marked by both change and the persistence of tradition. But while many sought change, radicals were few. What was actually lost in the Jazz Age was Victorianism and its rigid requirements for an orderly culture in which each member had a sharply defined role, violations of which carried societal sanctions. Nelson uses the University of Missouri episode to demonstrate that while Victorianism s unrealistic notions were lost, tradition and its most basic tenets decorum, respect for authority, a sense of shame, strong family relationships, and the definition of right and wrong survived. Employing previously untapped archival and printed material, Rumors of Indiscretion examines sexual attitudes, divorce, the new woman, the limits of academic expression, and much more in an exciting but uneasy time in American life.

College student intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation and learning

How do extrinsic and intrinsic motives affect learning? We predicted that they would not be additive but rather that there would be interactive or curvilinear effects. Extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientation scales were administered to 13 classes—six psychology classes (two in Korea), three biology classes, three English classes, and one sociology class in a liberal arts college, a comprehensive university, and a community college. As predicted, students in the mid-third of the distribution in motivation for grades (extrinsic) who were high in intrinsic motivation achieved better grades than students with higher or lower extrinsic motivation.

Using humanist sociology in the classroom

This essay examines the nature, organization, and activities of humanist sociology from an interventionist perspective as I used it within my sociology and criminology classes. While sociological humanism stresses the role of human agency (Ballard 1987; Zald 1991), identity (Stone 1988), reflexivity (Friedrichs 1987; Homan 1986), and social structure in determining and defining a social activity such as teaching, standard discussions of sociological humanism neglect to discuss how social agency can be taught in the classroom and beyond (McClung Lee 1976, 1988). My argument is that sociological humanism should be understood as more than individual appreciation of identity or liberal reformist political perspectives. The future of sociological humanism must become part of a critical interventionism to attack social forms of domination and oppression both inside and outside of the classroom. I demonstrate how some of this can be accomplished while examining my own teaching practices.

Capturing the Experience: Transforming Community Service into Service Learning

Using a quasi-experimental design, this case study outlines the author's application of specific techniques necessary to implement a service learning component in an introductory sociology class. It also systematically compares the outcomes from two groups of students, one of which was involved in relatively unstructured community work and the other in a structured service learning assignment and examines the benefits experienced from this transformation. Although adding the structure necessary to accomplish effective service learning involved careful preliminary reflection, planning, and coordination, the study suggests that the service learning approach enhances students' development of a sociological orientation and understanding of structural linkages to poverty. It also indicates that students involved in structured service learning may better master course materials than students involved in less-structured community work, as measured by objective examination. Finally, the study supports earlier claims reported in the literature that service learning might be a particularly effective way of improving the efficacy of introductory sociology courses.

Sound and Vision: Using Progressive Rock to Teach Social Theory

theory to students' experiences. Another is the use of popular music in the sociology classroom. The literature on using music to teach sociology suggests that the medium is well .suited for use in a range of courses, and that it is an effective way of stimulating student interest and enhancing active learning. Among sociology instructors, the most common uses of music involve playing selected songs in class and discussing how the lyrics illustrate sociological concepts, ideas, and theories (Elterman 1983). Such a technique has been successfully applied in courses on deviance (Martinez 1995), race, class, and gender (Martinez 1994), theory (Burns and Martinez 1993), and introduction to sociology (Walczak and Reuter 1994). In fact, the materials collected in Reuter and Walczak's (1993) collection indicate that music can be used in almost any sociology course. Most recently, Ahlkvist (1999) has offered an alternative to the illustrative uses of music in sociology classes by making popular music the object of students' cultural analysis. Ahlkvist (1999) demonstrates how students in introductory sociology courses can learn about theories, concepts, and ideas by using them in their analysis of heavy metal music and subculture. By all accounts, illustrative and analytical uses of music in sociology classes are liked by students, and effective tools for making sociology relevant to them. *The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their help in revising this paper. Please address all correspondence to the author at the Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO 809337150; e-mail: jarlandmarti@juno.com Editor's note: The reviewers were, in alphabetical order, Lilli Downes, Walter R. Jacobs, and Anthony M. Orum. Teaching Sociology, Vol. 29, 2001 (October:471-482) 471 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.170 on Tue, 26 Jul 2016 06:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 472 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY More generally, the value of multimedia learning is well established theoretically and empirically in the fields of psychology and education (Mayer 1997). Teaching techniques that engage multiple senses are well supported by theories of learning that emphasize the importance of drawing on organizing frameworks or schema that are meaningful to the learner (e.g., Neisser 1976; Paivio 1986; Torney-Purta 1991) and research on multimedia learning (e.g., Moreno and Mayer 1999; Park and Hannafin 1993; Penney 1989). According to Moreno and Mayer (2000), learning is enhanced when instructors present complementary stimuli that are relevant to the content of the lesson (p. 124), allowing students to use both auditory and visual processing channels. The technique described in this article employs popular music to address the challenges of teaching theory to introductory sociology students without glossing over its pivotal place in the course and the discipline. My approach to teaching theory to introductory students differs from most uses of music in the sociology classroom in that albums from a single music genre, rather than individual songs or lyrics, are used to highlight the distinctions between theoretical perspectives. I use progressive rock music to help students grasp theories holistically, rather than to illustrate isolated concepts and ideas. By demonstrating how the ideas of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber are expressed in the music of the classical progressive rock bands Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) respectively, students are able to grasp the distinctive focus of each of these classical theories.' In describing this teaching technique, I begin by offering a rationale for using progressive rock music. Secondly, I explain how I use this music in the classroom, and present evidence of the technique's effectiveness. In conclusion I discuss some limitations and alternative applications of the technique.

Bingo for Beginners: A Game Strategy for Facilitating Active Learning

This paper demonstrates the use of a game strategy in a large first year sociology class. Designed in the first instance to facilitate students’ understanding of sociological concepts, the strategy also enables teachers to elicit reactions to the process which serve as teaching points about the theory and practice of social research. In this teaching method ideas about theoretical concepts and operational definitions are tackled in a manner which students find meaningful and enjoyable (and therefore memorable). The approach would be suitable for modification to other large group teaching situations.

Studying ‘Alcohol, Drugs, and Society’ from a Sociological Perspective

ABSTRACT This study compares the academic performance of two distinct types of students enrolled over a five year period in a Sociology class entitled “Alcohol, Drugs, and Society.” Roughly 30% of enrollees take this course as part of their training to become certified addictions counselors through the College of Human Sciences. The remainder come from a wide range of other courses of study, largely through the College of Arts and Sciences. These majors include, but are not limited to, sociology, social work, psychology, history, political science, and journalism. Data reveal that the difference in average grades between the pre-professionals and all others is not statistically significant.

Sociology in High School: A Profile of New York State

WHILE THE BULK Of sociology instruction happens at the post-secondary educational level, high school sociology classes have existed since at least the early 1960s (Short and Matlock 1982). Despite their presence, and the periodic stressing of the importance of sociology in the K-12 curriculum (e.g., Howery 1985; Levine 1997), we have surprisingly little current information about these courses and those who teach them. The

Experiential Learning in Sociology: Service Learning and Other Community-Based Learning Initiatives

Despite increased popularity and a strong pedagogical tradition, the literature on community-based learning (CBL) initiatives and service learning evidences a certain conceptual imprecision. In the hopes of clarifying definitional ambiguities, we critically review the CBL literature, identifying six distinct types of CBL options and their characteristics. The result is a hierarchy of community-based learning, which while not proposed as a definitive conceptualization, is likely to be useful in terms of curricular development. Using a hypothetical sociology class, the community-based learning options identified (i.e., out-of-class activities, volunteering, service add-ons, internships, service learning, and service learning advocacy) are discussed in terms of their pedagogical differences and associated curricular benefits

Giving it away: The ironies of sociology’s place in academia

Sociologists tend to be defensive about our discipline. I don't know that this has always been the case, but it has been true for the 35 years I have been following the sociological literature. When I entered the trade, it was common for introductory sociology classes to begin with the instructor denying that sociology was "nothing more than common sense." And those were the good old days, when higher education was expanding, and there were no fears that sociology Ph.D.s might have trouble finding academic positions. Recent de cades have featured tighter job markets, and there has been lots of talk about the need to balance the supply of, with the demand for, new Ph.D.s, about unemployed and underemployed sociologists, and (among optimists) about the promise of careers in "sociological practice." There are calls for protecting our turf by licensing or certifying sociologists. At the same time, intradisciplinary bickering and breast-beating continues. At sociology's soft, qualitative edge, postmodernists experiment with autobiographi cal essays and poems, while denouncing positivism as philosophically bankrupt and its scientific trappings as vacuous at best, dangerous at worst. Their coun terparts at the discipline's hard, quantitative edge insist that sociology doesn't get respect because it isn't scientific enough; their remedy is more arcane statistical methods (and recruiting graduate students with higher quantitative GRE scores). And there are other voices raised in recrimination: ideologues denounce the profession's ignoring its moral obligation to promote their version of social justice; proponents of assorted theoretical positions charge that rival schools fail to comprehend the most basic contours of social life; scholars in an ever-larger number of ever-narrower specialties increasingly turn inward, ignoring those who do not share their substantive interests; while sociologists with administrative experience warn that the discipline appears weak, fragmented, unfocused, and possibly unnecessary. (Nothing new in that. Remember 1981, when Doonesbury's President Kingman considered cutting the budget at Waiden College; it was the sociology department on the chopping block.)

Smoke or Signals? American Popular Culture and the Challenge to Hegemonic Images of American Indians in Native American Film

American popular culture has historically been an arena where hegemonic structures and ideas could be challenged and where the status quo could be questioned, often through humor and satire. Continuing this tradition in one of the most refreshing recent contributions to American popular culture, Smoke Signals, Sherman Alexie challenges hegemonic and stereotypical images of American Indians through portraying a complex, humanizing, and contemporary image of American Indians. In doing so, he addresses, in an interview with Cineaste, what he avows is the "greatest challenge" to contemporary American Indians--the issue of sovereignty (West and West 1998). Sovereignty generally refers to autonomy and control over one's destiny. As such, it involves representation and the power to create and determine how groups, and individuals within those groups, are represented. Since popular culture is, by definition, "popular" and widely consumed, it is a powerful agent in shaping these representative images. However, the power of any one image of popular culture is weakened in part because of the sheer magnitude of competing popular elements. Images are further diluted because they are often casually consumed as entertainment and because the contents of popular culture are so broad, varied, and transitional. This essay emanates from my genuine appreciation for the efforts of Alexie and my curiosity about the effects of popular culture and the potential [End Page 129] of Smoke Signals to counter hegemonic representations of Indians. To explore this potential, I asked a series of questions of my students in an introduction to sociology class and conducted an exploratory experiment with a colleague's children. In the following, I discuss both the power of popular culture to shape perceptions, through inciting novel ideas in a film like Smoke Signals, and the transient effects of any one film. As such, I point to the importance of this use and appropriation of popular culture and also to the limitations of popular culture that necessitate actions on the part of people who shape culture in general, directed toward elaborating and institutionalizing the projects initiated by artists acting within the medium of popular culture.

Fear Journals: A Strategy for Teaching about the Social Consequences of Gendered Violence

Although violence against women is an important topic for many sociology classes, teaching about it can be problematic. Students may see violence against women as an individual rather than social problem, may trivialize or blame victims, or may react defensively. In this paper, I present an approach to teaching about violence that addresses some of these difficulties. Students keep a one-day journal of their experiences of fear and use of safety strategies, and then analyze their findings both individually and in discussion with their classmates. This analysis helps students to see violence not simply as an individual experience, but as a form of social control that differently affects social groups. In this paper, I describe this exercise, illustrate its effectiveness using excerpts from students journals, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this pedagogical approach.

Catholic Religious Identity and Social Integration in Interwar New Zealand

Comparing the history of the Catholic Church in Australia and the United States, John Tracy Ellis noted, both communities an environment unfriendly to their religious faith nurtured a separatist spirit which varied according to time and place but which in general bred a so-called mentality.1 The Catholic ghetto was sustained to a considerable extent by the establishment of denominationally-based organizations and institutions which reinforced the Catholic worldview and reduced the need for Catholics to associate with non-Catholics in their daily lives. Moreover, as Martin Marty has pointed out, it was not only Catholics who developed intellectual ghettos and denominational institutions which distinguished them from the dominant culture of the United States= Similar patterns developed in central and north-western Europe, finding their most extreme expression in the pillarization (verzuiling) of Belgium and the Netherlands. From the later nineteenth century until the 1960's, Catholics, Protestants, and Socialists developed more or less self sufficient parallel societies orpillars. Each pillar maintained its own cultural associations, sports clubs, educational institutions, social security organizations, trade unions, political parties, newspapers, and broadcasting networks. Collectively, the pillars were thought of as supporting the nation, and governments encouraged their development (for example, by subsidizing denominational schools) because it was assumed that minimizing the contact between antagonistic communities like Catholics and Calvinists was necessary to avoid social conflict.3 New Zealand Catholics, as a minority group, needed to maintain their religious integrity without unduly antagonizing the Protestant majority At 164,133 in 1921 and 195,261 in 1936, Catholics made up just over thirteen percent of the non-Maori population of interwar New Zealand. In 1921 seventy-six per cent of the population were either Anglicans, Presbyterians, or Methodists.4 Catholics' religious beliefs and practices, based on the evolving patterns of contemporary European (and North American) Catholic spirituality, marked them out as quite different from Protestants, including Anglicans whose church was overwhelmingly evangelical in tone. Moreover, the Catholic population as a whole was neither wealthy nor well-educated although some Catholics achieved prominence in business or politics, including Sir Joseph Ward (Prime Minister, 1906-1912, 1928-1930) and Michael Joseph Savage (Prime Minister, 1935-1940), who died in office, having recently returned to the faith of his childhood. As in other countries, the maintenance of Catholic identity by means of numerous lay organizations and religious institutions, especially during the interwar years, constitutes a prima-facie case for supposing that there was at least a Catholic in New Zealand. Catholics in Timaru, for example, had a particularly well-organized parish of 2,350 souls in 1926.5 Lay organizations listed in 1928 included the Children of Mary, the Sacred Heart Sodality (for women), St. Anne's Guild (a women's charitable society), an Altar Society, the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society, a Girls' Club for former pupils of the school, a choir, and the Catholic Club. Affiliated to the latter were St. John's Tennis Club, the Celtic Cricket and Football Club, St. Patrick's Rifle Club, the Catholic Choral Society the Literary and Debating Club, the Dramatic Club, and the Swimming Club.6 A review by B. J. Barnao of Catholic organizations in Wellington in 1936-when the Catholic population was 22,679'-discussed a number of pious and charitable associations: the Holy Name Society, the Children of Mary Sodality, the Sacred Heart Sodality for women at St. Joseph's parish, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Seamen's Institute, the Third Order of St. Francis, and the Third Order of Mary. Barnao also referred to Catholic Scouting, the Hibernian Benefit Society, the Catholic Readers' Club, the Catholic Sociology classes, and the Catholic Students' Guild. …