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Examines papers published in the journal, "Teaching Sociology," from 1984-1999 to depict an emergence of a scholarship on teaching and learning. Builds on the work of Paul Baker who thought that evidence of scholarship was lacking in the journal from 1973-1983. Suggests that a scholarship is emerging. (CMK)

This teaching note describes my multiyear experience with interventions designed to enhance student engagement and learning through various teaching techniques, most notably active and collaborative learning through local case studies. While other aspects of this course had been successful, I was disappointed in the level of engagement--the apparent level of study and practice and the excitement and interest in the project demonstrated during class meetings and through assignments--of previous students with the semester-long research project. Intervention yielded a clear increase in student engagement but did not seem to yield increased understanding, leading to a new set of questions and additional intervention. The note provides details about the specific teaching techniques centered on active and collaborative learning in local case studies and concludes with three recommendations for instructors pursuing excellence in teaching and learning. (Contains 1 note.)

C. Wright Mills would be a friendly critic of service learning, acknowledging its benefits for providing students with experiential learning opportunities to connect personal troubles with social issues. Yet he would be critical of service-learning practices that perpetuate institutional power inequalities and that do not advance the social change objectives of community-based organizations. We offer an innovative approach that helps to address some of these concerns which, when used in conjunction with "best practices" of service learning, has the potential to make a greater impact on the community than most service-learning projects. This paper highlights how two sociology programs in two urban universities--a large, elite university and a smaller, minority-serving university--have completed significant community-based research projects by having classes of students at both universities work on projects both consecutively and simultaneously across several semesters to complete substantial research projects with and for community partners. We use a case study approach to identify five key practices that have enabled the two universities to effectively collaborate across institutions. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This paper describes two teaching strategies from our workshop, "Teaching the Sociology of Gender and Work," that can help students understand the mechanisms and consequences of workplace gender inequality at the macro- and micro-levels. Cynthia Anderson's class project uses wage and sex composition data that allows students to learn actively how data are used to study general trends and changes over time. It encourages students to explore the reality of their possible careers and fields in terms of wages, proportion of women and men, and other factors. Sharon Bird's class exercise requires students to consider the interactional dynamics of everyday work life and encourages them to see the subtle processes of marginalization and exclusion while also thinking about how to overcome gender biases. Some of this information will contribute to student angst about inequality in the workplace; thus, we conclude with suggestions for decreasing potential student distress and increasing student empowerment. (Contains 1 footnote.)

In winter of 2004, the Sociology Department at California State University-Bakersfield (CSUB) conducted a student assessment using an embedded assessment technique--a technique wherein a class assignment serves as an assessment tool. The authors conducted the embedded assessment for their Five-Year Program Review. Thus, similar to many departments, their decision to measure learning outcomes was motivated by an external force, namely the university administration. In the first part of this paper they describe their assessment instrument and report assessment outcomes. Next they report on a five-point "agenda for change" generated by faculty in response to the assessment outcome. Finally they present an in-depth discussion of faculty reaction to the assessment process.(Contains 5 tables and 1 footnote.)

The opportunities, challenges, and lessons of the pilot phase of a community development program in a small liberal arts college are presented and conceptualized in this paper. We based this program on an experiential learning model derived from Paulo Freire's critical pedagogy and Stephen Brookfield's notion of critically responsive learning. A high value is placed on students' participation, as their increasingly community-based learning enters into a fruitful dialogue with classroom knowledge and readings. Their experience of being both learner and teacher in a trusting, collaborative classroom community prepared them for their field placement. The qualities of resilience and adaptability to new needs and knowledge, modeled by their professors in class, become part of the template for their own community experiences. The qualitative data come largely from student accounts drawn from their course projects, field trips, and community journals and from the evaluations of and by the eleven participating students. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

Describes a case-study technique for teaching industrial sociology that stresses the evolution of the division of labor, or how people have come to perform different jobs. Discusses methods of examination and testing and reviews the implications and limitations of the course. (GEA)

Describes a program for teaching writing as an integral part of college sociology classes. Students do frequent free-writing exercises, participate in small weekly writing groups, and compose final papers. Suggestions for implementation are offered. (AM)

This paper describes a case study in which one large, private university tried to improve the moss lecture course in introductory sociology. Academic change, it was found, is impeded by deeply held prestige factors which seem to mitigate against new methods of instruction. In introductory courses, the lecture system is accepted as normal, while innovations tend to be branded nonstandard and therefore expendable. Students were of little help in developing a new course since their opinions did not correlate with grade earned or opinion change during the course. It is concluded that academic innovation will prove difficult in the future unless it is legitimized in the academic prestige system. Several other examples of academic innovation failing to survive the original instructor are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the use of a ‘‘case study group’’ method for teaching social movement theory. The aim was to give students the opportunity to practice theorizing actively rather than simply learning theory passively. The method provides this by requiring students to undertake case studies on social movements of their choice for the duration of the course, to complete tasks that require them to apply different theoretical ideas and concepts to these case studies, and then to discuss this process in small supportive groups of their peers. In line with existing literature, student evaluations identified four major benefits to learning in this way: forcing active participation, working collaboratively, being able to ‘‘practice’’ ideas, and developing a better understanding of theory through its application to ‘‘the real world.’’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On the basis of analysis of student responses to a case study titled ‘‘Drinks and Dinner,’’ the authors evaluate the pedagogical potential of using constructive controversy case studies to teach about inequality. ‘‘Drinks and Dinner’’ is designed to capture the complexity of social interactions that defy simple solutions to engage students in increasingly sophisticated discussions of subtle gender bias and the practical contingencies of power in the workplace. Having taught the case several times in two distinct institutional cultures, the authors use student reactions to this classroom exercise to consider some of the pedagogical payoffs of constructive controversy case studies. The intentional ambiguities written into ‘‘Drinks and Dinner’’ defy simple solutions and require students to discuss while incorporating, honoring, and addressing differences of opinion, not only among the characters in the story but also among the students in the classroom. In the authors’ preliminary implementations of the case, they found that students applied course concepts, considered multiple viewpoints, and, in some cases, moved from individualized explanations to structural analysis of how inequality is reproduced. The authors conclude with ideas for how to implement similar cases in other courses that could benefit from requiring students to actively and collectively solve problems related to inequality and the routine use of power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper focuses on the article " Establishing the Initial Contact," by A. Bhambri. The importance of the first class session is acknowledged. The article is a case study of a leading business professor, an innovative way to look at teaching effectiveness. The professor establishes a contract up front regarding expectations and responsibilities of teacher and student. The overall effect of high expectations and clear delineation of student responsibilities seems to be increased student interest and preparation. The article includes an appendix on course information.

The article focuses on medical sociology. Many techniques are used in medical sociology courses to demonstrate the attribution of mental illness as a labeling of deviance. Originally introduced to teach principles of labeling theory, teachers deal more generally with the social psychological process of illness attribution. Students received a case study describing a wife suspicious of her husband's possible extramarital affair with another woman. Whether or not the husband is actually having an affair cannot be determined from the case study presentation. The influence of a deviant status (former mental patient) is demonstrated in the students' differing assessments of patient's behavior and belief. A great deal of "mental pathology" and "symptoms" were attributed to the seemingly normal responses of normal students.