States that regardless of the content or level of a statistics course, five goals to reach are: (1) overcoming fears, resistances, and tendencies to memorize; (2) the importance of intellectual honesty and integrity; (3) understanding relationship between deductive and inductive inferences; (4) learning to play role of reasonable critic; and (5)…

Shows how an introductory social science statistics course can improve the treatment of regression assumptions, the problem of outliers, and the important idea that some outliers have greater influence than others through the use of Anscombe's now classic 1973 example and Cook's (1977; 1979) extension of the idea of influence. (JDH)

States that the teaching of logit regression analysis is much neglected in statistics courses within sociology. Claims that logit regression allows the researcher to evaluate the impact of a set of predictor variables on a dichotomous dependent variable without the problems associated with discriminant analysis, weighted least squares regression,…

Defines a nonsimulation game as a game dealing with a mathematical or scientific topic which is superior to the typical simulation in that it provides an optimal mix of competition and cooperation. Describes two variations of Allen's 1969 Equations nonsimulation game, which may be used to teach various statistical concepts. (JDH)

Notes the drawbacks of the artificial separation of content and method in most undergraduate, sociology department, course offerings. Reports on the development and operation of a local research center as a means of melding content and method. (JDH)

Describes how the lost letter technique, a research ploy involving leaving stamped, addressed letters in public locations and seeing if people will mail them, may be used to introduce students to experimental method in sociological research. Students manipulated letter location, size, and address in order to judge different effects such variations…

Notes that one-semester field methods courses in sociology often lack adequate time for students to learn appropriate techniques and still collect and report their data. Describes how undergraduate students bypass this problem by using multiple observations of a single event to quickly form a corpus of ethnographic data. (JDH)

Describes how sociology students in undergraduate research methods are involved in conducting an annual poll for the university. The emphasis is upon interviewing as a general data-gathering method. Includes information about how useful research problems are determined and the process used to design and implement the poll. (JDH)

Notes the central role and ultimate importance of the undergraduate, research methods textbook within sociology. Reviews nine new textbooks, and reveals substantial variation in coverage and approach. The review is based on the degree to which the texts address eight important goals for the undergraduate research course. (JDH)

Defines the reflexive dimension of teaching sociology, a dimension which explicitly recognizes that personal experiences and values significantly shape the perspectives transmitted to students. Posits five characteristics of reflexive teaching, identifies sources of resistance to such teaching, discusses how the author includes the reflexive…

Lecturing to class each meeting is misuse of widely available instructional resources. Describes how to randomly assign a racial and ethnic identity to each student and how to use the community to invigorate an undergraduate race relations class. Concludes that colleges have been too cognitively oriented and that much can be gained by providing…

Describes the experiences and concerns of a novice computer-using teacher as she integrated computers into her introductory sociology course. Issues discussed include the amount of time required to implement a meaningful unit of instruction, problems of matching appropriate use with existing software, and anxiety of students and instructor.…

Synthesizing results from surveys of graduates, employers, and sociology departments, this article identifies seven changes which may help students market their sociology degree to prospective employers. Among the changes identified are: (1) the need to help students identify the transferable skills they have learned, and (2) improving the image…

Applies principles of group process and development to the college classroom. Offers 15 principles for better instruction. Among them are: (1) when people feel psychologically safe in a group, their participation will increase and (2) early "ice-breaking" will generate higher participation levels. Examples of how these principles operate are…

Demonstrates how the typical American sociology course requires American or Western cultural literacy. Uses as an example the teaching of sociology on the Yap Islands in Micronesia. Demonstrates how to overcome the westernized world view limitation by using cross-cultural comparisons and other techniques. (JDH)