This research explores key features of the scholarship of teaching and learning presented in nine higher education pedagogical journals. In an effort to better understand the domain in which the journal "Teaching Sociology" resides, descriptive and comparative analyses indicate that there is notable variation in the type of knowledge offered to…

The authors provide context for the three articles in the special section of this issue of "Teaching Sociology" on the topic of assessment. They provide a brief discussion of assessment in higher education today, supported by research conducted by the American Sociological Association from a survey of department chairs. These data indicate that…

A traditional debate format, in which a small group of students is given the task of presenting arguments for or against a particular issue, can promote pro and con dualism that is both incomplete and counter to developing a sociological imagination. In this article, the authors describe their efforts to avoid this kind of dualism through the…

In May of 2000, the American Sociological Association hosted a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference at James Madison University. The goal was to create a forum where faculty from across the country could reflect on the role of sociology in the burgeoning new scholarship of teaching and learning. In this article, the author explores the…

This article presents the author's response to the article "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning--Done by Sociologists: Let's Make That The Sociology of Higher Education" by Chad Hanson. The author says that Hanson points to critical limitations of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in sociology, including insufficient attention…

This article presents the author's response to the article "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning--Done By Sociologists: Let's Make That the Sociology of Higher Education" by Chad Hanson. In this response to Hanson's call for a sociology of higher education (SHE), the author will focus upon two things. First, he will review an idea…

While the scholarship of teaching has risen in prominence in the past few decades, little is presently known about the structure of knowledge creation and dissemination in that area of scholarship. Such basic facts as the characteristics of programs that perform and publish the research (e.g., B.A., M.A., or Ph.D.), or the identities of specific…

The author describes a series of four experimental college courses in which students develop appreciation of the elemental aspects of the process of direct social interaction. The approach is a series of exercises developed for training actors. The technique and rationale are examined; teaching guidelines are presented. (Author/DE)

This article discusses the training of college sociology teachers. Included are a literature review on the teaching of sociology, results of a survey on college inservice teacher education in sociology, and reviews of research on college teaching. How the theory and substantive work of sociology contributes to learning to teach sociology is…

Reports the development of a three-course eight-week summer program for medical students. One course covers research methods and the other two involve research practicums in public health and medical sociology. (JDH)

Describes how microcomputers were integrated into a large introductory sociology course to teach basic sociological concepts. Included is a description of the teaching principles which guided the project's instructional design, a description of the formation and operation of the student research teams, and several concrete examples of the problems…

Describes a "learning by doing" approach to sociological research designed to gather a comprehensive understanding of the Racine, Wisconsin youth gang situation, led to a nontraditional approach to research in typical research methods course. Includes information about student and faculty involvement, the process of research training,…

Describes two teaching simulations which can be used to introduce students to problems encountered in field research. The first simulation deals with gaining access to a research setting, while the second concerns some ethical difficulties which may potentially confront a field researcher. A number of reasons for using simulations in preference to…

Describes a visual device, borrowed from matrix algebra, which helps students integrate theory, methods, and statistics in sociological research. Data are organized in a rectangular structure, with the columns of variable names representing theory, the rows representing observations whose quality is related to methodological concerns and the need…

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)…