Our college is reading "My Freshman Year" and will be discussing chapters 2
and 6 at our "Educators Day" on Monday. That book gives interesting insights
into the student and professor minds and I'd be interested to hear what
others who have read the book think about the book.
Deb
Debra L. Berke, Ph.D., CFLE
Associate Professor of Family Science
and Women's Studies
Department of Human Development and Family Science
Messiah College
Box 3047
Grantham, PA 17027
(717) 796-1800, ext. 7205 (phone)
(717) 796-4790 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.messiah.edu/hpages/facstaff/dberke/home.htm
>>> "Anne Eisenberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 05/12/06 12:03 PM >>>
Let me heartily echo Ray's and Kathleen's comments about the importance of
sociology student socialization. One of the things we tend not to do well
enough is to convey a clear conception of the academic and scholarly aspects
of sociology.
Reading journal articles is an important aspect of that socialization. It
forces students to take the time to read, think and consider the issues
raised in a journal article.
Additionally - one of our roles, as teachers, is to model the skills
necessary for undertstanding a range of ideas, including difficult scholarly
ideas.
Anne F. Eisenberg
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
SUNY-Geneseo
123D Sturges Hall
Geneseo, NY 14454
716-245-5447 (office)
716-245-5337 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Muller
To: Michael DeCesare
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 1:42 PM
Subject: TEACHSOC: : List of Sociology Journals
Hi Mike,
I do agree with up (up to a point). I do however feel that sociological
journals help socialize sociology majors into the discipline. Many of our
students are improperly socialized into the major and, when asked, have an
exceedingly hard time defining what sociology is, let alone how to think
sociologically about a social issue.
Journal articles showcase (a) the difference between a properly narrow
sociological topics for research papers and the typical paper titles we get
(e.g. for my Sociology of Religion class, I get "reports" an Scientology,
Women and Islam, Abortion and Catholicism), (b) it helps them better
understand how the systematic application of sociological concepts,
theories, issues, and concerns helps ensure a properly sociological paper,
(c) well written journal articles (and there are some out there...) give
students a sense of how a sociological paper should to be written and
organized, (d) finally, I think it is also important for students to push
themselves a bit, explore the literature, and -especially - learn to deal
with the frustration of understanding only bits and pieces of what they
read. I remember how I once struggled (sometimes still do), but practice
does help (esp. if you go on to grad. school).
Thanks,Ray
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Michael DeCesare
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 11:47 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: List of Sociology Journals
Hi everyone,
I think John raises some valid and interesting issues. Among other things,
he asked about the proportion of articles we can expect students to
understand. I'd like to add another, related question: Is it important for
students to even read the articles that appear in our journals?
It seems to me that there's a reasonable case to be made that much of the
work that's published in our journals--and not just the top-tier ones--is
not only incomprehensible to people who aren't thoroughly trained in
statistics, as John pointed out, but is also perceived to be trivial and/or
irrelevant to lots of sociologists. So why is it important for our
undergraduates to read the latest ASR, AJS, or Social Forces
articles--especially when not many of us even read them?
I ask because aside from using them to teach students the differences
between scholarly and non-scholarly work, it's increasingly difficult for me
to justify requiring students to read the latest and greatest articles from
our discipline's journals.
Stirring the pot,
Mike!
******************************
Michael DeCesare
California State University, Northridge
Department of Sociology
336 Santa Susana Hall
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8318
818.677.7198
818.677.2059 (Fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.csun.edu/~mdecesare
----- Original Message -----
From: John Glass
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 8:26 AM
Subject: TEACHSOC: List of Sociology Journals
just curious...has anyone ever asked students about whether or not they
understand journal articles? i think it is an unwarranted assumption that
directing students to journals is going to assist them in learning material
within our discipline. let's face it, how many of the articles can we expect
undergraduates to understand given the increasing complexity of statistical
analyses? how many do WE understand? and we expect students to use current
research to write term papers?
i have asked students to pick a journal article, read it, rate their
level of undertanding (likert scale of 1 - 5) and then discuss what they DID
understand and what they DIDN'T understand. it was an interesting
assignment...for me. has made me reconsider things like "research" papers.
something to think about?
john
John E. Glass, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Division of Social & Behavioral Sciences
Colin County Community College
Preston Ridge Campus
9700 Wade Boulevard
Frisco, TX 75035
+1-972-377-1622
http://iws.ccccd.edu/jglass/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"We are more concerned about the discovery of knowledge than with its
dissemination"
B. F. Skinner
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