Like Michael (and hopefully others too!), I've really been enjoying this discussion.
A couple of quick points. It's not that I think so little of the value of the things Kathleen listed at the end of her last email. It's that I think we should be questioning their value much more than we have and do. Also, it seems to me that what Mikaila's talking about isn't so much socialization into the discipline as it is job training. It may be that some (I'm not willing to concede that it's many) of our majors will be exposed to journal articles in the course of their careers. I say "it may be" because I haven't seen any evidence for this point. I'd like to know, though, whether this is actually the case before making students trudge through article after article--sometimes several years before they're asked to do it again (if they're ever asked to do it again) at their jobs. I don't know whether it's our responsibility to prepare students for their future work experiences. I do know, though, that it's our responsibility to teach them what sociology is, the perspective that it offers on the social world, and how sociologists differ from, well, everybody else. I simply don't believe that scholarly journal articles are a good way to do any of those things--regardless of our course objectives, our abilities as instructors, our students' backgrounds, or the amount and types of scaffolding and assessing that we do. Thanks again, folks, for an interesting back-and-forth! Best, Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kathleen McKinney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Michael DeCesare" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <teachsoc@googlegroups.com> Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 8:01 AM Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: List of Sociology Journals > > All, > > Happy Mothers Day to all us Moms....as it is Mothers Day and my 18th > wedding anniversary, I will keep this response short. As I noted in my > earlier message and Mike notes again below, these are all empirical SoTL > questions about learning on which we need research--both the claims some > of us made and the things of which Mike is no convinced (below). That > said, I do believe reading sociological journal articles is useful. > Though my data is not yet systematic, my informal observations, student > reflection, etc. indicate that reading articles can help students > understand soc perspectives, see the application of our discipline, > better understand one way we "do" and represent sociology, get a sense > of the diversity of our field and approaches, see the passion many > researchers have for an issue or area, and so on. Is it the only way we > socialize students to the discipline? Gosh, I hope not. It is only one > way and would get at only some aspects of what we want to socialize our > student to... And, clearly, your learning objectives, background of > students, choice of articles, scaffolding provided to help students with > the articles...are all critical. To be honest, it seems to me that if we > think so little of the value of the journal articles in soc, of the > educational functions they might serve, of our instructional abilities > to use them well if we take the time and do the SoTL or classroom > assessmen work, and of our students' abilities to learn from them, and > so on...we may be in serious trouble! *********************** 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 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to teachsoc@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
