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A Quarterly Publication of
The American Sociological Association

Comments from the Editor

Volume 30, Number 1
January 2002

WE BEGIN THE NEW YEAR with an issue of Teaching Sociology that represents the continued efforts of our authors and reviewers to generate discussion and move the discipline of sociology forward in pedagogical theory and research on student learning. The lead article is the manuscript version of Keith Roberts’ 2001 Hans Mauksch Award presentation at the American Sociological Association meetings. This is followed by important articles on teaching about the sociology of genocide and the Holocaust by Deborah Abowitz and Heather Sullivan-Catlin’s enhancement of service learning strategies by emphasizing themes of poverty and hunger.

The article by Chin represents his project as a Carnegie Scholar to compare the early and later years of this journal as a vehicle for the scholarship of teaching and learning. In July of 2000, the American Sociological Association and the ASA Section on Undergraduate Education sponsored a Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Sociology. The article by Weiss and co-authors represents the first of these manuscripts to be published focusing on assessment of student learning.

These are followed by four Teaching Notes on learning communities and virtual learning resources as predictors of student success; on active learning for learning about globalization; on student consumerism; and finally on cognitive mapping as a way to assess student learning and enhance discussions. We invite you to hear from your colleagues about new video and book resources that will contribute to your pedagogical work in the new year, as well.

The goal is to produce a concrete research agenda and action plan in six topical areas: 1) integrating styles of learning and teaching; 2) assessment of faculty, 3) curriculum and student assessment, 4) partnerships between the community and the academy, 5) technology and its uses in teaching and learning, and 6) the institutional context of teaching and learning. These themes represent much of the agenda of Teaching Sociology over the past three decades. We anticipate that the orienting memos and papers from these workshops will provide research agendas and action items into the next decade of our scholarship of teaching and learning.

Volume 30, Number 2
April 2002

THE APRIL 2002 issue provides us with a range of materials on teaching and learning. The 13 book reviews and 9 articles and notes provide insights and scholarship into topics ranging from sexual identity to community based learning. The lead article continues our focus on the scope of the scholarship of teaching and learning over the past and into the future. Denzel Benson and his co-authors represent analyses begun at the 2000 National Sociology Conference on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Their focus on digital technology and student learning and teaching issues provides a road map into the next decade of work on this topic. Three of our articles focus on community-based learning projects. Marion Carter and her colleagues establish an explicit framework for assessing pedagogical and participatory goals in these learning projects. Collier and Morgan have linked student training in focus group methodologies as a gateway to service learning and Shirley Hollis explores the transformation of community service into the service-learning paradigm.

John Zipp presents the first of two empirical articles investigating pedagogy and learning. Drawing on the ever-popular topic of mate selection research and theory, he contrasts student outcomes when materials are enhanced by an active-learning exercise. Jay Howard and colleagues are moving the research on student responsibility in mixed-aged college classrooms forward with their analysis as well. In the first of our three teaching notes, Chad Hanson takes the notion of the sociological lens to the next level, focusing on students’ use of their sociological imagination through depression-era photography. David Stevens and Michelle VanNatta assess the use of vignette exercises in teaching critical thinking and Mark Edwards provides us with a thoughtful note on mentoring student writing. As always, we hope that these notes and articles will connect to some dimension of your own teaching and learning scholarship.

Volume 30, Number 3
July 2002

WE BEGIN THIS JULY ISSUE with apologies to several contributors to the April 2002 issue. Dr. Idee Winfield, College of Charleston, was omitted from the list of authors for the lead article as listed in the Table of Contents. Enclosed in this issue you will find a corrected Table of Contents to replace the earlier version. We worked backward through our editing processes and identified the omission as the result of a technological limit on our software for tracking authors and titles during the life course of a manuscript review process. Only six author names can be accommodated in the software, and when we proofed the materials for final publication, her name, the seventh name, was not on the listing. It has been our editorial policy to encourage the collaborative efforts that bring review articles of key issues in the scholarship of teaching and learning. As one of Dr. Winfield’s co-authors noted, it is ironic that an article that synthesizes knowledge available and knowledge needed on digital technologies and student learning should be fouled by a technological limitation on software.

We also note that our electronic “cut and paste” approach to editing and publishing resulted in a set of reviewer names to be super-imposed over those who provided the actual labor. We thank Sheryl Grana, Robert Hironimus-Wendt, Sally Raskoff, and Mary Wright for their review of the Shirley Hollis article “Capturing the Experience: Transforming Community Service into Service Learning.” Many of our readers have reviewed manuscripts for us and know first hand the time and careful attention given in these review processes. The editorial staff members of Teaching Sociology appreciate this valuable work and want all of our reviewers appropriately acknowledged.

In the next few months the Publications Committee of the American Sociological Association will put out a call for nominations for the next Editor of Teaching Sociology for a four year term to begin in January 2004. Please think carefully about colleagues who would contribute to our ongoing dialogues and goals for this journal. If you have an interest or a name to suggest and have questions about the Editorial responsibilities and commitments, please contact me for further information in advance of the formal call. The journal will benefit from a robust pool of enthusiastic applicants with diverse perspectives on how to move us forward in the future.

Volume 30, Number 4
October 2002

TALK OF ASSESSMENT is ubiquitous throughout higher education; yet, the application and implementation of assessment practices would appear to vary dramatically, dependent largely on the culture and context of academic institutions. This trend parallels that of sociology. To illustrate, the American Sociological Association recommended in 1991 that the sociology major reflect a study in depth component, one aligned with a sequenced set of courses to account for, in one way or another, a sociological perspective, liberal education, and students’ intellectual development. Now, a decade later, there appears to be considerable variation among departments in our discipline regarding their degree of acceptance and implementation of assessment activities. To the extent that student learning is purposeful and can be assessed against one or more stated outcomes, program goals provide the necessary structure to direct both students and faculty toward desirable ends. From this perspective, assessment is a process rather than an end, a means to inform decision-makers about the strengths of a program and the areas that may require improvement if the program goals are to be achieved.

Toward this end, the set of articles included in this issue of Teaching Sociology speak to the challenges of managing assessment activities within specific institutional contexts. We begin with two articles that focus on general trends of assessment in sociology. Gregory Weiss, in focusing on the department as the unit of analysis, shows that while many departments maintain a mission statement only half have established articulated student learning outcomes. Departments that use assessment tools report reliance on course products, surveys, and external reviewers. Theodore Wagenaar’s analysis, based on a survey of sociology faculty, finds that surveys and capstone projects are the mechanisms most commonly employed, but these have only a modest impact on actual curricular change decisions and teaching strategies. Both of these articles speak to the importance of context in assessment. The remaining four articles offer insights into assessment strategies by institutional type. Cameron et al., in a review of introductory sociology sections at a community college, report that a collaborative assessment process enhances faculty awareness of teaching methods and goals. Keith et al. draw upon their work at a four-year college to show how collaborative assessment of a program goal draws attention to a learning model, curricular design and implementation, outcomes assessment, and program feedback. Macheski and Lowney examine the importance of various contextual dynamics in their collaborative development of an assessment plan at a department that offers baccalaureate and master’s degrees. They contend that this process enhances one’s professional identity, an awareness of one’s institutional context, and an understanding of the students one is likely to encounter within a specific region and institutional environment. Finally, Cappell et al document the challenges and obstacles of implementing an assessment plan at a doctoral-granting institution. They show that assessment depends on faculty collaboration, organizational culture, and desired outcomes.

Our fundamental challenge in this endeavor is to place program design and assessment within the framework of organizational behavior. The word purpose connotes direction, which, when placed within the context of an institution, does not readily lend itself to the importation of generic models because the assessment process depends on the cultural manifestation and mission of an academic organization. Each department must take into account its context and unique cultural dynamics, which underscore the shared basic assumptions that departmental faculty have developed in their quest to integrate members and adapt to their institutional environment. Assessment works only when it can accommodate organizational context and culture. This theme runs throughout the articles included in this special issue of Teaching Sociology and lends itself to considerable scholarship in the areas of program design, outcomes assessment, as well as strategies for teaching and learning.

  The Editor of Teaching Sociology is Helen A. Moore.

For articles, notes, and conversations, send manuscripts to: Helen A. Moore, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324. Phone: 402-472-6081, Fax: 402-472-6070.

For book, video, and software reviews, send manuscripts to: Laurie Scheuble, Department of Sociology, 211 Oswald Tower, Penn State University, University Park, PA. Phone: 814-865-6949.

For questions about manuscript processing, contact Kathy Acosta, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324. Phone: 402-472-6081, Fax: 402-472-6070.

The Webmaster is Pauline H. Pavlakos. Observations on form and egregious spelling may be directed to Ms. Pavlakos.

The Teaching Sociology Web Page is located at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Le Moyne College, the Jesuit College of Central New York.

Page last updated: September 5, 2002