Thirty years ago, Hubert M. Blalock Jr. published an article in "Teaching Sociology" about the importance of teaching statistics. We honor Blalock's legacy by assessing how using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in statistics classes can enhance student learning and increase statistical literacy among social science gradaute students. In…

This teaching note describes the design and implementation of an activity in a 90-minute teaching session that was developed to introduce a diverse cohort of first-year criminology and sociology students to the use of documents as sources of data. This approach was contextualized in real-world research through scaffolded, student-centered tasks…

Participatory exercises are standard practice in qualitative methods courses; less common are projects that engage students in the entire research process, from research design to write-up. Although the teaching literature provides several models of complete research projects, their feasibility, and appropriateness for large, compulsory,…

Considers the use of personal information given by students to teach about understanding and appreciation of data analysis in college sociology courses. Students are directed to describe their personal style by a five step process: simple measurement of personal characteristics, recoding and indexing, quantifying a dimension, discussing recoding…

The Introductory Sociology Survey (ISS) is designed to teach introductory students basic skills in developing causal arguments and in using a computerized statistical package to analyze survey data. Students are given codebooks for survey data and asked to write a brief paper predicting the relationship between at least two variables. (Author)

In this project, students in marriage and family courses analyze their families sociologically. Using a list of areas to be considered, students conduct an analysis which teaches them sociological terminology and theory in an enjoyable manner. (Author)

In the process of collecting assessment data in the author's introductory sociology course, he made a startling and disappointing discovery. For the most part, students simply were not bothering to read the basics version of the introductory survey textbook that he assigned. This discovery presented him with two related challenges. First, he had…

Compares providing staged assignments for teaching research methods to providing a spotter for safety in gymnastics. Describes guidelines for a research proposal. Discusses problem definition, literature review, hypothesis development, data collection, and analysis. Argues that students must know the rules and reasons for the ideal model of…

Suggests using simulated data to teach students about the nature and use of statistical tests and measures. Observes that simulated data contains built-in pure relationships with no poor response rates or coding or sampling errors. Recommends suitable software. Includes information on using data sets, demonstrating statistical principles, and…

Teachers have incorporated active-learning techniques into the sociology classroom for many years, but the types of applications and evaluations are quite varied. In this paper, the authors quantitatively test a particular form of active learning that they call "living-data exercises," which instructors can use to introduce sociological research…

Considers the complete ethnographic project as a strategy for teaching qualitative methods. Describes an undergraduate class where students chose an ethnographic setting, gathered and analyzed data, and wrote a final report. Settings included Laundromats, bingo halls, auctions, karaoke clubs, and bowling leagues. (MJP)

Describes an introductory sociology class that used two forms of an in-class survey to conduct experiments regarding response framework: response order and question order. The results of the experiment are presented to the class. This encourages critical thinking and informed skepticism about research methodologies. (MJP)