Improving Student Learning Outcomes through Community-based Research: The Poverty Workshop

Abstract

Engaging students in the research experience remains at the forefront of multiple debates within the field of sociology concerning best approaches to implementing and assessing applied learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. From experiential methodological training to service learning, there is a diverse array of models for encouraging students to develop potentially marketable skills through the application of sociological knowledge to the "real world" (Lovecamp, Soboroff, and Gillespie 2017). Recent evidence suggests that students in sociological methods and statistics courses significantly benefit from applied learning (Atkinson and Hunt 2008). We propose that community-based research adds another important element to sociological training through civic engagement in locally salient social problems. To help other instructors establish communitybased research opportunities, we describe the development and implementation of a communitybased learning course called the Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop (Workshop) and assess its potential for improving student learning outcomes related to social science research methods and comprehension of social stratification and inequality. Through the examination of improvements in learning outcomes for students in the Workshop compared to traditional methods courses, we 818251T SOXXX10.

Community-Initiated Student-Engaged Research: Expanding Undergraduate Teaching and Learning through Public Sociology

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Effects of Student Training in Social Skills and Emotional Intelligence on the Behaviour and Coexistence of Adolescents in the 21st Century

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