North Central Sociological Association 2020 John F. Schnabel Lecture Missed Opportunities: Developing Undergraduate Students Sociological Research Skills Throughout the Curriculum

Medley-Rath, Stephanie

doi:10.1080/00380237.2020.1847796

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Such practices are in line with writing-intensive courses, which require multiple versions of the final product (Grauerholz 1999). There are also some advantages to incorporating components of a research project across courses to allow for more comprehensive experience (Lovekamp et al 2016; Medley-Rath 2021; Medley-Rath and Morgan 2022). Finally, I recommend beginning this assignment with the Literature Review component before students define their research questions and hypotheses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doing Sociology, Learning Objectives, and Developing Rubrics for Undergraduate Research Methods

Thakore

2023

Teach Sociol

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The research project assignment can create meaningful opportunities for students to apply sociological concepts. For grading these projects, assessment rubrics are useful pedagogical tools to evaluate students’ abilities in achieving course learning objectives. In this study, I analyzed final research papers collected over multiple semesters in my undergraduate Methods of Social Research course. My goals are to (1) evaluate the grading rubric’s effectiveness in enabling students to meet course objectives and (2) identify improvements in students’ outcomes from revisions to the rubric over time. Findings indicate that rubrics can provide students the information needed to apply course concepts to their work and that rubric revisions are necessary to ensure validity, reliability, and equity across grading. In conclusion, I provide suggestions for implementing a semester-long research project assignment and initiating iterative revisions to rubric criteria.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Doing Sociology, Learning Objectives, and Developing Rubrics for Undergraduate Research Methods

Thakore

2023

Teach Sociol

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“…Numerous scholars argue that we must be more intentional about incorporating research skills throughout the sociology curriculum (Howery and Rodriguez 2006; Kain 1999; Markle 2017; Weiss 1987; Wilder 2010; Williams et al 2016). However, additional research is needed to examine the sociology curriculum for gaps and missed opportunities for research methods instruction (see also Medley-Rath 2021). While students are gaining experience doing sociological research, what other opportunities do they have to increase their knowledge and confidence in sociological research methods beyond a course explicitly about doing research?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaining Confidence, Experience, and Knowledge as Researchers among Undergraduate Sociology Students

Medley-Rath

Morgan

2021

Teach Sociol

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Advanced undergraduate students struggle with executing complete research projects that involve data collection and analysis. Research indicates that engaging in undergraduate research is a high-impact practice. The American Sociological Association recommends that sociology majors engage in research beyond their research methods and statistics courses. We used a pre-/post-assessment model across three semesters in all upper-level undergraduate sociology courses at our institution. The assessment measured confidence, knowledge, and experience with research methods. Fifty-eight students completed at least one pre-/post-assessment pair. Of those, 27 students completed two pre-/post-assessments. No students completed three pre-/post-assessments. We find that experience and confidence had statistically significant increases at each survey point. Knowledge increased but was statistically significant for only two groups: the full sample on the first post-assessment (N = 58) and the students with two assessment pairs on their second post-assessment (N = 27) who participated across two semesters.

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“…There is broad agreement that sociology graduates should have some research skills. To this end, scholars of teaching and learning in sociology argue that research methods instruction should figure prominently throughout the sociology curriculum (Berheide 2005;Greenwood 2013;Gunn 2017;Howery and Rodriguez 2006;Kain 1999;Markle 2017;Medley-Rath 2021;Medley-Rath and Morgan n.d.;Parker 2011;Pike et al 2017;Weiss 1987;Wilder 2010;Williams et al 2016;Williams and Sutton 2011). Overall, all undergraduate sociology programs require a Research Methods course, and most (77.9 percent) require Statistics (Sweet, McElrath, and Kain 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Do Sociologists Know What They Know? An Examination of Sociology Textbooks for Evidence of Sociological and Scientific Thinking

Medley-Rath¹

2021

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I use qualitative content analysis to uncover how textbooks illuminate the process by which sociologists know what they know. I use the Sociology Literacy Framework (SLF) (Ferguson and Carbonaro 2016) to guide analysis, looking at how textbooks report on the research process and present research findings. Using a sample of 27 textbooks for introductory courses (N = 19) and intermediate elective courses (N = 8) from 12 publishers (copyright dated: 2015-2020), I found weak support for developing the research-focused SLF skills. Textbooks fail to explain and describe how sociologists know what they know. Instead, texts use false equivalence arguments and shortcuts to scientific credibility, among other means. Textbooks do an adequate job describing society using basic descriptive statistical data from think tanks or government sources but provide almost no instruction on how scholars gather or analyze data or draw conclusions about their data.

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North Central Sociological Association 2020 John F. Schnabel Lecture Missed Opportunities: Developing Undergraduate Students Sociological Research Skills Throughout the Curriculum

Cited by 4 publications

References 69 publications

Doing Sociology, Learning Objectives, and Developing Rubrics for Undergraduate Research Methods

Doing Sociology, Learning Objectives, and Developing Rubrics for Undergraduate Research Methods

Gaining Confidence, Experience, and Knowledge as Researchers among Undergraduate Sociology Students

How Do Sociologists Know What They Know? An Examination of Sociology Textbooks for Evidence of Sociological and Scientific Thinking

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