Throwing the Sociological Imagination Into the Garbage: Using Students' Waste Disposal Habits to Illustrate C. Wright Mills's Concept

Dowell, William

doi:10.1177/0092055x0603400205

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…A fourth challenge in the development of students' sociological imagination is motivation. Instructors must find ways to convince students of both its importance and practical value (Dowell 2006). As noted above, Scanlan and Grauerholz (2009:2) argue that the sociological imagination "provides a foundation for independent, lifelong learning and critical analysis".…”

Section: Why Is Sociological Imagination Difficult For Instructors Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge

Howard

2015

Sociological Focus

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Instructors and students must overcome a course's special pedagogical challenge in order for meaningful and important learning to occur. While some suggest that the special pedagogical problem varies by course, I contend that the special pedagogical problem is likely to be shared across a discipline's curriculum, rather than being unique to each course. After reviewing a three-part typology of learning outcomes for sociology, I argue that the development of students' sociological imaginations is sociology's special pedagogical challenge; I then offer some general guidelines for teaching strategies to enhance the students' success in developing a sociological imagination.

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Section: Why Is Sociological Imagination Difficult For Instructors Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge

Howard

2015

Sociological Focus

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“…In addition to fostering active rather than passive students, engaged learning may facilitate the development of analytical skills for higher-order learning. For example, Dowell (2006) engages students on waste issues by having them collect garbage, analyze it, and write an essay based on their analysis-linking theory to everyday life. Dowell (2006, p. 155) finds that the exercise "leaves a lasting impression and may pique interest in viewing the world through a sociological lens."…”

Section: Engaging With Our Learnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, following Dowell's (2006) lesson design, students would collect, analyze, and write about the content of comments by political officials and scientists in climate change news articles found in major newspapers or other media. After analysis, students would explain the issues in decision-making under uncertainty and how those decisions impact policies.…”

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confidence: 99%

Climate Change and Society: Toward Online Pedagogy

Kelly

McCright

Dietz³

2015

HER

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Climate change, one of the most important social problems of the twenty-first century, challenges pedagogy to incorporate complex themes from social and biophysical sciences. We propose an approach to a course on "Climate Change and Society" grounded in pedagogical research. Integrating the development of higher-level learning skills into course learning objectives, we suggest such a course be implemented online to take advantage of the virtual teaching and learning tools available to educators of climate change and as a way to actively engage the learner, thus using online pedagogy as a key element in learning that spans social and biophysical sciences.

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“…After the first seminar, students were required to do some work before class and bring it with them to class in order to receive the requisite credit, what Rau and Heyl (1990) term a "ticket in" strategy. The work required in advance of the second seminar is detailed below for illustrative purposes and was influenced by McKinney, Beck, and Heyl (2001), Wright and Ransom (2005), and Dowell (2006).…”

Section: Changes To Introductory Level Seminars 2008-2009mentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Irish Context

O’Sullivan

2011

Teach Sociol

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ArticlesThis article reports on an Irish study that examines the teaching of first-year sociology at a mediumsized, research-intensive university. It focuses on the experience of teaching large, introductorylevel sociology courses, an issue that sociologists have been discussing since at least the late 1960s (Hamlin and Janssen 1987:45). The difficulties associated with student learning in large classes are very well documented, yet the large lecture class remains the norm, particularly at introductory level and in research-intensive universities (Cuseo 2007). This article reports on an attempt to ameliorate some of the problems associated with large classes at the School of Sociology, University College Dublin (UCD). The approach taken follows others that address problems with large classes by incorporating or adapting methods usually used in smaller classes (see also Crull and Collins 2004;McKinney and Graham-Buxton 1993). The project AbstractThis article reports on an Irish study that examines the teaching of large, introductory-level sociology courses at a research-intensive university. The study's aim was to ameliorate some of the problems associated with large classes by applying key lessons from the U.S. literature to an Irish setting. Overall, the initiative was successful; attendance improved, student evaluations were positive, and the numbers of students continuing with sociology increased. The study illustrates that these lessons can be applied successfully in countries with a broadly similar sociology curriculum and suggests that there is scope to extend what Howard (2010) calls "the teaching and learning movement in sociology" beyond the United States. The results indicate that simple changes lead to gains in student learning. There is therefore a value in sociologists exploring the transferability of other techniques that may be applicable to the Irish classroom.

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Throwing the Sociological Imagination Into the Garbage: Using Students' Waste Disposal Habits to Illustrate C. Wright Mills's Concept

Cited by 13 publications

References 11 publications

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge

Climate Change and Society: Toward Online Pedagogy

Applying the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Irish Context

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