CHSS Curriculum Committee FROM
TO: FROM: RE:
CHSS Curriculum Committee Shannon N. Davis Sociology 485
The Sociology program voted to add Sociology 485, Sociological Analysis and Practice, to our curriculum as a capstone course at our regular program meeting in November of 2013. As part of our Scholarship Development Grant through OSCAR, we are now submitting the proposal to add this capstone course to our curriculum. This new course will be required for all majors. Students will complete, individually or in groups, an authentic research project where they author a research question, situate their question in the relevant scholarship, collect/compile empirical evidence and evaluate it in order to answer their research question, and complete both a written and oral report of their project. We will be submitting requests for this course to be designated as a research and scholarship course (RS) and to meet the new capstone requirement for the Mason Core. This class will be offered every semester beginning in Spring 2016. We have many faculty who are excited to teach this course, including Mark Jacobs, Shannon Davis, Johanna Bockman, Dae Young Kim, Amy Best, and Les Kurtz.
For approval of new courses and deletions or modifications to an existing course.
Course Approval Form
registrar.gmu.edu/facultystaff/curriculum
Action Requested:
Course Level:
x Create new course Delete existing course Modify existing course (check all that apply) Title Prereq/coreq Other:
College/School: Submitted by:
Credits Schedule Type
Repeat Status Restrictions
Humanities and Social Sciences Shannon N. Davis
Subject Code:
SOCI
Number:
x Grade Type
Department: Ext: 3-1443
485
Sociology and Anthropology Email: [email protected]
Effective Term:
x
(Do not list multiple codes or numbers. Each course proposal must have a separate form.)
Title:
Current Banner (30 characters max including spaces) New Sociological Analysis and Practice
Credits:
x
(check one)
Grade Mode:
Fixed Variable
x
(check one)
0
or to
3
x
Year
Not Repeatable (NR) Repeatable within degree (RD) Repeatable within term (RT)
(check one)
Prerequisite(s): SOCI 303
Fall Spring Summer
2015
Soci Analysis and Practice
Repeat Status:
Regular (A, B, C, etc.) Satisfactory/No Credit Special (A, B C, etc. +IP)
Undergraduate Graduate
Lecture (LEC) Lab (LAB) Recitation (RCT) Internship (INT)
Schedule Type Code(s): (check all that apply)
Corequisite(s):
x
Maximum credits allowed: Independent Study (IND) Seminar (SEM) Studio (STU)
Instructional Mode: x
Special Instructions: (list restrictions for major, college, or degree;hard-coding; etc.)
100% face-to-face Hybrid: ≤ 50% electronically delivered 100% electronically delivered
Are there equivalent course(s)? Yes x No If yes, please list
Catalog Copy for NEW Courses Only (Consult University Catalog for models) Description (No more than 60 words, use verb phrases and present tense)
Notes (List additional information for the course)
Provides an in-depth examination of a historical and contemporary issues facing sociological scholars. Focuses on the philosophies, practices, and procedures used by individuals and organizations to answer sociological questions. Engages a variety of materials, experiences and resources to answer a specific research question. Indicate number of contact hours: When Offered: (check all that apply)
x
Hours of Lecture or Seminar per week: Fall Summer x Spring
3
Hours of Lab or Studio:
0
Approval Signatures Shannon N. Davis
12/2/14
Department Approval
Date
College/School Approval
Date
If this course includes subject matter currently dealt with by any other units, the originating department must circulate this proposal for review by those units and obtain the necessary signatures prior to submission. Failure to do so will delay action on this proposal.
Unit Name
Unit Approval Name
Unit Approver’s Signature
Date
For Graduate Courses Only Graduate Council Member
Provost Office
Graduate Council Approval Date
For Registrar Office’s Use Only: Banner_____________________________Catalog________________________________
revised 2/2/10
Sociology 485 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND PRACTICE
Instructor: Mark Jacobs B309 Robinson; 703.993.1434; [email protected] Office Hour: Thursdays 3:30 to 4:20 or by appointment. Texts: Wayne Booth, The Craft of Research Edward Tufte, Visual and Statistical Thinking Emile Durkheim, Suicide Kai Erikson, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood E-Journals, Library Reserve, and Internet: John Dewey, “My Pedagogic Creed” Donald Levine, “The Hellenic Tradition,” ch. 6 of Visions of the Sociological Tradition Anselm. Strauss, Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences, pp. 14-39 Hans Selvin, “Durkheim’s Suicide and Problems of Empirical Research.” American Journal of Sociology, 63:6, May, 1958, 607-19 (JSTOR) James A. Davis, The Logic of Causal Order (download from library electronic database: Sage Research Methods Online; turn pages on before you download) Hans Zeisel, Say It With Numbers (selections) I will assign individualized readings as particular projects evolve. “Making an evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity. Consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity” -- Edward Tufte -Goals and Objectives: This course will introduce you to the logic of sociological inquiry by engaging you in original individual or team research of your own conception and design, culminating in the public presentation of your findings to the sociology faculty. The broadest goal of the course is to equip and encourage you to take responsibility for your own education, as a result of experiencing education as an ongoing process of active inquiry. Another broad goal is to make explicit the liberal arts basis of sociological inquiry, as well as the sociological contribution to the liberal arts, so as to integrate your educational growth as a sociologist with your training in general education. A final broad goal is to help you integrate the different elements of the sociology major: theory with empirical research; qualitative with quantitative research; classical with contemporary research; ethics as integral to every aspect of the research process. The course will be prefaced by a short unit on the aims of education, as identified by the tradition of scholarship that runs from Aristotle to John Dewey: the reciprocal, reflexive
amplification of “logos” (or learning), “ethos” (individual character), and “pathos” (community). Education in its broadest sense feeds—and feeds on—the interrelated development of self and community. The aim is to establish the classroom as a public space for dialogue about the most serious of our common problems, a space characterized by an “epistemological presence,” a sense of responsibility for the use of evidence and logic. The course will survey the stages and factors of sociological inquiry, characterized as the practice of each of the three classic liberal arts: the recovery of meaning of seminal texts, based on identification of their guiding research problems (the classical sense of “grammar”); the art of inquiry, the extension of meaning recovered from the inquiry of past scholars (“rhetoric’); the dialogic presentation of the results of inquiry (“logic”). This skeletal organization is the intellectual outline (though in slightly different terms) of Wayne Booth’s et al. The Craft of Research, which is one of the texts of the course. Under this rubric, we will consider the conventional general topics of an introduction to sociological research: the research problem; research design—sampling, data collection, processing, and analysis; and writing the report. As the culmination of the research, students will present their original research findings to the sociology faculty. These findings will be expected to combine qualitative and quantitative research. In addition to the final oral presentation, each student will write a 10-15 page final research report, with sections on "The Research Problem and its Significance," "Review of Relevant Literature," "Data Sources and Methods," "Findings," and "Conclusions and Indications for Further Research."
Through the experience of teaching this course, I also expect to increase the awareness and development of my own self and community. To this end, I regard the class as a “learning community,” one which reflects on its practice with the goal of ongoing self-improvement. I will be asking you periodically to join in that reflection. Course Grading and Requirements You will have an in-class writing exercise on the assigned reading at the start of each class. These writing exercises are open-book, open-note. I may collect these exercises on any given week and grade them as spot quizzes. (By definition, a spot quiz cannot be made up.) Starting in the second week, you are to post an assigned writing to Blackboard, by 11PM each Tuesday. Posting the writings in advance will allow me and your group members to read them before class. In addition, to receive a grade in the course you must complete (on your own) the on-line mandatory training program for persons conducting research using human subjects, at hkttp://www.citiprogram.org , and hand in the certificate of completion. The course grade will be based on the following criteria: 25% 20% 15% 20% 20%
Class Participation (e.g., weekly recitations, group work, in-class discussions, reflexive journal submitted at various points during the semester) In-class writing exercises Weekly writings on Blackboard about your research project Final research report Presentation to the faculty
As you can see, a major part of your grade is comprised of participation in this class. Participation entails preparing assigned materials, applying the concepts learned,listening thoughtfully to your classmates, and making thoughtful comments. In other words, you must be involved in this class by joining the conversation in many ways. Attendance is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition of participation. You must earn the privilege of making a presentation to
the faculty, by demonstrating good participation and satisfactory progress in your research project during the course of the semester. Honor Code: Student members of the George Mason University community pledge not to cheat, plagiarize, steal, or lie in matters related to academic work TOPICS I. THE IDEAL OF EDUCATION Wk 1. Introduction. Logos, Pathos, Ethos.
II. “GRAMMAR”: THE ART OF RECOVERING MEANING 2. Finding the Research Problem. Read: Levine, Dewey, Durkheim, pp. 35-56, 145-171; Erikson, pp. 9-93. Write: Your ethos, pathos, and logos Exercise: Complete CITI training about Human Subjects 3. Finding the Research Design. Read: Durkheim, 241-276; Erikson, 94-155. Write: Preliminary statement of your research problem. 4. Conceptualization, Operationalization, Measurement. Read: Durkheim, 361-392; Erikson 156-268: Selvin. Write: Preliminary statement of your research design. III. “RHETORIC”: THE ART OF INQUIRY 5. Say It with Numbers. Read: Zeisel. Write: Revised statement of research problem, systematic literature review 6. The Logic of Causality. Read: Davis. Write: Research Proposal (format to be provided). 7. The Logic of Grounded Qualitative Theory. Read: Strauss. Write: Fieldnotes. 8. Gathering Evidence. Individualized Reading. Written Exercise: Coding of fieldnotes. 9. Analyzing Evidence. Read: Tufte; Booth, ch. 15. Write: Research memo; Include statistical table(s) and description of fieldnote coding scheme. IV. “LOGIC”: THE ART OF PRESENTATION 10. Claims, Reasons, Evidence, Warrants, Qualifications. Read: Booth, 105-70. Write: First draft of final report. 11. Organizing and Framing an Argument. Read Booth, 7-8, 31-65, 87-91. 232-48. Write: Research memo. 12. Revising an Argument. Read Booth, 203-12, 268-9. Write: Revised draft. Include “what I have learned from other students.” Other: IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS.
13. REVISED IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS. Write: Final draft of report. Prepare Powerpoint slides for oral presentation. 14. PRESENTATIONS TO SOCIOLOGY FACULTY.
CHSS Curriculum Committee Shannon N. Davis Sociology 485
The Sociology program voted to add Sociology 485, Sociological Analysis and Practice, to our curriculum as a capstone course at our regular program meeting in November of 2013. As part of our Scholarship Development Grant through OSCAR, we are now submitting the proposal to add this capstone course to our curriculum. This new course will be required for all majors. Students will complete, individually or in groups, an authentic research project where they author a research question, situate their question in the relevant scholarship, collect/compile empirical evidence and evaluate it in order to answer their research question, and complete both a written and oral report of their project. We will be submitting requests for this course to be designated as a research and scholarship course (RS) and to meet the new capstone requirement for the Mason Core. This class will be offered every semester beginning in Spring 2016. We have many faculty who are excited to teach this course, including Mark Jacobs, Shannon Davis, Johanna Bockman, Dae Young Kim, Amy Best, and Les Kurtz.
For approval of new courses and deletions or modifications to an existing course.
Course Approval Form
registrar.gmu.edu/facultystaff/curriculum
Action Requested:
Course Level:
x Create new course Delete existing course Modify existing course (check all that apply) Title Prereq/coreq Other:
College/School: Submitted by:
Credits Schedule Type
Repeat Status Restrictions
Humanities and Social Sciences Shannon N. Davis
Subject Code:
SOCI
Number:
x Grade Type
Department: Ext: 3-1443
485
Sociology and Anthropology Email: [email protected]
Effective Term:
x
(Do not list multiple codes or numbers. Each course proposal must have a separate form.)
Title:
Current Banner (30 characters max including spaces) New Sociological Analysis and Practice
Credits:
x
(check one)
Grade Mode:
Fixed Variable
x
(check one)
0
or to
3
x
Year
Not Repeatable (NR) Repeatable within degree (RD) Repeatable within term (RT)
(check one)
Prerequisite(s): SOCI 303
Fall Spring Summer
2015
Soci Analysis and Practice
Repeat Status:
Regular (A, B, C, etc.) Satisfactory/No Credit Special (A, B C, etc. +IP)
Undergraduate Graduate
Lecture (LEC) Lab (LAB) Recitation (RCT) Internship (INT)
Schedule Type Code(s): (check all that apply)
Corequisite(s):
x
Maximum credits allowed: Independent Study (IND) Seminar (SEM) Studio (STU)
Instructional Mode: x
Special Instructions: (list restrictions for major, college, or degree;hard-coding; etc.)
100% face-to-face Hybrid: ≤ 50% electronically delivered 100% electronically delivered
Are there equivalent course(s)? Yes x No If yes, please list
Catalog Copy for NEW Courses Only (Consult University Catalog for models) Description (No more than 60 words, use verb phrases and present tense)
Notes (List additional information for the course)
Provides an in-depth examination of a historical and contemporary issues facing sociological scholars. Focuses on the philosophies, practices, and procedures used by individuals and organizations to answer sociological questions. Engages a variety of materials, experiences and resources to answer a specific research question. Indicate number of contact hours: When Offered: (check all that apply)
x
Hours of Lecture or Seminar per week: Fall Summer x Spring
3
Hours of Lab or Studio:
0
Approval Signatures Shannon N. Davis
12/2/14
Department Approval
Date
College/School Approval
Date
If this course includes subject matter currently dealt with by any other units, the originating department must circulate this proposal for review by those units and obtain the necessary signatures prior to submission. Failure to do so will delay action on this proposal.
Unit Name
Unit Approval Name
Unit Approver’s Signature
Date
For Graduate Courses Only Graduate Council Member
Provost Office
Graduate Council Approval Date
For Registrar Office’s Use Only: Banner_____________________________Catalog________________________________
revised 2/2/10
Sociology 485 SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND PRACTICE
Instructor: Mark Jacobs B309 Robinson; 703.993.1434; [email protected] Office Hour: Thursdays 3:30 to 4:20 or by appointment. Texts: Wayne Booth, The Craft of Research Edward Tufte, Visual and Statistical Thinking Emile Durkheim, Suicide Kai Erikson, Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood E-Journals, Library Reserve, and Internet: John Dewey, “My Pedagogic Creed” Donald Levine, “The Hellenic Tradition,” ch. 6 of Visions of the Sociological Tradition Anselm. Strauss, Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences, pp. 14-39 Hans Selvin, “Durkheim’s Suicide and Problems of Empirical Research.” American Journal of Sociology, 63:6, May, 1958, 607-19 (JSTOR) James A. Davis, The Logic of Causal Order (download from library electronic database: Sage Research Methods Online; turn pages on before you download) Hans Zeisel, Say It With Numbers (selections) I will assign individualized readings as particular projects evolve. “Making an evidence presentation is a moral act as well as an intellectual activity. Consumers of presentations should insist that presenters be held intellectually and ethically responsible for what they show and tell. Thus consuming a presentation is also an intellectual and moral activity” -- Edward Tufte -Goals and Objectives: This course will introduce you to the logic of sociological inquiry by engaging you in original individual or team research of your own conception and design, culminating in the public presentation of your findings to the sociology faculty. The broadest goal of the course is to equip and encourage you to take responsibility for your own education, as a result of experiencing education as an ongoing process of active inquiry. Another broad goal is to make explicit the liberal arts basis of sociological inquiry, as well as the sociological contribution to the liberal arts, so as to integrate your educational growth as a sociologist with your training in general education. A final broad goal is to help you integrate the different elements of the sociology major: theory with empirical research; qualitative with quantitative research; classical with contemporary research; ethics as integral to every aspect of the research process. The course will be prefaced by a short unit on the aims of education, as identified by the tradition of scholarship that runs from Aristotle to John Dewey: the reciprocal, reflexive
amplification of “logos” (or learning), “ethos” (individual character), and “pathos” (community). Education in its broadest sense feeds—and feeds on—the interrelated development of self and community. The aim is to establish the classroom as a public space for dialogue about the most serious of our common problems, a space characterized by an “epistemological presence,” a sense of responsibility for the use of evidence and logic. The course will survey the stages and factors of sociological inquiry, characterized as the practice of each of the three classic liberal arts: the recovery of meaning of seminal texts, based on identification of their guiding research problems (the classical sense of “grammar”); the art of inquiry, the extension of meaning recovered from the inquiry of past scholars (“rhetoric’); the dialogic presentation of the results of inquiry (“logic”). This skeletal organization is the intellectual outline (though in slightly different terms) of Wayne Booth’s et al. The Craft of Research, which is one of the texts of the course. Under this rubric, we will consider the conventional general topics of an introduction to sociological research: the research problem; research design—sampling, data collection, processing, and analysis; and writing the report. As the culmination of the research, students will present their original research findings to the sociology faculty. These findings will be expected to combine qualitative and quantitative research. In addition to the final oral presentation, each student will write a 10-15 page final research report, with sections on "The Research Problem and its Significance," "Review of Relevant Literature," "Data Sources and Methods," "Findings," and "Conclusions and Indications for Further Research."
Through the experience of teaching this course, I also expect to increase the awareness and development of my own self and community. To this end, I regard the class as a “learning community,” one which reflects on its practice with the goal of ongoing self-improvement. I will be asking you periodically to join in that reflection. Course Grading and Requirements You will have an in-class writing exercise on the assigned reading at the start of each class. These writing exercises are open-book, open-note. I may collect these exercises on any given week and grade them as spot quizzes. (By definition, a spot quiz cannot be made up.) Starting in the second week, you are to post an assigned writing to Blackboard, by 11PM each Tuesday. Posting the writings in advance will allow me and your group members to read them before class. In addition, to receive a grade in the course you must complete (on your own) the on-line mandatory training program for persons conducting research using human subjects, at hkttp://www.citiprogram.org , and hand in the certificate of completion. The course grade will be based on the following criteria: 25% 20% 15% 20% 20%
Class Participation (e.g., weekly recitations, group work, in-class discussions, reflexive journal submitted at various points during the semester) In-class writing exercises Weekly writings on Blackboard about your research project Final research report Presentation to the faculty
As you can see, a major part of your grade is comprised of participation in this class. Participation entails preparing assigned materials, applying the concepts learned,listening thoughtfully to your classmates, and making thoughtful comments. In other words, you must be involved in this class by joining the conversation in many ways. Attendance is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition of participation. You must earn the privilege of making a presentation to
the faculty, by demonstrating good participation and satisfactory progress in your research project during the course of the semester. Honor Code: Student members of the George Mason University community pledge not to cheat, plagiarize, steal, or lie in matters related to academic work TOPICS I. THE IDEAL OF EDUCATION Wk 1. Introduction. Logos, Pathos, Ethos.
II. “GRAMMAR”: THE ART OF RECOVERING MEANING 2. Finding the Research Problem. Read: Levine, Dewey, Durkheim, pp. 35-56, 145-171; Erikson, pp. 9-93. Write: Your ethos, pathos, and logos Exercise: Complete CITI training about Human Subjects 3. Finding the Research Design. Read: Durkheim, 241-276; Erikson, 94-155. Write: Preliminary statement of your research problem. 4. Conceptualization, Operationalization, Measurement. Read: Durkheim, 361-392; Erikson 156-268: Selvin. Write: Preliminary statement of your research design. III. “RHETORIC”: THE ART OF INQUIRY 5. Say It with Numbers. Read: Zeisel. Write: Revised statement of research problem, systematic literature review 6. The Logic of Causality. Read: Davis. Write: Research Proposal (format to be provided). 7. The Logic of Grounded Qualitative Theory. Read: Strauss. Write: Fieldnotes. 8. Gathering Evidence. Individualized Reading. Written Exercise: Coding of fieldnotes. 9. Analyzing Evidence. Read: Tufte; Booth, ch. 15. Write: Research memo; Include statistical table(s) and description of fieldnote coding scheme. IV. “LOGIC”: THE ART OF PRESENTATION 10. Claims, Reasons, Evidence, Warrants, Qualifications. Read: Booth, 105-70. Write: First draft of final report. 11. Organizing and Framing an Argument. Read Booth, 7-8, 31-65, 87-91. 232-48. Write: Research memo. 12. Revising an Argument. Read Booth, 203-12, 268-9. Write: Revised draft. Include “what I have learned from other students.” Other: IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS.
13. REVISED IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS. Write: Final draft of report. Prepare Powerpoint slides for oral presentation. 14. PRESENTATIONS TO SOCIOLOGY FACULTY.
