Integration of Lesson, Discussion, and Evaluaiton in Sociology 101 |
Material in sociology 101 is organized into Lessons, and several lessons that have related themes and issues are organized into a "Part" of the course. In each lesson key concepts and ideas are first introduced to the student in a brief "lecture," the lesson then directs the student to several assigned readings that will elaborate on these key concepts and ideas. The lesson contains a list of learning objectives to guide the students reading and activities in the lesson. Evaluation occurs at the end of each Part of the course in the form of both a multiple choice test which give immediate feedback and an essay exam. The take home essays are evaluated for both content and writing.
Crucial to the learning process is the discussion board. Students are required to participate in the discussions and are given points for discussion posts of more than 50 words that contribute to the discussion (quality is emphasized). The instructor posts questions intended to get students to think about the things that will be evaluated in the essays. The instructor guides instruction by a variety of types of feedback.
In this document you will find actual material from the current Spring 2005 Soc101 course, with current student materials. You will see how one particular idea is high lighted in lecture, in the readings (if interested you can actually read the assignment), the learning objectives, brought into discussion (with actual student responses unedited), and finally one example of an actual student essay of one of the students who participated in the discussion and received an A for her essay.
Lecture
Reading Assignment
Learning Objectives
Student Discussion Threads Spring 2005
Essay Question Spring 2005
Student Response to Essay Spring 2005
At some time in your life you have probably asked the question: "Why did he (or she) do that?" Perhaps your tone at the time was one of frustration, or anger, or even amusement. As you asked this question (to yourself or perhaps to someone else) you probably thought about some answers to the questions. You may have wondered about that individual's emotional state, or their level of intelligence or perhaps their moral character.
The question "why do people do the things they do?" is the central question of sociology. All of sociology really boils down to that one question. What makes sociology a unique discipline is not this question, but the way in which sociologists go about trying to answer the question.
Most people today, when trying to understand why people do the things they do take a psychological or individualistic approach. They ask about personality, emotions, intellectual capacity, personal character and habits. Sociology takes a totally different approach. Sociology looks for answers to the question - "Why do people do the things they do? - in the relationships and connections an individual has, and looks for answers in the groups, social categories and organizations to which the individual belongs. The relationships that we are involved in frequently come in sets: the relationships of family, the relationships of the workplace, the relationships of school, of church, of friendship groups, of community, of nation. Sociology calls these sets of relationships that are so influential in our lives, social systems.
A social system is a set of relationships that can be viewed as a unit or whole. An individual family is a social system. It has a set of relationships (for example, the family of Bob, Betty, Billy and Babs Jones has the set of relationships including husband & wife, father & son, mother & son, father & daughter, mother & daughter, and brother & sister) and this set of relationships is viewed by its members and by others as a unit distinct and separate from other families. Families are only one example of social systems, individual businesses, schools, hospitals, clubs, government agencies, local communities, and even whole countried are social systems. So social systems come in a variety of sizes.
Sociology brings a new perspective to the question why do people do the things they do. Sociology looks for answers in the social systems to which we belong and asks new questions about them. Sociologists ask to what social systems does a person belong, and how does belonging to those social systems influence the ideas, choices, and behavior of a person. An individual who belongs to a single-parent family, a Baptist Church, a coal-mining company, a small town, and the Lions Club, in Kentucky, will have different ideas, choices and behaviors than a person who belongs to a large, multi-generational family, the Catholic Church, a farm cooperative, a farming community, and the Knights of Columbus, in California.
In this Topic 1 you will read more about this sociological perspective in the work of C. Wright Mills. Mills suggests that we are influenced not only by the families, work, school, clubs, and other organizations that we belong to, but also by the broad social, economic and historical trends of the society to which we belong. According to Mills one of the roles of sociology is to show people how problems they face as individuals in their daily life, are really part of much larger social issues. For example, finding a babysitter so that you can get to a college class feels like a personal problem. But if we apply the sociological perspective we realize that millions of parents are facing the exact same problem, and that this problem is part of a social issue. This social issue concerns the growing collision between societies need for people to get more education than ever before to meet the changing needs of our economy, and the needs of families to care for their children. Sociology teaches us that when we find a problem that is really a social issue, that answers to that problem will only come if people in society work together for solutions. Governments and communities need to take responsibility for providing and paying for child care for all families.
Another example of applying the "sociological imagination" comes from examining your own decision to take an on-line course. Taking an on-line course is a very new and non-traditional way of obtaining an education. Sociology teaches us to look for the reasons that people do things in terms of the social systems in which they participate. One reason that many people take an on-line course is because other social systems (family, workplace, church) in which they participate are not compatible with the ordinary schedule of the social system of colleges. What might appear at first as a "personal trouble" - not having time or access to traditional college classes is actually a sign of a larger social issue about how to expand college access to people who previously would not have attended college. In 1960 almost all college students were between the ages of 18 and 22, single (some men might be married, but married women almost never went to college) and childless. There were more men and than women getting Associates and Bachelors degrees, there were few minorities going to college, and these young college students primarily came from the top 1/4 of society -- affluent families, and almost none worked full-time.
Today, compared to 1960, social, economic and historical trends resulted in more women, more minorities, more poor people going to college. At the same time other economic and social trends have made many occupations which once only need a high school diploma now require at least an associates degree. Some examples of the social, historical and economic forces that have impacted upon who attends college are: the Civil Rights Movement, the women's movement and changing societal attitudes about what women's opportunities and needs are, economic trends of stagnating wages and inflation, technological advancements that create new jobs and demand new training, movement of manufacturing jobs out the country displacing manufacturing workers, growth of jobs in the service sector (education, medicine, retail, computer services, and so forth),and the political developments of Pell grants and Stafford loans in the 1980's to give greater access to low income students. As societal trends brought in new kinds of students (older, married, with children, with less affluent backgrounds and working full-time) it increased the numbers of conflicts that students experience in trying to fit a college schedule into their lives.
This is a societal issue because society benefits from having college educated and trained workers. Because it is a societal issue, we develop a societal or group solution -- creating on-line programs -- rather than leaving it up to each individual to solve the problem on their own. Community Colleges themselves were a response to the expansion of higher education in the 1960's and 1970's. Today we respond to the needs with distance learning programs.
In our everyday life we are most likely to ask this question "why did they do what they did" when people do things that are unexpected, different from the usual, or things of which we disapprove. Sociology developed as a discipline during a historical period of great change (in the 1800's and early 1900's) when many people were behaving in new, unexpected, unusual and disapproved of ways.
The scientific revolution of the 1600 and 1700's led to many technological advances and changes. These led to changes in the way work was done, called the Industrial revolution which stretched from the mid-1700's to the early 1900's. The industrial revolution gave rise to huge movements of people from rural areas and farming as occupations, to urban areas and industrial work. Dramatic increase in poverty, homelessness, crime, gangs, prostitution, family breakup, alcoholism, and drug use accompanied the development of industrialization and the growth of urban areas. [Few people realize that the problems we complain about today are hundreds of years old and began with the development of industrialization].
The old answers that had always been given for people's behavior -- mostly religious answers -- just didn't seem to fit all these changes. Science had done so much to explain things in the natural world, in chemistry, physics and biology, that many people naturally looked to science for answers to the questions about why people were behaving differently. A new science -- a science of human relationships -- called sociology was born out of this questioning.
See Macionis chapter 1 for more detail on those historical changes and their role in creating the discipline of sociology.
Back to Top
These learning objectives tell you what you will need to be able to do on the objective and essay exams for Part 1 of the course. These are the things you should be able to do when you have completed all the reading and discussion for topic 1.
Back to Top
Course 1 Compiled Messages:
Message no. 850
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z2) on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 11:49am
Subject: Mill's idea of social issues
Mills gives three examples (unemployment, having to fight in a war and divorce) of things that are often thought of as personal problems, but which are really influenced by larger social issues. Can you give another example?
Sue
My questions are designed to get you thinking about the reading assignments and prepare you for writing essays. Students are <u>not required</u> to respond to any of my questions. You may earn discussion points by responding to my questions, by posting your own questions or thoughts on other aspects of the readings, or by responding to the thoughts of one of your class mates.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 855[Branch from no. 850]
Posted by Carol Riley (criley6255) on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:00pm (See Carol Riley's essay)
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues I think sometimes parenting our kids can be one. I teach parenting classes and I have
talked with many parents. Some parents have strick rules and high values for their kids to folow, others dont have hardly any rules or values. I have come across parents who are successful with a few rules and those who are unsuccessful with a lot of rules. as far as parenting I think it varies from child to child.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 861[Branch from no. 855]
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z2) on Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:31am
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
Carol's got a good example here of a social issue. I'm sure other people can come up with many others.
In message 855 on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:00pm, Carol Riley writes:
>I think sometimes parenting our kids can be one. I teach parenting classes and I have >talked with many parents. Some parents have strick rules and high values for their kids to follow, others dont have hardly any rules or values. I have come across parents who are successful with a few rules and those who are unsuccessful with a lot of rules. as far as parenting I think it varies from child to child.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 922[Branch from no. 861]
Posted by Kimberly Jett (KJett189082) on Friday, February 4, 2005 2:16pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
Ditto for me. I agree completely
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 862[Branch from no. 850]
Posted by Brandy McGuffin (bmcguffin8375) on Thursday, January 20, 2005 7:24pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
I think that not being able to meet one's needs financially from pay check to pay check is often thought of as a personal problem, but it really exsists for a great deal of people. I often think that I have things so bad sometimes, but then when I talk about my concerns with my friends and family, I realize that I am not the only one having a hard time and I remember that there is always someone out there is in worst shape than I am.
Brandy McGuffin
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 865[Branch from no. 862]
Posted by Trinity Gibson (tgibson2184) on Saturday, January 22, 2005 3:19pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
I don't know about the enviroment that everyone else lives but in my town there is a very high number of highschool drop outs and young girls dropping out of high school because they are pregnant. To me this is a social issue because we have less people finishing school and coming back to the town to make it better. Also we have a large number of people addited to drugs. To that person or family it may seem that it is a personal or family matter but it is really a social issue.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 869[Branch from no. 865]
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z2) on Sunday, January 23, 2005 3:23pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
Another really good example:
In message 865 on Saturday, January 22, 2005 3:19pm, Trinity Gibson writes:
>I don't know about the enviroment that everyone else lives but in my town there is a very high number of highschool drop outs and young girls dropping out of high school because they are pregnant. To me this is a social issue because we have less people finishing school and coming back to the town to make it better. Also we have a large number of people addited to drugs. To that person or family it may seem that it is a personal or family matter but it is really a social issue.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 868[Branch from no. 862]
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z2) on Sunday, January 23, 2005 3:22pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
Excellent point Brandy. When a hand ful of people have a problem like this its individual, but when millions and millions of individuals and families have these problems that suggests something systematically wrong with our society -- a social issue. This is especially true when we notice that there are certain types of things that people have particular difficulty affording (like health care and medications).
Sue
In message 862 on Thursday, January 20, 2005 7:24pm, Brandy McGuffin writes:
>I think that not being able to meet one's needs financially from pay check to pay check is often thought of as a personal problem, but it really exsists for a great deal of people. I often think that I have things so bad sometimes, but then when I talk about my concerns with my friends and family, I realize that I am not the only one having a hard time and I remember that there is always someone out there is in worst shape than I am.
>Brandy McGuffin
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 867[Branch from no. 850]
Posted by Amy Lucas (ALucas233150) on Sunday, January 23, 2005 3:22pm
Subject: Re: Mill's idea of social issues
I think another social problem would be, needing a baby sitter to get to class on time or to get to work on time, most would think of this as a personal problem but if you look closer its a world wide problem almost anyone with children have experienced this problem at least once in their childs life, and in my opinion this is a good example of a social problem.
Amy
------------------------------------------------------------
Class 2 Compiled Messages:
Message no. 873
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z1) on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 11:57am
Subject: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
Which of the social, historical and economic trends mentioned in the first lecture have impacted on your life and contributed to your decision to go to college?
Sue
My questions are designed to get you thinking about the reading assignments and prepare you for writing essays. Students are <u>not required</u> to respond to any of my questions. You may earn discussion points by responding to my questions, by posting your own questions or thoughts on other aspects of the readings, or by responding to the thoughts of one of your class mates.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 876[Branch from no. 873]
Posted by Jaime Davis (jdavis4387) on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 2:01pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
The women's movement and changing societal attitudes about what women's opportunities and needs are had an influence in my decision to go to college. I was raised in an asphere were women are just as equal as men and that more women should attempt to maintain equallity or surpass men in the workforce: ex-becoming CEOs, officers in the military, police, fire, etc. Because of this movement I decided to further my education and climb my way to the top as far as I could see to go. I encourage all to go to school and durther their education whether it be male or female. Jaime
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 886[Branch from no. 876]
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z1) on Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:27am
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
It's hard to believe, but there was a time when most people thought that the only reason for a woman to go to college was to find a good husband!
In message 876 on Tuesday, January 18, 2005 2:01pm, Jaime Davis writes:
>The women's movement and changing societal attitudes about what women's opportunities and needs are had an influence in my decision to go to college. I was raised in an asphere were women are just as equal as men and that more women should attempt to maintain equallity or surpass men in the workforce: ex-becoming CEOs, officers in the military, police, fire, etc. Because of this movement I decided to further my education and climb my way to the top as far as I could see to go. I encourage all to go to school and durther their education whether it be male or female. Jaime
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 906[Branch from no. 886]
Posted by Donna Woolum (DWoolum233166) on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 7:44pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
Yeah, it is funny you say that because I thought after high school I would go to college and find my husband but unfortunatly my husband had already graduated. That had a great impact on my decision to set out for ten years and now come back "what was I thinking?' He say's college is not for everyone. So this really made me thing can I do this with a full time job and two kids. So here I am giving it my all with both hands digging in the dirt as hard as I can. My family was not so much to push the issue of college but you could finish high school and you was really doing great. My parents only finished eight grade and swore my brother, sister and I would never go any farther. We were taught to be at home wifes and the man was always first and nothing else mattered but tending to them and college was out of the question. I said to myself I will break this cycle and make a way through my family for my girls to see that it is ok to go to school and college is very important. My family say's "you are crazy" but I confess I have done worse things.
Donna
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 889[Branch from no. 876]
Posted by Stacie Evans (SEvans216327) on Thursday, January 20, 2005 3:32pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
I was completely raised differently. I was raised in a household where women took care of the men, the household, the children and the men worked outside of the home. A women's job was to have babies, take care of them, cook, clean, and all of the household chores yet was not aloud to work outside of the home, they were not allowed to get drivers license or have friends over. We went to church and grocery store weakly and then stayed home. The men were part of the church, they made the rules of the house for everyone. The women were there to cater to the men, they even had to eat before us. I could never stand seeing my mother do this, it aggravated me to no end, and of course as I kept getting older I would debate this issue daily with my parents creating quit a stir, I rocked the boat! I am proud to say that me and my brother both do not follow these traditions and are raising our children differently. My parents are getting better but they will never change completely for this is there belief.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 932[Branch from no. 889]
Posted by Kimberly Jones (KJones226436) on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 5:53pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
I was also raised in a family where the women took care of eveything. But in todays times it is not suppose to be like that. I have been married for 16 years and still to this day I have trouble sharing the responsibilities around the house with my husband. I feel like I should take care of the cleaning, cooking and shopping. I am glad though that things are different now, it is time for men to do their part.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 925[Branch from no. 873]
Posted by Jody Lyons (JLyons198791) on Sunday, January 30, 2005 2:55pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
The development of the pell grant has greatly influence my decision to go to college. I decided at the age of 20 after having 2 children and working very hard for minimum wage that I could do much better than this. My husband and I were very young and very poor. It was difficult for me to quite working and if it were not for Pell grants there would be no way I could afford to go to technical school. Ten years after I received my diplomas I decided to get my associates degree, now I am working on my bachelors.
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 933[Branch from no. 873]
Posted by Beth Fiss (BFiss184636) on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 7:35pm
Subject: Re: How are you influenced by larger social trends?
I don't believe my decision to go to college has much to do with any historical event. My decision has more to do with self-worth. I didn't do well in high school because I didn't think I was smart enough. Where that came from, I don't know! After graduation, I got married thinking that was the answer to all of life's problems...boy, was I in for a rude awakening! Anyway, I realize after 15 years of marriage and two children later that I was smart enough to do well in school. I'm slowly thinking more of myself and have a desire to do more in the world while I'm here. And I have found that I need to further my education before I can do the things I want to do. Why didn't I think of this 15 years ago? I work full-time, still married, have two daughters and take 12 hours of online classes...and love all of it! I have found it to be a blessing that I have homework to do just like the girls and we have a designated quiet time every afternoon to do our work together. Now the question is what do I want to do with this education? I haven't gotten that far yet!
------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 939[Branch from no. 933]
Posted by Sue Greer-Pitt* (SECC_4046_SOC_101_C8Z1) on Thursday, February 3, 2005 10:06am
Subject: How are you influenced by larger social trends? Rethinking the issue!
Beth sort of missed the point about historical and social trends. She comments "where did that come from " or "why didn't I think of that 15 years ago" -- well the answer to those question has to do with exactly the thing that she is said isn't important -- society!!!
Suppose she'd been born in 1930 and graduated from high school in 1948, and gotten married right after graduation. After 15 years of marriage it would be 1963 -- in 1963 even if a house wife and mother of 15 years WANTED to go to college it would be very unlikely she'd have a chance to. There were no Pell Grants or Stafford loans in those days. There weren't even any community colleges at least not in most of Kentucky! And the colleges that did exist usually didn't allow middle age people to come to school. Moreover, in 1963 if a house wife was dissatisfied with her life, going to college would NOT be one of the things she would even be likely to think of doing. Because very few married women worked outside the home, and even fewer had "careers." So there have been a lot of historical and social trends, such as the women's movement which contributed to women seeing work and careers as something they wanted, and the community college movement which created schools for people to go to, and the legislation for things like Pell grants that have made college affordable for a wider range of people.
In message 933 on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 7:35pm, Beth Fiss writes:
>I don't believe my decision to go to college has much to do with any historical event. My decision has more to do with self-worth. I didn't do well in high school because I didn't think I was smart enough. Where that came from, I don't know! After graduation, I got married thinking that was the answer to all of life's problems...boy, was I in for a rude awakening! Anyway, I realize after 15 years of marriage and two children later that I was smart enough to do well in school. I'm slowly thinking more of myself and have a desire to do more in the world while I'm here. And I have found that I need to further my education before I can do the things I want to do. Why didn't I think of this 15 years ago? I work full-time, still married, have two daughters and take 12 hours of online classes...and love all of it! I have found it to be a blessing that I have homework to do just like the girls and we have a designated quiet time every afternoon to do our work together. Now the question is what do I want to do with this education? I haven't gotten that far yet!
Back to Top
“The Sociological Perspective as Developed by C. Wright Mills”
by Carol Riley
Sociological perspective according to C. Wright Mills in particular “sociological imagination” is the unique way we engage the world. In other words, it refers to the way in which we experience our everyday, personal issues, without realizing that others have similar issues. Specifically it deals with how an individual's personal issues can become social issues. It is hard for us to see that our relationships with our jobs, families and our neighborhoods, extend beyond our own experiences, and in fact interact and influence the relationships of everyone within the society (Mills, 2004).
According to Mills, sociological imagination “enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals” (Mills, 2004). It enables us to see how other struggle to succeed or fail in the experiences. It helps us realize that we all are not going to be successful and that a certain number of us are going to fail. Because of this we start to blame our troubles and failures on the troubles and failures of societies whole. Mills writes that the first fruit of sociological imagination is “the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances” (Mills, 2004). This means we can determine our own chances in life by looking at others around us in similar or the same circumstances. For example, he talks about how one man being without a job is a personal trouble for that one person. Although it is indeed a personal issue, as these issues are looked at from a broader perspective we see how it affects society as a whole. We can also see that the problem found in society resulted in the problems of this one individual. Was this individual's unemployment caused by this person's lack of skills, or was it related to a more significant lack of access to opportunity for example. Access to opportunity in addition to skills can be a major input to an individual's problem. In addition how is this one individual's trouble going to impact society. For example his ability to bring in income into the community and the rest of society provides his support (Mills, 2004).
Social imagination also addresses how our society we set our life standards higher than we can reach. We sometimes get on top, a good job and get all the benefits of this good job and get used to them. Then, we lose that good job for whatever reason and are back down to a lower paying job and can't meet the social goals we have set for ourselves. These events set us up for feeling we have failed our family by not being able to keep up with the social life we have let them grow accustom to. According to Mills, we must also consider contemporary facts or history. These are the facts about successes and failures. They do not usually consider the ups and downs of their society where they live. Not aware the connections between patterns in their lives and world history. Mills writes in The Promise of Sociology that the life of an individual not only has to endure historical change, but also institutional contradiction. Institutional contradiction is the well being they enjoy. In other words the times they are in the high paying job, getting all the costly things they wand and all the things their families want (Mills, 2004).
My own personal decision to go to college late in my life was a social issue for me. I found myself in need of a job and then realized that the type of work I wanted to do required me to have a bachelor's degree. The fact the classes I needed were offered during the evenings after work and that I could take some of them thru distance learning has helped me tremulously and made a difference in my being able to reach my goal of a degree. Income for family and me was an issue. I came off public assistance to subbing for the school system as a custodian, cook, anything they would allow me to do. I then went to K-mart, and Family Dollar and then to the Community Comp Care. I am now pursuing my bachelor's for a better paying job and job security. This degree will enable me to take a better place in society, while my lack of employment was a personal trouble; it was influenced by the society around me and affected society as well. At this point, as employment and life improvements occur, I am now able to affect society by contributing income to society. This will also impact the personal troubles of someone else by providing them the support they need to make the needed changes in their lives. The individual impacts society and society impacts the individual. The understanding of this can lead to understanding the sociological imagination.
Reference Page
The Promise of Sociology. C. Wright Mills. p. 1-5. in Macionis John J., & Benokraitis Nijole, V. (2004). Seeing Ourselves Classic,
Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology. Sixth Edition .
Upper Saddle River , New Jersery: Hamilton Printing Company.
Second Essay (sociological imagination)
Very good. Shows an excellent understanding of the concepts, provides good reference to the reading material, draws proper examples from the reading, and gives excellent personal examples.
Well written. Well organized with no problems in sentence structure, puncutation, grammar or spelling.
30 out of 30
Back to Top