This information effective for Winter 2000.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Professor Pamela Roby
Office: 218 College 8
Tel. 459-2587, messages: 459-3516
http://zzyx.ucsc.edu/Soc/roby.html
Winter 2000
Tuesday & Thursday 12-1:45: Stevenson 175.
In this class I look forward to our becoming a community of learners focusing on sociological issues related to learning. We will examine learning and achievement from gender, race and class perspectives; survey social structural innovations and conceptual tools for facilitating learning; and explore the interplay between past and present social forces affecting learning and achievement. We will apply theories to and test them with our own and others' learning and achievement. The class includes lectures, small groups, videos, films and panels. Seven out-of-class Listening/Learning dyads rather than sections are required (see "WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID" below for a description of the dyads).
Soc. 148 is a 5 unit course that may be counted toward the Social Psychology cluster or simply as regular elective credit for the Sociology Major; or as a Social Science elective for the Women's Studies major; or as an elective for the Education Minor.
1. Survey sociological research on the nature of learning and human intelligence.
2. Examine how gender, race, class and other socially constructed factors, both past and present, affect learning.
3. Survey social structural innovations facilitating learning.
4. Consider how these operate or might be applied in our daily lives and work.
Day 1: Introduction: The Social Construction of Learning and Achievement.
Day 2: Human Intelligence and Cooperation: Sociological Perspectives:
Day 3: The Sociological Autobiography: Perspectives on Learning and Achievement:
Day 4: Microsociology: Listening and Learning:
Day 5: Developing and Achieving Goals:
Day 6: The Social Construction of Reality, Applied Sociology and Educational Practice:
Day 7: Schooling and Learning:
Day 8: Social Reproduction, Cultural Capital and Learning Processes: Theoretical Perspectives on Learning and Achievement:
Day 9: Feelings, Power and Learning: The Use of Contradictions -- Perspectives from the Sociology of Emotions:
Day 10: Society, Self-Esteem and Achievement:
Day 11: Writing: Myths and Reality:
Day 12: Gender, Learning and Achievement: Women:
Day 13: Gender, Learning and Achievement: Men:
Day 14: Class, Learning and Achievement:
Day 15: Class, Race and Learning:
Day 16: Race and Ethnicity, Learning and Achievement:
Day 17: Liberating Learning I: Overcoming the Effects of Internalized Sexism, Racism and Classism on Learning:
Day 18: Liberating Learning II: Identifying and Overcoming Gender, Race, Class and Other Constraints on Our Own and Others' Learning and Achievement:
Day 19: Creating Environments Conducive to Learning: Communicating Important Ideas and Assuming Leadership: Issues of Free Will and Determinism, Agency and Social Structure:
Day 20: Summary, Evaluations and Future Directions: Professional Socialization and Careers:
Day 21: Final exam due - first hour, final exam day.
All papers and the final exam are to be double spaced and computer printed or typed. Use sub-titles to guide your Reader. Number the pages of all assignments and print or type your name in the top right hand corner.
1) Assignment One: Sociological Autobiography and Learning History: A three to six page life history of your learning followed by a one to two page analysis of two or three social, economic or political factors that most affected your learning. In this paper, as in the class, learning is to be broadly defined. It is to include but not be confined to learning within school systems. Read C. Wright Mills, "The Promise" and the readings for Day 3 in the Reader before completing this assignment. Note: further instructions for this assignment are contained in Roby, "Sociological Learning Histories" (Day 3 reading in SLReader).
2) Assignment Two: In this three to five page paper you are to write a one-half page to one page report on each of your first two out-of-class listening/learning sessions followed by a one to two page analysis of the sessions in which you draw on concepts from at least three of the authors specified in the Reader. Cite the articles you quote or paraphrase from at the end of your paper.
3) Final Paper: An eight to fifteen page paper described further in class.
4) Final exam: The take-home exam will be distributed day 20; it is due on the final exam day, first hour.
5) Attendance at and participation in all class sessions and participation in at least seven out-of-class meetings with another member of the class, as described under assignments 2 and 3.
The "Sociology of Learning Reader" is for sale at The Copy Center, Communications Building. It is the only required text. The syllabus suggests further readings for those who wish to pursue particular subjects in greater depth.
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WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT "SOCIOLOGY OF LEARNING" (SOC. 148):
The editors of CARPE DIEM: PROMOTING INNOVATION IN TEACHING (Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 6), write:
"The sociology of learning is a topic that has generally lain buried within the sociology of education. In developing the `Sociology of Learning and Achievement: Gender, Race, and Class Perspectives', Pamela Roby built on and incorporated sociological theory, extensive sociological research about learning and factors affecting learning, and analysis of personal experiences with learning. Through the use of panels comprised of class members, small groups that reported back to the larger class, and writing exercises as well as lectures, readings and films, students compared and contrasted the nature and effects of gender, race and class oppression and privilege on their own and others' learning.
"For the course, Roby gathered together a wide array of articles and audio-visual materials to examine learning and achievement from a sociological perspective. These included sociological research on the development, use and implications of concepts of human intelligence and empirical studies on the systematic effects of gender, race, and class on learning. Students in the course wrote their own `sociological learning histories,' including an analysis of two or three social, economic or political factors that most affected their learning."
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In CONCEPTS AND CHOICES FOR TEACHING: MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTION, William Timpson wrote about the Listening/Learning Sessions:
At UCSC many instructors utilize cooperative learning groups to empower students to play a more active, creative role in their learning. Pamela Roby (Sociology) utilizes dyadic listening/learning sessions as part of her course on the sociology of learning. Seven different times during the quarter, pairs of students meet together for two hours to discuss the readings, examine their own experiences with learning and achievement, and under-take activities related to class readings and lectures. To provide guidance for students during the out-of-class dyads, Roby authored a listening/learning guide, which she continuously revises on the basis of students' experiences and suggestions.