Graduate students: How have you learned or adopted content and methods for becoming teachers of sociology concepts?

Our latest data brief–The “Down-the-Hall” Phenomenon: Preparing the Next Generation of Faculty to Use Innovative Pedagogy–examines how pedagogical knowledge is disseminated to future sociology faculty members. Looking at membership activity data for all 2012 graduate student subscribers to ASA’s online, peer-reviewed, digital Teaching Resources and Innovative Library in Sociology (TRAILS), we find that graduate students are almost twice as likely to subscribe to TRAILS when at least one faculty member from their academic department subscribes—other factors being equal. (Other characteristics–such as having a subscription to the ASA journal Teaching Sociology–have a demonstrated association with subscription to the digital library as well.) Such a finding suggests that sociology faculty play a significant role in generating awareness of teaching and learning activities to students—a process of socialization that has been referred to as the “down-the-hall” phenomenon.

If you are a current or former graduate student in sociology or a closely related discipline, how have you adopted or learned content and methods for teaching sociology concepts? Do your experiences echo or diverge from our latest research findings? We invite you to discuss this through your comments.

Technology and Faculty Networks

The latest findings from our longitudinal study of the diffusion of innovation in and adoption of cutting-edge teaching materials by teaching and learning networks are now available in the Powerpoint presentation, The Effects of Technology on the Growth of a Teaching and Learning Network. These findings were presented last month at the 2011 Research and Evaluation on Education in Science and Engineering (REESE) PI Meeting in Pentagon City.

(photo credits: EERA_ECER)

New Findings on the Sociology Pipeline

Now available on the website are two new PowerPoint presentations exploring different aspects of the sociology pipeline.

• Findings From ASA Surveys of Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD Recipients: Implications for Departments in a Jobless Recovery

• Homosociality or Crossing Race/Ethnicity/Gender Boundaries? Pipeline Interventions and the Production of Scholarly Careers

Feel free to post comments and questions, and to share similar experiences.

Note: all comments are publicly visible. Do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous.

Exploring the Networks of Teaching and Learning Scholars

Our first research brief of the new year is now available! Networks and the Diffusion of Cutting-Edge Teaching and Learning Knowledge in Sociology is the second in the series on our study of networks of teaching and learning scholars. In it, we compare the characteristics of the early adopters of ASA’s new interactive, peer-reviewed Teaching Research and Innovative Library in Sociology (TRAILS) in 2010 with those who purchased the now defunct paper-based teaching and learning materials (TRC materials) in 2008.

In exploring the diffusion of innovation, our research attempts to answer the following questions:

• How are transformational ideas and practices produced and diffused in an academic discipline?
• Does a new technology lead to more widespread dissemination of cutting-edge teaching and learning materials?
• Does it lead to changes in the connections and characteristics of sociology faculty members involved in the production and consumption of teaching and learning knowledge?
• Are social interventions necessary to broaden the scope of usage and patterns?

Feel free to post comments and questions. Please do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous.

(Photo credits: Michigan State University, SNR)

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: How did you learn to teach and create syllabi?

JOIN THE DISCUSSION! How did you learn to teach and create syllabi?

Click here to post your comments.

Within the past year, we have been studying the diffusion of teaching materials through networks of sociology faculty that produce and consume cutting edge pedagogy and teaching materials. (Download Teaching Alone? Sociology Faculty and the Availability of Social Networks to read the findings from the first phase of the study).

One of our primary interests is in the impact of social capital on teaching. Since the mid-80s, there has been increasing emphasis placed on the importance of the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education. It has been argued that these activities improve pedagogy and enhance curricula most effectively when they take place in a community rather than being practiced in isolation, whether alone in a classroom with a group of students, or online with no one in the room at all, since communities allow faculty to be evaluated and augmented by their peers.

We invite readers to share their comments. How do you exchange ideas about pedagogy and curricula? How did you learn to teach and create syllabi?

Note: comment are publicly visible, do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous.

Current Projects: Social Networks and Digital Libraries

The ASA is transitioning from print-based teaching resource materials to a digital library. The Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology (TRAILS) launches Spring, 2010.

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In the last year, the staff of sociologists at the American Sociological Association have been working on several National Science Foundation-funded research projects that involve social network analysis. These projects explore (1) diffusion of innovation in digital libraries; (2) product, diffusion, and use of STEM teaching materials; and (3) mentoring, networks, and under-represented minorities in the science pipeline.

Earlier this month, the Center for Advanced Research and Communication (ARC) hosted the principal investigator’s meeting for projects awarded grants for research and evaluation on education in science and engineering (REESE). At the poster session, presented early Phase I findings from our study exploring the relationship between teaching and learning networks and the diffusion of innovation in digital libraries. This is of particular interest to the ASA as we move from paper-based teaching resource materials to a digital library (debuting in 2010).

Click here to view our poster, Diffusion of Innovation in Digital Libraries: Mobilizing Networks to Increase the Scope and Depth of Use of a New Cyber Infrastructure (in PDF format).

Click here to view additional REESE research projects on ARC’s website.

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