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Sociology Through Active Learning
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Sociology Through Active Learning
Student Exercises

Second Edition


July 2008 | 304 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

CourseSmart

"A great source for kinesthetic learning activities. I've used the book for designing my course for multiple learning styles."
—Megan Thiele, University of California, Irvine

This student workbook is designed to allow you to easily integrate multiple active learning exercises into your Introduction to Sociology courses. Many teachers want to use "active learning" in their class, but don't have the materials commensurate with that pedagogy. These 51 active learning exercises have been carefully selected from a nationwide search of the best class-tested active learning material available in sociology. Affordably priced, this workbook provides the best that sociology has to offer!

Key and New Features

  • Offers many fresh exercises—about 40% of the assignments are new to this edition
  • Features tear-out worksheets for ease of submission and grading
  • Presents a wide variety of exercises in terms of content, time required, usefulness for individual or group completion, and relevance for in-class or out-of-class practice

Accompanied by High-Quality Ancillaries!
Instructor Resources on CD provide detailed information on using, grading, and adapting the exercises. In addition the CD also includes commentary from the contributing authors explaining their experiences with the exercises, including how they promote specific learning goals and how current instructions to students facilitate the assignment. This CD-ROM features new components to the summary chart for instructors that indicate which assignments have web components, which have global aspects, and other criteria to help professors select the most useful exercises for their teaching needs. Qualified instructors may receive a copy by contacting SAGE at 1-800-818-SAGE (7243) between 6 am – 5 pm, PST.

Intended Audience
The book is designed as the ideal active learning companion to virtually all Introduction to Sociology texts, making it an ideal supplemental text for any undergraduate Introduction to Sociology or Principles of Sociology course.

Contributor to THE ASA/SAGE Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Awards Fund


Kathleen S. Lowney
Puzzling Over Theoretical Perspectives
Peter Kaufman
The Speed Discussion
John W. Eby
Faculty Doors as Symbolic Statements
Susan M. Collins, Sue R. Crull
A Very Short Survey
Paul Higgins, Mitchell B. Mackinem
Helping Experiment
Edward L. Kain
An Introduction to an Important Source for Basic Quantitative Sociological Data
Corinne Lally Benedetto
Decoding Human Behavior: Social Norms and Daily Life
Andrea Malkin Brenner
Understanding Social Location
Virginia T. Gill
Application Exercise on Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Beth Pamela Skott
Peer Learning in Sociology -- Learning about Other Cultures from International Students
Craig This
Observing Culture
Peter Kaufman
Writing Children's Books
Betsy Lucal
Gender Socialization
Keith A. Roberts
Leadership, Gender, and the Invisible Ceiling: Survey Activity
Heather M. Griffiths
NASA: Understanding Social Interaction
Judy L. Singleton
Group Decision-Making
Lissa J. Yogan
Six Statements for Teaching Social Stratification
John R. Bowman
Guided Fantasy: The Titanic Game
Sandra Enos
Food Stamp Challenge
Mellisa Holtzman
Making Ends Meet
Fadia Joseph, Donal J. Malone
Global Inequality: Comparing Guinea to the United States
Edward L. Kain
Global Stratification and its Impact on a Country's Population Characteristics
Rebecca Bach
Team Case Study of a Community Organization
Charles S. Green
Structural Change at Your College or University
Alton M. Okinaka
Critique of Student Government
Keith A. Roberts
Occupation and Income Exercise
Catherine Fobes, Adam Gillis
Fast Food, Fast Talk: Interactive Service Work
Marcia Marx, Mary Thierry Texeira
Critically Thinking About Race through Visual Media
Jacqueline C. Simpson
Drawing Pictures: Race and Gender Stereotypes
Melanie D. Hildebrandt
Stump that Race Game
Jacqueline C. Simpson
A Group Exercise in Affirmative Action
Jacqueline Clark, Maxine Atkinson
Analyzing the Social Construction of Gender in Birth Announcement Cards
Jacqueline C. Simpson
Reading Little Critter: Understanding the Power of Symbols
Brenda L. Beagan
Debating Deviance
Janis McCoy
Deviance Mini Case Study
Paul Higgins, Mitchell Mackinem
Images of Crime
Rebecca L. Bordt
Media Portrayals of Crime
Robert B. Pettit
Drug Testing in the Workplace: What Would You Do?
Judy Aulette
Housework: Division of Labor
Judy Aulette
Parenthood: Defining Family
Mark R. Warren
Family History Project
Marjorie Altergott
Tommy?s Story
Julie A. Pelton, Frank D. Beck
Mapping Census Data for Your Town
Mellisa Holtzman
Song Analysis Project
Sarah E. Rusche, Kris Macomber
"All of a Sudden?": Exploring Sociology in Everyday Life
John J. Shalanski
Critical Reports on Contemporary Social Problems
Danielle Taana Smith
Literary and Artistic Reflections on War, Terror and Violence
Ada Haynes
Student Empowerment: Student-Designed Syllabus
Janis McCoy
My Page: Student Information
John R. Bowman
Initial Group Assessment
Kathleen R. Johnson
Panel Debates

I still need help accessing this book on your website. I emailed Sage reps but not one has replied. So I have not been able to review.

Ms Marisela Mendoza
Social Science Dept, Rogue Cmty College-Redwood
November 18, 2022

It includes really usefull exercises but unfortunatelly I do not have the instructor CD.

Professor Fuat Man
Business Administration , Sakarya University
September 21, 2015

Sections of this book are very useful for our social theory classes, particualrly because they help to understand social theory as a tool to address daily challenges. Very good resource for planning stimulating introductory courses to the field!

Dr Daniela Vicherat Mattar
Leiden University College, Leiden Univ.
July 17, 2014

It needs more than the exercises, I can't make my students buy a second book just for exercises.

Ms Angie Elkins
Sociology Dept, Virginia Intermont College
January 29, 2013

Use some of the exercises for my course.

Mrs Carolyn Carmichael
LIBERAL ARTS DIVISION, Tulsa Community College - Southeast
December 31, 2012

An excellent resource with some creative tasks that really help my 1st year undergraduates to exercise their 'sociological imaginations'. This book has been passed around the office so many times I am struggling to keep track of its whereabouts!

Dr James Cherrington
Sport and Active Lifestyles, Sheffield Hallam University
May 3, 2012

I found this text very useful for small group excersises and tutorial material. I think it may be more useful for lecturers than for students as students tend to be focused on the key core material rather than learning techniques. However, for lecturers wanting to utilise active learning techniques in the classroom this is a great book to kickstart that process, and it offers ideas for most of the key areas taught in Introductory Sociology classes.

Ms Hazel O brien
Department of Applied Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology
April 19, 2012

Some of the activities were great, but my class size is too large to do many of them in an effective way. I would definitely use it if I had a smaller group.

Ms Nicole Smolter
Sociology Crim Justice Dept, University of Delaware
February 21, 2012

Course not offered because of budget cuts.

Kenneth Wilson
Sociology Dept, East Carolina University
September 26, 2011

Very practical text which shall be utilised through teaching and recommended for students to further understand that subject area, however not essential reading.

Miss Jo Marsden
Sport, Sheffield Hallam University
June 2, 2011
Key features
  • The exercises in the book are designed to give your students the chance to explore in-depth some of the most important ideas in the discipline, by providing hands-on experience investigating empirical and theoretical questions related to your class.
  • The exercises can be used as you choose: as in-class exercises, as out-of-class required homework, and as out-of-class optional or extra-credit work. Some can be accomplished alone; others involve team-work. You might grade them; you might simply give credit or no credit.
  • Even in large classes, you can involve your students in active, hands-on work. · Each exercise in the student book comes with detailed instructions and a tear-out work sheet for ease of submission and grading. In the faculty guide, the authors of the exercises have written about their experiences with the exercise, including how it furthers specific learning goals and how the current instructions to students facilitate the assignment. They give suggestions for grading the students' work and indicate an effective time allotment for the exercise. ·

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 5


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