I had 10 students in this course. We read several selections from a range of theorists. The usual three were included: Marx, Weber, Durkheim. I also included Comte, Spencer, Tocqueville, Du Bois, Beatrice Potter Webb, Marianne Weber, Mead, and Blumer. Students took turns facilitating class discussion. Students chose a contemporary topic and wrote a paper applying the work of at least 3 classical theorists to that topic. They wrote the paper in the following stages:
1) Secondary lit review
2) Primary lit review (the actual theorists)
3) Argument
4) First Draft
5) Final Draft
Students also had a funny little final exam that I gave them. It was actually distributed on day 1. It was a list of 40 names and terms that they should know as part of their sociological cultural capital. They had to write an explanation for each, citing their source, and not using the same source for more than 5 items.
To process the evaluations, I made 3 columns on a sheet of paper, labeled: Pros, Cons, Suggestions. I made a list of each thing that was stated, noting also the frequency with which it was stated. I choose to ignore pros and cons that were mentioned only once, but I will happily consider any suggestion, regardless of frequency.
Pros:
Facilitation Assignment (5X)
Paper Stages (4X)
Organized Syllabus (4X)
Du Bois selections (3X)
Du Bois Video (3X) -- WEB Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices
Class Discussion (3X)
Ritzer text (2X)
Organized Blackboard site (2X)
Final Exam (2X)
High Expectations (2X)
Due Dates (2X)
Flexibility of the Professor (2X)
Selection of Theorists (2X)
Cons:
Ritzer text (2X)
Final Exam (2X)
Du Bois Video (2X)
(So the cons effectively knock out 3 of the pros, but in doing so I'm left with no cons.)
Suggestions:
More lecturing by professor (4X)
More time on classical feminist theory (2X)
More time between assignments (2X)
Shorter selections (1X -- eye roll)
Shorter final exam (1X)
More on religion (1X) -- really just a personal preference by 1 student
More symbolic interactionism (1X)
More guidance with facilitation
Submit argument section earlier
Quantitatively, there were 11 questions scaled 1-5. My scores ranged from 4.2 to 4.9. My lowest scores were for "I [the student] came well prepared for class" (4.2), "classroom atmosphere" (4.4), and "taught this course well" (4.5). My top scores were for "explained the educational objectives" (4.9), and "well organized instructor" (4.8).
So, overall, the class went very well. I probably should add in a definite 30 minute lecture from the professor for every class next year, rather than just jumping in less deliberately. I would love to add a second week of feminist theory but am not sure what to sacrifice in order to accomplish that. Perhaps Parsons.
(lightning didn't strike)
I also would like to rearrange the paper stages as follows:
1) Theorist 1: Primary and Secondary
2) Theorist 2: Primary and Secondary
3) Theorist 3: Primary and Secondary
4) Discussion/Argument
5) Final Draft with Introduction, Conclusion and References
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