Mehmet Practicum Blog

Latest Teaching Statement

Teaching Statement

I have three primary objectives as a teacher of sociology. The first is to demystify social and historical processes[1]; the second is to teach the practice of sociology; and the third is to focus on the historical and theoretical foundations of sociology.

            Speaking from personal experience,[2] I have recognized that popular conceptions often attribute supernatural and distant qualities to social forces. Therefore, in order to help students to begin thinking sociologically, we begin my class building connections between the social/historical and the personal, focusing on how the former structures the latter. Through extensive class discussion of C. Wright Mills, Durkheim, and Goffman, and with the aid of life histories, vignettes, anecdotes from various sources, including fiction and popular media, we ask questions about what determines the nature of social relations and how they change over time. As we read and discuss, the students write short reaction pieces in class, applying the concepts of the authors above to the events in their own lives. These short pieces are then brought together to help the students develop and write their own personal histories in which they discuss how they developed their values, perspectives, and interests as a function of the social interactions they have had in life.

            We then move on to focus on the practice of sociology as a science. We look at case studies such as Durkheim’s Suicide in order to examine the relationship between the different parts of the research process.[3] In class we discuss the hypotheses that Durkheim developed, how he may have developed them, the data that he collected, and the way he organized them. We then analyze the data together and see if they confirm or reject the hypotheses. After having evaluated the hypotheses, we reformulate the theory that Durkheim started with. Further, we re-explore Durkheim’s data to see if they point to further questions to be studied in future research. The students also get the chance to look at current statistics on suicide rate in which they in small groups discuss possible research questions and variables of focus. The group then shares their research ideas with the rest of the class. I also use my own work to provide another example of the research process. Students are given the opportunity to analyze a social science research article on their own, evaluating how the author(s) structured his/her study.

            In justifying my third teaching objective, I think it is essential to link history with the theoretical foundations of sociology. Comte, Marx, Spencer, Weber, and ideas such as race and positivism, simply do not make much sense without understanding the historical context from which they emerged. This allows us a class to take a critical approach to the foundational concepts and theories of sociology as we discuss them. Students further employ this critical approach as they analyze the link between history and theory by writing a paper on the evolution of a concept, such as race, in the social sciences, or by studying the life and times of a particular theorist and how these influenced the formulation of his/her ideas.

     My hope is that through my three primary teaching objectives, my students will have the necessary background to not only practice sociology, if they so wish, but to be able to evaluate other areas of knowledge and our changing world more effectively and productively.

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[1] Which is the same as one of my primary objectives as a researcher, to fill in the black box of cause and effect.

[2] One day, a friend said to me as I walked with her in our NYC suburban neighborhood, “When blacks move into a neighborhood housing prices fall. How does the market know?” I also recall, while watching the PBS program Foreign Exchange, the political writer Thomas Friedman said that the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was similar to the Palestinians in that they are hopelessly struggling against the “tide of history.”

[3]Specifically, I am referring to: the theoretical premise of a study, literature review, hypotheses, data collection methods, data organization methods, data analysis, hypotheses testing, and how all these come together to re-inform theory and further research.

Good Video Games

It's very fitting that we had to read this article just as Grand Theft Auto IV came out.

As I read the article I kept thinking about a section in Bartolomae's "Inventing the University" in which he discusses a student essay on skiing. The student did not have the wherewithall to conceptually move beyond being a skiier and living in the moment of the experience of skiing, and analytically, from a distance, look upon the process of skiing and identify the mechanisms and their interrelationship that make up that process.

If learning, then, is to engage the world analytically, video games serve as an amazing conceptual tool by which to do that. It creates an aesthetically-pleasing environment with the vantage point ready-made for an analytical observer who is at once engaging a world. It takes away much of the abstraction that is traditional learning in school.

Newest Teaching Statement

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

From experience, in teaching sociology I believe it is useful to focus on three basic questions or themes for the course: What is sociology (or, what is the philosophy of sociology)? How do sociologists practice their craft (or, how is sociology a science)? What are the historical and theoretical foundations of sociology?

            The philosophy of sociology—indeed, with the social sciences in general—deals fundamentally with the relationship between the individual and society. This means helping the students to begin developing their “sociological imagination.” Therefore, we would first focus on making connections between public issues and personal troubles, as discussed by C. Wright Mills. We would go on to discuss how Durkheim’s “social facts” constrain us in our everyday lives, and as “knowledgeable actors,” in the Goffmanian sense, we seek to navigate and utilize societal rules to situate ourselves socially.

To make these concepts seem more “real,” I seek to incorporate anecdotes and vignettes from the popular media and fiction. I also ask students to do brief writing exercises where they reflect on how their personal experiences reflect the influence of public issues, social facts, and societal rules. After reading a sample of a personal history by a sociologist, who employs the concepts above, I ask the students then to write their own where they can bring out the connections between history and biography. I feel this exercise has the added benefit of providing students with some self-awareness.

In dealing with the second theme, I introduce the students to the “wheel of science,” a concept I borrow from one of my statistics textbooks. I feel this is an effective tool to help students visualize the relationship between the different elements or stages in the research process and how the researcher can link them. For instance, the “theoretical basis” of a study and its “hypotheses” (or research questions) may be considered two different stages in a project, but how does one get from the former to the latter? At this point I introduce the concept of “literature review.” The connections from “hypotheses” to the rest of the stages of the wheel become quickly apparent. The “hypotheses” will then determine the kinds of “data collection” or methodologies the researcher will use, which will then determine the presentation of the “observations,” and so on. I have found Durkheim’s Suicide a good example of illustrating the research process. As an assignment for this part of the course, I ask students to analyze a social science research article, where they draw out how the authors represent the different parts and stages of the wheel of science in their study.

As the last part of the course, I think it is essential to link history with the theoretical foundations of sociology. Comte, Marx, Spencer, Weber, and ideas such as race and positivism, simply do not make much sense without understanding the historical context from they emerged. As an assignment, I ask the students to focus on the social and historical context of a particular theorist and how these influenced the formulation of his/her theories.

My hope is that by focusing on the three themes of sociology—its philosophy, practice, and history—my students will have the necessary background to not only practice sociology if they wish, but to be able to evaluate other areas of knowledge and our changing world more effectively and productively.

Recent Developments

It's seems that a few students have dropped out or are dropping out of my class. One stopped coming altogether, which has saddened me because he seemed very bright and effectively led a class discussion on a reading. Another found a job and is dropping out of school, at least temporarily. The other two are out on absences; they passed the four-absence limit. One of them commented that he was going to appeal because he wanted to get his money's worth.

Second Take-Home Writing Assignment

I believe Belle mentioned that we should bring in our second take-home writing assignment for discussion.  Here it is.

Find a research article in any social science journal.  Choose an article on a subject that interests you: inequality, race/ethnicity, immigration/assimilation, crime/deviancy, gender, sociology of education, etc. Then proceed to answer the questions below in paragraph form.

--What is the article about? What is the argument of the author(s)?

--Is the research based on a sample of some population? How large is the sample? How were the subjects or cases selected? Can the findings be generalized to some population?

--What variables are used? Which are independent and which are dependent? For each variable, determine the level of measurement and whether the variable is discrete or continous.

--Write your answers to these questions in paragraph form (double-spaced, with one inch margins). Attach the article that you found to the work.

Dealing with Complexity

A week a student came to me after class and asked about tutoring, saying that he has to read the articles more than once to understand the material.  Our next session I gave the class information on tutoring and told them that we are dealing with complex material (Mills' "sociological imagination," Durkheim's "social facts" and "currents," Erving Goffman's "knowledgeable actor") and that to understand the articles in depth that one would have to read them a few times.  I mentioned that I read things over and over again.

Now, in thinking about this complexity, their first exam is on Wednesday, and I'm thinking that maybe I should let them do it open book.  The exams aren't about memorization and I want them to get used to looking back in the text for answers.  For now, I'm still not sure, and the students, of course, don't know about this.   

Testing Concepts

I've given some short writing assignments in class designed to test their understanding of the concepts and their applications.  Last Monday I posed a question on Durkheim's concept of "social fact."  A social fact are rules, regulations, ways of acting and being that are imposed by society and thus constrain the lives of individuals.  The question posed was to talk about a social fact that has affected your own life and how it has constrained you.  The assignment forced them to ask questions about what "constrain" means.  It seems that this graded assignment forced them to begin understanding the concepts, and without it they would have gone on blissfully ignorant despite our upcoming exam this wednesday.

Their responses also showed that they were capable of writing about how something constraining their lives, but without making the broader connections as how the thing that was constraining their lives is a social fact. 

From now on, as much as I can, I am going to provide them with short in-class writing assignments that will refer to the text we are reading and will act as a review of the important concepts we are covering.   

At the End of my Third Class

I had written up discussion questions for the C Wright Mills and Durkheim articles that we had to read for the last Wednesday and Monday classes.  I then put them in groups, assigning each group one or two of the study questions.  It's each groups job to discuss the question(s), find an answer and then tell the rest of the class the answer.  I noticed that on Monday's class some were not participating in their group and therefore not sharing ideas.  I decided to assign three students to lead the discussion on the upcoming reading for the next class.  Each student will have their turn as we proceed.  That way no body can avoid talking.  I'll see how it goes today.

Getting the Class Started

- what did you do/have you set up to connect with students and introduce the class?
- what did you do to create "atmosphere"?
- how did you set expectations for the work of the semester and what has the response been so far?

I, of course, started with the syllabus and spoke in terms of what I expected, which is engagement with the class and material.  I stressed that I wanted to see people participating, asking questions, and evidence of people thinking about the topics.  Also, because it is a learning community course, I talked about exchanging ideas as a group as an important part of the learning.

In order to create the atmosphere, I began with some illustrations introducing the theme: what is sociology?  The illustrations are from that introduces the discipline in that way.  Looking at the pictures together we talked about what they meant and the blurbs in the illustrations.  I introduced the course with the fundamental point that sociology begins with them understanding the factors that have influenced their own lives before they begin understanding the lives of others.  The illustrations helped by introducing the kinds of questions that one would ask in order to make sense one's life, such as "why am I unemployed?"  This led to a discussion of the kinds of forces that cause unemployment.  I always try to provide everyday manifestations of the abstract ideas we refer to in order to get them to think also about what they see or experience in their everyday.

Some of the students have clearly responded to the emphasis on participating and in talking about things they see in the news and their everyday.  Others are still shy.      

Scaffolding

I realize now, after having read the D'Alessio and Riley article, that the open article quizzes that I used to give when teaching high-school was a low-stake means of having the students prepare for the exams.  The exams were similar to the quizzes in that they were short-answer questions (requiring answers of a few sentences), but they were not open-book. 

In Hunter, I would have students break up in groups and each of these would answer a set of questions on the texts we were focusing on at the moment.  They would then present their answers to the rest of the class.  We would then work out the nuances in the answers via a kind of discussion or debate, depending on the complexity of the question.  The exams would consist of a selection of the questions that we went over in class discussions based on the readings.