Group Problem-Solving Approach to Learning about Gender Stratification and Research Process in Introductory Sociology

Abstract

ATARECENTseries of department meetings discussing our Introduction to Sociology courses, I was struck by our agreement that we wanted students to learn to do sociology, to be able to use it, to employ a sociological perspective-as Eckstein, Schoenike, and Delaney (1995) put it in a recent essay, to speak with a sociological voice. I was also struck by the confusion we shared about how to accomplish this. Eckstein, Schoenike, and Delaney (1995:356-57) go on to point out that there is a tendency to confuse a sociological vocabulary with a sociological perspective. Students learn the voice of a discipline, they argue, by practicing it-by trial and error. This is essentially a problem-solving or active-learning approach to learning that, rather than presenting theories and concepts first, and then applying them, makes a problem the centerpiece and helps students learn concepts and theories as tools to solve the problem. As Scott Sernau (1995) summarizes it: