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Critical Thinking Resources

Articles on Critical Thinking in Sociology

  1. Dowell, W. (2006). Throwing the sociological imagination into the garbage: Using students' waste disposal habits to illustrate C. wright mills's concept. Teaching Sociology, 34(2), 150-155.

     

    This paper outlines an interactive technique using garbage to teach the relevancy of Mills's sociological imagination

     

     

  2. Eisen, D. B. (2012). Developing a critical lens: Using photography to teach sociology and create critical thinkers. Teaching Sociology, 40(4), 349-359. PRINT AVAILABLE IN STROZIER LIBRARY 2nd FLOOR

     

    This article details a photography project that has been assigned in lower level sociology courses at a four-year university and a community college, which has been successful in encouraging students to develop their critical thinking skills.The project allowed students to relate the course material to their everyday world, engage in an intellectually challenging assignment, critically examine their taken-for-granted worlds, and have fun while completing a challenging academic exercise

     

     

  3. Hudd, S. S., Smart, R. A., & Delohery, A. W. (2011). "My understanding has grown, my perspective has switched": Linking informal writing to learning goals. Teaching Sociology, 39(2), 179-189.

     

    This article presents one model for integrating informal written work with learning goals through a theoretical framework known as concentric thinking. More commonly referred to as "the PTA model" because of the series of cognitive tasks it promotes prioritization, translation, and analogy (PTA)

     

     

  4. Lindner, A. M. (2012). Teaching quantitative literacy through a regression analysis of exam performance. Teaching Sociology, 40(1), 50-59. PRINT AVAILABLE IN STROZIER LIBRARY 2nd FLOOR

     

    Describes a classroom-based activity introducing students to regression analysis in an introductory sociology course in order to get them to think critically about potential predictors of exam performance and how they could be measured.

     

     

  5. Malcom, N. L. (2006). Analyzing the news: Teaching critical thinking skills in a writing intensive social problems course. Teaching Sociology, 34(2), 143-149.

     

    Outlines a news-analysis project that provides a framework for engaging students in current events in such a way that they develop and improve critical sociological thinking through regular and structured writing assignments.

     

     

  6. Massengill, R. P. (2011). Sociological writing as higher-level thinking: Assignments that cultivate the sociological imagination. Teaching Sociology, 39(4), 371-381.

     

    Describes the course scaffolding surrounding an assignment in a writing-intensive course, which challenges students to use common course texts to interpret evidence they have found in TV shows, movies, and newspaper reports.

     

     

  7. Mollborn, S., & Hoekstra, A. (2010). "A meeting of minds": Using clickers for critical thinking and discussion in large sociology classes. Teaching Sociology, 38(1), 18-27.

     

    Introduces readers to clicker technology and outlines a new pedagogical model for clicker use designed to address sociological learning goals, including critical thinking, applications of concepts to real-life experiences, and critiques of sociological methods

     

     

  8. Pence, D. (2009). "I'll take ideology for $200, alex": Using the game show jeopardy to facilitate sociological and critical thinking. Teaching Sociology, 37(2), 171-176.

     

    This article describes an activity which asks first-year introductory sociology students to find, describe, and explain underlying themes common to American education and the television game show, "Jeopardy!"

     

     

  9. Rickles, M. L., Schneider, R. Z., Slusser, S. R., Williams, D. M., & Zipp, J. F. (2013). Assessing change in student critical thinking for introduction to sociology classes. Teaching Sociology, 41(3), 271-281. PRINT AVAILABLE IN STROZIER LIBRARY 2nd FLOOR

     

    Utilizes the inclusion of writing assignments and classroom discussion designed to enhance creative thought processes for the experimental group helped students improve from one-dimensional thinking toward more multi-structural analysis.

     

     

  10. Rusche, S. N., & Jason, K. (2011). "You have to absorb yourself in it": Using inquiry and reflection to promote student learning and self-knowledge. Teaching Sociology, 39(4), 338-353.

     

    Describes exercises that encourage students to develop critical thinking skills through inquiry and reflective writing by have students compile questions and reflections throughout the course then using their writings for a comprehensive analytic self-reflection that examines their intellectual and sociological growth.

     

     

  11. Simpson, J. M., & Elias, V. L. (2011). Choices and chances: The sociology role-playing game--the sociological imagination in practice. Teaching Sociology, 39(1), 42-56.

     

    Introduces a sociology role-playing game (RPG) used to demonstrate the broad range of social forces, institutions, and structures in a semester-long series of in-class and homework assignments.

     

  12. Stevens, D., & VanNatta, M. (2002). Teaching critical observation as a sociological tool. Teaching Sociology, 30(2), 243-253. 

     

    Discusses the use of critical thinking and critical observation methods as applied to teaching sociology courses, how students are taught to evaluate situations holistically, and critical observation as the ability to identify assumptions and stereotypes.

     

     

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