Sociological Practice
Spring 2017Rowan University
Dr. Tony Sommo Ext. 3784Location:Savitz 217
Time: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00-3:15
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 5:00-6:00 and by appointment only.
Office: 5th floor library Room 547
Required Reading
I. Program Planning and Proposal Writing, by Norton J. Kiritz: Read in full for first Exam.
II. Applied SociologyWilliam Sullivan: Read in full for second Exam.
III. Reveille for Radicals: Saul Alinsky: Read in full for final exam.
Grading
I. First Midterm: Multiple Choice--25%
II. Second Midterm: Multiple Choice--25%
III. Group Project: program implementation and evaluation--25%
IV. Final Exam: Multiple Choice--25%
Papers/Projects
All papers must both be sent to me by way of email AND given to me in person as a hard copy on the same day it is due.
IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS RULE YOU WILL BE DEDUCTED A FULL LETTER GRADE.
DO NOT SEND ATTACHMENTS IN THE EMAILS. Copy and paste your paper in the message section of the email.
Attendance
Punctual attendance, showing up for all class meetings is required. Noticeable absences will be factored into the final grade. All exams will be proctored. Missing any exam must be documented in writing, that is, signed doctor’s or parent's note. EXAMINATIONS ARE NOT CUMULATIVE.
The Group Project
During this semester, you will work with a project team through a fourstage problemsolving process by planning, administering, and writing up a report divided into four sections. Each installment of the report, equaling ten percent of your grade, will be no longer than eight doublespaced, normalsized typewritten pages and must be handed in no later than the due date listed in the syllabus below. I will deduct onehalf grade for each day your reports are late.
Each member must read and sign final drafts of the reports. Your signature is proof that you have approved of each written statement.
The fourstage change process is briefly described as follows:
1. Defining a social problem which exists on campus: This first section of your project report must include a review of the literature with no less than five citations from five different journal articles which document the existence of the problem on college campuses. If you can find empirical literature on the problem at Rowan University, all the better. DO NOT DISCUSS THE PROBLEM AS IT AFFECTS AMERICAN SOCIETY IN GENERAL.
2. Doing a needs assessment: To provide evidence for the rationale or purpose of your upcoming intervention, you must collect data to find out about the extent of the problem and how people (students, faculty, staff, and administrators) feel about it. Apply a situationallyappropriate sociological method or set of methods, such as a questionnaire, schedule of interviews, experiment, or a set of disciplined observations to locate the problem. Who is affected and why?
Include a copy of the questionnaire, interview guide, or transcript of field notes from your observations.
3. Designing and administering a program or intervention to affect change or achieve desired goals: The design must include a clearly and specifically stated set OF GOALS which capture how you will move from point X to point Y. Consult the pamphlet on program planning and proposal writing for assistance. The statement of goals, such as the reduction of rape on campus, must contain how you hope to get there and measure whether or not this change has taken place. Remember that the goals of your intervention must not be general, vague, or rhetorical. Be specific. Be clear.
Describe the implementation of your plan in detail. The program you run should not be grand, complex, or sophisticated. Think of something simple that you can do together as a team to affect change. Plan an event or an activity that attempts to directly address the problem on campus. For example, design a beforeandafter study, including a pretest questionnaire, a focus group on alcoholism, and a posttest questionnaire to measure attitude change among participating students concerning the abuse of alcohol.
4. Doing the evaluation: In the last phase of the intervention process, discuss whether or not the intervention was successful. What criteria are used to measure success or failure? If successful, how do you know? If not, what went wrong? If you cannot distinguish success from failure, what obstacles can you identify which prevent making such a determination. How could your program be improved to avoid such difficulties?
Organize your group by using the talents of each member to the fullest. Tap one another's strengths and avoid weaknesses. Your project team will quickly become a cohesive group organized on the basis of a well-coordinated division of labor: thinking, researching, writing, typing, and editing.
To receive a final grade for the project:
1. Write a onepage selfassessment of how you contributed to the group. What did you do? How well did you do it?
2. Write a twopage evaluation of the effectiveness of others in the team. What did they do? How well did they do it?
Be honest. Be fair. I will take these individual assessments of self and group performance into account in calculating the final grade.
Claims that you were excluded from the group are not acceptable. Inability to make the meetings for the planning and the coordination of the activities to reach the goals and objectives of the program is also unacceptable as a legitimate excuse. Nonparticipation is not an option. To put it bluntly, doing nothing, or free riding on the back of the group to cop the group grade will lead to an automatic F for that individual. Rest assured that I will find who did not contribute their share to the group effort. Each member must account for their own activities and insure that other members are making a contribution. Coordination of activities is of paramount importance.
One grade will stand for the performance of the group as a whole.
3. Be prepared to present your findings to the class at the end of the semester.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of Sociological Practice, the student should be able to:
1. Understand and apply appropriate concepts and methods to doing the three types of sociological practice (Applied sociology, clinical sociology, and evaluation research) to achieve desired goals in solving social problems
2. Identify and understand the four stages of the change process thematic to Sociological practice (a) defining a social problem; (b) designing, administering, and interpreting the results of a needs assessment to determine the location and extent of the social problem; (c) designing and running a program or intervention; and (d) evaluating whether or not the intervention was successful) to affect change in problemsolving;
3. Work with others (working by committee, teamwork, and brainstorming sessions) to achieve collaborative social problem solving
4. Identify and understand all stages of proposal writing for grants and contracts
5. Clearly identify policy formulation, planning and implementation processes (including legislative deliberations from lobbying for change and appropriation for monies, to voting for approval, and implementation)
6. Write and speak clearly about their experience applying research methods and assessing results to solve a social problem in an action setting, such as the College
7. Become aware of ethical issues (confidentiality, informed consent, and deception) related to research, program, policy and assessment decisions in solving social problems.
Classroom Behavior
I have found it necessary to include the following rules of etiquette which I expect to be observed during our time together in class:
1. Please refrain from conducting ongoing conversations irrelevant to classroom objectives. Whispering from anywhere in the class can be heard all over the room. This behavior shows a lack of concern for the issues discussed during the course and is disruptive to the thinking process of myself and your fellow students who have to work hard tuning you out.
Not only is this behavior disruptive, disrespectful and discourteous, but it tends to be contagious. Others join in. It takes only a few students to jeopardize the mood or morale of the class. I assume all of my students are adults and treat them that way.
2. NO CELL PHONES, I-PHONES OR OTHER DEVICES ARE PERMITTED DURING CLASS TIME! NO IPODS, MINI TELEVISIONS, LAP COMPUTERS, GPS SYSTEMS OR ANY OTHER ELECTRONICS ALLOWED. NO TEXTING!!Violations of this rule will be reported to the Dean of Students and your final grade WILL be knocked down. The old school is the best! Bring a pencil and a notebook. STAY FOCUSED; PAY ATTENTION.
3. Do not bring any friends or other people into this class without my permission. Ask me first.
4. Do not walk out of the room once class has begun. If necessary, roll will be taken at the end of every class to account for students who have left. Please let me know before we begin class if you need to leave early for legitimate reasons.
5. Let me know if you have special reasons for arriving late.
6. If you arrive after roll has been called, let me know after class. Otherwise, you will be marked absent.
7. Don’t blow off this class by only showing up for exams. I especially view this behavior as a grave infraction of the rules and will lower your final evaluation two full grades.
8. If a serious event which causes your absence takes place during this course, let me know immediately. For example, do not wait for the last two weeks to tell me about family issues or illness.
9. If you are having difficulty with my presentation of the material in class let me know.
For the duration of the course, student and teacher enter into a mutually agreed upon contract. I am responsible for imparting information in a clear organized manner, generating your interest and facilitating discussion about issues relevant to the course. You are responsible for learning by keeping up with the readings, paying attention in class and making relevant and intelligent contributions to our discussions.
Thank you for your cooperation on these matters.
Additional Rules
1. Written in stone: No "extra credit" or "makeup work" will be accepted to improve your final grade
2. Your final grade for the course will not be changed, unless you can show that the instructor made a statistical error.
3. Sociology majors cannot take this course pass/fail. Other students must decide whether or not to take the course pass/fail no later than the end of the fourth week.
4. A formal charge of plagiarism means a failing grade for this course. You have the right to appeal. See the Student Handbook online (PP22-23)
Overview:
118 Introductory Remarks
Stages of sociological practice for Group Project
A. Definition of Social Problem
B. Needs Assessment
C. Doing The Intervention/Running a Program
D. Evaluation: How successful was the program in making change?
1-23What is a Social Problem?
The Scope of the Field--Defining Basic Concepts
I. What is sociological practice?
1-25II. American values as cultural preconditions for sociological practice
1. Pragmatism
2. Optimism
3. Rationalism
4. Faith in Science
5. Faith in progress
1-30 Sociological Practice: A Brief Historical/Organizational Perspective
I. Reexamining assumptions concerning the relationship between pure and basic research: Lester F. Ward
2-1 II. Three types of sociological practice
A. Applied sociology
B. Clinical sociology
C. Evaluation research
2-6 III. Stakeholders: Actors in sociological practice
IV. The politicaleconomy of practice
A. Issues of power and money
B. Issues of bias
C. Ethical issues
2-8 V. Doing the needs assessment
Methods for Identifying and Diagnosing Need
Methods for Doing a Needs Assessment
I. Interviewing
II. Direct and Indirect Observation
2-13 Methods for Doing A Needs Assessment Cont.
III. Surveys
IV. Single System Design
V. Experimental Design
215 I. Randomization to establish comparability
II. Non-randomized studies
III. Design tradeoffs
2-20 Types of Programs
I. Promotive
II. Reductive
2-22 First Stage of Group Project, Defining the Problem, is Due
Innovative programs and how they are evaluated
III. Curative
IV. Preventive
Program Goals and Objectives
2-27First Midterm
3-1Established programs and how they are evaluated
I. Program monitoring and accountability
A. Target populations and program coverage
B. Monitoring delivery of services
3-6 I.. Collecting data for monitoring
II. Analyzing monitored data
III. Feedback from monitored data
3-8 Second Stage of Group Project, Doing the Needs Assessment, is Due
I. Finetuning established programs
II. Linking evaluations to programs
3/13-3/18 SPRING BREAK
3-20I. Strategies for impact assessment
I. Diagnostic procedures
3-22II. Reasons for intervention and evaluation
III. Assessment of the need for intervention
3-27Second Midterm
3-29I. Conceptualizing program targets
II. Selecting program targets
4-3 I. Procedures for target estimation
What is evaluation research?
4-5 I. How are evaluations used?
II. Who does evaluation research?
4-10I. Linking interventions to outcomes
4-12Third Stage of Group Project, Doing The Intervention, is Due
I. Types of data useful for impact assessment
I. Measuring efficiency
II. Perspectives on resource allocation analysis
4-17 I. Components of Cost Benefit Analysis
II. Methods of Cost Benefit analysis
4-19Fourth Stage of Group Project, Doing the Evaluation, is Due
I. Costeffectiveness analysis
4-24 I. The context of sociological practice and evaluation research
II. Interpreting evaluation findings
4-26Reducing conflict between practitioners and stakeholders
I. Political time and evaluation time
II. Roles of evaluation
5-1 Presentations Due
5-2—5-8 Finals Week