Brad Wright
Essays about Teaching Sociology
Part of teaching is thinking about what does, and more often the case, does not work. Here is a collection of essays, by myself and others, about our experiences in the classroom.
This details the use of in-class evaluations, given out on a regular basis, as a way of revamping one's course during the semester.
How Much Work to Give Students
Here's my theory for how much class work to assign and how hard to make it.
Students may not appreciate the significant ways that professors are different than them, and maybe not for the best. Here is a discussion of ways that professors differ from their students.
Are professors biased against Christians?
Most university professors are not evangelical Christians. May students are. Are professors biased against these students? Here's some perhaps disturbing data.
The social psychological literature makes clear that small rewards can have big impacts in behavior. This essays applies this principle to teaching, and how little things, such as 1-point essays and small handcuffs can increase students desire to learn.
Documentaries give my students a chance to learn and think about parts of the social world unfamiliar to them. This essay explains how and why I use them in class.
(Here is a list of films that I should in my criminology class.)
( A Monty Python clip that illustrates social conflict)
The Pedagogical Value of Deceit
All too often students sit quietly, uncritically taking in what they hear in class. This essay describes my occasional use of deceit to encourage students to critically evaluate the material.
An continuous worry in teaching is that the students aren't learning anything beyond memorization for tests. Here, Chris Uggen, at Minnesota sociology, asked his students how the class came up in the rest of their lives. Fascinating answers, and something I plan to do in my own class.
My favorite extra-credit assignment
This assignment has students find video and sound clips for me to use for class in future semesters, and it gets them thinking about the concepts covered in class. A win-win.
What makes for a good professor?
A story about one of the best teachers in American Universities, and what we can learn from him.
A somewhat curmudgeon view of the motivation for teaching.
Self-presentation in the classroom
As professors, we're expected to act in the classroom like, well, professors. Here are some thoughts on what that looks like and times when we might not want to.
Making a good test is rather difficult, and I am not always sure that I have done so. What are the characteristics of a good one?