In 2001, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Program in Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) awarded ASA and William Frey over $900,000 for a collaborative, three-year project to work with faculty at the sociology department level to introduce scientific reasoning and data analytic skills into the undergraduate curriculum.
The project entitled “Integrating Census Data Analysis into the Curriculum” [called IDA for short] is led by principal investigators William H. Frey, University of Michigan, and Carla B. Howery, ASA Deputy Executive Officer*. The project constitutes a collaboration between the successful Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN; see www.SSDAN.net) at Michigan and the ASA’s work with departments on addressing the quantitative literacy gap for undergraduate sociology students.
While almost every undergraduate sociology major includes one or more courses in research methods, this segment of the curriculum poses challenges for faculty and students. Sociology has one of the latest declaring majors. Even when the research component is required early in the major, students either put it off or find themselves taking it as seniors new to the major. In some programs, formal research training is disembodied from other course experiences throughout the major. For several years the ASA has recommended research training “early and often" preferably with several developmentally sequenced courses and projects. Furthermore, sociology plays a major role in general education. Lower division courses provide an important opportunity for conveying the excitement of scientific discovery to students who will major in other fields or may major or minor in sociology. The project also extends ASA’s initiatives to infuse undergraduate research training in the curriculum, especially in non-research methods courses.
The IDA project introduced department-wide interventions in a critical mass of courses in the curriculum of the 12 sociology departments competitively selected to participate. At least half of those departments’ members attended a 4-day summer workshop at University of Michigan, followed by the further development and use of data modules in courses the following academic year(s). The departments developed data-based modules drawn from the Census data, including Census 2000, and other relevant data sets like the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the General Social Survey (GSS). Each department received “technical assistance” from the IDA team, including a site visit to campus to work on the implementation plans the department has set for itself.
“Research training is central to quality education for sociology majors,” says Howery. To convey the excitement of the inquiry process, from conceptualization to analysis, we need ways to expose students early and often to research of all kinds.” The IDA project addresses the “scientific literacy" gap for undergraduate students in sociology in two ways:
First, IDA incorporates scientific reasoning into the curriculum of departments in ways that reach all students. Rather than work with individual faculty on course improvements, this project centers on departments making a collective commitment to infuse data analysis into lower division courses. This pervasive shift in the curriculum should ensure that students would experience the hands-on excitement of scientific discovery, ideally in developmentally sequenced ways.
Second, IDA will makes census data from the 2000 Census more broadly available to more users and departments extending the use of SSDAN curriculum materials in their impact on undergraduate student learning in the social and behavioral sciences. Students learn the factual lessons from the data, as well as the potential of the Census as a data source for a wide range of questions. From intensively working with 12 sociology departments, new lessons will be learned that can be used in other departments and disciplines and national dissemination through the SSDAN and ASA websites will be enhanced.
Cohort One
University of Central Florida
North Carolina State University
Sinclair Community College
South Dakota State University
SUNY-Brockport
Western Washington University
Cohort Two
Augsburg College
Berea College
Cleveland State University
Ithaca College
Lehman College
Wake Forest University
*The IDA staff included Kerry J. Strand, Hood College and Havidan Rodriguez, University of Delaware.
For questions, contact Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD
at vitullo@asanet.org or 202-383-9005 x 323; information on SSDAN at www.SSDAN.net.
