EMBRACING THE LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH: A NEIGHBORHOOD RESEARCH EXAMPLE

Abstract

Teachers struggle with helping students learn complex content, on the one hand, and encouraging students to become more engaged at the beginning of the course, on the other. After nine years of teaching in a traditional way, I now employ a more learner-centered approach. To engage students intellectually right away, I hand out a neighborhood research...

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Details

Subject Area(s):

Urban Sociology

Resource Type(s):

Essay

Class Level(s):

College 400

Class Size(s):

Medium

Usage Notes

1) This assignment takes ten weeks to perform the seven parts of the assignment and write the first draft, plus one extra week to engage in a self-assessment of the assignment, get feedback from the instructor and/or fellow students, and write the final draft.
2) Students should bring their assignment to every class.
3) The project is worth 50% of...

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. 1) Understand how to conduct neighborhood research using quantitative (e.g., census data) and qualitative data (e.g., observations of public spaces, photos).
2. 2) Learn urban sociology concepts, such as the political economy approach and racial & social class segregation/integration (e.g., ghettoes, ethnic enclaves, gated communities, cosmopolitan canopies, demographic vs. social integration).
3. 3) Develop skills and the disposition to become active learners and researchers.

Goal Assessment(s):

1. Please see the following supplemental documents for guidance on how I assess the extent to which students learned the course's learning goals: 1) grading rubric; 2) student self-assessment; and 3) assessment of small-group members.