TY - JOUR AU - Marin, Alexandra PY - 2012/11/08 Y2 - 2024/03/19 TI - The Logic of Social Inquiry (Methods Course with Elective Readings) JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/the-logic-of-social-inquiry-methods-course-with SP - AB - Using an innovative reading assignment structure balances the benefits of studying real research — not just a textbook — against the reality of too little time. Each student reads original research that uses at least one of the research methods studied. With these same studies used as in-class examples, students learn how the assumptions underlying research questions affect research methods chosen, how researchers using different methods create, present, and evaluate evidence, and how methods shape research findings. The final test requires students to use the study they have read to examine these themes.In one-semester courses, particularly where semesters are short, requiring that students both read a textbook and original research is often impractical. This is especially true in a research methods course where each textbook chapter is filled with new vocabulary and concepts that students must invest time to learn. Few students have the time, and perhaps fewer have the will, to read an additional 50 pages every week once their textbook reading and studying is done. Nonetheless, a methods course is more than a course in methodological vocabulary. In methods courses students should also learn that methods are intertwined with every aspect of the research process and that evaluating evidence requires awareness of these connections. This is best learned by examining how these connections play out in actual research projects.The syllabus provides an example reading for each method studied. These are termed elective readings: while no specific reading is required, students must do at least one reading on the list. Students can manage their own workloads over the course of the semester by choosing the week for which they will do an extra reading. Students’ varying schedules and preferences ensure that each week there are some students in class who have done the reading for that week and can contribute to a discussion of this example. ER -