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Text:
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Graduate Research Method (Sociology 575)
(Required Reading Package).
·
Neuman, W. Lawrence. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sixth
Edition. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Publisher: Allyn & Bacon.
Copyright: 2006 (optional).
·
Jiaming Sun. Global Connectivity and Local Transformation. University Press
of America.
ISBN 0-7618-4008-7 (optional).
Additional reading materials to be distributed in seminars.
Student Learning
Outcomes/Objectives
Research is the heart of social inquiry. In a
Master granting program, one important goal is to train graduate students
to be disciplined, productive researchers. This course fulfills one of the
core requirements in the sociology graduate program. It is designed to give
students a broad view of the variety of approaches for designing a good
quality social research. Typically graduate students at Texas A&M
University-commerce are required to take a research methods course. The
purposes or objectives of the course are:
Ø To develop and discipline your curiosity and passion for inquiry by
converting problems and puzzles into research questions and designs for
empirical research;
Ø To choose appropriately, and describe in detail sufficient to
justify to a research design for a specific research project;
Ø To develop an ability to read with comprehension research reports,
especially those found in professional journals. Primarily, the goal is
application of information for one's professional pursuit and/or graduate
study;
Ø To learn to write with adequate organization, clarity, and scholarly
style: a research proposal, a critique of published research, a graduate
paper, and a research report;
Ø To become familiar with the steps necessary to the writing of your
master's thesis. This includes
survey, ethnographic field research, unobtrusive research, and experimental
types of investigations.
This
course is an eCollege online supporting course (a hybrid course). eCollege
is a campus wide web-enhanced internet teaching and learning support
system. Students taking this course will be asked to surf online course
website, get reading material, download and upload assignments, take online
quizzes and exams, check their grades and cumulative points with
percentiles anytime they are online. If you are not familiar with the use
of eCollege or the Library Online Services, please avail yourself of the
online tutorials easily accessible through your MyLeo web page.
You
will need your CWID and password to log in to the course. If you do not
know your CWID or have forgotten your password, contact Technology Services
at 903.468.6000 or helpdesk@tamucommerce.edu
Course
requirements
As per the university
rule, students taking one course with three credits hours are expected to
spend the same amount of time as attending lectures on out of class
activities (three hours in class, and three hours out of class), such as
reading, doing assignments, and preparing quizzes and exams.
To meet those learning goals, this course
requires you to demonstrate your critical engagement with the readings and
issues of research design through questions,
presentations and discussions in class, and proposal completion.
You will be required to prepare questions,
presentations and discussions each class meeting based on assigned
readings. Your final grade will reflect your engagement of questions
preparation, class presentations (discussions) and research proposal
completion. At the final stage of the course, you will be required to
submit a professional research proposal for “reviewing by the IRB” (Institutional Review
Boards).
Discussion and
Participation:
Graduate study means
learning to learn from every possible source -- from your readings, your
peers, your life experience, your professor, and your research practice.
Participating in discussions is one of the best ways to learn. You are expected to contribute your
questions and insights to the seminar.
The culture of the
seminars will, I hope, be a congenial one for self-expression. I cannot
help you learn if you don't participate in discussion, however. Doing
excellent written work is not enough to demonstrate adequate performance in
graduate study. Whatever you do, don't suffer in silence. Say anything you
can defend against reasoned argument. Treat your colleagues' contributions
with respect (which means taking them seriously and challenging them as
well as extending basic courtesy).
The attendance points
will not be given to those who are tardy or leave early. Excuse of absence is not necessary
and will not alter your attendance records. Excessive tardiness may result
in a further loss of points from your overall performance points. It can
mean a difference of a final letter grade. Take it seriously.
Reading Summaries and Exams:
Each student must be
prepared to discuss all the readings assigned for a class meeting unless
the instructors explicitly specify otherwise. For selected readings, students must submit reading summary to
TurnItIn.
We encourage students
to discuss reading materials with each other; however, each student must be
the sole author of his/her written assignments. If you cannot complete
assignments on time due to an emergency, you must let me know before the
assignment is due.
An Initial Research Proposal (IRP)
will be required to submit for your midterm exam. The length of IRP will be
about 3-4 pages. Your finalized proposal is a Professional Research Proposal (PRP) with length no more than
16 pages. The proposal has the following elements: specify a problem of
sociological significance, convert problem into a series of hypotheses, and
specify the assumptions that are implicit and explicit, literature review,
operationalize the concepts, develop a questionnaire, and develop a code
manual.
Pre-test and Post-test
At the beginning of
the semester, every student must take a pre-test including about 30
multiple choice questions related to basic knowledge of social research
methods for undergraduate study (30 points). A post-test will take place at
the final stage of the course with 30 multiple choice questions randomly
selected from the same test bank (30 points).
Grading Policy: YOU
EARN YOUR OWN POINTS :
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Attendance/Online Activity
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120
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Reading Summaries/outlines
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105
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Discussions/Participations
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45
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Pre-test and
Post-test
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60
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Initial Research Proposal (midterm
exam)
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30
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Professional Research
Proposal (final exam)
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100
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Overall
performance
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40
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Total
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500
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Overall performance points
(40 points) based primarily on ranking percentile in class will be added on
your total points. For instance, student who is at the 80th percentile will
receive 36 points, and student who is at the 60th percentile will receive
28 points and so on.
Final grades will be assigned on the following
aspects and scale:
A: Truly exceptional and outstanding work. (450-500)
B: Solid, acceptable graduate-level work. (400-449)
B-: Near acceptable level for graduate work.
(350-399)
C: Not acceptable level for graduate work. (300-349)
TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS AND
MATERIAL NEEDS
This is a web-enhanced course and some obvious
technological resources will be required. Our campus is optimized to
work in a Microsoft Windows environment. This means that our course works
best if you are using a Windows operating system (XP or newer) and a recent
version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (6.0, 7.0 or 8.0). Along with
Internet Explorer and Safari, eCollege also supports the Firefox browser
(3.0) on both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Word
processing software (Microsoft Word preferred);
SPSS software
(recommended);
Some floppy
diskettes or jump drive to use exclusively for this class;
A speaker for
watching online SPSS demos
when student using computer at lab or at home;
A binder or
folder to organize and save computer instructions and output from programs
run for lab. Bring this to lab each week;
A hand
calculator to prepare homework assignments and for use in class and during
exams. Any basic calculator with a square root function will suffice.
You are
strongly recommended to have a computer with internet connections at home
to complete course assignments and online quizzes.
COURSE AND UNIVERSITY
PROCEDURES/POLICIES
Disruptive Behavior
"Disruptive
behavior" includes but not limited being rude to other people,
destructive (rather than constructive) criticism of another, arriving late
repeatedly, sleeping during class, belligerent or aggressive behavior, and
so on. These behaviors have no place in a college classroom. You have a
right to maintain your own opinions and to disagree with others, but you
must do so in a fashion that is conducive to learning and does not take the
form of a personal attack on others. Minimally, you are expected to treat
your classmates and your professor in a respectful fashion and they will
return the favor. Any behavior that obstructs or disrupts the classroom
teaching and learning environment will be addressed. Serious or repeated
breaches in appropriate behavior may result in a degradation of your final
grade in the course and may be referred to additional University
authorities.
Cheating &
Plagiaris
It
should go without saying that every student is expected to do his/her own
work. Department policy provides that anyone caught cheating in any form or
fashion will receive an “F” for the course and may be subjected to further
disciplinary action by the university. Plagiarism (the use of others’
words, phrases, and ideas in your writing without giving credit to the
original author) is a form of cheating and not only violates academic
ethical standards, but is against the law.
Policies on
Enrollment, “X”, “DP,” “DF,” and Withdrawal
Every
student has the right to drop the course without penalty until the drop date.
Students dropping the course during this period will be given a DP (drop
while passing). A grade of DP is GPA neutral, but a grade of DF counts as
an F on your transcript.
If
you choose to stop attending class, you may be dropped from the course due
to excessive absences. If you are not satisfied with your grade in the
course and wish you to drop, it is YOUR responsibility to drop the course.
Once a grade of DP or DF has been registered, I will not be able to change
it. A student may drop a course by logging into their myLEO account and
clicking on the hyperlink labeled 'Drop a class' from among the choices
found under the myLEO section of the Web page.
Students
should check the university catalog, current semester schedule, and other
official sources for specific deadlines, policies, etc. It is the student’s
responsibility to see that all university procedures are properly followed.
Student Requiring
Assistance
The
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination
statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons
with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all
students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that
provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you have a
disability requiring an accommodation, please contact:
Office of Student Disability Resources and
Services
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Gee Library, Room 132
Phone (903) 886-5150 or (903) 886-5835
Fax (903) 468-8148
Email: StudentDisabilityServices@tamu-commerce.edu
COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
Email Correspondence
In
this course, e-mail is an essential corresponding method and supplement to
lectures. This means that you can expect to hear from the instructor via
emails regularly throughout the semester, such as using e-mail for
reminders, clarifications, last-minute notifications, etc. Needless to say,
students are expected to check email regularly in daily fashion (a couple
of times a day). Conversely, you should feel free to contact the instructor
via e-mail with questions, requests or problems that were not or could not
be addressed clearly in classes (or online lectures).
You
have access to an email account via myLeo - all my emails sent from
eCollege (and all other university emails) will go to this account.
Conversely, you are to email me via the eCollege email system or your myLeo
email as our spam filters will catch yahoo, hotmail, etc. and I will not
check for your email in spam.
HOWEVER
in order to avoid duplication of questions and answers, please post all
class related questions in the Virtual Office. This will be our Q&A
forum. It is likely that your peers will have the same question. Emails of
a personal nature should be sent to individual instructors email addresses
via eCollege.
If
you are having problems in class, please come and talk to me immediately. I
will be better able to help you if you come to me early. Please understand
that you should not come to me at the end of the semester, unhappy with
your grade, asking for a way to change it. Grades will not be changed.
COURSE OUTLINE / CALENDAR
The course schedule is
tentative and somewhat subject to change. Although this course will follow
the schedule, it is possible that some adjustments will be made as we
progress through the semester.
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Week
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Dates (M)
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Topic/ Readings
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Note
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1
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Jan. 24
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Brief introduction; Organizational meeting.
Pre-test
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2
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Jan.
31
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A Methodology for
Twenty-First Century Sociology. Joel Smith
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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3
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Feb.
7
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On the Microfoundation of Macrosociology.
Randall Collins.
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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4
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Feb.
14
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Manifesto for a relational Sociology. Mustafa Emirbayer.
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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5
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Feb.
21
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Theory and Method in Comparative Research:
Two Strategies. Charles Ragin, and David Zaret
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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6
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Feb. 28
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Review for the exam.
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7
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Mar. 7
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***Midterm Exam***
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8
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Mar. 14
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Spring
Break
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9
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Mar. 21
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Discussion of initial idea of research
proposal
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10
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Mar.28
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Measurement of World City
Network. P.J. Taylor, G. Catalano and D.R.F.Walker.
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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11
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Apr. 4
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Cross-National Research As an Analytic
Strategy. Melvin L. Kohn
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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12
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Apr. 11
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Historical Method in Consumer Research
Developing Causal Explanations of Change. Ruth Ann Smith, David S. Lux
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Reading with article abstract/outline
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13
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Apr. 18
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Review for the exam.
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14
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Apr. 25
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Discussion research proposal individually.
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15
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May 2
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Discussion research proposal individually.
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16
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May 9
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***Final Exam***
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