This article presents the "modus operandi" of a game, the so-called Game of Shapes, which can be used as an active learning tool to teach Constructivism to introductory International Relations courses. While sharing our own experience of the development and application of the game in a laboratory with International Relations students,…

Even though pedagogy courses in sociology are on the rise, many departments do not offer or require a course on teaching sociology or a teaching proseminar series. However, faculty in such departments do have other options for incorporating and integrating pedagogical issues into their standard curriculum. In this note, I offer one suggestion for…

Many theories have been offered to explain why people are impoverished. This article by Karen Seccombe uses the case study of "Dee," a newly single mother, to explore four of the most common: individualism, social structuralism, the culture of poverty, and fatalism. She concludes that poverty is a highly complex phenomenon, and it is likely that…

Elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew maintains that a society ruled by elites is necessary to provide for high growth and social progress. Elitism conjures a class divide; an ongoing concern is a disconnection between elite and the citizens it has to represent. In the tradition of political socialization, and using the case study approach, this article…

"It's all up to the individual!" Most sociology instructors have encountered this response from students who have internalized the dominant ideological perspective of "personal responsibility" and therefore resist their efforts to encourage a rigorous examination of structural forces. A number of articles in recent issues of "Teaching Sociology"…

Explores the state of the college student community in Moscow (Russia). Focuses on the changes in the social structure, the comparison of the material condition of college students and other social groups, and the problem of students' learning activity, in particular their value orientations and the quality of educational services. (CMK)

Community service learning offers students the opportunity to cross socially constructed and epistemological borders of power and privilege, allowing them to come into contact with groups of people who are different from themselves and to learn in different ways. Peer facilitators, undergraduate student instructional leaders who guide others…

Contends that many students enter sociology with an exaggerated belief in their own uniqueness. Presents a description of a course activity in which students see how social forces affect their choices and chances, thereby seeing the sociological perspective on social problems. (CFR)

Student perceptions of educational opportunities in contrasting educational settings in West Germany are explored. Two types of schools predominate in the Federal Republic of Germany. One type, the traditional, is characterized by a high degree of state control of the curriculum, teacher training, years of schooling, and number and type of…