Dr. John Lamberton Putting Sociology to Work |
MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY for college and university instruction "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Benjamin Franklin "If you're teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are." Noam Chomsky |
I am a
Clinical Sociologist working in the private sector who also enjoys
teaching in higher education.
My practice
"putting sociology to work"
significantly influences the way I teach college and university courses.
My teaching philosophy requires that students take ownership of
their own educational process and practice self-regulated learning. I put sociology to work by applying
traditional course content including theory and research methods to every-day life situations to facilitate, operationalize, and maximize student learning outcomes. My
instructional strategy is supported by Barry J. Zimmerman’s “Self-Regulated Learning and
Academic Achievement.”
Zimmerman is a pioneer of self-regulated learning theory which concludes
that when students become engaged, they take greater responsibility for
their learning outcomes and their academic performance greatly improves.
I seek to
build on Zimmerman’s theory by promoting intellectual curiosity.
According to
Seth Godin in his book,
Tribes, “Fundamentalists
are people who consider whether a fact is acceptable…...before they
explore it. As opposed to
curious people who explore first and then consider whether or not
they
want to accept the ramifications.”
Godin
continues to write, “Groups (college classes) create vacuums……with no
motion.” I have found that
self-regulated learners “figure out how to step into those vacuums and
create motion.”
Self-regulated students “can take the initiative and lead.”
Godin believes that “participating isn’t leading……. showing up
isn’t sufficient.”
Self-regulated students “work hard to generate movement.”
They “can provoke and question and ask for more.” I prefer to
encourage, stimulate, and facilitate student learning rather than
continuously lecturing as if I was the only person in the classroom
capable of operationalizing course content. My
lectures are embedded with focused class discussions to encourage a
climate of reasoning and questioning.
I change the pace of my instruction by including diverse learning
strategies. Community
resources are regularly mined and included in class content.
Guest speakers and field trips are extremely important to the
learning process by bringing sociological theory and research methods to
life. I use
technology, i.e., films, power points, internet resources, etc. to
support the traditional body of sociological knowledge.
Writing assignments, i.e., papers, short quizzes using open ended
questions, class notes, etc. are an important part of the class
instruction. Formal class
presentations include a visual aid, i.e., a power point (or equivalent)
component. These
presentations encourage students to organize and present their ideas in
a formal activity that is creative, interesting, concise, and
well-reasoned. I construct
strong, clear, concise and thoughtful syllabi blending my
expectations as a teaching professional, expectations of the academic
department and teaching institution, and general expectations of the discipline into a
cohesive document that details the processes for attaining specific and attainable
student learning outcomes.
Attendance is required although there are strategies in the
syllabus for successfully addressing unanticipated interruptions. Statistics,
research methods and research literature are a significant part of
course content. Library
professionals help provide students’ with a capacity to evaluate library resources and
understand the differences between opinion, fiction, advocacy and
peer-reviewed literature.
In
addition to utilizing several teaching platforms like Blackboard and D2L,
I use my own time-tested instructional website which blends
transformational learning pedagogies with accepted course content.
Drjohnlamberton.com features sociological videos, blogs,
podcasts, webinars, and video conference capabilities concentrated on Putting Sociology to
Work applied instruction. I enjoy putting sociology to work in the classroom in order to encourage students to reach their full academic potential through the portals of sociological knowledge and practice. TEACHING DEMO
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