Exploring and Enhancing Experiential Teaching and Learning in Social Justice-Oriented Education

Experiential learning is a flexible instructional tool, adaptable to suit most courses. However, only a minority of instructors use these types of assignments in their courses. I examine whether short-term experiential learning reduces the drawbacks that may prevent instructors from using this instructional technique. I explore instructor and student perspectives on three types of short-term exercises: observations, participant-observations, and field trips. I find that short-term experiential assignments reduce the logistical concerns involved in experiential exercises and increase the opportunities for analytical reflection, especially for instructors of smaller courses and for non-field trip activities. In large introductory lecture courses, additional steps to structure the reflection process can successfully alleviate many of the problems dealing with lack of analysis. Proper selection of exercises included and careful choices about their use in courses or units with sensitive subject matter will help increase the chance of positive learning outcomes

Advanced undergraduate students struggle with executing complete research projects that involve data collection and analysis. Research indicates that engaging in undergraduate research is a high-impact practice. The American Sociological Association recommends that sociology majors engage in research beyond their research methods and statistics courses. We used a pre-/post-assessment model across three semesters in all upper-level undergraduate sociology courses at our institution. The assessment measured confidence, knowledge, and experience with research methods. Fifty-eight students completed at least one pre-/post-assessment pair. Of those, 27 students completed two pre-/post-assessments. No students completed three pre-/post-assessments. We find that experience and confidence had statistically significant increases at each survey point. Knowledge increased but was statistically significant for only two groups: the full sample on the first post-assessment (N = 58) and the students with two assessment pairs on their second post-assessment (N = 27) who participated across two semesters.

In this paper I review my use of arts-based research practices as a set of pedagogical tools for teaching media literacy in an undergraduate sociology course titled "Images & Power: Popular Culture." The paper details how I incorporated arts-based research into my course as a part of my holistic and participatory approach to media literacy. Arts-based practices are an effective tool for fostering critical consciousness. Samples of student work are included.

This is a book that will be of interest to scholars of U.S. religion and culture and to scholars of emerging adulthood. It would be useful i undergraduate sociology courses in U.S. religion, in sociology of religion, or sociology of c lture. It would be useful in graduate courses in these areas, as well, but only if coupled with other sources on emerging adulthood and religious commitment in the United States, so that students could assess for themselves the interpretive arguments about the implications of the patterns of belief and behavior that Smith describes so evocatively.

I teach an upper division undergraduate sociology course called Community. It is an elective course open to students from all departments and disciplines; for many students this is their first (and possibly last) sociology course. Nearly 200 students are enrolled in the class which meets in one of the largest classrooms on campus. The course requirements include a group project which gets students actively involved in discussion when the large class size and poor classroom setting would otherwise inhibit it. The project gives students the opportunity to integrate material from a variety of sources, such as texts, lectures, and guest presentations, then apply this material in the process of completing a group term paper. Most importantly, the group project utilizes experiential methods for learning abstract theories and concepts, which in my course include symbolic interactionism, socialism, and communitarian anarchism. The course examines the efforts of rural countercultural communitarians in the Pacific Northwest to create intentional or utopian communities. The concept of community is presented as a symbolic social-interactional construction involving both structures (i.e., institutional and organizational behaviors) and sensibilities (i.e., ideological beliefs and social psyches). Thus we study the behaviors and beliefs of the countercultural back-to-the-land movement, currently referred to as the alternative culture's bioregional movement, as they have conceived and practiced community. Texts for the course include Jentri Anders's Beyond Counterculture: The Community of Mateel (1990); Andruss, et al.'s Home! A Bioregional Reader (1990); Bennett Berger's The Survival of a Counterculture: Ideological Work and Everyday Life among Rural Communards (1981); and Kirkpatrick Sale's Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision (1990). The class meets for three hours one night a week for the duration of a twelve week quarter. Each class is divided into three hourly segments, each addressing the same general topic of that evening (e.g., communitarian kinship). The first hour of class I provide a standard lecture on the assigned readings, but also I include data from my own fieldwork in the area. The second hour is spent with guest lecturers who are all members of local communi-

The objective of this study is to explore the predictive factors influencing the teaching leadership and efficacy of physical education teachers. Through an in-depth analysis of various aspects including educational leadership, teaching efficacy, and educational experience, we aim to provide guidance for enhancing the teaching quality and educational outcomes of physical education teachers. Employing a quantitative research approach, we conducted a questionnaire survey and statistical analysis to study the key factors affecting the teaching leadership and efficacy of physical education teachers. The study found a significant positive correlation between educational leadership and teaching efficacy, and a close association between physical education experience and teaching efficacy. Educational leadership and teaching experience are important predictive factors influencing the educational efficacy of physical education teachers. Additionally, educational leadership has a significant impact on teaching efficacy under the moderation of educational experience, indicating that educational experience can enhance the positive effect of educational leadership on teaching efficacy. These findings underscore the significance of educational leadership and teaching experience in the educational efficacy of physical education teachers, providing valuable insights for the formulation and practice of physical education policies. Future research could further explore other factors affecting educational leadership and efficacy, and consider broader samples and research designs.

The aim of this interpretive qualitative case study was to conduct exploratory and evaluative research around the potential of problem-based learning (PBL) to foster meaningfulness in post-primary Physical Education in Ireland, specifically aligned with the Health-Related Physical Activity (HRPA) curriculum model of the Senior Cycle Physical Education (SCPE) framework. The study was a 12-week, interpretive case study with two data collection points in one Irish post-primary school. Methods for data collection were focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews, a teacher-researcher journal and questionnaires. The data analysis involved a thematic analysis approach. Implementation challenges arose such as adapting to changes in practise, insufficient class time allotment and a lack of supports for teachers. However, the learning experienced through a PBL approach in SCPE during this study was meaningful for students as it corresponded directly with students' future lives outside of school. Simultaneously PBL facilitated students' social and academic learning, promoted a more inclusive environment that was accessible to students, and allowed for student ownership of their own learning. PBL was also effective in educating students to apply SCPE content to future problematic situations. Thus, PBL enabled opportunities for transformative learning to occur. The findings of this study suggest that a PBL approach can be adapted to other subjects across post-primary senior cycle education. PBL also aligns with experiences viewed as desirable for senior cycle students by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in the recently published Senior Cycle Review: Consultation Document. PBL can be effective in helping students to reach the learning outcomes of SCPE and to value their Physical Education experience. Provided the cost of implementation is not too great, this should be sufficient justification to offer PBL as part of the post-primary education experience for students within Physical Education lessons and in their broader senior cycle education as a whole. PBL as an ‘umbrella’ instructional strategy is therefore both timely and evolutionary.

Place-based education is founded on the idea that the student’s local community is one of their primary learning resources. Place-based education’s underlying educational principle is that students need to first have an experiential understanding of the history, culture, and ecology of the environment in which they are situated before tackling broader national and global issues. Such attempts are a step in the right direction in dealing with controversial issues in a democracy by providing resources for synthesising curriculum though theory (curriculum content, including traditional subjects) and practice (practical learning as experiential education). Nevertheless, many place-based accounts discount Indigenous conceptions of place, which are integral to Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, especially in relation to the ontological relationship to Land and Country. Indigenous philosophy has the potential to inform what place-based education means by students developing a ‘sense of place’ when engaging with local communities as their ‘own’ place. In this article we re-imagine the community of inquiry as a place-responsive pedagogy by learning from Indigenous philosophy, and recentring Indigenous notions of place in experiential learning. In addition to exploring the pedagogical potential of a place-responsive account of the community of inquiry, we look to the implications for teacher preparation.

The motivation for this paper comes from need the need for our students to learn not only subject matter through traditional methods in a classroom, but foundational learning through experiences obtained directly in the workplace. The terminology used today for this student experience is referred to as experiential learning which comes in two forms, either learning 1) by yourself or 2) through experiential education (learning through programs established by others). You can kindly refer to learning by yourself as “nature’s way of learning” as it occurs as a direct participation in the life cycle. However, experiential education can be defined more succinctly as a structured approach, using experiences and the direction of others to create the learning curve. The issue at hand is simple does participatory (experiential) education create critical thinkers among our students and make them more aware of and able to more easily solve the problem(s) at hand? Our diligence has focused on two distinctly different courses in two different semesters (fall 2011 and spring 2012) in two different business disciplines (business marketing and entrepreneurship) at two distinctly different universities (Wagner College and Monmouth University) with one similar problem is there a significant benefit to experiential learning over traditional classroom pedagogy? Our findings are profound in the respect that both the participating subjects (students) and the participating businesses achieved significant benefits when this mode of education was used. Our conclusions in the paper signify that although more research is needed to further determine the significance of the impact of experiential learning, we have come away with a true picture of the educational benefits to the students and the productive benefits to the clients involved. An experiential educator's role is to organize and facilitate direct experiences of phenomenon under the assumption that this will lead to genuine (meaningful and long-lasting) learning. This often also requires preparatory and reflective exercises BOTH inside and outside the classroom.

This study explored the relationship between the teaching practices of Social Science teachers and the acquisition of 21st-century skills among Senior High School students in five public secondary schools in Banga 2 District, South Cotabato. Using a quantitative correlational design, the study involved 16 teachers and 227 randomly selected students. Data were analyzed through frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, regression analysis, and Pearson r correlation. Results revealed that teachers actively practiced student-centered approaches—such as activity-based learning, cooperative strategies, inquiry-based methods, and problem-based learning—with high effectiveness. However, the use of multimedia tools, while present, showed room for growth. Students across the district exhibited strong 21st-century skills, particularly in learning skills and digital literacy, although disparities in digital proficiency emerged across schools. Importantly, teachers’ demographic profiles—such as age, status, gender, and experience—did not significantly influence their teaching practices, except for educational attainment, which was linked to greater use of multimedia approaches. The study also confirmed that effective teaching practices significantly impact students’ 21st-century skills, especially problem-based and multimedia learning, which showed the strongest correlations. The findings highlight the need to continuously support teacher development in technology integration, enhance school infrastructure for digital learning, and strengthen mentorship for less experienced educators. The study recommends tailored professional development programs and policy initiatives to promote innovative and inclusive teaching. As education evolves, empowering teachers to embrace dynamic, student-focused, and tech-enabled strategies will be essential to preparing learners for the demands of a rapidly changing world.

George Ritzer, The of Society: 20th Anniversary Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2013, 237 pp., $46.00 paper (978-1-4522-2669-9). Over the past few decades, George Ritzer's work on has effectively become a franchise operation in its own right. Since his initial formulation of the term in a short article in the Journal of American Culture in 1983, the so-called McDonaldization has spawned a score of related books and academic articles by Ritzer and others, generated an extensive secondary literature, become a pedagogical staple in countless university courses, and established itself as part of the popular lexicon in ways that few sociological concepts ever have. The recent publication of a special 20th anniversary edition of Ritzer's The of Society presents us with an opportunity to reflect appreciatively but critically upon this impressive legacy, and to assess how well Ritzer's long-established theoretical framework has been able to adapt to or withstand the shifting winds of intellectual and historical change. Although this seventh edition of Ritzer's classic text has updated its range of topical references and ventured to address a range of new issues, it is also--somewhat counter-intuitively--notably shorter and more concisely argued than the previous edition. Ritzer's decision to condense and combine previously separate chapters and to significantly pare back his analysis of topics such as globalization threatens to amplify the book's preexisting tendency toward intellectual simplification and overgeneralization, but it arguably enhances the book's already considerable appeal as an undergraduate teaching text. While his fellow professional scholars might understandably wish that Ritzer had afforded himself the space to reformulate and defend the thesis with greater nuance, precision, and responsiveness to his critics, it would be remiss of them not to appreciate his unique ability to make otherwise daunting theoretical material accessible, relevant, and exciting for a lay audience. Indeed, in the context of undergraduate sociology courses in which many students often remain quite suspicious of or outright hostile to the ostensibly musty and irrelevant domain of theory, Ritzer's book provides an excellent initiation into the sweep and excitement of theoretical thinking. Drawing upon a broadly conceived version of the Weberian theory of rationalization, all editions of this book have helped students to draw vital connections between far-flung historical events such as the emergence of modern state bureaucracy and the development of Taylorized factory production, the fast food industry, and the McDonaldizing tendencies at work in education, leisure, travel, sports, religion, family life, shopping, popular entertainment, the news media, social work, and many other spheres of contemporary social life. While acknowledging the quasi-democratic and populist appeal of many McDonaldized institutions and experiences, Ritzer--as ever--retains a strong emphasis upon the irrational, destructive, disenchanting, and dehumanizing consequences of formally rational systems. This provides him with a means of establishing a common thread between an array of pressing social, environmental, psychological and health-related risks and pathologies in contemporary society. Ritzer's basic conceptualization of as an insidious, tentacular, and ultimately irrational social process driven by the pursuit of maximum efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control remains intact in this latest edition of his book; he is, however, is at pains to freshly address a variety of recent social, cultural, economic, technological, and intellectual developments that seem to either validate or challenge the ongoing salience of this process. In the first instance, this entails addressing McDonald's own ongoing efforts to rebrand and reposition itself in an era of economic uncertainty, insurgent competition from other restaurant chains, and growing public disaffection with the fast food sector, understood as both the chief emblem of an unhealthy, unsustainable, and morally suspect industrial food system, and as a powerful symbol of the malaise of consumer capitalism more generally. …

ABSTRACTEducational research indicates that teachers revealing and utilizing students’ prior knowledge supports students’ academic learning. Yet, the variation in students’ prior knowledge is not fully known. To better understand students’ prior knowledge, I drew on sociocultural learning theories to examine racially and ethnically diverse college students’ sociopolitical prior knowledge, a component of sociopolitical consciousness. In this qualitative study, I interviewed 18 first-generation college students in the U.S. who were enrolled in two introductory undergraduate sociology courses. Study participants identified as African-American, Latino, and/or White. The study reveals that students’ sociopolitical prior knowledge is comprised of awareness and understanding and it varies by topic of discussion. Further, college students’ sociopolitical prior knowledge is informed by lived experiences and can relate to subject-matter content. Implications for teaching and learning include having a deepened sense of novice learners’ modes of thinking.

Aspectre is haunting the world of sexuality: the fact of sexual diversity. Sexual rights can be said to be concerned with three sets of practices: practices of identity; erotic practices; and practices of relating. At least 90% of UK undergraduate sociology courses have modules on sexuality, lesbian and gay studies, queer studies and the like. The challenge is to find a balance between a recognition of individual needs and desires, mutual responsibilities, sensitivity to difference, and at least a minimum agreement on common human standards. Sexuality may always have been an arena of moral and cultural conflict, but in contemporary societies sexuality is becoming an increasingly central and explicitly debated issue in mainstream cultural conflicts and political debates over values and citizenship. The complex ways in which gender is constructed, and reinforced and set in patterns of dominance and subordination through the institutionalisation of heterosexuality, is central to developing understanding of sexualities and sexual cultures.

This paper draws on qualitative data from a study of student use of blended learning as part of a conventionally taught undergraduate Sociology course. Findings from an early evaluation questionnaire highlighted an overwhelming pattern of non‐use of the materials and subsequent research with a group of 16 students evidenced limited and inconsistent engagement with the resources. In an analysis of the category ‘non‐use’, the students’ rejection of the materials is seen to be closely related to a trust in traditional texts as authentic academic knowledge and an instrumental and strategic approach to study. Blended learning resources are shown to challenge existing learning patterns and practices, reconfigure existing understandings and expectations of academic scholarship and reconstruct academic boundaries in new spaces.

The future of health professions education: Emerging trends in the United States.