Learning Goals and Objectives
Sociology majors graduating from Lehman College should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following five learning goals and the related objectives:
GOAL I (core knowledge): the core sociological concepts, such that the student will be able to:
- compare and contrast a sociological perspective with other scientific perspectives
- identify the contributions of key figures and events to the historical development of sociology as a scientific discipline
- identify, define, distinguish and illustrate core sociological concepts (society; social structure; culture; religion; social institutions, e.g., family, economy; social change; social class; status; race; ethnicity; gender; social conflict; deviance; etc.)
GOAL II (theory): the role of theory in sociology, such that the student will be able to:
- define theory and describe its role in building sociological knowledge
- identify, describe and compare the major theoretical paradigms (functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism, positivisim, feminism etc.)
- distinguish middle-range theory from theoretical paradigm and describe applications of middle-range theories in the study of specific social institutions and processes
GOAL III (research): the use of empirical evidence in sociology, such that the student will be able to:
- propose a research design to answer sociological questions or test hypotheses
- describe, compare and contrast some of the basic quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches employed to gather social science data e.g., sampling, survey, observation, experiments, interview, secondary data analysis, etc.
- implement methods of social data collection
- calculate and interpret descriptive and inferential statistics
- summarize the content of qualitative data
- describe and apply the principles of ethical practice required in social research
GOAL IV (IT literacy): the role of computers, internet resources and libraries in sociological research, so that the student will be able to:
- access original and peer-reviewed published sociological research and data
- distinguish credible peer-reviewed published sociological research and knowledge from other information
- use standard computer software for basic data analyses
- use word-processing and other software to produce sociological reports
GOAL V (communication literacy): the strategies for communicating sociological research and arguments, such that the student will be able to:
- document writing with ASA style citations and bibliographies
- write a complete account of a social event, topic, issue or problem using sociological concepts, arguments or theories
- review and critically assess published research papers
- write annotated bibliographies
- write a sociological literature review
- write up a complete research proposal designed to answer sociological questions or test hypotheses
