Week 1
Portfolio
Thursday 1/21 Introductions to topic and course structure
MSSW 1.d.1 What topic would you focus on … are your motives
Week 2
Portfolio
Tuesday 1/26 Social Science as a Way of Knowing
Science as a style of thinking; illogical reasoning; over-generalization; selective (or inaccurate) observation, confirmation bias, resistance to change. Validity and generalizability
Read MSSW Ch. 1
Lazarsfeld, P. "What is Obvious?" (handout)
"What is obvious?" reflection.
Tuesday Lab Digitools I (SOC/ANTH)
Maintaining digital bibliographies using Zotero; citation formats; using Zotero with Word to format bibliographies.
Read MSSW Appendix A
View "Getting Started with Zotero"
Lab Guide
Portfolio setup
Zotero online library with 3 entries
Thursday 1/28 The Many Faces of Research
What is research? Descriptive research; evaluation research; explanatory research; exploratory research, etc.
Wikipedia, "Program Evaluation" ( + skim MSSW Ch.12, "Evaluation Research")
Wikipedia, "Exploratory Research"
Wikipedia "Needs Assessment"
Wikipedia "Cost Benefit Analysis"
Wikipedia "Political Feasibility Analysis"
Wikipedia "Organizational Analysis"
Lecture: What is Good Science?
Define the 16 key terms at the end of MSSW Chapter 1
Week 3
Portfolio
Tuesday 2/2 The Disciplines and their Epistemologies I
History
David Christian, TED Talk on Big History
Anthropology
Fischer, E. "Fieldwork And The Anthropological Method" (first 5:00)
View MIT SHASS "Doing Anthropology" (~8:00)
View IDEO: "The Ten Faces of Innovation: The Anthropologist" (~3:00)
View Walsh, M. : "Why Do Companies Need Anthropologists?" (~2:00)
Read Wikipedia. "Emic and Etic"
Tuesday Lab Digitools I (HIST/PPOL)
See 1/26 lab
(Same as week 2)
Thursday 2/4 The Disciplines and their Epistemologies II
Sociology
View Sociology Videos
Read Durkheim: Social Facts
Public Policy
Read Weimer 2002, “Enriching Public Discourse”
Read Behn 1985, “Policy Analysts, Clients, and Social Scientists”
MSSW 1.d.2
Think about a topic and write a short essay suggesting what your current impression is about what each discipline could add or would miss in studying it.
Week 4
Portfolio
Tuesday 2/9 Some Thinking Tools of Research
Lecture Notes
Concepts, operationalization, variables, units/levels of analysis
MSSW Ch.2, pp. 21-28 on question, theory, & strategy
MSSW, pp. 28-36 on units/levels of analysis
MSSW Ch. 4, pp. 65-67 on conceptualization
MSSW, pp. 69-75 on operationalization
Worksheet using conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement applied to Oakland case (or thesis topic)
NO LAB
Thursday 2/11 Conceptualization and Measurement
Scales, indices, levels of measurement, validity, accuracy, precision, reliability
MSSW Ch. 4, pp. 76-79 on levels of measurement
MSSW, pp. 80-84 on assessing measurement
Worksheet using conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement applied to Oakland case (or thesis topic)
Week 5
Portfolio
Tuesday 2/16 Establishing Causation
Causation, experimental design, threats to validity
Review MSSW Ch 2, pp. 28-36, "What is the design?"
MSSW Ch 6, pp. 111-115, "Causal Explanation”
MSSW, pp. 116-123, "Why Experiment?"
MSSW, pp. 123-130, "Threats to Validity"
MSSW, pp.130-132 “Protect their subjects”
Handout worksheet requiring some application of these ideas to Oakland case (or thesis topic)
NO LAB
Thursday 2/18 Sampling
Why sample, probability sampling, non-probability sampling
Statistics Learning Centre "Sampling: Simple Random, Convenience, systematic, cluster, stratified" (5:00)
MSSW, "Preparing to Sample," pp. 91-98
MSSW "Probability Sampling Methods," pp. 99-102
MSSW "Non-probability Sampling Methods," pp. 103-105
Blastland and Dilnot. Chapter 8, Sampling: Drinking from a Fire Hose. 111–131.
ALL: worksheet on sampling using Oakland census data
Module Evaluation 1 DUE MONDAY 2/22 BY 5:00pm
Week 6
Portfolio
Tuesday 2/23
Quantitative Methods I: Univariate Distributions
Frequency, distributions, percentiles, central tendency and dispersion
MSSW Ch. 8, pp. 167-181, Why, How, etc
MSSW, pp. 186-191, Secondary data and big data
MSSW, pp. 192-193, Ethical Issues
Worksheet: Oakland tract level data, frequencies, distribution, etc.(MSSW 8.d.1 modified)
Tuesday Lab (ALL STUDENTS)
Sampling + Univariate Statistics with Excel
Random number tables, sampling distributions, central limit theorem
Vernon, A. "Descriptive Statistics in Excel" (2:39)
Wardell, D. "Descriptive Stats in Excel 2010" (6:30)
O'Loughlin, E. "How To…Plot a Normal Frequency Distribution Histogram in Excel 2010" (6:40)
Digital version of class work
Thursday 2/25
Quantitative Methods II: Relationships Between Variables
Tables and covariation, table percentaging, bivariate statistics
MSSW Ch.8, pp. 181-185
HIST: Preliminary research plan (due in class 2/25)
ALL: Worksheet on tables
Week 7
Portfolio
Tuesday 3/1 Quantitative Methods III:Controlling for Another Variable
- MSSW, 185-186
- Hedstrom, Peter. 2005. "Dissecting the Social"
Worksheet on Table Elaboration
Tuesday Lab (ALL) Pivot Tables: Most Useful Tool in the World
- TBA
- Lab writeup
Thursday 3/3 Quantitative Methods IV: Statistics for Assessing Relationships
- TBA
- HIST: Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Sources (due in class 3/3)
Week 8
Portfolio
Tuesday 3/8 Spare
This session deliberately left open to allow for flexibility as needed.
TBA
Tuesday Lab (ALL) Bivariate Statistics with Excel
TBA
Lab Writeup
Thursday 3/10 Regression for Beginners
TBA
HIST: Annotated Bibliography of Primary Sources (due in class 3/10)
Module Evaluation 2 DUE MONDAY 3/14 BY 5:00pm
Week 9
Portfolio
Tuesday 3/15 The Raw Materials of History
TBA
TBA
Tuesday Lab (ALL) How to do an Audio/Video Interview
TBA
TBA
Thursday 3/17 Oral History
TBA
TBA
SPRING BREAK
Week 10
Portfolio
Tuesday 3/29 Qualitative Methods I
Read MSSW Ch.9, Qualitative Methods
TBA
Tuesday Lab (ALL) How to Give a Lighting Talk
Workshop in creating slides and narrative and delivering a hyper-brief talk on one's work.
- Chris Anderson. 2013. "How to Give a Killer Presentation," Harvard Business Review
TBA
Thursday 3/31 Qualitative Methods
Continue discussion of MSSW Ch.9
TBA
Note: The class will divide in weeks 11-12.
Week 11 (PPOL)
Portfolio
Tuesday 4/5 Discounting
Schutt Chapter 12
Ryan "Discounting 101"
Stokey & Zeckhauser Ch. 10, "The Valuation of Future Consequences: Discounting," pp. 159-165
Roberts 2012, “Discount Rates: A Boring Thing You Should Know About (with otters).”
PPOL: Discounting math prereq worksheet
Tuesday Lab (PPOL ONLY) Discounting Lab
Discounting calculations with Excel.
TBA
PPOL: Lab writeup
Thursday 4/7 Discounting
Rossi 1999 Ch.11
PPOL: Discounting Problemset
Week 12 (PPOL)
Portfolio
Tuesday 4/12 Cost Benefit Analysis I
Stokey and Zeckhauser. 1978. Chapter 9, Project Evaluation: Benefit-Cost Analysis. 134–158
PPOL: CBA Problemset
Tuesday Lab (required for PPOL, optional for others)
Cost Benefit Lab
Doing cost-benefit with Excel
TBA
PPOL: Lab writeup
Tuesday 4/14 Cost Benefit Analysis II
Read MSSW 12 (Evaluation Research)
PPOL: CBA Problemset
Week 11 (HIST/SOCA)
Portfolio
Tuesday 4/5 Qualitative Methods III: Data Analysis Techniques
Read MSSW Ch. 10
TBA
Tuesday Lab (HIST AND SOC/ANTH)
Conducting Interviews, Transcribing, Coding
No assigned reading
TBA
Thursday 4/7 Qualitative Methods IV: Alternative Data Analysis
Continued discussion of MSSW Ch. 10
TBA
Week 12 (HIST/SOCA)
Portfolio
Tuesday 4/12 Qualitative Data and Ethics
Read MSSW 3 (Ethics)
Read: “Puff The Magic Sociologist: Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader For A Day, A Rogue Sociologist Takes To The Streets” by Claire Potter.
Listen to: “Professor Turns ‘Gang Leader for a Day’” on NPR.
Identify two ethnographic studies related to your topic. Include them in your Zotero bibliography.
Tuesday Lab (OPTION TO JOIN PPOL STUDENTS)
TBA
Thursday 4/14 Communicating Your Research
Read: “The Trials of Alice Goffman” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Read: MSSW 13 (Proposing and Reporting)
PPOL & SOC/ANTH: Module Eval 3 DUE MONDAY 4/18 BY 5:00pm
HIST: Proposal First Drafts DUE MONDAY 4/18 BY 5:00 pm
Week 13 and 14
Portfolio
No class meetings.
Students meet individually or in small groups with their section instructors.
SATURDAY 4/30 SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Presentations of individual or group research proposals
Week 15
Portfolio
Tuesday 5/3 Collective Wrap-up and Debrief
Final paper proposal due by 5/3 2:30