SOC 463/663

Social Psychology of Education

University of Nevada, Reno

Fall 2006

Class Times: Tuesday, Thursday 9:30-10:45 AM

Class Location: Church Fine Arts 018

Instructor: Markus Kemmelmeier, Ph.D.

Office: Mack Social Sciences 304

Email: markusk@unr.edu or WebCT email

Phone: (775) 784-1287

Office hours: Thursday, 11-12:30 PM or by appointment

Teaching Asst.: Ada Diaconu

Location: Mack Social Sciences 342

Office hours: Thursday, 12-2 PM

Email: ada.diaconu@gmail.com

Course description

This course provides a social-psychological approach to education. This field is equally rooted in three academic disciplines: sociology, psychology and education; hence, the readings and theoretical approaches covered in this course equally draw on these three disciplines. The primary focus of this course is on social psychological questions and processes that occur in educational contexts, whether that includes kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school or higher education.

This course meets the university’s general CAPSTONE requirement for undergraduate students. As such, undergraduate students must be at least of junior standing to be eligible for this class. The present course also includes graduate students. Given their more advanced academic standing, some of the assignments for graduate students will be more demanding and grading criteria will be applied more rigorously.

Readings

Regrettably, there exists no viable textbook on the social psychology of education; thus, course readings are primarily composed of chapters, articles, and book excerpts from a variety of different sources. The readings include original empirical research reports, which tend to be more demanding than most textbook fare. There will be readings for every class, with a slightly higher weekly reading load for graduate students compared to undergraduate students. In any case, keeping up with the readings is critical not only for your success in this course, but also for the success of in-class discussion.

All readings are available via the library’s electronic reserves. In order to open these files, your computer must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. If you do not have this program, download it for free from www.adobe.com. Nevertheless it is recommended that you purchase the books below:

Stevenson, H. W., & Stigler, J. W. (1992). The learning gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education. New York: Touchstone.

Thernstrom, A., & Thernstrom, S. (2003). No excuses: Closing the racial gap in learning. New York: Simon & Schuster.

The above books are not available at the UNR bookstore because you can purchase them cheaper via the internet, new or used (e.g., alibris.com, amazon.com, bn.com, ecampus.com). Both books will also be available on reserve at the library along with the movies that we will be watching in this course.

Exams

There will be three exams: two midterm exams, and a 2-hour final exam. All exams consist of essay questions with the occasional inclusion of short answer questions. The final exam will refer to material from the entire course. The exams mainly test your understanding of and your ability to think critically about the course materials, and to apply them to new situations. The exams are based on the readings and the material presented in class, including lectures, discussions, handouts, demonstrations, activities, and audio-visual materials.

Writing assignments

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: You are required to write four 5-7 page papers. You can choose a topic as long as the topic of each essay is related to the topics of the two weeks preceding the deadline of the paper. (If in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask.) The task is for you to generate an essay in which you deal with a particular question or problem, e.g., by discussing different perspectives and approaches. The essay may be sparked by an issue you encountered in the readings or in class. Each essay may incorporate material from the readings, but it must also include materials from at least two scholarly sources that were not previously assigned. A scholarly source is a paper or chapter published in a scientific or professional journal or book. These publications involve editorial review which aims to ensure the scientific and professional quality of the work. Because websites cannot necessarily be assumed to involve editorial review, for the present purposes they do not qualify as scholarly sources. However, the web does provide convenient access to many professional/ scientific journals, e.g., through the UNR library’s website. (If you are in doubt re what constitutes a scholarly source, or don’t know where to find it, don’t hesitate to ask or check WebCT.) In addition to these two required scholarly sources you may want to use (and cite) internet sites, newspaper reports, movies, talks, personal experiences, scholarly papers that were assigned in class etc. The goals for these essays are for you

a) to demonstrate relevant knowledge in a particular area of the social psychology of education (loosely defined);

b) to understand and integrate pertinent materials;

c) to draw conclusions from the material you review.

Grading will reflect how well your paper achieves the above goals. Re format: In order to be accepted, the paper must be

a) typed or word-processed;

b) double-spaced;

c) use a standard format for professional papers in sociology, psychology or education (i.e. ASA style, APA style, Chicago style, MLA style etc.);

d) use 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font (do not use Courier or Courier New);

e) formatted with 1¼” or 1” margins (bottom and top margins are always 1”);

f) have a SEPARATE cover sheet including the paper title, your name and the class (which does not count toward the total number of pages);

g) have a separate reference page (which does not count toward the total number of pages); and

h) have numbered pages.

Use citations sparingly. When you cite other authors’ work, focus on their ideas, and not on the language they use to present these ideas. If you want to include other authors’ work, paraphrase and put in your own words what they are saying. Nevertheless, citations have their place in writing and can enhance your paper, especially when there is really no better way of saying something or when then there is particularly compelling metaphor. For instance, some of Benjamin Franklin’s famous quotes (“Time is money”, “A small leak can sink a great ship”) would lose a lot if you were to try to paraphrase them, although you certainly could. As a rule of thumb, do not include more than one or two citations per page.

Submission mode. Submit your essays on the day indicated in the course schedule as electronic copy, preferably as email attachment by 11:59PM. (Never paste your essay in the body of an email message). Use WebCT email, and send it to both instructor and TA. Hardcopy submissions will not be accepted.

Late policy. For every day that your paper is late, I will deduct one third of a letter grade from your assignment grade (i.e. an A- will become a B+ etc.).

GRADUATE STUDENTS: You have two options.

Option #1 is essentially the same as the assignment for your classmates at the undergraduate level, except that your essays should include at least three new scholarly sources.

Option #2 involves your generating a 15-20 page research proposal on a topic of your choice. The proposed research should be empirical in nature, reflect either a quantitative or qualitative approach, with the only restriction being that the topic falls within the purview of the social psychology of education. Because ideally the research proposal should help you advance your own research agenda, you are encouraged to meet with me outside of class and discuss the nature of your interests. In the ideal case, the research proposal generated in this class can serve as a blueprint for research you might actually want to do. (Note that choosing this option is only advisable if you have had at least some research training.)

The format of a proposal should resemble the introduction and methods section of an article in the empirical social sciences. The research proposals will be graded based on

a) quality of review of relevant literature (involving at least a dozen scholarly references);

b) quality of your own analysis and integration of the literature;

c) originality of your research question/hypothesis and/or research approach;

d) quality of writing.

Other format requirements are the same as mentioned above. The deadline for this proposal is December 5. For the evaluation of a research proposal more stringent criteria will be applied.

Because feedback is critical for developing a research proposal, you will need to turn in a first draft or an exposé of your paper by November 27. This draft/exposé will not be graded, but you will receive plenty of feedback to help you improve. It is up to you how developed your first draft is, but I require at least 3 pages text (same format rules as for final papers).

Grading scale

Midterm exam #1	15%
Midterm exam #2	15%
Final exam	20%
4 essays @ each 10% or research proposal	40%
In-class participation	10%
Total	100%

All letter grades given in this course will be converted to their GPA equivalent according to the conversion table used by UNR (A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0 etc.). Your final grade will be computed using the above percentages. The resulting average will be converted back to a letter grade, your final course grade, based on the following intervals: A ≥ 3.8, A- ≥ 3.5, B+ ≥ 3.2, B ≥ 2.8, B- ≥ 2.5, C+ ≥ 2.2, C ≥ 1.8, C- ≥ 1.5, D+ ≥ 1.2, D ≥ 0.8, D- ≥ 0.5, F < 0.5.

Assistance

If you require any particular arrangements, please inform me immediately. It is your responsibility to seek assistance when you are having difficulty understanding the course material. Please ask questions during class if the material is unclear and/or see me during office hours (or set up an appointment) to receive assistance outside of class. If I can help you, I will but you first need to let me know. However, you cannot necessarily expect to receive assistance on the day of the exam or on the due date for the assignment.

In order to improve your writing assignments, I recommend visiting the UNR Writing Center. There you will find great people ready to help you out [http://www.unr.edu/cla/wc/]. This is a great service available to you. Whether you are an undergraduate student or a graduate student, don’t forget: Writers at every level benefit from competent feedback! (I always do.)

Website/WebCT

This course uses Web Course Tools (WebCT), an online system that allows you access to additional course material and monitor your grades in this course. To get access to WebCT, go to http://webct.unr.edu. If you have used WebCT before, you already have a username and password. If you have never used it, go to http://webct.unr.edu, click on “Student Resources” and then on “Logon Instructions.” There you will find detailed in instructions regarding how to log-on, how to change your password etc. There is also info on how to use the system, but it is pretty self-explanatory. Check WebCT regularly as announcements, instructions for assignments, practice questions etc. will be posted there. (If there is any change, I will contact you via email).

All in-class PowerPoint presentations will be posted on WebCT prior to or shortly after class. In order to download and open the presentation, you need Microsoft PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Participation & Attendance

Your active participation in discussions and activities is critically important for the success of this class. Naturally, this includes that you have done the readings. Whether you come to class or not is your personal decision. There will be no formal record of your attendance. It is clear, though, that you cannot actively participate when you are not physically present. (Likewise, showing up does not in and of itself qualify you for participation credit.) Further, given that the content of class presentations, demonstrations and discussions is exam-relevant, it is your responsibility to make sure that you have all relevant course notes.

Emergencies

If there is an emergency that does not allow you to complete assignments or take exams, please contact me as soon as possible. For example, should a family emergency require that you leave town, be sure to contact me before you leave, not afterwards.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty (e.g., cheating on exams, plagiarism) is a serious offense. All work that you submit in this class must be your own. Each student is responsible for being familiar with UNR's policies on academic dishonesty, available at http://www.unr.edu/stsv/acdispol.html.

Any student engaging in academic dishonesty in this course will receive an F on the exam/assignment. In more severe cases, e.g., extensive or repeated plagiarism of other people’s work, the course grade will be set to F. All severe cases of plagiarism will be turned over for prosecution by the proper university authorities.

What is plagiarism? The most blatant form of plagiarism is to incorporate another author’s written work into one’s own without indicating them as such (i.e. without citing the original author). Milder (but still nontrivial) forms of plagiarism include using another person’s text, but only slightly editing grammar and vocabulary. The web offers a number of great resources on the subject of plagiarism, e.g., http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/plagiarism/students/.

How to avoid plagiarism? The easiest way is to follow a “closed book” policy: When writing a paper, focus on what and how you want to say something, not on the language another author used. That is, when you have read a relevant paper or book, put it aside before you write your own text.

Disputes

In case that there is a disagreement between the instructor and a student concerning any part of this course, including grading, and the conflict cannot be resolved in a conference between student and instructor, it is the student’s obligation to follow the grievance/appeal procedures as outlined in the University of Nevada Catalog.

Course schedule & Reading List

[*] = electronic access available via www.library.unr.edu (independent of eReserves)

August 29 T & Sept 31 R	Introduction to the course/ The societal context of education: Micro & macro approaches; Social aspects of standardized testing in education Sadovnik, A. R. (2001). Theories in the sociology of education. In J. H. Ballantine & J. Z. Spade (Eds.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Inzlicht, M., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). A threatening intellectual environment: Why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males. Psychological Science, 11, 365-371. [*] Hanson, F. A. (1993). Testing testing: Social consequences of the examined life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [*] RECOMMENDED: Jordan, C. H., & Zanna, M. P. (2003). Appendix: How to read a journal article in social psychology. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. Tory Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: A general reader (pp. 617-626).
Sept 5 T & Sept 7 R	Stratification: Mobility, organizational dynamics & tracking Kerckhoff, A. C. (1995). Social stratification and mobility processes. In K. S. Cook, G. A. Fine, & J. S. House (Eds.), Sociological perspectives on social psychology (pp. 476-496). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Oakes, J., & Guiton, G. (1995). Matchmaking: The dynamics of high school tracking decisions. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 3-33. [*] GRADS: Useem, E. L. (1992). Middle schools and math groups: Parents' involvement in Children's placement. Sociology of Education, 65, 263-279. [*] Hallinan, M. T., & Kubitschek, W. N. (1999). Curriculum differentiation and high school achievement. Social Psychology of Education, 3, 41-62. [*]
Sept 12 T & Sept 14 R	Socialization processes: The hidden curriculum, Evaluation of achievement Gracey, H. (2001). Learning the student role: Kindergarten as academic boot camp. In J. H. Ballantine & J. Z. Spade (Eds.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education (pp. 95-100). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Fine, M., & Rosenberg, P. (1983). Dropping out of high school: The ideology of school and work. Journal of Education, 165, 257-272. Guimond, S., Begin, G., Palmer, D. L. (1989). Education and causal attributions: The development of “person-blame” and “system-blame” ideology. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, 126-140. [*] GRADS: Guimond, S. (1999). Attitude change during college: Normative or informational social influence. Social Psychology of Education, 2, 237-261. [*] Farkas, G., Sheehan, D., & Grobe, R. P. (1990). Coursework mastery and school success: Gender, ethnicity, and poverty groups within an urban school district. American Educational Research Journal, 27, 807-827. [*] GRADS: Kemmelmeier, M., Danielson, C., & Basten, J. (in press). What’s in a grade? Academic success and political orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Sept 19 T & Sept 21 R	Movie “Stand and Deliver”/Attribution Escalante, J., & Dirmann, J. (1990). The Jaime Escalante Math Program. Journal of Negro Education, 59, 407-423. [*] Jesness, J. (2002). Stand and deliver revisited. http://reason.com/0207/fe.jj.stand.shtml. Thernstrom, A., & Thernstrom, S. (2003). No excuses: Closing the racial gap in learning. New York: Simon & Schuster. Chapter 3 “Building academic skills” (pp. 43-64)
Sept 26 T	**** ESSAY #1 is due ***
Sept 26 T & Sept 28 R	Attribution & motivation; The academic self-concept Graham, S. (1991). A review of attribution theory in achievement contexts. Educational Psychology Review, 3, 5-39. [*] GRADS: Reyna, C. (2000). Lazy, dumb, or industrious: When stereotypes convey attribution information in the classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 12, 85-110. [*] Schunk, D. H. (1991). Self-efficacy and academic motivation. Educational Psychologist, 26, 207-231. [*] Grads: Chemers, M. M., Hu, L., & Garcia, B. F. (2001). Academic self-efficacy and first year student performance and adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 55-64. [*]
Oct 3 T & Oct 5 R	Beliefs about ability and effort; What’s so great about self-esteem? Dweck, C. S. (2002). Messages that motivate: How praise molds students’ beliefs, motivation and performance (in surprising ways). In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving academic achievement (pp. 37-60). San Diego: Academic Press. Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2005). Exploding the self-esteem myth. Scientific American, 292. [*] Covington, M. (1992). Self-worth and the fear of failure. In Making the grade (pp. 72-103). New York: Cambridge University Press. GRADS: Van Laar, C. (2000). The paradox of low academic achievement but high self-esteem in African American students: An attributional account. Educational Psychology Review, 12, 33-61. [*]
Oct 10 T	**** MIDTERM EXAM #1 ****
Oct 12 R	The culture of the classroom Ames, C. (1992). Classrooms: Goals, structures, and student motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 261-271. [*] Karp, D. A., & Yoels, W. C. (1976). The college classroom: Some observations on the meanings of student participation. Sociology and Social Research, 60, 421-439.

Oct 17 T & Oct 19 R	Teacher-student interaction: Expectancy effects & Feedback giving Babad, E. (1998). Preferential affect: The crux of the teacher expectancy issue. Advances in Research on Teaching, 7, 183-214. [*] Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1966). Teachers’ expectancies: Determinants of pupils’ IQ gains. Psychological Reports, 19, 115-118. GRADS: Jussim, L. (1989). Teacher expectations: Self-fulfilling prophecies, perceptual biases, and accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 469-480. [*] Cohen, G. L., & Steele, C. M. (2002). A barrier to mistrust: How negative stereotypes affect cross-race mentoring. In J. Aronson (Ed.), Improving academic achievement (pp. 303-327). San Diego: Academic Press. GRADS: Harber, K. D. (1998). Feedback to minorities: Evidence of a positive bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 622-628. [*]
Oct 19 R	*** ESSAY #2 is due ***
Oct 24 T & Oct 26 R	Race/ethnicity and achievement Jencks, C., & Phillips, M. (1998). The Black-White test score gap: An introduction. In C. Jencks & M. Phillips (Eds.), The Black-White test score gap (pp. 1-29, 42-51). Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution Press. Thernstrom, A., & Thernstrom, S. (2003). No excuses: Closing the racial gap in learning. New York: Simon & Schuster. “Chapter 6 “Hispanics” (pp. 100-110) & Chapter 7 “Blacks” (pp. 120-147) Caplan, N., Choy, M. H., & Whitmore, J. K. (1992). Indochinese refugee families and academic achievement. Scientific American, xx, 36-42. Ogbu, J. U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. Educational Researcher, 21, 5-14. GRADS: Ogbu, J. U. (1986). The consequences of the American Caste system. In U. Neisser (Ed.), The school achievement of minority children: New perspectives (pp. 19-56). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Oct 31 T & Nov 2 R	Stereotyping and prejudice; Academic disengagement; Stigmatized identities Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. E., Kawakami, K., & Hodson, G. (2002). Why can't we just get along? Interpersonal biases and interracial distrust. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8, 88-102. [*] Wolfe, C. T., & Spencer, S. J. (1996). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their overt and subtle influences in the classroom. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 176-185. [*] Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. U. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the “burden of ‘acting white’”. The Urban Review, 18, 176-206. GRADS: Cook, P. J., & Ludwig, J. (1998). The burden of "acting White": Do Black adolescents disparage academic achievement? In C. Jencks & M. Phillips (Eds.), The Black-White test score gap (pp. 375-400). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629. [*] GRADS: Major, B., & Crocker, J. (1993). Social stigma: The consequences of attributional ambiguity. In D. M. Mackie, & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in group perception (pp. 345-370). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Nov 7 T & Nov 9 R	Intergroup relations/Cooperative learning/Are there any benefits to diversity in education?/Gender Schofield, J. W., & Eurich-Fulcer, R. (2001). When and how school desegregation improves intergroup relations. In R. Brown & S. Gaertner (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes (pp. 475-494). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Gurin, P., Nagda, B. A., & Lopez, G. E. (2004). The benefits of diversity in education for democratic citizenship. Journal of Social Issues, 60, 17-34. [*] Spade, J. Z. (2001). Gender and education in the United States. In J. H. Ballantine & J. Z. Spade (Eds.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education (pp. 270-278). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Conlin, M. (May 26, 2003). The new gender gap. Business Week. Eder, D., & Parker, S. (1987). The cultural production and reproduction of gender: The effect of extracurricular activities on peer-group culture. Sociology of Education, 60, 200-213. [*] GRADS: Halpern, D. F., & LaMay, M. L. (2000). The smarter sex: A critical review of sex differences in intelligence. Educational Psychology Review, 12, 229-246. [*
Nov 11 F	*** ESSAY #3 is due ***
Nov 14 T & Nov 16 R	Gender in education/Affirmative action Crosby, F. J., Iyer, A., Clayton, S., & Downing, R. A. (2003). Affirmative action: Psychological data and the policy debates. American Psychologist, 58, 93-115. [*] Steele, S. (1990). Affirmative action: The price of preference. In The content of our character: A new vision of race in America (pp. 111-125). New York: Harper Perennial. Thernstrom, S., & Thernstrom, A. (1997). America in Black and White. Chapter 14 “The higher learning” (pp. 386-388, 393-397, 401-403, 405-409, 411-422). GRADS: Crosby, F. J., Ferdman, B., & Wingate, B. R. (2001). Addressing and redressing discrimination: Affirmative action in social psychological perspective. In R. Brown & S. Gaertner (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes (pp. 495-513). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Nov 21 T	**** MIDTERM EXAM #2 ****
Nov 23 R	THANKSGIVING
Nov 27 M	Draft for research proposal is due (graduate students only)
Nov 28 T & Nov 30 R	Culture & Movie “The Heart of the Nation” Stevenson, H. W., & Stigler, J. W. (1992). The learning gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education (pp. 28-155). New York: Summit Books. GRADS: Lewis, C. C. (1995). Educating hearts and minds: Rethinking the roots of Japanese educational achievement (pp. 124-148). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dec 5 T	*** ESSAY #4/Research proposal is due ***
Dec 5 T & Dec 7 R	Current issues in higher education: Cheating, substance abuse Jensen, L. A., Arnett, J. J., Feldman, S. S., & Cauffman, E. (2002). It's wrong, but everybody does it: Academic dishonesty among high school and college students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 209-228. [*] Whitely, B. E. Jr. (1998). Factors associated with cheating among college students: A review. Research in Higher Education, 39, 235-274. GRADS: Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 243-256. [*]
Dec 12 T	Teaching evaluations & grade inflation Eiszler, C. F. (2002). College students' evaluations of teaching and grade inflation. Research in Higher Education, 43, 483-501. [*] GRADS: Babad, E., Avni-Babad, D., & Rosenthal, R. (2004). Prediction of students' evaluations from brief instances of professors' nonverbal behavior in defined instructional situations. Social Psychology of Education, 7, 3-33. [*]
Dec 15 Fri	7:30– 9:30 AM ***** Final Exam *****