SOCIAL
SCIENCES
COMMUNITY STUDIES
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Richard C. Chabot, Ph.D. -- Professor of
Sociology
Not
Yet A Member of the Dead
Sociologists Society
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Welcome to the
virtual reality of Prof. Chabot at Humphreys College. If you have any questions
or need to talk to me about anything, feel free to call me at (209) 478-0800
or contact me through e-mail at rchabot@humphreys.edu.
Throughout the quarter you should be able to find me in or around my
office every weekday morning.
For more information on the upcoming quarter's courses, including a brief
description and timeline, scroll to and select the course you're interested
in.
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I am responsible for teaching the majority of the social science courses
at Humphreys College and coordinate our Community Studies Program. If you
require further information on other courses or the College, return to the
College's main menu at www.humphreys.edu.
Those interested in more information on our Community Studies Program may
go straight to the Community Studies Home Page. See you
there!
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WEB LINK FAVORITES
For the serious searcher, open this
door=> 
Course Offerings For Winter 2008
Modern American
History (HIST103) This course is
taught online.
Social Stratification (CS298)
Proposal
Writing (CS210)
US History
103: Online
Humphreys
College Quarter:
Winter 2008
Stockton, California Richard C. Chabot, Ph.D.
Online: 24 hours a day
Textbook: The Brief
American Pageant (6th ed) by David Kennedy, et al.
Course
Description: The ideas, events, and
main currents in the United States history from the 1920s to the present. Especially emphasized will be the inter-war period (the Jazz Age,
the Depression and the New Deal); WWII; the Cold War; the developments of
American society and government in the post-war decades through the turn of the
century.
Course
Objectives: (1) to explain the
economic and political consequences of WWI; (2) to debate the course of the
industrialization and urbanization of the U.S. during the 1920s; (3) to analyze
the causes and consequences of the Great Depression; (4) to present the basic
facts and ideas related to the involvement of the U.S. in WWII; (5) to outline
the origins and course of the Cold War; (6) to trace the development of the
U.S. during the last decade; (7) to present the subject primarily from the
perspective of social history; (8) to expose students to controversial
interpretations of the past; (9) to introduce students to the basics of
historical research.
Course
Requirements: In order to obtain a
minimum grade of C, students are required to:
(1)
study assigned chapters from the textbook; study all the materials presented;
(2) attend class in a virtual sort of way on a regular/weekly basis; (3)
actively participate in all forums and discussions; (4) take all weekly quizzes.
Tests
Tests/Quizzes
will be given weekly, probably every Friday through the following Tuesday,
opening at 10:30 on Friday and closing at 10:30 the following Tuesday. Quizzes will cover required textbook/supplementary
readings, presentations, and other digital material. They may include
identification answers, true/false, multiple choice, and matching questions. Each
quiz will also include an essay portion.
Quizzes must be taken during the appointed days. Make up tests will only
be given under the most unusual circumstances, and only if the instructor is
notified prior to the test session. Each
quiz will be worth 10% of your grade.
The best of eight (8) quizzes will be totaled to form your base score
and grade. NO make up exams will be
given beyond the week of the initial quiz.
Participation makes up the final 20 percent of your grade.
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Final Course Grade:
100% - 90% = A; 89 - 80 = B; 79 - 65 = C; 64 - 55 = D; below 55% = F
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Online
Resources
If
you look closely at our home site for HIST103, you’ll notice that each week is
blocked off. Each week will have
different requirements, assignments, resources, and tests. What you mostly have to remember is to read
the text and take the quizzes. If you
don’t read the text, you really won’t get very far. However, online activities are also required
and will help you pass those tests. You
have to participate in the forums, easy to do if you do everything else. That might even be the most enjoyable part of
the class. You should also view and
listen to the other online resources that are relevant to each week’s piece of
American history. I’ve tried to embed a very
short selection of music for each decade via seeqpod. You will need to click on the link and listen
to my selections and read my comments.
No, the music is not comprehensive.
You may scream about my having forgotten about Woody Guthrie or ABBA or
Clint Black, but we really do only have a short amount of time and space, and this
isn’t an ethnomusicology course. These
are just selections that say something about the time period we’re studying. In addition, there are connections to
YouTube. View the selections for each
time period and try to link what you see and hear with what we’re reading in
the text. Bring your opinions and mental
connections into the online discussion forum.
I’ve tried to make each of the resources unique and interesting. Your feedback is always welcome.
Note: The instructor reserves the right to make changes,
additions, and substitutions as
necessary to accommodate the needs of the students.
Social
Stratification : CS298
Social Stratification
(CS298)
Prof. Richard Chabot, Ph.D. Humphreys
College
PH: 478-0800 Stockton
Campus
E-Mail: rchabot@humphrreys.edu Wednesday evenings
This course covers major topics and concepts in the area of
social stratification. From a
sociological point of view, we will be studying the degree to which
stratification is a part of American society and which groups of people tend to be in which
layer. Of great importance will be
understanding why stratification exists, and why certain people/groups are
adversely affected or have poor life chances while others appear to be
favored. While no definitive answers
will be given, this course should provide you with the conceptual tools
necessary to question and analyze social stratification as it presently exists
in the United States.
Text: Social
Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences (5th edition) by
Charles Hurst.
Strapped
by Tamara Draut
Course Requirements:
You will be graded based on 3 (yes, three) in-class exams, one research
project, and your attendance and class participation. The exams will make up 20% each of your final
grade, for a total of 60%. The research
project, as discussed below, is worth 30% of the final grade. Attendance and
class participation will make up 10% of the final grade. Any questions or problems you have concerning
this course should be immediately brought to the instructor's attention. If you find it necessary to miss a class, an
exam, or encounter any other difficulty in meeting course requirements, contact
the instructor as quickly as possible.
Thank you.
Research Project: I
want you to do some research on yourself and your immediate family. You can bring in your parents or extended
family if you wish. Using information
from the texts, lecture, and perhaps from other data available through handouts
or from census publications, tell me about yourself. Place you/your family within America's social
hierarchy. Describe your place,
position, power, prestige, etc. and link this personal information with
concepts discussed in class. While your
personal information and analysis is important, it will mean nothing without
support from the text and lecture. Refer
to census information, theoretical perspectives, and social indicators brought
up in our texts and lecture. Useful
points of reference will be your ethnicity, your gender, your occupation, what
kind of paycheck you receive, the amount of prestige you think you hold, and
how this information compares with similar reference groups as well as with
dis-similar groups. The paper should be
typewritten, double-spaced, and approximately 5-7 pages. Note your references. Again, your grade will largely be determined
by the extent you can link you and your family to concepts and other data provided
in text and lecture.
Course Learning Objectives
1. To study the
concept of equality and the presence of stratification in reference to access
to resources, social participation, and patterns of life chances in American
society.
2. To understand the major sociological
explanations for stratification, primarily within the modern United States.
3. To explore the influence of wealth,
power, and prestige on how one, as individual or group, may access resources
and institutions in modern America.
4. To understand the
presence and workings of social institutions and structural supports involving
stratification in American society, including mobility and education.
5. To dispel and
better understand the myths and misunderstandings our society nurtures about
the rich, the poor, and the qualities of the American economic system.
6. To review the
social and behavioral patterns that indicate stratification in America,
particularly by group such as age, profession, or ethnicity.
7. To link political
policy with social action, historically and in the present day.
8. To make the
student a more aware and better consumer of news and information on the world,
society, and people that surround us all.
Writing/Research Assignments
All research papers or out of class writing assignments have
differing lengths and other requirements.
However, research papers generally should follow certain rules. Follow the MLA style (go back to your English
101 notes). Include a title page and
most especially a page giving your references.
Always make reference to lecture and text somewhere in the paper. Always hand in a draft for comments from your
instructor well before the final paper is due.
And never plagiarize.
Plagiarize?
That is, never steal someone else's work. When you refer to the text or an encyclopedia
or a newspaper article or an on-line paper, follow these simple rules: always
use quotation marks when more than two words in your paper happen to be the
exact same as where you are getting your information; even if you don't have to
use quotation marks because you are so good at paraphrasing the information,
you should still refer to the page number, author, and paper you are getting
the information from. Remember: showing
an instructor you know how to do research and gather outside information is a
great way of improving your grade. When
in doubt, reference yourself well. Any
doubt about the authenticity or authorship of any work may lead to embarrassing
questions and if plagiarism is discovered will result in a failing grade and
perhaps expulsion from the college.
SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS : Proposal Writing – CS210
Proposal Writing for the
Community Studies Major
Winter Quarter 2008
Prof. Richard Chabot
Office Hours: M/T/W 9:30-11:30
Phone: 478-0800 e-mail: rchabot@humphreys.edu
Requirements:
Students in this class must have already taken Social Research Methods CS201.
This class will provide you the guidance and materials
required to write a research proposal.
Everything you learn and do in this class is based upon what you learned
in CS201, the college's basic research methods class. It is recommended that you dust off your text
and notes from that class. For the next
quarter we will continually review the basics of social research methodology
while supporting your own efforts at writing a serious research proposal. The purpose of this research proposal is for
you to go out into the community, gather information, analyze the information,
and write up a report of your findings.
This class only covers the writing of the proposal. CS220, the Community Studies Colloquium, will
provide you with the support required to implement that proposal and write up
your report, what is commonly seen as your senior thesis or paper. If you work hard and cover all the bases in
this class, your proposal will be solid enough for you to easily enter into CS220
and do your research. The more work you
do in this class, the easier the future, and graduation, will be for you.
Required Texts: How
It’s Done by Adler/Clark. You should
have this one already.
Handouts. Keep all handouts in a folder for regular
reference and use.
This class will be emphasizing the art and science of
writing a research proposal. Understand
that the goal of this class is to teach you the "how" of research
proposals, not the "how" of writing.
The better your writing skills, the easier this class and your writing
assignments will be for you. No social
scientist can get by in the real world without good writing skills. Please make use of the excellent
English/communications/writing courses available to you at Humphreys College.
The attached timeline will give you a good idea of what is
expected over the course of this quarter.
You can break the course, and what is expected of you, into four parts:
First, you must research an area of interest that you would like to do further research
on; second, you must determine the methods learned in CS201 and other courses
that will best serve your research efforts;
third, you must write this up in a formal research proposal to be
carried out next quarter; and finally, we will practice writing up grant
proposals the majority of community organizations in Stockton depend upon for
funding. In CS210, you will only be
planning the research gathering process, not actually collecting the data. In this class you will read journal articles
and books on a topic of interest, determine some aspect of this subject you
want to gather information on locally, and write a proposal to do the
research. You are not expected to gather
any raw data in this class. The final
proposal that will make up the largest part of your grade in this class will
not be implemented until you sign up for CS220, the Community Studies
Colloquium.
Thus, the goal of this class is clear: write a research
proposal. So what makes up a research
proposal? Not a simple question, but
your studies and final proposal will require the following:
* Determine and then review the
literature on a specific topic of interest.
This could be underage drinking, reading habits of the elderly, or
environmental awareness among local households.
You should become an expert on the topic and collect a sizeable list of
references for your bibliography. Most
of your out-of-class time will be spent in researching and organizing this part
of your proposal.
* Form a
hypothesis or specific research question that you can implement locally.
* Determine the best methods to
gather information on this research question.
Be able to rationalize and defend your methods by weighing scientific
methods and local realities.
* Formulate a research instrument
including all variables required to determine the strength of your initial
hypothesis.
* Outline possible research
outcomes that will organize your information and provide the cross-tabulations
and other elaboration tables necessary for both conjecture and later real raw
data input.
An academic research proposal is different from a proposal
for funding that most organizations file with the government or local
foundation. An "academic" may
want to understand what kind of dating habits are practiced by adolescent
teens. This requires intense study of
teenagers, endless references to academic journal articles, and long
discussions about concepts that the average American doesn't care that much
about. Implementing such a proposal will
require weeks of unpaid effort, gathering information from hundreds of randomly
selected teens, and use of statistical models to prove unimportant points that
may or may not guarantee tenure at your college. On the other hand, your local non-profit is
less a "thinking" than a "doing" agency. Whether it serves the elderly or the teen
runaway, it wants money to pay its staff and to continue providing
services. While knowledge of the people
served is absolutely necessary, reference to academic journals is actually
discouraged. What is important is having
imagination, reference to already working models of social intervention, and a
breakdown of how every penny requested is going to be spent in providing this
service. These two kinds of proposals
have similarities and differences. We
will emphasize the first model in this class, but we will also cover the second
as that is the kind of agency you will probably be employed by after
graduation.
Grade
Your course
grade will be dependent upon the following:
1)
Attendance - 10%
2) Handing
in required assignments on time (see timeline) - 40%
3) Final
research proposal - 50%
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