Students often identify research methods classes as one of the most difficult and intimidating classes of their academic career. The objectives of this study were twofold. The first was to ascertain whether the use of group-centered, collaborative learning would improve student mastery of material compared to traditional, lecture-based classes. The second objective was to examine a possible differential impact of collaborative learning by race. The study measured students’ mastery of basic concepts in research methods as well as their application of the material to novel situations by comparing their competence at the beginning to their performance on the same measures at the midterm and final exams. Findings highlight the importance of examining race as a factor in the study of the effectiveness of collaborative learning and, more specifically, point to a need to further test the hypothesis that collaborative learning pedagogy techniques can ameliorate race-based achievement gaps in student performance.

中文翻译：

---

社会学研究方法课程中的协作学习：种族重要吗？

学生经常将研究方法课程视为他们学术生涯中最困难和最令人生畏的课程之一。这项研究的目标是双重的。首先是确定与传统的基于讲座的课程相比，以小组为中心的协作学习的使用是否会提高学生对材料的掌握程度。第二个目标是检查不同种族的协作学习可能产生的不同影响。该研究通过将学生在开始时的能力与他们在期中和期末考试中的相同措施的表现进行比较，来衡量学生对研究方法基本概念的掌握情况以及他们将材料应用于新情况。研究结果强调了将种族作为研究协作学习有效性的一个因素的重要性，更具体地说，