The instruction of classical sociological theory at Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY) underwent significant transformation to make it more activity-based and better aligned with departmental learning goals. The article focuses on the effectiveness of an “edited book” project that came of this endeavor, where students become editors and curate “chapters” on a topic by identifying journal articles from specific sociological traditions to then write the “book’s introduction.” In addition to situating the project within the sociology curriculum and scholarship on sociological literacy, the article presents assessment results that revealed improvement in learning outcomes. The latter suggests that discipline-specific writing and literacy activities can be as effective as informal assignments even in anxiety-inducing courses like theory. This is encouraging given Lehman College’s role as a commuter campus, which makes the instructional strategy applicable in a wide range of programs.

中文翻译：

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前沿问题：经典理论中“编辑书籍”项目的有效性

纽约城市大学 (CUNY) 雷曼学院的经典社会学理论教学经历了重大转变，使其更加以活动为基础，并更好地与部门学习目标保持一致。这篇文章侧重于这一努力产生的“编辑书籍”项目的有效性，在该项目中，学生成为编辑并通过识别来自特定社会学传统的期刊文章来策划某个主题的“章节”，然后编写“书籍介绍”。除了将项目置于社会学课程和社会学素养奖学金之外，本文还提供了显示学习成果改善的评估结果。后者表明，特定学科的写作和识字活动可以与非正式作业一样有效，即使在像理论这样的引发焦虑的课程中也是如此。鉴于雷曼学院作为通勤校园的角色，这令人鼓舞，这使得教学策略适用于广泛的课程。