Focus is an introduction to the ways of knowing and communicating information in the discipline. Assignments will ask students to reflect on scholarship, research and citation in the social sciences. Students will begin to learn to write from sources in the discipline (e.g. the textbook, or an article, video, or other material provided by the instructor). APA style is introduced. Students will learn to read abstracts of research reports.
No major research papers to be required in these courses (i.e., traditional lengthy term-paper requiring literature search, footnotes, etc.). Students will not be expected to navigate discipline-specific databases.
No original/empirical social science research is to be conducted at this level. In order to provide students with a smaller, more manageable universe of library resources to choose from, instructors are encouraged to put any necessary supplemental readings on reserve for students.
200 level –
Students will have guided experiences with research in the discipline, learning to find, read and interpret scholarly articles, with instructor/librarian support. Smaller papers or take home exams may be required and students will be taught how to find information and cite sources appropriately in APA style, e.g. from textbook and/or assigned articles. Instructors are encouraged to collaborate with librarians on assignments involving the use of scholarly databases.
No major research papers (i.e., traditional lengthy term-paper requiring literature search, footnotes, etc.), should be required in these courses unless the course has ENG 102 as a prerequisite.
No major original/empirical social science research involving human or animal subjects will be required of students at this level. Small research projects may be assigned with high levels of instructor guidance.
Students will be introduced to different types of social science research designs/methods.
Students will learn how research is reported (in both scholarly and popular press).
Students will learn to contrast different social science perspectives (e.g. sociology, psychology, and anthropology).
Students will learn to make appropriate connections between their own experiences and the theories and concepts they are learning in class.
Students will learn the difference between research results from large representative samples and anecdotal evidence or personal beliefs/assumptions.
200 level –
Students will continue to develop conceptual understanding and skills introduced at the 100-level.
Students will learn to formulate simple research questions.
Students will begin to more narrowly explore the published scholarship of a discipline, noting how a particular research publication fits within a larger scholarly conversation.
Students will learn the basics of using the library; including searching the library catalog to locate social science information aimed at the general public, and finding appropriate subject encyclopedias.
Students are encouraged to use the textbook, selected articles placed on e-reserve, books placed on reserve, and selected media sources.
Students may be guided in use of general, interdisciplinary databases (e.g. find an article on ProQuest) but will not be expected to navigate these databases on their own.
Students will not be expected to use discipline-specific databases (such as PsycInfo) at this level.
Students will likely need guidance from instructor in choosing appropriate Internet sources.
200 level –
Students will continue to develop conceptual understanding and skills introduced at the 100-level.
Students will learn to locate appropriate information in the literature to answer research questions (with instructor support).
Students will be introduced to scholarly, discipline-specific databases (such as PsycInfo) and will begin scholarly database searching (with instructor support).
Students will learn to identify appropriate keywords, synonyms and related terms to search databases and other resources
Students will learn to read and interpret results found in scholarly databases (especially abstracts). This will be highly constrained and guided by instructors in collaboration with librarians.
Ethics of Social Science Research and Ethical Use of Information
100 level –
Students will be exposed to research that has violated ethical guidelines, e.g. Milgram study.
Students will be taught about the ethical and legal use of information, i.e. social science research should “do no harm.”
Students will be taught how to avoid plagiarism through proper citation of sources.
Students will be introduced to the idea of fair use of copyrighted material.
200 level –
Students will continue to develop conceptual understanding and skills introduced at the 100-level.
Students will learn about the humans subjects research review process at CCC
If original research using human subjects or animals is required, it will be approved in advance by the Institutional Review Board (or the EDSL if no review board is available).
Any research involving human subjects or animals (e.g. surveys, interviews, etc.) will be highly constrained and guided carefully by the instructor.
Students gain more experience in writing from sources and using APA style.
Students will gain more in-depth understanding of how to avoid plagiarism and how to report information ethically and legally, with a minimum of distortion.
Suzan Parker, MLIS
Reference and Instruction,
Social Sciences Librarian
Cascadia Community College / University of Washington, Bothell sparker@uwb.edu
425-352-3540
Catherine Crain, PhD
Founding Faculty,
Psychology and Education
Cascadia Community College ccrain@cascadia.ctc.edu
425-352-8241
