Videos
are always popular with students and, used constructively, they can
stimulate ideas and discussions in ways that other teaching media cannot.
However, the main problem with the "recorded off the tele"
video*
is that it's rarely tightly-focused on a specific teaching topic (for
every minute of useful sociological material, students have to sit - or
sometimes sleep - through ten minutes of inconsequential stuff). To get
the best value from videos you also find yourself having to prepare pages
of written materials to help students focus on significant points...
Finding good video material, directly focused on the A-level Sociology
syllabus, can be difficult, but the following videos have been designed to
provide just this. Each video contains a mix of styles (Talking Heads,
student group discussions, audio-visual material and so forth) and a nice
feature is the fact that each theme (Theory, Methods and so forth) is
presented in discrete segments, varying in length from five to ten minutes
or so. This means the video can, if you wish, be used in "short bursts" to
either provide background information to a particular theory or concept
under discussion or, in many cases, stimulate further discussion. A set of
Teaching Notes accompanies each video and these provide guidance on
discussion points and topics, as well as providing suggestions for further
reading.
and discussion
with past and present students and their teachers. The video covers
The narrative of this video is neatly divided into a number of short sections in
which Stan. Cohen discusses the background to his research,
its methodology and data analysis. A number of significant
concepts (moral panic,
deviancy amplification, etc.) are also explained, with the help of
simple, clear, on-screen graphics. The video not only provides an
interesting overview to a classic piece of research, it also gives students
important pointers to the production of their own research projects.
The narrative of this video is divided into a number of short sections in which
Paul Willis discusses the background to his research, its methodology
and data analysis. Willis discusses his research in an enthusiastic
and stimulating way and provides a number of interesting
insights into the research process (in particular, the strengths of
ethnographic research).
Following the tried-and
trusted "
However, almost single-handedly, Peter Townsend
(with a bit of help from Brian Abel-Smith) changed this perception
of a happy contented land in which "class was dead" (yes, again) and
Britain was a land of milk, honey and opportunity for them that had the
ability, desire and (usually) a helpful few million inherited from their
family. So now you know who to blame. Typical bloody sociologists, they
always have to spoil things.
deviance - from Durkheim, through Subcultural theories to New Right
Realism. There's also a nice section on social control and situational
theories of crime prevention. Fans of Steve Taylor's laid-back approach to
presentation will be disappointed by his absence and there's a couple of daft segments where stroppy kids talk
about why they're pretty crap criminals, but in the main the video serves
as a useful, nicely visual, overview of the main sociological theories of
crime and deviance.
