The Sociology Guy

Teaching Activity Blog Posts

  • Activity: Does the IV Cause the DV?

    This activity helps students practise the difference between correlation and cause and effect by looking at sociological hypotheses and deciding whether the independent variable (IV) has actually caused a change in the dependent variable (DV). It works especially well for Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology because it gets students thinking about variables, research methods, operationalisation,…

    Read more: Activity: Does the IV Cause the DV?

  • Aims, Hypotheses and Research Questions

    When sociologists carry out research, they do not begin by randomly asking questions or collecting facts. They begin by deciding exactly what they want to study and how they want to study it. That is why it is so important to understand the difference between aims, research questions and hypotheses. These ideas are central to…

    Read more: Aims, Hypotheses and Research Questions

  • Focus Groups in Action: Investigating Inequality in Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology

    Group interviews, often called focus groups, are a really useful way of helping students understand both sociological methods and substantive issues such as inequality. This activity is designed for Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology and gives students the chance to explore attitudes to four major forms of inequality: class, gender, age and ethnicity. At the…

    Read more: Focus Groups in Action: Investigating Inequality in Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology

  • Bad Sociology

    Research studies that crossed ethical lines Ethics can sometimes feel like the least dramatic part of teaching research methods. Students often meet terms such as informed consent, confidentiality, privacy, protection from harm and right to withdraw as if they are simply items on a checklist. Yet the moment students encounter real examples of unethical research,…

    Read more: Bad Sociology

  • Past the Gatekeeper

    Classroom activity for Cambridge OCR A level Sociology on Practical Issues in Research Purpose This activity helps students understand that sociologists cannot always study whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever way they choose. In many cases, access to participants or settings is controlled by gatekeepers. These are people who have the power to…

    Read more: Past the Gatekeeper

  • Researcher Values – Card Sort Activity

    One of the most useful things students can learn in Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology is that research is never just a mechanical process of collecting facts. Every piece of research begins with choices: what to study, who to study, which methods to use, what counts as evidence, and how findings should be interpreted. At…

    Read more: Researcher Values – Card Sort Activity

  • Qualitative Data Interpretation Task

    One of the key skills students need for Cambridge OCR A level Sociology is the ability to interpret data for the topic area of Researching Social Inequalities. This can either be quantitative (such as stats or responses to closed questionnaires) or qualitative (extracts from interviews). In this activity, we are going to get students to…

    Read more: Qualitative Data Interpretation Task

  • Teaching Quantitative Methods –

    Correlation or Cause and Effect? A misconception-busting classroom activity for Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology One of the biggest challenges in teaching research methods is helping students move from everyday language (“X causes Y”) to more careful sociological thinking (“the data may show a correlation, but this does not prove causation”). Students often use the…

    Read more: Teaching Quantitative Methods –

  • Same behaviour, different meanings

    Thinking activity for teaching Interpretivism for A Level Sociology This starter works particularly well because it immediately shows students that the same observable behaviour can be interpreted in very different ways. It introduces one of the central ideas behind interpretivism: that social behaviour cannot always be understood simply by measuring it. Instead, sociologists often need…

    Read more: Same behaviour, different meanings

  • Teaching Positivism for A Level Sociology

    Origins, key features, classic research and contemporary applications Positivism is one of the most important starting points in A Level Sociology because it helps students understand a core idea in the relationship between theory and methods: sociologists do not choose methods at random – they choose them based on what they believe counts as valid…

    Read more: Teaching Positivism for A Level Sociology