Items related to AS Sociology for AQA
AS Sociology for AQA is the comprehensive textbook for students following the AQA specification.
Offering a fresh and innovative approach, the book provides fully integrated coverage of every key topic, including Mass Media, Education, Poverty and Welfare, Families and Households and Research Methods, and takes the reader from basic definitions to in-depth knowledge, whatever their ability.
Packed with illustrations, photographs, module links and project advice, the book is tailor made for every AS sociology student. Written by the author of the leading subject website, Sociology Central, this attractively designed text makes the AQA sociology course accessible and lively for everyone.
Offering a fresh and innovative approach, the book provides fully integrated coverage of every key topic, including Mass Media, Education, Poverty and Welfare, Families and Households and Research Methods, and takes the reader from basic definitions to in-depth knowledge, whatever their ability.
Packed with illustrations, photographs, module links and project advice, the book is tailor made for every AS sociology student. Written by the author of the leading subject website, Sociology Central, this attractively designed text makes the AQA sociology course accessible and lively for everyone.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
From the Author:
AS Sociology for AQA provides a welcome adition to the sociological canon. Not only is it well-written, but challenging concepts and issues are explained with clarity, and it is comprehensive in its coverage. It is a book which could be instrumental in encouraging our students to develop more confidence and concentration as readers of books about sociology in addition to improving their achievements in public examinations.
(The Journal of the Association for the Teaching of Social Sciences Vol 35 No 1 2005-12-05)About A Book
There are, of course, a lot of AS Sociology texts from which to choose - so what makes this one so different?
We like to think it's a combination of three things:
Firstly, an understanding of the skills students need to master o be successful at this level. Developing out of our experience in the classroom, we made a conscious decision to reflect the fact that students come to AS sociology with different levels of prior achievement, interest and knowledge.
There are, of course, a lot of AS Sociology texts from which to choose - so what makes this one so different?
We like to think it's a combination of three things:
Firstly, an understanding of the skills students need to master o be successful at this level. Developing out of our experience in the classroom, we made a conscious decision to reflect the fact that students come to AS sociology with different levels of prior achievement, interest and knowledge.
We wanted to reflect these ideas by structuring the text in a way, we believe, hasn't been attempted before at this level; namely, by introducing an element of differentiation to the overall structure of the book. The basic idea here was to allow both teachers and students the scope to develop their own particular routes through the information contained in the book. The text is organised around a Key Word system, such that the key ideas or concepts discussed in the subsequent text are clearly highlighted for the student. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Firstly, it encourages students to identify and focus on the most important ideas in any piece of text. This, we firmly believe, encourages both the retention of knowledge and an understanding of the text.
Secondly, it means the book can be used as both a "normal" classroom text and as a revision text (which has the rather neat bonus of Saving You Money). The Key Word structure allows student to clearly identify, for revision purposes, the most important ideas they will need in their exam - it also links neatly into the Revision Maps available on the Sociology Central web site (sociology.org.uk).
Each Unit within each Module is always structured in terms of two sections:
Preparing The Ground involves providing a relatively basic level of information about a particular topic or issue. The information here is pitched at both an introductory level (introducing students to the major ideas in a Unit for example) and one that all AS students should be able to successfully understand.
Digging Deeper involves going into more depth and detail. These sections, for example, introduce more-complex ideas and forms of analysis than is strictly-required to pass the AS exam; they are, for example, more theoretical in scope and are designed to do two things: firstly, take students into the higher grade bands and, secondly, allow those students who are interested in knowing more about an issue to explore it in greater detail.
For some students this may involve grasping "the basics" of a topic whereas others may wish to explore an issue in more depth. For teachers using the book as part of their own differentiated classroom strategy, we felt the structure of the text would lend itself to the organisation of this (frequently time-consuming) process.
Secondly, an understanding of what examiners want from students (and by extension, their teachers) in terms of such skills.
The text is tightly-focused on the AQA Specification, for a couple of reasons:
Firstly, we believe this makes it easier for students to organise their sociological knowledge around a clear understanding of the Specification requirements. Once you know and understand what the examiner requires it makes it that much easier to satisfy their demands.
Secondly, for many teachers, sociology is not always their primary area of expertise. This may be as true for new teachers as it is for experienced teachers. For this reason we wanted to remove a layer of doubt - "Am I covering the knowledge required by the Awarding Body in the depth they demand?" - and, by so doing, give teachers the confidence to do what they do best - teach.
Thirdly, how a sociology classroom works in terms of the overall teaching and learning process.
Two of the things we tried to build into the book were exercises and opportunities for discussion since we felt - based on our classroom experience as both students (in my case rather a long time ago...) and teachers (the experience here is, thankfully, rather more recent) - these were important elements of the teaching and learning process.
The exercises - all of which, at various times, have been tried and tested in the classroom - are designed to help students apply their knowledge and understanding to a particular topic or issue. Some are explicitly-designed as "Warm Up", whole-class, activities that build student confidence by allowing them to demonstrate what they already know; others are used to develop interpretation and analysis skills through small group work.
The discussion questions are designed to encourage evaluation through the development, expression and exchange of ideas in both small groups and as a whole class.
Based on the above, the book has a number of significant features:
Tightly-focused on the 2005+ AQA Specification with complete Specification coverage on the followingg Modules / Units:
Module 1: Families and Households / Mass Media
Module 2: Education / Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
Module 3: Sociological Methods (and coursework)
Differentiated text
Class, group and individual exercises and activities.
Discussion Points
Clear integration with supporting web site (sociology.org.uk)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHodder Arnold
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0340967870
- ISBN 13 9780340967874
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number2
(No Available Copies)
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