Teaching Graduate and Undergraduate Research Methods: A Multipronged Departmental Initiative

This article describes a departmental initiative designed to integrate the teaching of graduate and undergraduate sociology through research methodology and the completion of actual research projects. The goal was to develop a multilevel team approach within which faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates would view their work as part of a connected project. The authors describe the three central components of the multilevel approach: a newly required research seminar for graduate students, an approach to teaching research methods in a joint seminar of graduate and undergraduate students, and an approach to teaching undergraduate research methods that includes having graduate students model research techniques for undergraduates. The authors then assess each of these components based on course evaluations and additional data gathered from participants. The authors conclude with a series of suggestions about how this model might be expanded and developed further in their own and other institutional contexts.