Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Universities As If Students Mattered: Social Science on the Creative Edge

Universities As If Students Mattered is centered around the goal of coaching college students to become active, self-directed learners whose obligation to serve society is integral to their active learning. At the same time, the innovations in this book would focus the attention, energy, and considerable talents of professors, graduate students, and post-docs on some potential ways and means of addressing urgent social issues, contributing to a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of the social world. Review Amid the current crisis in higher education, John Scanzoni goes to the very heart of what ails the entrepreneurial university. He sees the compelling need to overhaul undergraduate education and urges the social sciences to lead the way. In this clearly-written, engaging book Scanzoni resurrects the dream of an earlier generation of social scientists and fastens it to a pedagogy of learning by doing. His proposal to remake undergraduate education into a experience envied by those who have lost faith in the entrepreneurial university is one that bears close scrutiny and widespread debate.--Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus of Education, Stanford University I highly recommend Universities as if Students Mattered for academic leaders, faculty, and graduate students in the social sciences. Dr. Scanzoni successfully weaves together current trends in higher education with a renewed commitment to serve society, effective instructional approaches, and social science perspectives and methodologies. The result is a compelling vision that reframes the role of the social sciences for the 21st century.--Deborah DeZure, Director of Faculty and Organizational Development and Sr. Advisor to the Provost, Michigan State University Universities As If Students Mattered is a well written, intellectually exciting book that should be of interest to sociologists across the board. It could easily be used in undergraduate courses on social theory, seminars on the sociology of sociology, or graduate level sociology programs. Highly recommended.--Jeffrey Chin, Le Moyne College About the Author John Scanzoni is Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Contemporary Families and Relationships.