Raj Ghoshal

UNC-Chapel Hill
Department of Sociology
Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Pedagogy

Statment of teaching practice

My teaching statement will be linked here someday. Email me if you want a copy before then.

  • Student comments

    The information here includes comments from SOCI 412 (Social Stratification, Fall 2008) only. I may add comments from other classes as time permits.

    On a supplemental anonymous evaluation, I asked students to describe the class in three words or phrases. This was an open-ended question. Twenty-seven of 34 students responded (24 listed three phrases, while 3 listed two phrases). The breakdown was as follows: "Interesting" or "piqued interest": 16; "eye-opening," "very eye-opening," or "insightful": 8; "engaging" or "stimulating": 7; miscellaneous related to workload (e.g. "challenging," "intensive"): 7; "thought-provoking" or "makes me think": 6;     miscellaneous positive: 6; "relevant," "relevant to society," or "practical": 5; "informative," "extremely informative," or "informational": 5;  "reading," "lots of reading," or "heavy reading": 4; miscellaneous related to format (e.g. "facilitations," "discussion based," etc.): 3; miscellaneous neutral: 3; "funny," "fun," etc.: 4; "ocassionally depressing" or "slightly depressing": 2; "important": 2; miscellaneous negative: 0.

  • I also asked, "Your friend is considering taking SOCI 412 (with me as the instructor) and wants to know what the class is like.  What do you tell her/him?" and asked an "Any other comments?" question.  Responses to these questions included: "It is the best class I've had at UNC";  "The class overall was beyond excellent"; "It has been one of my favorite classes so far at Carolina"; "It is an open and positive class environment"; "The course is definitely one of the most interesting ones that I've taken"; "A great class"; "Highly recommend it!"; "You will get a lot out of it"; "It provides essential evidence for making an impact in the world"; "Get ready to do a lot of work, but ask and answer a lot of questions about yourself"; "This was one of the best classes I've taken at UNC!"; "I really enjoyed the high level of interaction and participation in the class"; "I loved this class and am sad that it is already over"; "This has been my favorite class here so far"; "It is one of the most interesting courses I have ever taken"; "Raj is extremely well-prepared and expects the same from his students"; "Good teacher"; "Great discussions"; "A lot of readng, but the subject matter is very engaging and makes you question previous assumptions"; "The exercises were really great and made me think about the subject matter on a more personal level";"The class worked well by having a variety of different structures"; "The work is a lot but it doesn't seem like it because it is interesting"; "There is a lot of reading, but the concepts learned in class are eye-opening and relevant, making all of the reading completely worthwhile";  "I enjoyed learning relevant and new things and seeing how they apply to American society"; "You have to do a lot of reading, but the class covers a lot of interesting material";"The exercises helped bring the subject material into perspective"; "The group facilitations were really good"; and "I would definitely take it again had I not already taken it."

  • Student evaluations - quantitative

    Links to PDFs of my aggegated course evaluation data will someday be posted here.

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    Copyright Raj Ghoshal. All rights reserved.

    UNC-Chapel Hill
    Department of Sociology
    Chapel Hill, NC 27599