REPORT ON QUESTIONNAIRE OF COMMITTEE ON

TEACHING

F. STUART CHAPIN
Columbia University

To the Members of the Committee on Teaching, American Sociological Society:

GENTLEMEN: In accordance with Professor Jerome Dowd's request I herewith present to you this abstract and digest of the material returned in answer to the committee's questionnaire sent out during the investigation into the subject-matter of beginning courses at present given in colleges of the country under the title of Sociology.

The following questionnaire, at the approval of Professor Jerome Dowd, chairman of the committee, was sent out to some four hundred colleges, universities, theological schools, and state normal schools.

COMMITTEE ON TEACHING

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL SOCIETY

PROFESSOR JEROME DOWD, Chairman

DEAR SIR: The American Sociological Society has appointed a committee of ten of its members to report to the next annual meeting:

First, a statement of the subject-matter of first courses at present given in colleges of the country under the title of Sociology.

Second, a suggested outline for a fundamental introductory course in Sociology.

Will you kindly assist in this work by filling out the accompanying questionnaire ?

A. Name of institution.

B. Name and title of person filling out this blank.

C. Please paste here a clipping from your catalogue giving the statement of your beginning course in Sociology.

D. Give an outline of the subject-matter of that course and add the list of authors and their works assigned for students to read in connection with the course.

(Subject-Matter)

(Authors and References)

E. Suggest the subject-matter for a fundamental course to serve as a basis for advanced work if the beginning course you now give does not fully answer the purpose of a fundamental course.

The list of institutions to which the questionnaire was sent was made up as follows:

Mr. L. L. Bernard kindly let me have the questionnaire returned to him during the course of the investigation into "The Teaching of Sociology in the United States" conducted under the auspices of and published in the American Journal of Sociology in September, 1909. From this material a list was made of the names and addresses of professors and departmental heads who taught sociology. In this manner a list of 199 institutions was obtained which had answered Mr. Bernard favorably and which were therefore known to teach sociology. To this number were added the 167 institutions which Mr. Bernard gave in Table IV of his report. The names of these institutions were added because in going through their catalogues Mr. Bernard found that they gave courses in sociology although they had not answered the questionnaire. Finally, to the 366 institutions thus obtained were added some 30 institutions. A few of these had reported to Mr. Bernard's questionnaire as intending to give courses in sociology in the near future, but the majority of these were obtained from the list of colleges in the World Almanac for 1910. The final total was 396 institutions to which the above questionnaire was sent on October 15 of the present year.

From the four hundred odd institutions addressed by the questionnaire, some 145 answers were received. Of this number 128 reported as teaching sociology and 17 reported no course in sociology. Of the total answers, 126 were from colleges and universities, 5 were from theological schools, and 14 were from state normal schools. Fifteen colleges and universities offered no course in sociology and two state normal schools offered no course.

TABLE I

INSTITUTIONS ANSWERING THE QUESTIONNAIRE

NOTE.-Institutions marked * give no course in sociology; institutions marked † are interested in the report of the committee; institutions marked *† expect to start a course soon.