I survey my students on the first day of class to find out why they’ve come and from that data I know to treat their arrival as a gift. I’ve got just one chance to make anthropology relevant to their lives. If I try to treat them as potential colleagues—as anthropologists-in-the-making—I risk alienating them. That risk rises if I require them to read textbooks thick with hundreds of pages of abstract or alien information. Will all that “stuff” survive a few months’ brain storage let alone a lifetime? If not, then it might be better to get something anthropological to stick for their lifetime. In this blog post I provide a few concrete examples of the pedagogical approaches I use. read more...

• DateFebruary 27, 2014
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• posted bySarah Mahler

So you are planning your first Introduction to Anthropology course or you are considering an overhaul of this course. What do you do? In my previous blog post I suggested that you approach the course design from the perspective that you only have one shot to make this course relevant to most students. Know your audience, I recommend. I find that a third or more of my students arrive just to fulfill a social science requirement but, more importantly, almost every student arrives without ever having taken any social science in their K-12 years. Therefore, I tell my students how glad I am that they now have a chance to learn some social science, specifically anthropology. read more...

• DateFebruary 25, 2014
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• posted bySarah Mahler

“You’ve only got one shot” is what I continuously say to myself when planning for, and teaching, Introduction to Anthropology. If you pardon the military metaphor, you’ll find that there are truly solid and compelling reasons to treat Intro with missionary zeal... read more...

• DateFebruary 24, 2014
• commentsNo comment
• posted bySarah Mahler