ARTICULATION OF GOALS AND MEANS IN SOCIOLOGY

teaching of sociology as the goals and means of sociological instruction. Under-standing goals1—the knowledge, skills and perspectives we attempt to teach—and means—the methods or strategies used to achieve these goals—is central to identifying the core in sociology (Wagenaar 2004b; Keith and Ender 2004; Schweingruber 2005); assessing student learning, our teach-ing, and the impact of the American Socio-logical Association’s (ASA) Taskforce on the Undergraduate Major (Taskforce) (Wagenaar 1991); and locating the disci-pline’s contribution to, and place within, the teaching movement (Mauksch and Howery 1986). Yet, despite decades of discussion regarding the goals and means of sociology instruction (Goldsmid and Wilson 1980; Eberts et al. 1990; McKinney et al. 2004) and efforts to assess the sociology curricu-lum, we have much to learn about these critical issues