What will I study?
The main focus of AS/A Level Sociology is to look at human behaviour in a range of situations in society and to try and understand it. We look at these situations from a number of viewpoints and especially like to look beneath the obvious – ‘things are not what they seem’. Sociology is principally about asking questions. We ask questions about the family and households – such as who is in the family? What does it do for its members and what roles do they play? What happens in divorce/family breakdown? What about abuse/violence? Childhood – how has it changed? We also look at the state and its influence on family life. In education and methods we ask more questions on why do some students do better at school than others? What factors affect success, such as class/race/gender? What about home background or the teachers in school? What effect have legal changes made? We also look at the varieties of research methods – such as experiment/observation/questionnaires/interviews and others to see how they operate and their advantages and disadvantages.
What does it combine with?
Sociology studies people and their behaviour/motivations/responses/interactions and the effects of society so combines extremely well with a wide range of other subjects – such as Psychology, Media Studies, English language or literature, History, Law, Business, Performance Studies and Sport.
Where will it lead?
Sociology is a good general basis for further general and specify studies. Many professional careers require understanding human behaviour and a greater appreciation of people and their relationships and lives. Such study will be of great value to anyone who wishes to follow a career working with people e.g. the Law, Nursing, Police, Teacher, Management, Social Work, Journalist, Prison/Probation and Criminology.
Students who have studied Sociology at A -Level have entered University to study Social Science based degrees such as Applied Social Studies, Psychology, Media Studies, Criminology, Journalism, and Education.
You might be interested to know…
The course will be delivered with a variety of teaching and learning strategies from small group work/team work and presentations to whole class discussions, role play, stimulus work research and games Students who study Sociology do achieve good results each year.
Entry requirements
There aren’t any specific requirements as such – but it is useful if students like discussing and studying people. We like to have lively, enthusiastic students who like to argue and debate – so if you are interested in people, then A-Level Sociology could be the course for you!
