Mark PotterCenter for Faculty Development

mpotte10@mscd.edu

Faculty participants will: Review their syllabi from different

perspectives. Evaluate what they want to accomplish with

their syllabi. Assess which changes they can adopt to

improve their syllabi. Begin developing those changes.

What is your reaction to the article “Death to the Syllabus”? Is anyone willing to go so far as to adopt Mano Singham’s approach?

What considerations arise when we think of the syllabus as a “contract”?

Read short passage from Ken Bain Does Bain’s vision of the syllabus provide

us with an antidote to the “controlling” syllabus?

What do we want our syllabi to accomplish?

Our answers to this question Are a matter of personal preference and

comfort Should reflect our values

What do we want our syllabi to include? Our answers to this question should

reflect Our answers to the previous question Our thoughts and ideas about

The learning process The subject matter

TGI (Teaching Goals Inventory)

Teaching philosophy statement 7 principles of good practice “Rules of the road”

Purpose of the course Course description

Course objectives May be written at a course or unit level Can be of two types

Concrete statements of what students will be able to do as a result of learning

Open-ended, flexible, descriptions of a situation or problem out of which learning will arise

Readings Course calendar Course requirements (e.g. participation,

completing reading assignments, etc.)

Policies and expectations Attendance, late papers, missed tests, civility,

etc. Academic integrity Disability, access , and safety

Evaluation and grading procedures/criteria

Angelo, T.A. and Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bain, K. (2004). What the Best College Teachers Do. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Grunert O’Brien, J., Millis, B.J., and Cohen, M.W. (2008). The Course Syllabus. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Singham, M. (2007). “Death to the syllabus!” Liberal Education, 93, 52-56