COURSE DESIGN AND SYLLABUS. I

Beliefs (about Pedagogy)

(Sets your) Goals and Objectives
(Defines your) Parameters
(Allows you to construct) A Syllabus.

Questions to ask yourself when you design a course:

- Course Goals (what do you want your students to learn)?
* Content
* Skills
* Attitudes

- What do I expect from a student entering this class?
* Prerequisite skills
* Level of expertise, comprehension and knowledge

- What kind of performance will I require?
* Knowledge
* Comprehension
* Application
* Analysis
* Synthesis
* Evaluation

- What class activities will promote these goals/modes of performance?
* Lectures
* Debate/Discussion (small group / large group)
* Case studies
* Library Research
* Field Work
* Essay / Media-production
* Role-play

- (Related) What assignments will I use to evaluate the students?
* Exams
* Papers
* Group Projects
* Oral Presentations

- (Related) How much uniformity should the assignments have?
* Standardized test (no student choice)
* Menu (students have internal choice)
* Individualized

- What support have I given to the students to reach these goals?
* Weekly schedule
* Bibliographies
* Demonstrations
* Hand-outs
* Individual conferences

- What kind of feedback do I want to give the students?
* Ongoing
* Summative
* Individual
* Small Group

- What kind of class atmosphere will foster these goals?
* Competitive
* Cooperative

- How much of the class time should I take as a teacher?
* Anywhere from 99% to 10% (occasional discussion; seminar style teacher-led discussion; student-led discussion; student-designed directed projects).

- What policy of class attendance will foster the success of the class?
* Mandatory and graded
* Mandatory and not graded
* Expected
* Voluntary

- What should the pace of the course be?
* Readings per week, decided roughly be number of pages
* Fixed by syllabus?
* Flexible

- How will I grade the students?
* Achievement of class goals and assignments (comparison with course standards)
* Achievement of norm (comparison with others in class)
* Progress from the term’s beginning (comparison with self)

Q. How will I actualize and convey all this with a syllabus? Look at the syllabus you have with you and call out the key components that you think make it a good syllabus.

Q. Swap your syllabus with your neighbors, and evaluate their syllabus for what it has and what it might be missing.