On Syllabi

The syllabus is a small place to start bringing students and faculty members back together... If students could be persuaded that we are really interested in their understanding the materials we offer, that we support their efforts to master it, and that we take their intellectual struggles seriously, they might respond by becoming involved in our courses, by trying to live up to our expectations, and by appreciating our concern.

 - Rubin, “Professors, Students, and the Syllabus,” Chronicle of Higher Education

http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/syllabus/ 

I like this resource from the University of Minnesota that I found on line. It says that a syllabus tacitly records and transmits your teaching philosophy. I like the inclusion of the word “tacitly”, because when I look at a syllabus (and I have seen many in the course of my studies) I not only look at what it says, but also at how it is saying it, and even at what it is not saying.

I have noticed for example that many times the syllabi are very stiff, as if mass produced, repeating the same things in the same ways, as if they were more a routine requirement than an opportunity to start getting closer to the students.  

I prefer  the syllabus that reflects the personality of the teacher in the way information is being presented, and in the choice of material that is included. I look forward to courses that seem attractive because of the challenges they present, the interesting methodology, or opportunity to learn something new.

On the other hand, it is discouraging when you read a syllabus about, for example methodology, and the way the syllabus is written clashes with the subject contents. Or, the syllabus says that we are going to learn about student centered methodologies, and the teacher divides students into groups so they can lecture their classmates on the topics contained in the text book with miserably written power point presentations.

I found the questions the tutorial poses to help guide the process of creating the syllabus quite useful. I also liked the encouragement if offers to bring the teacher closer to the students, to help show him or her as a person with interests and cares, not an impersonal entity like most syllabi show. Perhaps because they are not written with that purpose in mind, but with the theory that authority is created through respect that cannot exist except through distance.

In the school level, respect is gained because students know you care about them, and you are knowledgeable, and consistent. I think at university level it is the same. It is not the suit, or the aloofness, or the fear that you can make life complicated, which gains you the respect and desire to collaborate of the students.

I check my syllabi every year, and I adjust them according to the characteristics of each of the groups that are coming up to the next grade level. I incorporate things I learned in the previous year, and different resources that might be better suited for the groups. Sometimes I even cut things out from a previous program. 

In a way, for me, syllabi are like plants that you prune and shape in a way that they reflect who you are and what you want to do, as clearly as a picture.