We all know that a syllabus has to convey information and set an open and inviting tone. But no matter how skillfully and engagingly it does those things, to be truly effective, a syllabus has to move beyond the basics and embody the actual substance of the course.
In the two previous installments of DIY Syllabus, I considered what a syllabus is (and isn’t) and the types of things that should go into (and stay out of) a course syllabus. In this latest installment, I’d like to consider how we can use our syllabi to do more than merely convey information or set the tone for the course. To be sure, those are essential functions of a syllabus, and it’s important to do them well.
But stopping there keeps the syllabus firmly within the realm of the transactional, when what we’re really after in our teaching is the transformational. How is the course going to excite, interest, challenge, and transform its participants? What is it — specifically — that students are being invited into? It turns out that we’re asking quite a lot of the syllabus. We’re asking it to become an effective entry point into a course that we hope will be empowering and transformative for our students’ learning.
