The syllabus is a fairly reliable indicator of the quality of teaching and learning that will take place in a course. Therefore, faculty should make every effort to design a high-quality syllabus; one that not only provides necessary information, but also
A syllabus details important information that fits into an overarching curriculum, which describes a class in general terms.
1. What's a Syllabus exactly?
A syllabus is a document that outlines all the essential information about a college course. It lists the topics you will study, as well as the due dates of any coursework including tests, quizzes, or exams. Your professors will give you a syllabus for each of your college classes.
It outlines for the reader what is expected to transpire during the course and what should be learned. Researchers have found that there are three purposes that it serves (1) as a record of the course, (2) as a contract between the teacher and the student, and (3) as a learning tool
2. Why syllabus is so important?
In general, you can expect your syllabus to help four groups of people once it’s created:
Yourself as teacher
Students
Colleagues
Administrators
Why a Syllabus Matters to You
Yourself as teacher
First, let’s cover why a syllabus is important for you as a teacher!
A syllabus is crucial to the success of any teacher because it maps out exactly what you have to do every day in your class.
It basically serves as a semester- or quarter-long reminder about every detail you need to cover with students.
With a syllabus, you do all of the work before your class starts so you can prepare for individual classes far ahead of time.
That makes it easier for you to be on your “A game” every time you enter the classroom.
It’s also helpful for your students to reference!
The syllabus is a fairly reliable indicator of the quality of teaching and learning that will take place in a course. Therefore, faculty should make every effort to design a high-quality syllabus; one that not only provides necessary information, but also invites and excites students about your course. After all, it is your students’ first exposure to your course!
Students
When you give students a syllabus, you’re communicating your expectations for them throughout the duration of the class.
They’ll know what topics you’ll cover, what homework to complete, when assessments happen, and a whole lot more from one single document.
Depending on your teaching style, this could be a great way to encourage students to work ahead and even teach themselves some of the material.
It’s also a great way for you to identify students who are falling behind to offer remediation opportunities.
Altogether, a syllabus tells your students what to expect from you!
Administrators
Your administrators are responsible for ensuring that education is consistent across all classrooms in their purview, whether that includes a single school or an entire district!
As a result, they may need to know what’s on your syllabus to ensure you’re hitting all the right notes.
Sometimes, your administrators may request a crosswalk between your class and current state standards instead of a syllabus.
Still, you’ll need a syllabus to create the crosswalk in the first place!
So whether you’re handing in a copy of your syllabus or using it to create the materials they need, your administrators need to know your syllabus either directly or indirectly.
Incidentally, your colleagues will also want to know what your syllabus covers — especially those who teach in the same department!
Colleagues
Your colleagues will care about your syllabus if (or when) they need to cover for you in a class.
That could include substitute teachers. It may also include new teachers who are brought onboard to cover classes you currently teach.
Regardless, a syllabus plays an enormous role in the smooth transition of a class from one teacher’s hands to another’s.
3. What are the characteristics of syllabus?
Common characteristics of a syllabus
A syllabus is a document which consists, essentially, of a list. This list specifies all the things that are to be taught in the course(s) for which the syllabus was designed (a beginner's course, for example, or a six-year secondary-school programme): it is therefore comprehensive. The actual components of the list may be either content items (words, structures, topics), or process ones (tasks, methods). The former is the more common. The items are ordered, usually having components that are considered easier or more essential earlier, and more difficult and less important ones later. This ordering may be fairly detailed and rigid, or general and flexible
The syllabus generally has explicit objectives, usually declared at the beginning of the document, on the basis of which the components of the list are selected and ordered.
Another characteristic of the syllabus is that it is a public document. It is available for scrutiny not only by the teachers who are expected to implement it, but also by the consumers (the learners or their parents or employers), by representatives of the relevant authorities (inspectors, school boards), by other interested members of the public (researchers, teacher trainers or textbook writers). Underlying this characteristic is the principle of accountability: the composers of the syllabus are answerable to their target audience for the quality of their document.
There are other, optional, features, displayed by some syllabuses and not others. A time schedule is one: some syllabuses delimit the time framework of their components, prescribing, for example, that these items should be dealt with in the first month, those in the second; the class should have completed this much by the end of the year. A particular preferred approach or methodology to be used may also be defined, even in a syllabus that is essentially content-based. It may list recommended materials – course books, visual materials or supplementary materials - either in general, or where relevant to certain items or sections.
4. What are the top elements of syllabus?
Based on the purpose(s) of your syllabus and the type of course it is, consider the role each of the following elements plays in supporting your goals.
Course information
- Course Name and Number
- Course Description: from the catalog; supports transfer
- Course Goal: your goal for the course, often aspirational.
- Description: Consider what you hope students will know in 3-5 years from this class, in what ways may students transform.
- Overview: Outlines the content focus of the course the types of activities or general approach the course will take. Allows you to share your passion for the subject and areas of focus for the course.
- Required Texts/Readings
- Required materials and technology: May include access to specific software (Office, SPSS, Adobe Acrobat Reader), hardware (please be mindful that not all students may easily be able to acquire hardware)
Course Student Learning Outcomes
- The specific aspects of learning anticipated in the course. Consider the following when drafting your student learning outcomes
- What is evidence of learning you will be looking for? How will you know?
- What are the areas of emphasis for mastery of the topics of the course?
- What new knowledge will students be introduced to?
- Where do you anticipate seeing growth and/or reinforcing and deepening existing knowledge?
- How does this course support program level outcomes
Course administration
- Contact Info: include your name, office location, telephone, email, Zoom room, etc
- Office Hours (include if they are virtual, physical, or both)
- Communication Expectations – do you prefer email, phone, text, other?
- Course Location: Online, remote, hybrid, or on-campus, Classroom location, if applicable
- Grading Information: Grading scale, how the grade is calculated, key graded elements
- Schedule: weekly (recommended) description of topic, reading/videos, activities, and due dates, including any synchronous activities (in class or virtual)
- Assignment details: descriptions of key course assignments including due dates, grading expectations, and weight.
Student Success Services
- Linking to various student support services is an inclusive practice. Consider specifically calling out any that may be particularly relevant to your course (e.g., Writing Center for a Literature class).
5. How do you create a syllabus?
You can portion the syllabus creation process into 10 steps:
List your class’s name and official course code (if applicable)
Fill in basic course information
Create a course goal
Note and describe who you are
Note all needed materials
Create a class calendar
Note any policies that differ from school policies
Note grading systems, scales, and curves
Create statements on academic integrity and etiquette
Review your syllabus
First thing’s first! Every syllabus needs the course’s name and course code.
1. Class Name & Course Code
Your class name and course code are essentially your syllabus’s title. They tell the reader what they’re about to see and contextualize the rest of the document.
Most of the time, this is easy. Many schools allow teachers to name their classes in the way the teacher believes makes sense.
The course code, on the other hand, is almost always set in stone. That’s because it’s used for enrollment purposes at the administrative level.
Regardless, they’re both essential parts of your syllabus for the sake of contextualization and organization.
2. Fill in Basic Course Information
“Basic course information” includes any details that pertain to the class’s cataloguing, tracking, or outcomes.
This information can vary from school to school. However, there are a handful of elements that are practically universal to include in basic course information:
Credit hours
Format: Face-to-face, blended, or online
Prerequisites
Brief description
With these four pieces of information, you’ll have most of the work done when filling in your syllabus’s basic details.
3. Create a Course Goal
Every class needs to have a goal. Otherwise, how can you verify whether students have successfully completed it?
The best class goals are brief statements as to what you’d expect a student to be able to do or know by the time the class concludes.
For a medical assisting class, the goal could be to get students to pass a certification exam so they can start careers as certified medical administrative assistants (CMAA).
For a middle school computer applications class, the goal could be to get students certified with Microsoft Word.
For a British literature class, the goal could be to perform a Shakespearean monologue.
Creating a simple and concise goal gives you, your students, and your administrators a clear “finish line” for the class.
4. Note and Describe Who You Are
As the class’s teacher, your name, credentials, and contact information are required on a syllabus.
Your name is the simplest part.
Your credentials could include anything from your degrees (Bachelor’s, Master’s, etc.) to your job title. Noting your credentials acts as a record for why you’re the best person to teach this course at your school.
As for your contact information, you can always use an email address to funnel communications with parents into an appropriate and documented format.
Some teachers also choose to include their room number, office location, and similar information so that students can find them during non-class hours.
5. Note All the Materials You Need
The “materials” section of your syllabus is the first time you might feel the tedium of completing such a detailed account of your class.
This area of your syllabus requires you to lay out all of the different resources you’ll use to help students succeed throughout the course.
Thanks to the advent of technology in the classroom, today’s syllabi can include an enormous range of materials, including:
Textbooks
Digital curriculum
Workbooks
Open education resources (OER)
Online activities
Reference materials
Online courseware
Styluses
Smartboards
While this isn’t an exhaustive list, it illustrates the point that you have a lot more options when it comes to how to teach your students than educators 10 years ago.
Blended classrooms will naturally use more resources than traditional classrooms. As a result, this section of your syllabus could take anywhere from several minutes to several hours.
It all depends on your teaching style!
6. Create a Class Calendar
Your class calendar will be the go-to resource that your students and administrators reference when discussing your class.
Your calendar will list essential information, including:
Start date
End date
Duration
Due dates
Holidays
Substitute teachers
Other dates of interest
It’s smart to reference your school and personal calendars when you’re creating your class calendar. This lets you identify holidays, in-service days, and days you’ll have to take off for personal plans.
On top of that, it’s important to look at calendars for religious holidays that your school district may not observe. This matters because your students and their families may still observe these holidays, meaning they probably won’t be in school during that time.
This is also the time to assign dates for major assessments and off-campus field trips that could affect your regular class schedule.
When you account for all of these variables, you can create a robust syllabus calendar that keeps you on track, your students informed, and your administrators satisfied!
7. Note Any Policies That Differ from School Policies
Do you have a unique attendance policy apart from your school? Do your make-up work opportunities differ from most of the other classes in your department?
Your syllabus is the perfect place to note that information!
Most of the time, the classes that have to worry about these policies have a large hands-on portion to their syllabus that simply can’t be done by a student on his or her own.
These hands-on portions require students to be physically present in your classroom, which means you simply can’t teach the same skills or information through readings, worksheets, or digital means.
Your syllabus could account for lessons on anything from CPR / BLS to home economics and beyond.
When those hands-on activities happen, your attendance policy can change to suit the shift in classwork.
There’s typically no problem with making these policy changes yourself — you just have to document them so you and your students are on the same page!
8. Note Grading Systems, Scales, and Curves
Grading systems, scales, and curves are more important to note in post-secondary syllabi, but they may also apply to a middle school or high school class.
Noting how you grade students shows them what to expect throughout the marking period.
Objective grading means you use the standard system of assigning letter grades — 90%-100% is an A, 80%-90% is a B, etc.
When you change a grading scale, you change which letter grade corresponds to which percentage range.
When you change a grading curve, you change the class’s perspective of an A and ultimately allow students to earn more than a 100% in your class.
Some teachers may use grading curves because the material they teach is exceptionally hard to grasp, but there aren’t many other alternatives to teaching the material.
As a result, students could wind up earning what would be considered “failing grades” in a typical class. But with a grading curve, those failing grades could be considered passing grades, based on the difficulty of the material.
These systems may also include extra credit opportunities, makeup work grading, and more!
So in the rare event that you use a different grading scale from the traditional American system, ensure you note it in your syllabus for absolute clarity!
9. Create Statements on Academic Integrity and Etiquette
This may sound like it’s redundant, but it’s important to clarify with your students that cheating and dishonesty are 100% unacceptable in your classroom!
This goes hand-in-hand with rules about etiquette, which may include respecting you, respecting one another, and respecting your classroom.
It’s important to issue these statements to your students because they reinforce what students already know — it’s more important to be honest than to get a good grade.
10. Review Your Syllabus
You just spent a lot of time creating your syllabus. Now, it’s time to make sure you have all of your bases covered!
You can do this in one of two ways:
Self-review
Peer review
Some teachers self-review because they’re the authority on the subject that they teach. That’s why it makes sense that the most informed individual would review a syllabus for that area.
Other teachers opt for peer review. This comes in handy whenever a teacher simply can’t look at a syllabus anymore because they’ve been working on it for so long.
6. How you can make your syllabus demanding?
You can make your syllabus demanding by doing these things strategically
The course requirements and grading section should include the following:
- Assignments and/or exams with brief descriptions of expectations and values for each.
- Grading scheme and weights including what a student must do to receive a grade of A to F.
- Syllabi for courses at the 500 or 600 levels must contain an explanation of the differences in requirements for graduate and undergraduate credit. Graduate students should be required to complete additional graduate level work (e.g., a research paper and/or substantive additional reading), and should be evaluated on a more rigorous basis than undergraduate students.
- Topical outline of content to be covered
- A time allocation framework (e.g., week 1, week 2, etc. to include at least 14 weeks for a standard academic year course session)
The course outline is a part of the syllabus that may be subject to change as the semester progresses. For example, a topic students find more difficult than anticipated may require additional time, or weather conditions may cancel sessions. Changes should be kept to a minimum, be reasonable and justified, and notice provided in a timely manner. A course outline can be presented on a separate sheet or as a separate file online, and can include:
- Topics and Timeline
- Reading Assignments
- Due Dates for Assignments
- Test and Exam Dates
Some instructors like to outline their course in a date-by-date list, others with a general list without reference to specific dates, and still others with a calendar style.
Since there is a good chance that your expectations of students will be the same in most of the classes you teach, it is a good idea to create your policies and procedures as a single document that you can reuse. You may consider include the following sections:
- Academic Integrity
- Attendance Policy
- Expectations for Classroom Behavior
- Assignment Submission
- Missed Exams or Late Assignments
- Accommodating Disability
- Diversity
- Instructional Methods
- Recommended Study Habits
- Expectations of the Instructor
- Amending the Syllabus/Rules
7. What's the advantages of syllabus?
Your syllabus gathers all the vital information about your class in one place. If you have questions about class schedules, due dates, or office hours, your professor will probably say “it's on the syllabus.” Check it first, as it will likely cover: Deadlines.
The advantages can be summarised as follows
1. Help all students learn more by demanding higher student proficiency and providing effective methods to help students achieve high standards;
2. Provide parents, schools, and communities with an unprecedented opportunity to debate and reach agreement on what students should know and be able to do;
3. Focus the education system on understandable, objective, measurable, and well-defined goals to enable schools to work smarter and more productively;
4. Reinforce the best teaching and educational practices already found in classrooms and make them the norm;
5. Provide real accountability by focusing squarely on results and helping the public and local and state educators evaluate which programs work best.
8. What's the disadvantages of syllabus?
The following are some of the shortcomings of standards-based reform.
1. Recent reports on the standards-based reform movement in New York suggest that in many schools the careless implementation of standards and assessment may have negative consequences for students.
2. Vague and unclear standards in several subject areas in several states complicate matters and do not serve as concrete standards defining what students should know and be able to do.
3. Top-down standards imposed by the central or state government are also problematic. They impose content specifications without taking into account the different needs, opportunities to learn, and skills that may be appropriate for specific districts or regions.
9. Conclusions
Several aspects that can be included on a syllabus allow it to be a good record of the course. These may include:
- Title, date(s) and department of course
- Credit hours earned
- Title and rank of instructor(s)
- Course pre- or co-requisites as well as required texts and other materials
- Course objectives, linked to professional standards
- Description of course content
So take a break! Ask a colleague to look over your syllabus.
10. FAQs
Q. What's the types of syllabus?
Two Type of Syllabus Like
1) Pre- determine syllabus and
2) Emergent syllabus.
1) Pre- Determine syllabus
The term pre- determine syllabus, is a syllabus where the content or write of categorization is planned first before the classroom interaction across. There are main four type of pre- determine syllabus.
A) The structural or grammatical syllabus
B) The Functional syllabus
C) The Situational syllabus
D) The Lexical syllabus.
A) The structural or grammatical syllabus: It is also known as a grammatical or linguistic type of syllabus become in the central the is a grammatical item, the basic of English language such as articles, verbs, tenses, vocabulary etc. In the structural syllabus language content is defined in manifesting the system of English. It was develop at a time when linguists conceived of language in term of the distribution properties of surface from.
B) The Functional syllabus: A list of functions is made and graded in term of its usefulness to the learners and the language necessary for performing there functions is the provide to dearer such examples are as under:
-Agreeing and disagreeing
-Expressing likes and dislike
-Giving and refusing permissions
-Responding to compliment
-Introducing oneself etc.
C) The Situational syllabus: The Syllabus identifies such situation where the learners are likely to use the language and give them the language, they need. For example, Situation of ‘A Shopping’ Daily many people go for shopping and interact with shopkeeper on many items which are necessary to perform those functions.
This type of syllabus is especially useful for those students, who use language in limited situations and for specific purposes. The learner will be motivated to their need on their needs.
C) The Lexical syllabus: In this type of syllabus the word frequency determines the contents.
Sample of natural languge is analyzed on a large scale by using computers and the comments words in the language along with the commonest patterns are identified. The learners are exposed to the different ways in which these words are used in their most natural environment.
2) Emergent syllabus.
The emergent syllabus is concerned with issues that decisions made while teaching. The emphasis is on the process of learning. The emergence syllabus is not product oriented but process oriented. It means according the student’s level a teacher can chance his/her syllabus. This called flexible syllabus and a teacher can produce effective result.
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