A new online journal billing itself as the first peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the college syllabus has published its first issue, and its editor hopes its emphasis on one facet of coursework will spark wider improvements in teaching.
“Most college teaching occurs in the dark,” writes Alexander M. Sidorkin, editor of Syllabus, in an introduction to the journal’s inaugural issue. “This journal is an attempt to recognize teaching by publishing the best syllabi, those that often go unrecognized.”
Mr. Sidorkin is also dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Rhode Island College, which publishes the journal.
A syllabus, he said in an interview, is the one document related to teaching that everyone can recognize, and it offers the clearest evidence of a professor’s efforts to plan and prepare for a course. But its real significance reveals something even deeper. “It’s the thinking that goes with it that’s important,” he said.
Syllabus includes articles on the purpose of the syllabus and samples of syllabi submitted by faculty. The first issue contains syllabi for courses in art criticism, history, philosophy, physical education, and religion from colleges in the Canada, New Zealand, and United States.
The examples demonstrate very different approaches to this one aspect of teaching. While some syllabi provide a straightforward outline of what material will be covered throughout the term, others include a précis of each week’s reading, along with essay or discussion questions to which the students must respond.
Some make explicit the study habits that will lead to a good grade: “Study and prepare approximately 10 hours per week outside of class,” reads the syllabus for Philip Whalen’s upper-level course at Coastal Carolina University on the French Revolution. “Carefully read approximately 100-120 pages per week outside of class; make school your first priority and attend class regularly; attend class and turn in all assigned work on time; and be prepared to write about 50+ typed pages, including a major research essay.”
Others offer learning goals and grading rubrics. Nearly all stake out expectations for classroom behavior. “The use of handheld texting devices in class, even below the desk (even the appearance of doing so as indicated by the tell-tale student texting posture), will be noted without further comment and be counted against your participation grade,” one of the syllabi notes.
Some samples reflect unusual approaches to teaching. For a course called “The Catholic Imagination,” Andrew Thomas McCarthy, an assistant professor of humanities and theology at Anna Maria College, describes the requirements for creative portfolios his students must put together.
In addition to writing essays and taking exams, his students must produce seven assignments across five artistic categories. They might write a poem about God; produce a sculpture depicting some aspect of the Roman Catholic experience; create two original verses for a Catholic hymn; write a short play about someone struggling with or embodying a cardinal or religious virtue; and design a Catholic chapel for a college campus. The portfolio is intended, he writes, “to demonstrate and recognize that not all ideas and truths are conveyed discursively.”
‘One of the Greatest Inventions’
Syllabus is not the first effort to focus on this one document.
The American Anthropological Association has amassed examples of syllabi on its Web site. And Carleton College runs the Science Education Resource Center, which aggregates syllabi. That database has proved valuable to faculty members who may be developing a new course or substantially revising an existing one, and want to be assured that their class will fall within the norms set in similar courses, said Cathryn A. Manduca, the center’s director.
“It’s important for faculty to have a chance to look at each other’s syllabi,” she said. “We’ve observed that the opportunity to norm behavior, to understand what other people are doing, is a strong driver for improving.”
Mr. Sidorkin believes that the new journal’s most significant contribution is in subjecting syllabi to peer review. “Peer review is probably one of the greatest inventions in scholarship,” he said, adding that, when done blindly, it can efficiently bring good ideas to light.
Submissions to Syllabus are evaluated by Mr. Sidorkin and by two outside reviewers, both of whom typically teach courses similar to the one under consideration. Enormous differences of opinion about what counts emerge from one field to another, he noted. Sometimes in reviews for the first issue, Mr. Sidorkin was unsure how valuable or well-crafted a certain syllabus was, but was later convinced of its quality by experts in the discipline.
Curiosity about the syllabi of colleagues is common among faculty members, said Mary Taylor Huber, consulting scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. When universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, started making course content freely accessible, she said, some faculty members looked at the materials to see how the subjects they teach are organized and approached elsewhere. Syllabus is the next, obvious step in that process, she said, and it holds promise for changing teaching. “One would hope that in this case, it would be not the bad driving out the good, but the good driving out the bad,” Ms. Huber said.
But at least one skeptic expressed surprise at the new venture, and worried that the journal would encourage more rigid rule making.
“There are two functions of a syllabus,” said Mano Singham, director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University. “One is the organization of course content and scope and sequence, and that’s fine. That’s what a syllabus is for. The other element is housekeeping and rule making, and that I have very serious problems with.”
Mr. Singham has argued for scuttling highly prescriptive syllabi in favor of creating courses in a spirit of flexibility and trust. His syllabi tend to be very short, and to reflect his and his students’ shared understanding of the course. Still, he acknowledged that the new journal could serve a purpose for novice faculty or those teaching introductory courses.
For Mr. Sidorkin, better teaching is the goal of the new venture, even though a syllabus is a small part of what goes into pedagogy. “I like the idea of a small procedural change having large implications,” he said. “That’s what I’m betting on.”
