Getting Off to a Good Start

We send “cues” to students from the moment we step into our classroom – and even sooner, in some cases – with our course descriptions, syllabi, and Moodle/classroom management sites. Students begin forming impressions about the course and the instructor immediately.

What kinds of cues do we want to send? That we’re excited about the material? That we’re eager to get to know the students? That we have high standards? That we’re hoping a lot of students will drop the course? That we assume the worst of students? That we want to be inclusive?

Building an Inclusive Syllabus

Thinking intentionally about about the tone and subtle messages we send in the syllabus can help us be more informative and welcoming. We can try to insure that students learn what they need to know about the course while also communicating that we want to partner with them in learning.

Research (summarized in Palmer et al.) suggests that a syllabus “written in a friendly, rather than unfriendly tone evoked [student] perceptions of the instructor being more warm, more approachable, and more motivated to teach the course.” Approachability can motivate students and make them more likely to seek out a professor when struggling.

Tone

Syllabus reformers suggest that faculty craft a “learning-centered” syllabus that improves motivation, honestly addresses challenges students might face, and explains the strategies and resources that are available to students when they encounter challenges. Many of us were taught that a syllabus is a contract, and as a result, filled ours with a series of legalistic mandates about what students should NOT do and the consequences breaking the rules. There are two problems with this way of thinking: first, we can’t anticipate every single way students might violate our expectations, and second, the tone can be off-putting or even adversarial.

In contrast, a learning-centered syllabus describes what students will do in the course (instead of what they shouldn’t do), the interesting questions the course will answer, and why course topics and skills matter. Small actions, like the use of personal pronouns (like “we” or “you”), or including what students can expect of you, send potentially meaningful signals.

A final suggestion for an inclusive syllabus is to make your good intentions known. If you are committed to trying to create a class where every student feels welcome, and you intend to be respectful and fair, then say it explicitly – both on your syllabus and on the first day of class.

Policies

How we talk about policies and campus resources matters. Before each semester, the provost’s office shares suggested language to include in a course syllabus, such as campus resources to support student writing and learning, or statements related to the Honor Code, disabilities, and religious holidays.

As you decide how to include this information in your syllabus, consider the cues sent by each of the following two options for describing how learning needs will be accommodated :

  1. “Students must notify the instructor of accommodations within 2 weeks of class.”
  2. “If you need accommodations, you have a right to have these met, so it’s best to notify instructors as soon as possible.” (Tulane’s accessible syllabus project)

The first example could be read by students as the instructor seeing accommodation as an inconvenient burden, whereas the second reinforces student rights and is more welcoming. See more options for supportive language you can use regarding disabilities, supplied by Arkansas Tech’s Office of Disability Services (pdf).

The same applies to language about the policies related to religious holidays or the Honor Code. We can simply repeat boilerplate language, or we can adapt it to make clear our sincere commitment. (“The Honor Code means a lot to me, so I want to make sure you understand…”) We can also model our commitment by using proper citations for legally permissible photos.

Whatever policies you choose, you can see differences in how a “warm” and “cold” syllabus might express them.

Want to assess how inclusive your syllabus is? Use the worksheet created by James Madison’s Center for Faculty Innovation.

Style

A good syllabus is clear and easy to read. Practices like using headings help all students understand how it is organized and help students with disabilities (who need screen readers) work through the document. Bulleted points, numbered lists, tables or graphics can help highlight certain information. For students with dyslexia, using bold-face is better than using italics, and using a sans-serif font is better than a serif one.

If you create or have students create websites, you can build them with accessibility in mind.

 

The First Day of Class

If we are committed to values of inclusion and to trying to help all students successfully learn, and we want students to know that, then both our words and our actions matter.

Our words matter not only in the use of respectful language (about groups of students and individuals), but also in terms of explicitly communicating our values. All students, but especially those from historically marginalized groups, will be listening for cues about how we talk about matters such as disability, religious holidays, gender, and pronouns.

Our actions also communicate our values, such as the following:

  • Explaining the reasons for our methods of evaluation and how we actively try to insure fairness (e.g. use of rubrics, anonymous grading, etc.) communicates to students that we are fair and trustworthy, .
  • Keeping our word when we make promises to students
  • Acknowledging when we make a mistake

Demonstrating that we recognize students’ backgrounds and group identities matter and that multiple components combine into one’s individual identity, which we can learn more about by:

  • Learning names on the first day (or sooner, with photos in OnTrack)
  • Asking them to confidentially share multiple components of their background or things that make them who they are.
  • Sharing some aspects of our own backgrounds and identity. (Thinking carefully about what is shared and why.)

Build community:

  • Have students learn about one another and learning each other’s names.
  • Continue working on community throughout the semester. The Motivation Research Institute notes that “when students experience meaningful student-student and student-teacher relationships, they are more likely to experience high value” and be motivated to learn.

Show that we expect students to participate actively in class:

  • Avoid doing all the talking on the first day.
  • Design an exercise so that every student is participating in a meaningful activity related to course content or skills.
  • Find a way to help students will learn what is expected of them in terms of class participation. In Discussion in the College Classroom, Jay Howard notes that students and faculty can have very different expectations (about matters including hand-raising, if only “right answers” constitute good verbal participation, laptop use, use of names, behavior in small groups, anecdotal evidence, etc.). Howard suggests that unless faculty intervene, students will be tempted to only pay “civil attention” instead of being fully engaged.
  • Continue to structure class meetings to insure broad-based participation. Without inclusive structures, the class can quickly fall into a pattern of “consolidation of responsibility” where a small number of students account for the majority of verbal participation.

Teach for motivation

  • Help students understand the value of our course material, which may not be self-evident to them.
  • Help students connect what they are learning to their past, present, or future personal lives and/or the real world.

Works Cited & Resources

Ken E. Barron and C.S. Hulleman, “Is there a formula to help understand and improve student motivation?” E-xcellence in Teaching, 8 (August 2006).

Mary Bart, “A Learner-Centered Syllabus Helps Set the Tone for Learning,” Faculty Focus, July 29, 2015.

Jay R. Howard, Discussion in the College Classroom; Getting Your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online. Jossey-Bass, 2015.

Ann C. Orr and Sara Bachman Hammig, “Inclusive Post-secondary Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities: a Review of the Literature,” Learning Disability Quarterly 32, Summer 2009.

Michael S. Palmer, Lindsay B. Wheeler, and Itiya Aneece, “Does the Syllabus Matter? The Evolving Role of Syllabi in Higher Education, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 48:4, July/August 2016.

Jeanne M. Slattery and Janet F. Carlson, “Preparing an Effective Syllabus,” College Teaching 53 , no. 4, 2005.

Claude Steele, Whistling Vivaldi (Norton, 2010), chapter 8 (The Strength of Stereotype Threat: The Role of Cues).

Anne-Marie Womack, et al., “Accessible Syllabus,” Tulane Center for Engaged Learning.