Have you ever had a student misunderstand an assignment, express surprise that you had considered attendance important, or want an explanation of how you grade after the final exam has been scored and the semester is over? If, like most teachers, you receive such remarks every semester, you already appreciate the need for clarity in your communication with students.

One of the best ways to clarify such communication is through your course syllabus. As a teacher, you have probably distributed thousands of them and no doubt have written a score or more, yet often, the syllabus is given little attention. Well, we can’t blame anyone for not taking us seriously if we do not make our expectations clear in these syllabi. We mistakenly often assume that our colleagues and our students will intuitively be able to reconstruct that creature we see in our mind’s eye from the few bones we give them in the syllabus.

It must be pointed out from the onset that having a syllabus is not all it takes to communicate but rather, having an effective syllabus. A poorly written and incomplete syllabus can frustrate both students and teachers and disrupt the whole learning process. One of the easiest ways to improve your teaching is to increase the communication effectiveness of your syllabi. To do this, you need to understand the purposes of a course syllabus and its essential elements.

The course syllabus serves many purposes. Some of these directly serve your students and are readily apparent to them while others serve some of your needs. To begin with, the very process of writing a well-constructed syllabus forces you to crystallise, articulate, organise, and communicate your thoughts about a course. This compels you to publicly reveal your previously well concealed assumptions. In other words, it makes explicit that which was implicit, and it is the implicit that often confuses and frustrates students.

Your syllabus also allows you to share your pedagogical philosophy. Students may not perceive it in quite this way, but that is one of the things you achieve through the syllabus. A syllabus tells your students whether you view learning as an active or passive process and whether you emphasise knowledge enhancement, skill building, or a combination of both. It also reveals how your course is structured, tells your students if the parts of the course are mutually exclusive, or whether success in its later stages depends upon skills mastered earlier.

Most importantly, a syllabus encourages your students to take the course seriously. After students read your syllabus, they should know how your course satisfies departmental or institutional requirements, how it fits into their major, or why it is a valuable elective. Is the course a prerequisite for more advanced courses? How would you define the course (introductory, intermediate, or capstone level)? If you do not clearly state the purpose and value of your course, your students may believe the main purpose of taking it is simply to fulfil a poorly understood curricular requirement.

Finally, a syllabus is a written contract between you and your students. It is imperative that all teachers adhere faithfully to the policies and requirements set forth in their syllabi. Do not forget the reciprocal nature of this contract. By requiring students to abide by the rules and procedures spelled out in your syllabus, you are also agreeing to do the same. A well written syllabus will make these expectations clear to all concerned. The better your students understand the purposes and procedures of your course, the more likely they are to enter enthusiastically into the learning partnership you offer them.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw