Course and Syllabus Design
Course and Classroom Management
Tanya Schnieder
tps2121@cumc.columbia.edu
Rory Flinn
rf2531@cumc.columbia.edu
June 18th, 2015
Outline
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Lesson Learning Goals and Outcomes
Course Design – Finks’ 12 Steps
Syllabus Design
Syllabus Examples
Course and Classroom Management – Planning for Day 1 and Impressions
Course and Classroom Management – Making It Personal on Day 1
Course and Classroom Management – Setting Expectations on Day 1
Course and Classroom Management – Dealing with Fear and Difficult Students
Today’s Learning Goals and Outcomes
Goals
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Comprehension of an effective approach for course design
Understanding of best practices in syllabus preparation
Familiarity with course and classroom management strategies
Outcomes
By the end of this class session you should be able to:
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Summarize Finks’ 12 steps to effective course design and utilize these steps when you design your own courses
Explain what components should be present in a well prepared syllabus and apply this knowledge to the
preparation of your own syllabi
Discuss strategies for success in course and classroom management and use these strategies when teaching
your own courses
Scientific Teaching – Backwards Design
Learning Goals
Learning Outcomes
Assessment Strategy
Learning/Teaching Activities
Iterative Alignment
What is it that you want your students to know, be able to do, or
understand?
What specific evidence of learning would be needed for students to demonstrate
achievement of these goals? What level of learning is required?
How will you assess the degree to which students are learning?
How will students assess to what degree they are learning and progressing
towards the learning goals?
How will you evaluate whether the learning outcomes are achieved, and at
what quality?
What are the teaching and learning activities that will be conducted to facilitate reaching the
goals
Will the learning outcomes actually address the goals?
Will the assessment strategy allow for the learning outcomes to be assessed?
Will conducting the activities produce the learning outcomes?
Model to Follow When Designing A Course/Lesson
Learning Goals
Teaching and
Learning
Activities
Feedback &
Assessment
Situational Factors
L. Dee Fink “A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning” 2003
The 12 steps of Integrated Course Design.
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INITIAL DESIGN PHASE: Build Strong Primary Components
Step 1. Identify important situational factors
Step 2. Identify important learning goals
Step 3. Formulate appropriate feedback and assessment procedures
Step 4. Select effective teaching/learning activities
Step 5. Make sure the primary components are integrated
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INTERMEDIATE DESIGN PHASE: Assemble the Components into a Coherent Whole
Step 6. Create a thematic structure for the course
Step 7. Select or create an instructional strategy
Step 8. Integrate the course structure and the instructional strategy to create an overall scheme of
learning activities
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FINAL DESIGN PHASE: Finish Important Remaining Tasks
Step 9. Develop the grading system
Step 10. De-Bug possible problems
Step 11. Write the course syllabus
Step 12. Plan an evaluation of the course and of your teaching
L.D.Fink. Creating Significant Learning Experiences. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf
Step 1: Situational Factors to Consider
Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation
How many students are in the class? Is the course lower division, upper division, or
graduate level? How long and frequent are the class meetings? How will the course be
delivered: live, online, or in a classroom or lab? What physical elements of the learning
environment will affect the class?
General Context of the Learning Situation
What learning expectations are placed on this course or curriculum by: the university,
college and/or department? the profession? society?
Nature of the Subject
Is this subject primarily theoretical, practical, or a combination? Is the subject primarily
convergent or divergent? Are there important changes or controversies occurring within the
field?
Characteristics of the Learners
What is the life situation of the learners (e.g., working, family, professional goals)? What
prior knowledge, experiences, and initial feelings do students usually have about this
subject? What are their learning goals, expectations, and preferred learning styles?
Characteristics of the Teacher
What beliefs and values does the teacher have about teaching and learning? What is
his/her attitude toward: the subject? students? What level of knowledge or familiarity does
s/he have with this subject? What are his/her strengths in teaching?
L.D.Fink. Creating Significant Learning Experiences. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
Step 2: Crafting Learning Goals and Objectives
Learning Goals
•Learning goals are the broad concepts/behaviors/skills you would like the students to achieve/master by the end of the course or by
the end of the lesson.
•Learning goals should emphasize learning instead of teaching.
•Learning goals can be crafted by answering the following questions:
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What do I want my students to know, understand, and be able to do?
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For course learning goals think about the answer to this quesiton in terms of years after the course
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What information is essential?
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What knowledge or skills are relevant to the subject area?
Learning Objectives/Outcomes
•Learning objectives are clear and specific statements that indicate the cognitive level of learning
that must be achieved to achieve/master a particular concept/behavior/skill.
•Learning objectives can be crafted by first determining the hierarcy of leanring goals:
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Essential
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Important
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Illustrative or interesting
•Consider what the students already know and target the difficult concepts
•Translate learning goals into specific learning objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy
Step 3: Designing Feedback and Assessments
• Determine what qualifies as acceptable evidence that students are learning
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What performance or behaviors indicate that students understand?
What criteria will differentiate among different levels of understanding?
How will students know whether they are learning?
How will I know whether students are achieving the learning goals?
What assessment tools will engage students and measure learning?
Step 4: Selecting Learning Activities
• Choose activities to help students achieve the learning goals
• Focus on the most essential concepts and critical learning goals
• Consider what activities can occur outside the classroom
• Build on instructional resources that already exist
• Vary the content and examples (for the purposes of inclusivity and diversity)
Step 5: Integrate
Learning Goals
Teaching and
Learning
Activities
Feedback &
Assessment
Situational Factors
Steps 6-8: Intermediate Design Phase
Step 6. Create a thematic structure for the course
-Creating a course structure means dividing the course into segments
that focus on the key concepts, issues, or topics that constitute the major foci
of the course.
-These segments can be arranged into a logical sequence and time can then be allocated for each segment
Step 7. Select or create an instructional strategy
- An instructional strategy is a set of learning activities, arranged in a particular sequence so that the energy for learning
increases and accumulates as students go through the sequence.
- This usually requires that some of the activities (a) gets students ready or prepared for
later work, (b) gives students opportunities to practice (c) assesses the quality of student performance, and (d) allows
students to reflect on their learning.
Step 8. Integrate the course structure and the instructional strategy to create an overall scheme of learning
activities
L.D.Fink. Creating Significant Learning Experiences. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
The 12 steps of Integrated Course Design.
•
•
•
•
•
•
INITIAL DESIGN PHASE: Build Strong Primary Components
Step 1. Identify important situational factors
Step 2. Identify important learning goals
Step 3. Formulate appropriate feedback and assessment procedures
Step 4. Select effective teaching/learning activities
Step 5. Make sure the primary components are integrated
•
•
•
•
INTERMEDIATE DESIGN PHASE: Assemble the Components into a Coherent Whole
Step 6. Create a thematic structure for the course
Step 7. Select or create an instructional strategy
Step 8. Integrate the course structure and the instructional strategy to create an overall scheme of
learning activities
•
•
•
•
•
FINAL DESIGN PHASE: Finish Important Remaining Tasks
Step 9. Develop the grading system
Step 10. De-Bug possible problems
Step 11. Write the course syllabus
Step 12. Plan an evaluation of the course and of your teaching
L.D.Fink. Creating Significant Learning Experiences. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf
Making a Course Syllabus: The Easy Part,
Course/Instructor Information:
• Course title
• Course number
• Credit hours
• Prerequisites
• Permission from instructor required?
• Classroom location
• Lab/recitation location
• Meeting days
• Class hours
• Lab/recitation hours
• Department location
• Web page
• Full name
• Title
• Office location
• Office phone number
• Office hours
• E-mail address
• Department phone number
• Home phone number
• Teaching Assistant(s)
• TA name(s)
• TA office location(s)
• TA phone number(s)
Making A Course Syllabus: The Harder Part, Course
Description, Goals, Outcomes, Assessments, Philosophy:
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Catalog description (Why?)
General course goals and outcomes (What? – big picture)
Specific lesson goals and outcomes (What? – bite sized)
Assessments, both formative and summative (How?)
Teaching philosophy and Instructional methods (How?)
Quick Classroom Activity
Let’s look at two syllabi examples and compare and contrast a well constructed
syllabus from a poorly constructed syllabus
Well constructed: http://biology.web.unc.edu/files/2013/02/101-Hogan-Fall-2014.pdf
Poorly constructed: http://biology.ufl.edu/files/BSC2010-Syllabus-Fall-2014-08-24.pdf
Getting ready….
o Plan
ahead:
Have you ordered the books?
o Put some on reserve?
o Visit the room
o Learn how to use the equipment
o
Getting ready…
o Plan
ahead:
Do you have your lessons
(strategically) planned?
o Are your PPs ready?
o Set up the LMS (learning
management system)?
o Do you know how to use this
new on-line tool you plan on
incorporating in your class?
o
Day 1: Make an Impression
No! make an unforgettable impression
Arrive early!
o Greet them with a smile and make
eye contact
o How should they call you?
o Email etiquette
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Day 1: Make an Impression
No! make an unforgettable impression
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Dress to make the right impression:
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Your appearance always communicates your perception of your relationship to
the class
Cha Kil-yong
Day 1: Make it personal to you
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Turn your elevator speech into a classroom
introduction:
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your degrees, your research interests, your
academic interests – create an impression of a
person who is serious, knowledgeable and
passionate about the field/subject
Make it personal to you!
o
If it is not your favorite subject to teach, “fake” it
personal – it is not about you, it is about them
Day 1: Make it personal to them
o Don`t
begin by reading the syllabus
o Pique the students` interest
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Fundamental problems
Provocative claims
Case studies, stories
Start with a powerful opening statement
and involve students in a discussion right
away
Day 1: Leave them with a cliffhanger
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Physics: “Welcome, everyone, to Physics 101. All of
you just came in and took a seat. Each of you was
in motion, and now you’re at rest. How can this be?
What allows you – or any object, for that matter –
to be in motion, and why do objects eventually
come to a rest? This is one of the most essential
questions of physics, one that we will be exploring
together this term.
So, what do you think? What allows an object to be
motion, and why do objects eventually come to a
rest? Take a moment to think about it, and then
turn to your neighbor and see if you can agree on
an answer together.”
Day 1: Market your teaching strategy!
o
o
Create a “need to know”:
o Answer the question: Why does a student need to
know this/take this class?
o Outline your course learning objectives: knowledge
and skills students will acquire or master
Explain that you chose content and structure for the
course to achieve these objectives:
o Why are the readings important?
o How do they connect?
o Why did you choose this format for testing?
o Why active learning?
Day 1: Give them a clear map
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Make it clear what they can expect from you:
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o
Office hours, email, skype?...
Make your expectations clear:
Day 1: Be warm, but firm!
o Clearly
o
introduce “warm” and “cool” expectations
“warm”:
o
“In our class: 1) everyone is allowed to feel they can work and learn in a safe and caring
environment; 2) everyone learns about, understands, appreciates, and respects varied races, classes,
genders, physical and mental abilities, and sexualities; 3) everyone matters; 4) all individuals are to
be respected and treated with dignity and civility; and 5) everyone shares the responsibility for
making our class, and the Academy, a positive and better place to live, work, and learn.”
Day 1: Be warm, but firm!
o Clearly
introduce “warm” and “cool”
expectations
o
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“cool” : duties of being a student
“cool” but not cold, i.e. authoritarian:
o
“You will submit three projects.” “I expect regular participation.”
“You must attend class.” “Students bear sole responsibility for
ensuring that papers…submitted electronically to the professor are
received in a timely manner.”
oCode of Conduct in class:
oAbsences
oLateness
oExam make-ups
oCheating/plagiarism
o“Petitioning” for grades
oSleeping in the classroom
oUsing electronic devices
o……
Day 1: Know your students
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Foster community:
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Learn their names as early as possible
Conduct a student diagnostic – you need to know who you are teaching
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o
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Why are they taking this class?
How do they learn best?
What do they already know?
In this class I will get a(n) __________,
because____________________________________________________
Remember “quick before it dries!”
o
If you expect them to speak in class, to write in class, to engage in small group
discussion, ask them to do some of these things on the first day
Fears:
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o
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Be honest, but do not focus on your inexperience
Be prepared - overplan
Think in terms of communication rather than
performance
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o
o
o
o
o
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Use many examples
Tell stories
Use language that applies to senses
Make eye contact
Try to smile
Lecture to people in the back row
“Telegraph” the importance of a topic by saying, “ I am
about to tell you the most important element of this
problem. If you take anything home today, I want it to be
this.”
?
no teaching
experience
stage
fright
English is
not your
first
language
Fears:
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o
o
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Acknowledge your accent
You don’t have to be hilarious or extraverted to
be a good teacher
But you have to be committed to their learning
Rehearse!
Remember: mastery comes with practice
Difficult Students
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Express empathy
Avoid Argumentation
Stay calm
Listen
Self-reflect
Direct the student to the rules
Have a face-to-face talk
Develop Discrepancy
Support Self-Efficacy
Be consistent and firm