Developing a Syllabus

A syllabus is a succinct represenation of an entire course. The most obvious purpose of the course syllabus is to facilitate communication between the teacher and the student. In fact, though, the syllabus does much more than that.

  • The syllabus is often the major device used by the teacher in planning the course. Developing the course is the opportunity to identify both learning goals and the means of achieving them.
  • The syllabus is also important for communicating the nature of the course to people outside the course. Curriculum committees, accrediting agencies, prospective students, colleagues planning related courses, and others all use the syllabus to understand what goes on in the course.

In this assignment, you have the opportunity to develop a syllabus for a course you intend to teach. It will often be appropriate to use the introductory course in your discipline for this exercise because (1) it is a course you are likely to teach at some point early in your career and (2) it is a course you are likely to be asked about in a job interview.

This assignment is straightforward: develop a syllabus for a college level course you intend to teach. At a minimum, the syllabus you develop should contain all the information that is mandated at the University of Iowa (see TA Handbook, pp. 10-11 or the University Operations Manual, III. 15. 2(j)). You may, of course, go beyond those requirements.

Prepare your syllabus in the format you would distribute it to students, making sure its design as well as its content both send the messages you want to send to students. If there is information you want to include, but don't have yet, you can used place holders. For example, if you don't currently have an office, you can list your office location as something like "123 Any Building."

Resources

Davis, B.G. Tools for Teaching.Chapter 2.
If you are away from your copy of the text, much of Chapter 2 is reproduced online.
 

McKeachie, Teaching Tips. pp. 16 to 17, but really , all of Chapter 2.

Brief and to-the-point suggestions.
 
Writing and Using a Syllabus by Linda C. Schwandt
In a brief outline form, this resource describes the role of the syllabus. There is a link to a checklist you can use in evaluating your syllabus. Note: the checklist is a good start, but you'll want to adjust it to your own needs.
 
Creating Your Syllabus by Jennifer Sinor and Matt Kaplan
This resource is oriented particularly to graduate student instructors at the University of Michigan. The GSI orientation might be helpful, even if the UM orientation is irrelevant.
 
Teaching at Northeastern, part III.
This PDF file (you'll need Acrobat Reader, free from Adobe) contains some of the standard advice, but also many helpful examples from real syllabi.

Maintained by Tom Rocklin ( thomas-rocklin@uiowa.edu)