Episode 29. The Syllabus Lives! Helping Students Feel Known, Needed & Cared For with Matthew Cheney
Summary
A huge amount of information must be provided to students at the outset of every course. Enter the SYLLABUS! A universal one-way communication tool that can set the tone for your course and for your relationship with your students. It defines the rules of engagement - the struggle for power between student and faculty. In this episode we talk about the syllabus; how it is used, how it can be used and how it can be abused with Dr. Matthew Cheney who has written extensively about the cruelty-free syllabus.
Recommended Readings
The New Education by Cathy N. Davidson
the book I would recommend if I could only recommend one. It offers an excellent, pragmatic overview of various approaches to helping students, teachers, and institutions think about learning together
Syllabus by William Germano and Kit Nicholls
a thoughtful exploration of teaching philosophy via the typical components of a university course syllabus
How Humans Learn by Joshua R. Eyler
an accessible tour through some of what research seems to show about what is and is not effective for learning
The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul
not strictly about education, but vividly demonstrates how we have built schools and workplaces in ways that work against what we know of how the brain works
The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us by Paul Tough
explores the various forces that make higher education into a tool for inequity, and the mixed success of programs, policies, and practices that seek to make college live up to its potential as a democratic institution
a detailed, authoritative study of how the idea of the public has been removed from public education
Recommended Resources