The Syllabus as a Communication Document: Constructing and Presenting the Syllabus

Abstract

This interpretive study explored the communicative strategies teachers employ when constructing and presenting course syllabi to overcome challenges teachers face surrounding the syllabus. Data included 13 classroom observations, 19 teacher interviews, and document analysis of the instructors' syllabi. Communication strategies teachers used to welcome students, balance tensions when presenting the syllabus, and focus students' attention during the presentation emerged. The findings offer teachers suggestions on how to present and construct the syllabus more effectively.

Communication Privacy Management and College Instruction: Exploring the Rules and Boundaries that Frame Instructor Private Disclosures

“…Teachers were motivated to disclose private information when it was relevant to course content or to build relationships with students. This finding is consistent with previous findings, which suggests that teachers' self-disclosures should be relevant to course content (Cayanus & Martin, 2004;McBride & Wahl, 2005;B. Thompson, 2007).…”

Generative Learning, Quizzing and Cognitive Learning: An Experimental Study in the Communication Classroom

“…In addition to using communication behaviors such as immediacy (Burroughs, 2007), self-disclosure (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007) or humor (Frymier, Wanzer, & Wojtaszczyk, 2008) to facilitate learning, instructors can communicate learning expectations through course materials and how course activities are structured. Thompson (2007) observes that a course syllabus' written content and how it is presented to students are instructional opportunities. Instructional scholars in communication and across disciplines advocate student engagement with course material via case studies (Johnson & Iacobucci, 1995), simulations (Lederman, Stewart, & Russ, 2007), problem-based learning (Allen & Rooney, 1998), and other methods.…”

Stanley Browne and Cross-Cultural Missional Motivation

“…Family, work opportunities, and marriage were all to bow to it. After all, many years of preparation were needed and then 52 most missionaries went 'for life.' There was urgency about the task, whether from the pressing need on one hand, or the confidence that the task could be completed on the other.…”