Courses

Given everything above about learning, teaching, and the diversity and complexity of students’ lives at UW, how should one design classes to promote effective learning? There are many ways, and I can’t enumerate them here, but I can enumerate some basic principles.

First,  don’t just teach how you were taught . Think first: what are you teaching and how can you best support the learning of it through practice, given all of your students’ varying prior knowledge, the necessity of practice, and the complexity of students’ lives? Lectures, a midterm, and a final exam are rarely compatible with most of the above. You have the freedom to try any form of teaching that you believe might best promote equitable learning.

Once you free yourself of the bad teaching ideas from your past, the next step is to learn about your students’  prior knowledge . Ask others who’ve taught the same course what your students tend to know. Better yet, plan on measuring what your students know, either before the class starts, or at the beginning of class. Even informal self-reported knowledge of what students know can help you calibrate your expectations for how much and how quickly they might learn.  

Once you have a sense of your students’ prior knowledge, decide how you want to  set expectations .  What do you want students to learn?  What work will you ask them to do to meet these expectations? What kind of learning environment will help them meet those expectations? What kind of classroom norms will help them meet those expectations? Develop a narrative around all of these ideas, communicating why your students’ should be interested in the topic. Write a syllabus that communicates this narrative, explains how you’re going to teach, and specifies expectations.

A good syllabus covers the following details:

• What is the course about and why should students care?
• What materials do students need for the course (textbooks, devices, etc.)?
• What kind of work will students be expected to do, when is it due, and how long will it take? 
• How will students’ efforts and learning be translated into a grade? (We’ll discuss  grading  in the next chapter).
• What norms do you expect students to follow in and out of class? This can cover how students treat you, how they treat each other, how they communicate, and the ethics of their conduct (e.g., plagiarism).
• What is the timeline of the course? How does it unfold over time and why does it unfold that way?

As you answer these questions, plan for students to join the class late, be sick, and be absent due to travel. Most of these absences are out of students control: registration for our courses is competitive, and travel is often due to family obligations, athletics, or job searches. A good course design is  resilient   to these absences. Have policies that account for all of them. For example, you might allow students to drop a few of the lowest scores of recurring activities and have alternative ways to learn when they miss something that occurs in class. Designing these alternate paths requires care, because the alternate route can become the preferred route if it is easier or more convenient.

Be prepared .  Finish your syllabus well in advance of the quarter, get feedback on it from others who have taught the same or similar course, and finalize it before the first day of class. To the extent you can, plan every part of your course before you do it. Students will see that you’re prepared and they’ll take that seriously, meeting your expectations.

When class begins,  teach your syllabus  . Read it to the students in your class, and quiz them on it, so everyone knows the expectations before the quarter proceeds.  This establishes your authority, the limits on your authority, and the rules by which students can plan the rest of their coursework and life around. Students will organize their time and quarter around your expectations. If you haven’t set them clearly, or you haven’t set them at all, they won’t be able to make room in their busy lives for the effort you expect them to give.

While setting clear expectations is paramount,  change them when necessary  .  This especially true if your expectations were unclear.  Don’t punish the students for your lack of clarity.  And if you want room for a lack of clarity, set the expectation that they won’t get clarity, and are beholden to your whims.  (Good luck getting most students to accept this).  And if you go in the other direction mid-quarter, changing expectations to create more work, or make the course harder, expect retaliation: the students have carefully orchestrated their lives around the expectations you originally set.  Changing the terms of the agreement is a violation of your contract.

To make sure you’re consistent about following the expectations you set, translate your syllabus into a task list with due dates. Convert every bit of preparation, grading, and notifications you can think of into a task, and remember to do it.  The more you fail to meet your end of the expectations you set, the more authority you will lose, and the less students will meet your expectations.  And that will be partially your fault, not theirs.

Design expectations that  incentivize attention .  For example, if you do not incentivize attendance to class in some way (a grade, or a grade that can only be obtained by attending class), some students will decide that other things in their life are more important (often justifiably).  Or, if you do not incentivize paying attention to a lecture (it’s too long, it’s boring, it covers material that won’t be assessed), some students will decide to pay attention to other things during your lecture.  Choose teaching methods that promote active learning, which not only make it hard for learners to attend to anything but the learning, but also make it fun.

Choose equitable teaching methods .  Your job isn’t to detect high performers, it’s to make  every  student a high performer.  For example, choose discussion formats that engage every student in the discussion, not just those bold enough to share their ideas in a large group.  Think about how your choices of readings, activities, and ideas privileges or oppresses certain communities and individuals, not only in class, but in the world. If you’re not sure if your plans are equitable, talk to some of the faculty in the school with active learning expertise for guidance.

Once you have a syllabus prepared based on the principles above,  test   your syllabus against these principles. Are expectations clear? Have you conveyed why students should be interested? Have you built in ways to develop their interests? Have you selected methods for engaging and sustaining students’ attention? Check each of these aspects of your course and iterate when you find a flaw.