Revising our NSM syllabi to be more equitable
This past year, the FDC developed two Equitable Pedagogy Modules: EMP2a and EMP2b. The final module of EPM2b is a “syllabus audit,” where faculty are tasked with thinking about how their syllabus demonstrates equitable pedagogy and how we might make improvements.
This semester, a group of NSM faculty came together to discuss our syllabi and support each other’s learning. We shared our syllabi and gave each other feedback and ideas. We discussed some of the difficulties specific to the sciences and shared how successful different instructional strategies have been in our courses.
For example, NSM faculty in our group expressed value in student participation in class and discussed the best ways to encourage and incentivize this participation. We shared successes (and struggles) in our own courses at several different instructional levels (general education, introductory courses, and advanced major courses). We brainstormed how to best represent how we value student participation in our course policies and on the syllabus.
The faculty in our group made some seemingly minor but important changes to their syllabus. These edits included making the language more friendly and welcoming, flipping language framing from a negative to a positive (for example, “late assessments will lose x% per day” to “late assessments can still earn up to y% of the points”), and making course policies as transparent as possible.
In my own syllabus, I moved content around to provide short descriptions of all the course assignments before giving a detailed grading breakdown. I also moved my very thorough (and long!) set of learning goals to a supplementary document to not overwhelm students at the beginning of the course!
When asked what advice our faculty members would give others who are starting to make changes to their syllabi, they suggested that if you were going to make only one change, add a personal, welcoming message at the start of your syllabus. They also indicated that revising a syllabus for equity doesn’t need to be an overwhelming task and that we should start by making little changes that may have a significant impact. Chatting with each other was helpful, and reading other faculty members’ syllabi was great for getting ideas. Reach out to other faculty in (and out of) your department and suggest doing a syllabus swap to get fresh ideas.
When designing course policies, they suggested that faculty think about the different cohorts of students that may be in their class (for example, students who are parents or who have long commutes) and how the current course policies might affect these cohorts in different ways, and how you can help to minimize any differences.
It’s also highly recommended that you enroll in the EMP2 courses on Canvas. They have a lot of great and practical ideas. I’ve included a compilation of items from the syllabus audit rubrics that our faculty group found helpful in evaluating our own syllabi.
These rubric items will not be meaningful for all courses but give a good starting point for critically assessing your course.
Enroll in the self-paced EMP2a and EPM 2b Canvas courses, or visit the FDC website for more information.
