When reviewing syllabi, one of the things we look for are innovative assignments or other pedagogical techniques. We all can create a course with a multiple-choice midterm and final, but what instructors are looking for is something new that gives the students a new way to learn, or a new way to show that they've learned, the course content.
In Ruth Ault's Child Development syllabus, the child observation assignments stand out. In introducing the assignments, she writes, "You will observe children in order to learn various techniques of observation and to give more focus to specific aspects of development." As a student, I know that that in this class I will not only learn about child development, but I will see it, and I will be using the same techniques researchers use to do so. How cool is that?
Davidson College has a strong working relationship with their local daycare center and permission is granted to the students to observe the children by both the daycare center and the children's parents or guardians. Ault notes, "The observations are done either from hidden observation booths (e.g., behind a one-way mirror) so that the children are completely unaware of being observed or from the playground, where their behavior is visible to the public." Students also learn about the ethics of conducting observations and get practice observing children on video before 'going live.'
The first observation assignment begins with an ethics reminder about confidentiality followed by why students are doing the assignment. The purposes are "to learn how to use running narrative, individual tally, group tally, and time sampling observation methods and to familiarize you with preschool-age children." This is an easy change instructors can make to their syllabi that will yield a high return in syllabus-usefulness. Tell students why they are doing the assignment.
When I was at New Mexico State University-Alamogordo, located near Holloman Air Force Base, I had a number of active and retired Air Force personnel in my classes. I remember one Chief Master Sergeant (the highest NCO rank one can attain) tell me and his classmates that he used the authoritative approach with his crew. When he got his orders, he would explain to his crew what they needed to do, why they needed to do it, and why they needed to do it that way. He would then listen to his crew's ideas about other ways to do it. He said when he started doing that many years ago, he noticed that the work got done faster and better. He added that sometimes he didn't have the time to explain the reasons why something had to be done a certain way, but because his crew knew that he had a reason and that he would tell them as soon as there was time, they would trust him and do it the way he asked.
Consider our own work-lives. How is assessment of student learning viewed in your department or on your campus? Is it just a report you do because someone's asked you to do it? Or is it viewed as a learning activity that you will get something out of? Like our students, when we're given assignments and we can't find the value in them, they feel like busy work. It may be clear to the instructor what the value is in doing a particular assignment, but we can't assume that students will find the value on their own.
Take a look at Ruth Ault's Child Development syllabus for examples of engaging assignments where students are told the goal of the assignment.
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