Transformative Teaching

Abstract

Regardless of our academic discipline, we all recognize that too many students do not have a habit of closely reading our course syllabi. With the goal of reframing this frustrating problem into a pedagogical opportunity, I sought to transform the syllabus itself into an object of study through the creation of an online Syllabus Quiz. This proposed presentation focuses on the many ways in which a Syllabus Quiz can help familiarize students with our courses, as well as immediately engage them in the co-construction of our shared learning environment. My original intention in developing a Syllabus Quiz was a practical, basic one—to signal the document’s importance to students through the mechanism that most consistently signals importance to a university student: a grade or a mark. However, while experimenting with this tool over four years, I came to recognize a wide range of other learning goals that it may also help address. This proposed presentation is based on my ongoing research, which (1) situates the use of a Syllabus Quiz within broader scholarly research on syllabi and student engagement, (2) introduces the particular pedagogical strategies used to develop the questions and format for this quiz, and (3) employs a grounded theory approach to analyze qualitative survey data collected from my students in an effort to better understand their perceptions of the Syllabus Quiz and its relative value.