Syllabus Rationale!

By Taylor Holtzheimer!

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Approach!
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The majority of my syllabus design choices were based on previous positive personal
experience with syllabi from similar courses as well as syllabi from other subjects. Most
successful syllabi as Ive experienced them are designed similar to the criteria expressed in
Wiggins and McTighes Understanding by Design:!

The essential questions and core problems at the heart of the subject!
The core performance and challenges that frame all work and imply all learning!
The rubrics and scoring systems used!
A summary and justification of the assessment and grading policies, in reference to
institutional goals and state standards!
A summary of the major learning goals (as opposed to a list of topics)!
Built-in flexibility to ensure the syllabus can adapt to feedback based on student
performance and understanding!
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(Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p300)!

I applied many of these criteria, altering some and abandoning others. Similarly, many of my
decisions may defy the strategies proposed in Davis Tools for Teaching, the primary text for
Adult and Higher Education Teaching Methodologies course, but I will attempt to address those
differences as well. In the simplest terms, I have chosen to adhere to a core philosophy of
simplicity and flexibility above comprehensiveness.!

As a student myself attending Whatcom Community College, I had a variety of syllabus

experiences, from short handouts with little more than a set of office hours and the name of the
course to near novellas, seemingly crafted to catch the attention of some while chasing away
others. In my experience, the best syllabi I had were short, a few pages long, with simple
assignment descriptions and values, a schedule, and learning objectives.!

One instructor in particular, whose syllabus I modeled my own after, was Dr. Allan Richardson.
Dr. Richardson, a 38 year professor at Whatcom Community College, was an expert on the
Nooksack language and culture and had a subtle demeanor of a man who had attended quite a
few heated meetings regarding land rights, tribal education, and local news. His quiet way was
far less immediately authoritative than most other instructors, but his breadth of personal
experience and knowledge about tribal cultures both local and throughout the world was enough
to build a deeper authority over time. !

Dr. Richardsons syllabi were always simple, a few pages long, and very flexible. This flexibility
left room for surprise videos, guest speakers, and personal stories. I always felt that many of
these surprises were born of him gauging where the class was at in depth of understanding and
sympathy for the studied peoples. The class might come around to certain subjective concepts
more slowly from one set of students to another and he would appropriately keep the schedule
light, noting only the subjects and chapters from week to week. This is an effective method for
allowing flexibility of instruction (Davis, 2009, p22).!

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Foundation!

The foundational philosophy that is most present and obvious when examining my syllabus and
course design is Progressivism. The course seeks to build a broadened notion of education as it
attempts to address cultural relativism, universalism, and ethics while building sympathy and
understanding of biases that students may experience or observe. The course is studentcentered, pushing them to look within themselves, their communities, and their history for
explanations to their own inculturation. Lastly, the course is discussion-based, with students
asked to reflect on problems and topics rather than repeat learned material. These three major
components: a broadened view of education, a student-centered approach, and a problembased teaching methodology are the qualities that display the design as Progressivist (Elias &
Merriam, 2005, p61-74).!

The second foundational philosophy of education at work in the course is Humanism. However,
it would apply primarily to the in-class presence and style of myself as an instructor. I would
prefer that my role in the classroom were one of participant facilitator and guide. In-class
experiences would consist mainly of discussions, media, and activities such as games,
simulations, and field trips. In this design, my role is to aid in students self-discovery and help
promote agency and interest.!

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Setting!
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Whatcom Community Colleges mission statement, as revised in 2013, reads as follows:!
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Mission statement: Whatcom Community College contributes to the vitality of its communities
by providing quality education in academic transfer, professional-technical, and lifelong learning,
preparing students for active citizenship in a global society.!

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(Karlberg et al, 2013)!
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Furthermore, WCC expresses five primary goals: !
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Goal 1: Expand opportunities for students to achieve their potential!

Goal 2: Strengthen the culture of learning!
Goal 3: Contribute actively to the vitality of Whatcom County!
Goal 4: Advance the college as a more diverse learning community!
Goal 5: Strengthen the Colleges ability to deliver its mission!
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(Karlberg et al, 2013)!

I attempted to accommodate these goals within my design. To expand opportunities for students
to achieve their potential and strengthen the culture of learning, Ive included assignments that
are based on reflection rather than recitation. Ive included assignments that require students to
observe communities and cultures through a relativist observational lens, promoting proactive
study. Addressing the goals on community contribution and college advancement within the
community, I have designed a course that I believe encourages students to be more aware and
understanding of all forms of human culture as well as their relation to the world outside of
themselves, ideally increasing their sympathy and positive social action. All of this, I hope, would
aid in the delivery of the colleges overall mission.!

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Student Demographics!
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55% female; 45% male!

66% between the ages of 16-24!
75% from Whatcom County (of students 20 and younger)!
50% attending full time (12 credits or more)!
20% students of color (of degree/certificate seeking students)!
40% first-generation (of degree/certificate seeking students)!

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(www.whatcom.ctc.edu)!

With 81% of WCC students attending in order to acquire a transfer degree, they must meet
degree requirements that include social sciences, with cultural anthropology as an available
option for any student who meets the prerequisite english placement (English 100). Since social
science ranks within the top degree fields of WCC graduates, the number of students who may
take ANTH& 206 (Cultural Anthropology) is statistically high. Knowing that, many of the students
may be fulfilling degree requirements with an interest in a different field, fulfilling degree
requirements with interest in a similar field, or fulfilling degree requirements with interest in the
field of anthropology in particular. It is important to note that almost a tenth of the students may
be Running Start and still attending High School, so academic literacy is a concern as well
(www.whatcom.ctc.edu).!

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Layout!
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In Davis Tools for Teaching, she writes that a syllabus can serve a large number of purposes
and fulfill multiple roles such as being an implicit teaching-learning contract, a diagnostic
tool, a learning tool and much more (Davis, 2009, p21). I have chosen, in adherence to my
core philosophy of simplicity, to approach my syllabus as a multi-purpose document, but not
overly dense or complicated. In keeping with Davis strategy my syllabus acts as a simple and
firm contract between the instructor and the students; a document of student responsibilities and
requirements for completion; an expression, in the description of assignments, of the nature of
the course and the prerequisite knowledge and openness required for success; a few bits of
information and teasers that inform about the overall topic of the course; and finally, some words
of encouragement and guidance within the participation portion of the assignment descriptions.!

However, beyond the General Strategies written by Davis, I have ignored or opposed many of
the specific strategies set forth in her description of Creating a Syllabus. Specifically different, I
did not apply the more rather than less approach as it did not fit with what I felt was in the best
interest of the course, which needs to be extremely pliable. As with my second teaching
demonstration and the short video that caused confusion and distraction from the lesson
content, I wouldnt want to overwhelm students with information that may be distracting. Also, all
relevant information to the majority of students is available on the first page, including class
information, required texts, grades and assignments descriptions.!

Where Davis calls to [d]escribe the prerequisites of the course, enrollment at Whatcom
Community College does not allow enrollment in courses without proof of met prerequisites.
Also, such prerequisites are described in the quarterly course catalogs, the larger annual
catalog, as well as in the online catalog. For students to not be aware or have met the

prerequisites and be enrolled in the course is impossible. In regards to students depth of

understanding and critical thinking skills, as mentioned before, a number of students will be
interested in different fields altogether or will perhaps be high school students via Running Start.
So, requiring deeper academic literacies would be difficult to accommodate while maintaining
college success. Therefore, it is upon the instructor and the course to build such academic
literacy, depth of understanding, and critical thinking skills in the students as an objective in the
course itself. !

An overview of the courses purposes is not a part of my syllabus. Instead, I have chosen to
allow discovery of the courses purpose through examination of the three definitions
(anthropology, culture, and cultural anthropology) at the head of the syllabus, the assignment
descriptions, the learning objectives, and the topic schedule. I felt that this shed any forced
narrative of what the course is to be while giving enough information to get a full concept of the
course structure, as well as its explicit and implicit goals.!

A list of policies and important information for students with special needs is available on the last
page of the syllabus. Some of this information is available to all faculty for use in their syllabi.
Including some of this material in its exact wording is required of all instructors for all courses.
The list of behavioral expectations is to promote a safe environment and adequate conditions
for learning as certain conditions must exist both within the learner and outside or the learner
for that learning to take place. (Smith & Ragan, 2005, p61)!

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Objectives!
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The learning objectives within the syllabus are taken from Dr. Richardsons original course
syllabus, as I could find little to improve upon them. I removed one objective requiring
demonstration of knowledge of the importance of language. I felt this was directed more to his
personal field of interest as a linguistic anthropologist and not necessary to the course as I
would approach it. However, the objectives overall were quite comprehensive, serving as a
descriptor of desired outcomes and course purpose, as well as an indicator of requisite skills for
success.!

These objectives would be met through formative assessment during discussion as well as the
summative assessments of the weekly responses, bias exams, and the ethnography project, all
evaluating the specific learning objectives to that point. A course alignment table could be
designed to show the meeting of outcomes per assignment, but since a number of the
assignments are weekly and participation based, there would be some flexibility in the selection
of response or reflection topics to meet objectives that might feel unintentionally neglected. Also,
there is a lot of purposeful overlap in the assignments, meeting many of the objectives, which
reflects the holistic approach of anthropology itself, but may seem cluttered on a course
alignment table.!

I approached the course creation as if I had to teach it next week. With that, I opted to borrow
heavily from Dr. Richardsons syllabus of the same course as it was used and honed over three
decades. However, if I were to teach the course and had adequate time to create a course that
suited my specific expertise and style, I would include or alter objectives to demonstrate
students knowledge of digital anthropology, cyborg anthropology, cultural universalism vs
relativism, and digital globalization.!

Assignments!

The assignments I chose are meant to meet the above-mentioned course objectives, but also to
foster deeper critical thinking skills, content understanding, and self-awareness. The weekly
responses request that the students clarify or address some unspoken or unwritten aspect of
the learned content as well as having them relate it to their own experience. The bias exams are
short in class short-answer exams meant to improve self-awareness and help students develop
skill in expressing their opinions and also in analyzing and examining those opinions. (Angelo &
Cross, 1993, p257)!

The ethnography project is a critical part of the course as it is not only the major source of
anthropological data and theory but also an important part of most anthropologists
experience (Nanda & Warms, 2002, p49). This promotes experiential and active learning where
the students are doing are doing more of the work and are engaging with the material and
objectives of the course more deeply (Barkley, 2010, p23). By simulating the work of a cultural
anthropologist, students can find meaning beyond what I could express in any lecture. It also
promotes the field of study and gives a real sense of what such a career could look like.!

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Closing!
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In summary, while I chose to develop an extremely simple and direct syllabus, I hope I have
been able to explain my choices as they intersect with instructional design techniques as
described by Barbara Davis and with other readings from the Adult and Higher Education
Teaching Methodologies course.!

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References!
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Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for
College Teachers (2 edition.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.!

Barkley, E. F. (2009). Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty (1

edition.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.!

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Davis, B. G. (2009). Tools for Teaching (2nd edition.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.!
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Elias, J. L., & Merriam, S. B. (2004). Philosophical Foundations of Adult Education (3 edition.).
Malabar, Fla: Krieger Pub Co.!

Karlberg, A., Dutton, T., Struiksma, K., & Nichols, A. (2013, February 20). WCC Assessment &
IR. Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://faculty.whatcom.ctc.edu/InstResearch/IR/
HistoryPlansReports/StrategicPlan/StrategicPlan.html!

Nanda, S. (2001). Cultural Anthropology (Seventh edition edition.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Pub Co.!

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design, Expanded 2nd Edition (2nd
edition.). Alexandria, VA: Pearson.