Treffer: Elements of an Inclusive Syllabus: Graduate Student Ratings

Syllabi can be a mechanism by which professors can foster inclusivity with students. This article highlights how I, an educational leadership professor, intentionally incorporated elements within course syllabi to foster inclusivity. The text, "What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching" (Addy et al., 2021) provided several recommendations for course syllabi. Through action research, I collected graduate students' ratings of three inclusive syllabi elements. The specific syllabi sections included for this study were: (a) the instructor's approach, (b) what success "looks like" in the course, and (c) rationales for heavily weighted assignments. Articulating the instructor's approach, how to achieve success, and rationales for key assignments align with adult learning theories by giving the students the important connections between the course and the goals of the students (i.e., to become certified principals). Student ratings, collected via action research using a 10- question Likert-scale anonymous survey, indicated positive ratings of the syllabi elements. Student feedback indicated that the three elements from the syllabus helped students understand what to do and how to successfully engage in the course, peers, and the professor. These results indicated that efforts to make syllabi more inclusive made a difference for students, and I believe these results can translate to any class that utilizes a syllabus.

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