Running head: COURSE SYLLABI IN LEADERSHIP1

COURSE SYLLABI IN LEADERSHIP8

Course Syllabi in LeadershipHiram RamirezLoyola University Chicago

Course Syllabi in LeadershipIn higher education, students receive syllabi from instructors as a roadmap to the course. This document shows students what policies must be followed, deadlines for assignments and many other details about the course. The development of syllabi can be a quick process, if more traditional models are used, or it can be a creative and complex endeavor. The type of assignments, readings, and activities can have implications on how students learn. All these factors must be considered when syllabi are being crafted by faculty members. This paper will analyze five syllabi from different faculty members in leadership studies for undergraduate students by highlighting components of the syllabi and generating themes. Syllabi OverviewThe five syllabi reviewed encompassed documents from the University of San Diego, the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, and the University of Maryland. Three of the syllabi were introductory leadership courses and the other two were advanced electives in leadership studies. The first syllabi from the University of San Diego was an introduction to leadership course called Personal Leadership, Self Inquiry and Discovery. This course emphasized getting students exposed to leadership and how leadership manifests in their lives (University of San Diego, 2015a). The course supported the execution of these main goals through assignments like a personal mission statement, a reflective assignment, midterm exam, self inquiry and discovery action project, and a final exam (University of San Diego, 2015a). The second syllabus reviewed from this institution was Leadership and Diversity. Students in this course not only explored how leadership connects with their lived experiences but also how diversity and social responsibility intersect with leadership (University of San Diego, 2015b). These goals were illustrated through the courses main assignments. Students were expected to complete two reflective assignments, facilitate a discussion, interview a member of the campus community, and perform an autoethnographic paper and presentation (University of San Diego, 2015b). The last project, the autoethnographic paper and presentation, seems to be a unique assignment out of all the syllabi which focuses on the students personal journey as a leader. But all of the various pieces in the curriculum allow students to make connections with the content outside of the classroom.The third syllabus analyzed was from the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. This course was, Introduction to Leadership Studies and it was a course that exposed students to leadership models, their personal relationship with leaders and leadership at different levels in society (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, 2015). In this course, a self-reflection paper, chapter reflections, quizzes, influential leader presentation, and a final exam were the tools used to support learning (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, 2015). These assignments showed a strong commitment to reflection both individually and between students. The last two syllabi reviewed came from the University of Maryland. The courses were Introduction to Student Leadership and Advanced Leadership Seminar. Introduction to Student Leadership focused on knowledge exploration in the field, personal understanding and practical skills around collaboration with others in groups (University of Maryland, 2015a). This class ensured that these goals were met through the journal assignments, challenge course demonstration, reflection papers, and the socially-responsible and collaborative leadership group paper (University of Maryland, 2015a). The different assignments in this class intentionally had students participate in groups to emphasis collaboration and create environments were students practiced their leadership. Advanced Leadership Seminar on the other hand, challenged students to analyze what they understood about leadership and how they engage leadership every day (University of Maryland, 2015b). The assignments involved reflection, leadership presentations, a leadership identity development project and a leadership portfolio. The leadership philosophy digital story, the leadership portfolio, is a unique assignment that not only gets students to make connections to their learning but also allows them to share their leadership story with their peers. All of these syllabi had various strengths and weakness, but overall they attempted to incorporate active learning. Themes and TrendsThe five syllabi illustrated multiple themes and trends. The first of which was their ability to create congruency in how the goals were articulated, the activities students participated in and the assessment tools utilized to evaluate their learning. This seamless connection between these three parts is called the integrated course design. Fink (2003) discussed the importance of the learning goals, teaching and learning activities and feedback and assessment creating synergy between each other. With these three components in harmony, a course purposefully creates an environment where students are not only able to learn but also articulate what they have learned in meaningful ways. All the syllabi also attempted to deviate from lecture style model dominated in many classrooms. The syllabi showed that foundational knowledge, learning through understanding and remembering, was not the only way in which learning would take place (Fink, 2003). The classes were learning-centered, they illustrate the faculty members ability to articulate high-quality learninginto the course and into the learning experience (Fink, 2003, p. 68). For example, the University of Maryland Introduction to Student Leadership course had students complete a team based paper and presentation. In this assignment, students were expected to find an organization they could critically analyzed and develop a proposal for how the organization could function more efficiently (University of Maryland, 2015a). The students are required to interview members of the organization and observe how they interact with co-workers. This interactive assignment not only requires students to use the knowledge they have gained in a real life setting, they are also applying the knowledge in their groups as they grapple with issues on their team. Fink (2003) shares that this type of activity is called a direct doing experience which has students engaging in a real action in an authentic setting (p. 120). There was also another example in the syllabus from the University of San Diego. The Leadership and Diversity course required students to be discussion leaders as a part of the course. They had to facilitate a group discussion on a particular article/topic (University of San Diego, 2015b, p. 7). This activity allowed the student to learn how to lead in a controlled environment. This type of active learning is called an indirect doing experience (Fink, 2003). Fink (2003) discusses that indirect doing experience allows students to learn without the added risk of making a mistake in a real world situation.Another similarity between all the syllabi was their intentional incorporation of reflection in the course. But some of the classes utilized different types of reflection writing activities to allow for personal growth and connection building by students. Fink (2003) shared that there are three forms of reflective writing. The first is brief, which encompasses simple and quick prompts for students to think about what they have been taught (Fink, 2003). The second type of reflective writing is intermediate, where students participate in a more extended kind of writingin the form of journals, diaries, and learning logs (Fink, 2003, p. 130). The third form is extended, and in this reflective activity students create learning portfolios (Fink, 2003). The syllabi analyzed mostly focused on brief and intermediate forms. University of San Diego (2015a) Personal Leadership, Self Inquiry and Discovery course used a brief form of reflective writing by collecting notecards at the beginning of each class discussing thoughts and questions about their readings. But the syllabus did not specify if the notecards were graded on a weekly basis and given back to students with feedback, or simply a way to verify they had read. If they were given feedback each week or at least every few weeks, this would allow students to get a grasp on how well they were learning the content. It would also give the instructor the ability to gauge how well the students were absorbing the content and making connections on their own. It could also be used as a way to see the evolution of the students learning throughout the semester. These reflective components allow students to draw connections with their own experiences and the content, which helps students to develop conceptual frameworks. With these conceptual frameworks, students are better equipped to access this information in the future (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999). Throughout the review of the syllabi, there were many trends but a few differences did arise. One differences that surfaced during the analysis of the syllabi was the incorporation of group dynamics in the introductory courses. The University of San Diego was the only syllabi out of the three introduction courses that did not incorporate group dynamics or group involvement as a goal or discussion throughout the course. Another difference in the lack of incorporation of an assignment were students actively participated in a leadership act or role in the Introduction to Leadership course at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, 2015). All the other syllabi were built to allow students to engage in leadership either in the classroom or outside of it. By having students actively participate in leadership, they are able to personally connect with the concept and make other connections through the experience. Another difference between the syllabi was that all the syllabi had congruency with their goals, activities and assessments except for one goal in Leadership and Diversity at the University of San Diego. In this course, the syllabus stated that students will develop a sense of social responsibility to lead and serve others and the larger community (University of San Diego, 2015b, p. 2). But this goal had no connections with the assignments or the materials students read throughout the course. Perhaps the instructor was able to embed this goal in a class activity or through dialogue in class, but building it more intentionally into the other components of the syllabus would allow for greater learning on the part of the students.ConclusionThe five syllabi reviewed were well crafted and thought out by the faculty members. Each of the syllabi attempted to create classrooms that actively engaged students in the learning process. The intentional incorporation of reflection and major projects that encompassed various topics in the course, allowed for the maximization of learning. Each syllabus also cultivated synergy between the goals, assignments and assessment tools. In this way, all the parts of the course flowed and learning could happen in multiple ways for students. During the analysis a few discrepancies arose. The first was the lack of group dynamics in one of the introduction courses. The second was the lack of leadership enactment in one course. And the third discrepancy was a course that did not create synergy between the goal and the other components of the syllabus. These various gaps in the students learning may be remedied through indirect experiences, but intentional planning is crucial for students to learn. But these are things that with continual efforts on the part of the faculty member, could be improved. Education is an ever evolving process, with intentional planning and assessment on the part of the instructor greater learning for students can take place.

ReferencesBransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (1999). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to developing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.University of Maryland (2015a). EDCP 217: Introduction to Student Leadership. Retrieved From http://www.education.umd.edu/CHSE/academics/course_syllabi/EDCP/1401/EDCP217_0101_Laurie.pdfUniversity of Maryland (2015b). EDCP 417: Advanced Leadership Seminar. Retrieved from http://www.education.umd.edu/CHSE/academics/course_syllabi/EDCP/1401/EDCP417_Slack.pdfUniversity of San Diego (2015a). LEAD 160: Personal Leadership, Self Inquiry & Discovery. Retrieved from https://lib.sandiego.edu/uploads/38319/0dc95a2d4f152c7c80e43caa6d6c3776.pdfUniversity of San Diego (2015b). LEAD 354: Leadership and Diversity. Retrieved from https://lib.sandiego.edu/uploads/38319/dd2135fbcc2880fc8ad80f528dd20c3c.pdfUniversity of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (2015). Introduction to Leadership Studies. Retrieved from http://usfsm.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Fayard_LDR3003_-Fal14.pdf