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Rationale: Course Materials
Why | What to Include | Writing the Rationale | Examples
Why Include Course Materials?
Course materials are powerful indicators of an instructor's approach to teaching and learning. They are important in supporting in–class experiences, as well as experiences outside the classroom. In preparing to present your course materials, you will want to include materials that have been used well in your courses, and are in line with your philosophy of teaching.
What Should Be Included?
Some of these course materials could include the following:
- course syllabi
- course handouts
- course packets
- course lesson plans
- class participation guidelines
- midcourse feedback instruments
- tests/quizzes
- assignments
- grading rubrics
- journal prompts
- problem sets
- reading lists/reading prompts
- tutorials
- transparencies/slides
- software
For many, a course syllabus (or syllabi) is the first logical item to include in this section. Depending on the kind of review for which you are preparing a portfolio, you may need to include several samples. Unless you are instructed to do otherwise, it is best to include a representative set from your most current course syllabi. If you are a graduate student preparing a portfolio for a search committee, you may not have syllabi that you have actually used. You might include one that you construct for this purpose, noting that this is how you would put together the course, given the chance. Whether you are including actual or planned syllabi, write a rationale statement that describes why you organized the course in the way you did.
What else should you choose to include? Think back on your goals. For example, if you stated in your teaching philosophy that active learning is important to you in teaching and learning, then you will want to include course materials that best illustrate this. This could be a handout on guidelines for class participation, or ground rules that you developed for discussion. Given the specialized nature of many course materials, you will want to include a rationale statement that provides the context for their use so that the reviewer can evaluate the appropriateness, basic format, tone, and the like.
Writing the Rationale
A rationale should be written for each item included in your portfolio. Rationales should be short statements (usually one paragraph) that explain why that example of a course handout, test, guide, or other material was used. Each rationale should meet the following criteria:
- It describes the audience for the material
- It explains why the material was used
- It relates how the material was used
- It discusses the observed effects (e.g., did the material help your students learn?)
Examples
Handout on Class Participation Rules
"I devised this handout for my beginning discussion sections in Introduction
to Sociology. My sense was that new undergraduates, the major enrollment
group in this course, were not totally comfortable in a discussion section.
During the first class, I distribute this handout and we discuss and revise
it as a class. This example is from the Winter 1995 course offering. The exercise
of revising the form entailed gaining some group consensus on social behavior
and commitment to the importance of discussion. During that quarter, we
had occasion to take out the sheet during a heated discussion of social
deviance. I found that reminding the group of the way in which we set
up discussion helped in this situation. I believe the contribution of
this handout carries over to other courses in which new students are being
asked to participate in class and helps them with processing skills."
Mid-term Exam
"After experimenting with several types of mid-term exams in my course
on ethics, I decided to use a take-home exam, which is illustrated by
this example from Autumn 1995. Since I am not so much concerned with factual
information, such as which theorist said what, and want to focus more
on the use of this information, I want students to be able to have time
and access to their books and even dialogue with others in developing
their responses. When I got my first set of take-homes back, I was elated
with the results. Students complained that they were very time-consuming,
but several said that it was one of the best learning experiences they
had this semester. I am appending an example of a typical student's response
to Part I of this exam in this portfolio to show the wonderful depth that
resulted from this format. The example also shows how my comments try
to support the student and challenge her to extend her thinking still
further."