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For new teachers, the design of formal assignments is somewhat of a mystery or it’s all
too familiar. Consider the following fairly typical examples of assignments in politics courses:
Paper Assignment: Discuss, analyze and evaluate person/event/theory X in context or
through the lens of Y.
Exam structure: 10 IDs, 7 out of 10 short answer questions, 1 of 3 essays (with prompts
along the same lines as above).
These assignments are quite familiar to new teachers whose undergraduate and graduate student
experiences are still relatively fresh in their minds. We may have a clear idea about what we
want our students to know, but we’re less reflective about what we are hoping our student’s will
be able to do by the end of the semester. When we design a course syllabus, we typically begin
by figuring out what subjects we want to cover, then determine the required reading, and only
then think about what assignments to include. After stating that these assignments comprise 85%
of the final grade, the syllabus may say very little about what the students will be asked to do in
these assignments. Some times we do provide guidelines for papers, but these typically
concentrate upon what the final product should look like (e.g. have a thesis statement, topic
sentences, and be written clearly), than providing any advice on the process of discovery.
Recent work on pedagogy urges us to move from a subject- or content-centered to a
learning-centered approach to teaching (e.g. Fink). In addition to contact with teachers and
focused, sustained attention to the course material, recent research on learning suggests that
students learn more and learn better by developing a self-understanding of their personal
learning-process and the process built in to the courses that they take (Dinham). A course’s
learning-process is most effective when it encourages collaboration among students and active
learning (over passive listening), and when students are provided with clear expectations and
Convention