Syllabus Task Force

Goals

The Syllabus Task Force aims to improve syllabi in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusive teaching practices, and in doing so to increase classroom belongingness and reduce barriers to success for underrepresented students. We offer ongoing syllabus review for instructors of graduate courses, as well as office hours for instructors considering changes to a course or developing a new course.

Our initiatives include offering:

• Ongoing syllabus review

• Syllabus consultation office hour

• Adding course evaluation questions to evaluate the outcomes of syllabus revision​​​​​​​​​​​

• Increasing awareness and implementation of accessibility best practices

Some folks who started this initiative are Max Halvorson (maximum2@uw.edu), Dannielle Whiley (djwhiley@uw.edu), Kim Bourne (kabourne@uw.edu), and Madison Feil (mcfeil@uw.ed ).

Progress

This academic year ('22-'23), we have reviewed four graduate syllabi and five undergraduate syllabi. We also piloted an opt-in module of course climate questions for course evaluations.

Moving forward

• In the next five years, we hope to have reviewed all regularly taught graduate syllabi and at least half of undergraduate syllabi.

• In the next year, we hope to have reviewed all required clinical psychology graduate courses.

• In the next year, we hope to survey faculty on why/why not they have requested a syllabus review to identify barriers to uptake.

Spring 2023 meetings

• TBD

Contact the team at uw.psych.dsc.syllabus@gmail.com to be added to the email list and to this Sharepoint project!