Effect of syllabus tone: students’ perceptions of instructor and course

Harnish, Richard J.; Bridges, K. Robert

doi:10.1007/s11218-011-9152-4

Cited by 99 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In addition to this possibility, there may be other factors not included in this study that may increase support perceptions, such as syllabus tone. Indeed, Harnish and Bridges (2011) showed that the extent to which the tone of a syllabus is perceived as friendly or unfriendly can impact perceptions of instructors and courses. Specifically, in comparison to a syllabus written in an unfriendly tone, a syllabus written in a friendly tone was associated with perceiving the instructor as more approachable, warmer, and as more motivated to teach the course.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence‐Based Teaching in Higher Education: Application to Counselor Education

Malott

Hall

Sheely-Moore

et al. 2014

Couns Edu & Supervision

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The authors examined best practices in university-level teaching, as premised on the evidence-based teaching (EBT) literature found in fields external to counselor education. Findings were reported in relation to 3 areas: developing an effective learning environment, structuring intentional learning experiences, and assessing teaching effectiveness. Implications regarding the training of doctoral-level counselor educators using EBT practices are discussed.

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“…It should be noted that whereas both the interventions and the method of teaching them are relatively new, the novelty of a technique is not necessarily related to positive student evaluations. Two studies illustrate this point; our recent research suggests that whereas using a warmer syllabus tone (Harnish & Bridges, 2011a) will result in higher student ratings, a second study found that faculty who utilise distance education (courses delivered to remote sites using video technology) to deliver their courses will receive lower student evaluations (Harnish & Bridges, 2011b). We will continue to monitor student evaluations of blogging in future versions of our positive psychology course; as both the interventions described here and blogging itself continue to evolve, student evaluations may change as well.…”

Section: Findings and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Teaching Undergraduate Positive Psychology: An Active Learning Approach Using Student Blogs

Bridges

Harnish

Sillman

2012

Psychology Learning & Teaching

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In just over ten years positive psychology has become a major subfield in psychology. This is reflected in the development of positive psychology courses at many universities and in over a thousand empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Thus far, there is little published research suggesting ways to incorporate active learning techniques into these courses. This article describes the use of student blogs, employing a university blog platform, to teach several interventions in an undergraduate positive psychology course. The authors asked students enrolled in an introductory positive psychology course at a large university to complete three exercises, referred to as Three Good Things (recalling three good things that happened in the last 24 hours), Signature Strengths (using signature strengths in novel ways), and the Gratitude Letter (writing a letter of gratitude to someone who has been a positive influence in one's life), and record their experience in a blog. These exercises have been found to increase happiness and positive emotions. Students made a significantly higher evaluation of the course with blogs than of the same course without blogs. The authors describe how the techniques were assigned and scored, and examine the benefits and challenges of this method.In 1998, the president of the American Psychological Association, Martin E. P. Seligman, reminded psychologists of the largely forgotten mission of psychology -to focus on well-being and the strengths and virtues that allow people to thrive (Compton, 2005). In asking psychology to reorient itself, Seligman, along with colleague Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, had conceived a new subfield for psychology, called positive psychology, which focuses on the empirical study of positive emotions and character strengths (Azar, 2011). Prior to the creation of positive psychology the study of mental illness had been the disproportionate focus of psychology (Azar, 2011).Seldom had a science added a new subfield that was embraced as quickly; Compton (2005) noted that within a few years of its founding, positive psychology had become an influential area of inquiry in psychology. Indeed, this paradigm shift was so rapid that many universities began to offer courses and programs in positive psychology almost immediately. Such a transformation is usually much more gradual, especially at large institutions. This change resulted in the creation of positive psychology centres at several major universities, the addition of over 70 colleges and universities with positive psychology faculty (Penn Positive Psychology Center, 2011), and the development of more than 50 positive research groups at universities all over the world (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). The swift development of positive psychology also saw the creation of the Journal of Positive Psychology, devoted to research on optimal human functioning, and the publication of more than 1000 articles related to the field published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000(Azar, 2011. Our institution,...

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Effect of syllabus tone: students’ perceptions of instructor and course

Cited by 99 publications

References 28 publications

More Content or More Policy? A Closer Look at Syllabus Detail, Instructor Gender, and Perceptions of Instructor Effectiveness

More Content or More Policy? A Closer Look at Syllabus Detail, Instructor Gender, and Perceptions of Instructor Effectiveness

Evidence‐Based Teaching in Higher Education: Application to Counselor Education

Teaching Undergraduate Positive Psychology: An Active Learning Approach Using Student Blogs

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