Page 226 - Making Instruction Work

chap 18 3/11/97 5:14 PM Page 212

212 making instruction work

That dialogue may seem a bit far-fetched, but I’ll bet it isn’t
that far off from some of the experiences you’ve endured dur-
ing your own academic career. But you wouldn’t do that to
your students, would you? Of course you wouldn’t.
One of the ways to avoid this sort of dastardly deceit is to let
students in on the secret of how you intend for the course to
function—by giving them a copy of the course procedures up
front.

What Are Course Procedures?

Course procedures are the rules by which courses are con-
ducted. Though they may or may not be written down or rec-
ognized for what they are, every course operates by a set of
rules or procedures. In one course the rule may be, “Tests will
be given on the following dates ________,” while in another
the rule may be, “Take the test when you feel you have accom-
plished the objective of the module.” The rule in still another
course may be, “Add your name to the sign-up sheet, and you
will be notified when the demonstration has been prepared.”
In still another course (the kind you’ve often experienced) the
rule is, “I’m not going to tell you what the rules are. You’ll just
have to figure them out yourself.”And so it goes. We have rules
about when to arrive, when to leave, how to proceed, where to
find things, how to get questions answered, and dozens of
other things.
Whatever the procedures by which your course will be con-
ducted, they should be written down and in the hands of the stu-
dents. This will tell them what is expected of them and will
eliminate their need to waste time “psyching out” the instruc-
tor. In addition, the very act of writing the course procedures
will help you to derive the most efficient implementation
strategy possible for the constraints under which you must
function. Whatever you do, prepare a set of course procedures