









































Abstract

This paper discusses the contours of developing a 21st century course syllabus that empowers students 
in the learning process to become critical thinkers, problem-solvers, innovators, and collaborators. The 
author draws from transformative learning theory to provide detailed information on the characteristics of 
a syllabus, its universal components, interpreting course code, uses of a syllabus, accessibility, and backward 
design. He also draws from Bloom’s taxonomy to offer a pragmatic guide to syllabus creation with concrete 
examples on how instructors can employ a backward design approach for syllabus development to effectively 
create a syllabus of a course they have never taught before. The author concludes by reiterating that the 
overarching emphasis of teaching with a syllabus is to promote higher-order thinking and deeper learning in 
higher education because a syllabus that promotes such practices and knowledge transfer maximizes learning 
outcomes.

Keywords: Syllabus, Learner-centered, Learning outcomes, 21st Century SKills, Higher education

Ndemanu, M. T. Global Journal of  
Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3   
DOI  10.14434/gjte.v3i1.33616

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Ndemanu, M. T., 2022. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which 
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction without revision in any non-commercial medium, provided you 
give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,

Transformative Syllabus Design: Maximizing  
learning outcomes in higher education

Michael T. Ndemanu

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

Introduction
Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German philosopher, is 

the founder of today’s modern university system that 
transformed universities from training-oriented profes-
sional institutions couched in transmissive pedagogy 
to the present-day higher education institutions that 
are committed to the discovery of, pursuit of, search for, 
knowledge (Mueller, 1991). The goal of using a syllabus 
to teach college courses is to ensure that modern higher 
education institutions meet the goals for which they 
were founded. This paper is aimed at strengthening 
professional development skills of higher education 
instructors in syllabus development. 

It is a truism that higher education in any country 
is a citadel of knowledge production and consumption. 
While one would expect a fair balance between re-
search and teaching in a university, many organizations 
concerned with the quality of programs only tend to 
use research output as a yardstick of an institutional

value, thereby undermining teaching (OECD) which is 
one of the most crucial aspects of college education. 
This may explain why there is no teacher preparation 
program for university instructors as it is the case for 
K-12 teachers. Although professors are content ex-
perts in their various fields, most of them did not take 
formal coursework on pedagogy. Nonetheless, many 
would claim that they master college teaching and do 
not need professional development in pedagogy on 
grounds of their extended apprenticeship of obser-
vation (Lortie, 1975). Apprenticeship of observation 
is predicated on the notion that by the time a student 
has completed their K-12 education, they had amassed 
more than13000 hours of teaching observations as they 
observe their own teachers and professors teach them. 
Whether a professor has received formal preparation 
in college teaching or not, there is a general consensus 
that they should all know how to conceptualize and de-
velop a syllabus for each of the courses that they teach 
so as to improve the quality of college education. This 
essay offers a pragmatic guide to syllabus development



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 26

using transformative education theoret-ical framework. 
A syllabus can be defined as a course roadmap that 
that provides the various makeups of a course such 
that prospective and current students in the course are 
abreast with the course objectives and expectations. As 
Parkes et al. (2002) posit, a syllabus serves as a con-
tract between the instructor and the students given that 
it contains vital information regarding course descrip-
tion, course readings, assignments and their deadlines, 
attendance policy, roles and duties of students as well 
as the responsibilities of instructors. While research 
on syllabus is very limited, most of it has focused on its 
purpose and its required components. Calhoon et al. 
(2008) went outside the norm to study how students 
use syllabi. They contended that students access syllabi 
on a regular basis when the syllabi contain information 
about assignments, due dates, and rubrics. 

It is worth noting that syllabus embodies a lot of 
intricacies owing to educators’ varying philosophi-
cal orientations and dispositions. Paradoxically, such 
orientations are not as diametrically different among 
educators in developing countries owing to the fact 
that they all studied through a very traditional and 
transmission-oriented pedagogy. Thus, a plurality of 
educators still strongly believes in the banking concept 
(Freire, 2000) in which the instructor is the sole owner 
of knowledge and the reading material and only share 
them with students during lectures. Such an entrenched 
belief in the sole proprietorship of knowledge in a 
specific domain influences instructors’ choice of tone, 
content, delivery methods, expectations, objectives, 
instructional activities, and course policy during the 
syllabus design process. While it is unheard of in higher 
education in the United States that college professors 
could teach a course without a predesigned syllabus, it 
is still a ubiquitous practice in some countries around 
the world. Many students are still graduating from col-
lege without ever having had any exposure to the sylla-
bi of the courses they took. It was within this backdrop 
that the author of this essay decided to write an article 
on strategies of developing a learner-centered course 
syllabus so that it could benefit all the faculty mem-
bers who are interested in maximizing their students’ 
learning outcomes through active learning, but who do 
not know how to go about it. In the subsequent sections 
of this essay, a conceptual framework will be discussed, 
followed by characteristics of a syllabus, procedure of 
syllabus design, and conclusion.

Conceptual Framework
For this article, a transformative learning theory is 

used to discuss the merits of designing a learner-cen-
tered syllabus. Transformative learning theory, coined 
by Mezirow et al. (2000) in the 1970s, was initially used 
in the field of adult education before becoming main-
streamed in the education field as a whole. It is a rela-
tively new terminology that was first used to describe 
a new teaching and learning process that involves 
meaning making out of new information to ensure 
that knowledge is transferred and applied in real-life 
contexts beyond the classroom. It encompasses review-
ing, manipulating, and interpretating current and past 
experiences to make meaning. It also embodies critical 
thinking and critical literacy- Learning to question. 
Learning to deconstruct and reconstruct concepts, 
theories, ideologies, and worldviews. In other words, 
learning is preceded by disorienting dilemmas because 
a previous experience has been disrupted. Thus, trans-
formative education could engender psychological 
trauma since it problematizes a perennial practice that 
has been normalized over the years (Todd, 2003). Edu-
cation is supposed to lead to the transformation of the 
learner and consequently the society. Many teachers in 
developed countries already employ transformative ed-
ucation theory in designing and teaching their courses 
given that transformative education cultivates critical 
thinking skills in learners. It also places strong empha-
ses on creativity and problem-solving skills which are 
essential skills for the 21st century problems. 

The contemporary notion of transformative educa-
tion transcends the adult education field into broader 
view of education as an art of transforming learners 
and not just informing them. As Yacek (2019) argued, 
transformative education requires psychological re-
structuring for effective learning to take place because 
it requires an in-depth critical reflection about previ-
ously held beliefs to determine whether those previous-
ly held ideas should be upheld or discarded. It requires 
perspicacious determination of what to reject and what 
to substitute previous knowledge with. Thus, syllabi 
should be designed in such a way that educational goals 
will be formed around addressing the fundamental 
question of educating more for transformation and 
minimally for information (Rosebrough et al., 2011). 
Not all education acquired is considered transforma-
tive. For Yacek (2019), it is only transformative when an 
educational experience is identified as an extraordinary 
monumental change in a learner’s personal develop-
ment, shattering previous beliefs and worldviews while

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 27

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3

ushering it fresher perspective on prior concepts. 
The word transformative ought not to be viewed as a 
buzzword given that almost every learner at all ages 
experiences some sort of transformative experience in 
formal and informal contexts. There are Christians who 
become atheists and vice versa. There are homophobes 
and transphobes who become pro-LGBTQ. There are 
climate change deniers who become major advocates of 
environmental education. It is vital to harness the facts 
that contributed to such transformation so that educa-
tors can draw from those narratives to enhance trans-
formative pedagogies. In transformative education, 
there is a major shift in students’ habits of thought and 
action (English, 2014). 

 It does not, therefore, suffice to create a syllabus 
for a creation’s sake. It has to be purposefully transfor-
mative, learner-centered, and laser-focused on building 
students’ 21st century competency skills. Incorpo-
rating multifaceted pedagogies ensures that learners 
are metacognitively reached so that they can become 
proficient in addressing 21st century problems. 

Characteristics of a Syllabus
The overall tone of a syllabus is undergirded by the 

university’s mission and vision statements as well as 
the teaching philosophy of the course instructor. Where 
there is no mission statement foregrounding the kind 
of education that the university values, there is likely 
going to be less uniformity in the curricular and ped-
agogic approaches across syllabi. Thus, it is of utmost 
importance to review and incorporate the mission and/
or vision statements of the university and departmental 
college into the syllabus because they serve as overar-
ching guiding tone and direction in the development of 
the curriculum as well as the instruction. Here are a few 
examples of university mission and vision statements 
and how they can shape the development of syllabi in 
these institutions:

Mission statement of the University of Michigan (UM)
“The mission of the University of Michigan is 
to serve the people of Michigan and the world 
through preeminence in creating, communicat-
ing, preserving and applying knowledge, art, 
and academic values, and in developing leaders 
and citizens who will challenge the present and 
enrich the future” (umich.edu).

It is evident from this mission statement that UM values 
critical thinking skills, leadership skills, civic education, 
knowledge creation and knowledge application. It is up 

to the instructors to infuse theses values in their syllabi. 

Mission statement of the Ball State University 
(BSU)

“We engage students in educational, research, 
and creative endeavors that empower our gradu-
ates to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives 
enriched by lifelong learning and service, while 
we enhance the economic, environmental, and 
social vitality of our community, our state, and 
our world” (bsu.edu).  
BSU’s mission statement iterates research, cre-

ativity, preparing students for fulfilling careers, social, 
environmental, and economic sustainability. This mis-
sion statement gives a bigger picture of the university’s 
overarching goal that instructors in that institution use 
or ought to use as a starting point when designing a 
syllabus. 

Vision Statement of Indiana University (IU)
“Our mission is to provide broad access to un-
dergraduate and graduate education for students 
throughout Indiana, the United States, and the 
world, as well as outstanding academic and cul-
tural programs and student services.

We seek to create dynamic partnerships 
with our communities in economic, social, and 
cultural development and to offer leadership in 
creative solutions for 21st-century problems, and 
we strive to achieve full diversity and maintain 
friendly, collegial, and humane environments, 
with a strong commitment to academic freedom.

To achieve our vision as one of the great re-
search universities of the 21st century, we will:
• Provide an excellent, relevant, and responsive 

education across a wide range of disciplines 
in baccalaureate, graduate, and professional 
education, to students from all backgrounds

• Pursue excellent world-class research, scholar-
ship, and creative activity

• Engage in the economic, social, civic, and cul-
tural development of Indiana, the nation, and 
the world by building on the base of excellence 
in research and education” (iub.edu).

IU has a comprehensive vision statement that covers 
almost all the various mission iterations of UM and BSU. 
Some of the major highlights of its vision statement in-
clude: access to higher education, research, leadership 
skills in creativity, academic freedom, inclusion, diversi-
ty, social, economic, and civic vitality of the community.



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 28

Each university is established to address the socie-
tal needs and the labor shortage of the state or region 
in which it is located. National and international needs 
are often secondary at the creation of the institution, 
but could subsequently occupy frontline positions in 
the institution’s curriculum. A well-crafted syllabus in 
MU, BSU, and IU will explicitly and implicitly address 
most of the major themes of the university’s mission 
statement. The syllabi may foreground specific content 
knowledge, ways of knowing, communication, research, 
experiential learning, environmental sustainability, 
collaboration, creativity, problem-solving skills, and 
community service. A university’s mission/vision 
statement sets the tone of an educational culture on 
the entire campus. Such a tone is then replicated in the 
various syllabi throughout the campus. A course sylla-
bus needs to adhere to institutional framework in order 
to fulfil the objectives of that institution. Most of the 
current university’s missions are designed to cultivate 
in students the 21st century competency skills. 

Interpreting Course Code 
Another notable and indispensable characteristic of 

a syllabus is the course code. Course codes are identity 
markers that differentiate one course from another in 
terms of discipline and level of study. On designing a 
syllabus, instructors need to be aware of the meanings 
of the subject code and the catalog number in order to 
provide content and assessments that are appropriate 
for students’ developmental and academic readiness. 
Undergraduate courses typically have the subject code 
and the catalog number ranging from 100 to 499. For 
example, the course PSYC 101 has PSYC as the subject 
code that represents the Psychology discipline while 
the catalog number, 101, shows the level of study. The 
first digit indicates specific level of study while the rest 
of the digits are defined by the different levels of course 
strength. Therefore, a course that starts with 1 as in 
PSYC 101 shows that it is a foundational course while 
level 2 courses start with 2 such as in PSYC 201, indicat-
ing that it is an expansive foundational course. Levels 3 
and 4 courses typically require prerequisites because 
they require more advanced thinking skills and demon-
stration of in-depth knowledge.

Universal Components of a Syllabus 
Although there is seldom a standardized syllabus 

format, there are, however, some major characteris-
tics of a learner-centered syllabus. The characteristics 
which can be grouped into four broad categories

include: contact information, institutional statements, 
objective information, and course policies. 

Category One: Contact information
In this category, the first page of the syllabus starts 

with a boldly marked name of the institution, followed 
by the course title (e.g., XXX 100), course sections, 
semester in which the course is offered, meeting dates 
and time, room number, instructor’s name, e-mail 
address, phone number of the instructor, office address, 
and office hours. If there is a graduate assistant as-
signed to the instructor, their name and e-mail ad-
dress should also be included. The information on this 
category should not cover more than ¼ of a standard 
A4 size page. The contact information is particularly 
helpful to first-generation college students because 
provides them information about the location of their 
classes and ways to contact their professors at any giv-
en moment. This helps reduce stress and anxiety that 
students tend to experience in their first year in college. 

Category Two: Institutional statements
At the end of contact information on an A4 size 

page, there are mandatory institutional statements 
that are cut and pasted into the syllabus. The content 
encompasses university’s mission statement, institu-
tional statements about diversity and inclusion, disabil-
ity services, writing center, and technology help desk. 
Some institutions also include statements forewarning 
students against plagiarism, tobacco use and alcohol-
ism on campus. All these statements are invaluable to 
the entire student body because they contain policies 
that reiterate institutional expectations and provide 
information about the various services that are offered 
by the university to accommodate students’ needs in 
the areas of technology, disabilities, library services, 
learning, and writing centers. Universities want these 
statements to be included in all syllabi to ensure a wid-
er dissemination and digestion of their message. Not 
all institutions have all the statements. Instructors are 
not advised to borrow and use statements from anoth-
er university. They should design their syllabi with the 
institutional information that has been made available 
to them by the hierarchy. In many universities in the 
United States, professors receive emails weeks before 
the beginning of each semester on institutional state-
ments that must be part of the syllabus.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 29

Category Three: Objective Information
Objective information encompasses narrative about 

the course, the purpose and the rationale of the course, 
prerequisites and/or co-requisites courses that must 
be taken before or along the current course, course 
objectives or competencies, course materials and texts, 
assignments, final exam or final project, rubric, grade 
criteria, course calendar, and supplemental reading 
sources. Under objective information, the instructors 
explain clearly what the course is all about, why it is 
important for the students, why it is necessary for 
their chosen program, and why they should sign up 
for the course. One of the best ways to retain students’ 
interests in the course from the outset is to give them 
a palpable rationale as to why the course is being 
offered, stating persuasively how it would fulfil their 
program requirements and how it would contribute to 
their career growth and/or to the better of the society. 
If there is a prerequisite course, it has to be stated in 
the syllabus as a prerequisite requirement. Sometimes, 
some courses are taken alongside one other course. If 
it is the case with the course that is being designed, the 
co-requisite should be stated in the front page. 

In transformative education, there is a paradigm 
shift from course objectives to course competencies. 
Historically, syllabi that are developed from the per-
spective of lesson objectives focus more on what stu-
dents should know by the end of the course, whereas 
competency-based approach to course design focuses 
on what students should be able to do by the end of the 
course. In order to effectively state and subsequent-
ly assess learning competencies and critical thinking 
skills, action verbs are employed to state course compe-

tencies as advocated in the Bloom’s Taxonomy graphic-
shown in Figure 1. 

“Remember” and “Understand” are at the bottom 
of the pyramid of Bloom’s taxonomy because they 
represent static verbs and require the least amount of 
learning effort. Instructors should take this graph into 
serious consideration when developing learning com-
petencies and assessments of a course. 

In selecting the course reading material, instructors 
should ensure that the reading material are void of sex-
ism, racism, ethnocentrism, colorism, ableism, ageism, 
xenophobia, homophobia and all other isms and pho-
bias that affect people negatively. This is an opportunity 
for champions of decolonization to decolonize their 
curriculum making by choosing reading material that 
are devoid of dehumanizing and colonizing language 
and history. It is also an opportunity to empower stu-
dents in the learning process by offering them choice 
readings (Sleeter, 2008), mirror and window curricu-
lum (Style, 1988), and place-based curriculum (Preston, 
2015). One of the essential information that students 
look for in a syllabus is the text because they want to 
buy it or order it online in time. 

 Furthermore, the syllabus contains detailed 
information about the course assessment process. It 
includes assignment descriptions, grading rubrics, 
submission modes, deadlines, and cut-off time after 
which submissions may or may not be accepted with or 
without a penalty. Each assignment should also include 
instructor’s preference for total word count, stipulated 
margin, font, and font size. A rubric is a scoring sheet 
that shows students how their work will be graded. It 
provides more clarity to students as to what is expected

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3

Fig. 1. Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (Armstrong, 2010)



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 30

of them while saving time to instructors because they 
do not have to give detailed written feedback since it is 
already included in the rubric. In the syllabus, students 
are also given the range of scores and their equivalent 
grades in the rubric, known as grade criteria. For exam-
ple, the grade criteria have to show in the syllabus that 
94% upward in an exam is an A grade and that 59% 
downward is F. Varying assignments or exam formats is 
also important because it allows students who are not 
good test-takers in a proctored room to excel in other 
assignments done in stress-free settings. 

Another vital aspect of the objective information 
in a syllabus is the reading calendar. There must be a 
reading or video/audio linked to each class meeting 
date. For instance, if a class meets on Monday and 
Wednesday each week, the syllabus should indicate the 
reading tasks assigned for each day. Students have to 
be informed on the first day of class that the readings 
are meant for them to read before coming to class. 
Each digital reading title should indicate in parenthesis 
where and how it could be accessed. If it is a book chap-
ter, reference should be made about the specific book 
and the specific chapter including the page range. 

Category Four: Miscellaneous course policies
Course policies in this category embody clarifica-

tion of behavioral and attitudinal expectations, infor-
mation about class attendance, late and missing assign-
ments/exams, nature of participation in activities, and 
general ethics. Some degree programs assess students 
on professional dispositions which can include general 
behavior and attitude, dress code, and punctuality. In 
the absence of an institutional statement on plagiarism 
and copyright issues, an instructor may insert their 
own personally worded statement into the syllabus to 
minimize plagiarism. If the course includes field expe-
rience or fieldwork component, the information should 
be incorporated into the syllabus so that students can 
plan accordingly. Students need to be aware of how long 
it would take their instructor to respond to e-mails. 
Most instructors respond within 24 hours on weekdays. 
It is necessary to defer to the institutional policy with 
respect to instructor’s promptitude in e-mail responses. 

It is worth noting that the structure of syllabus 
and the sequencing of the content should be given due 
consideration. The foregoing categories define a gener-
al logical order that a typical learner-centered syllabus 
should follow. Sequencing of course content in a way 
that promotes scaffolding from the simplest concept to 

the most complex one in the learning process is very 
prior to the first class of the semester. Ideally, a syllabus 
should be made available to students a week before 
important. However, owing to the limited scope of this 
paper, content sequencing techniques will be a separate 
paper.

Syllabus Accessibility 
Once the syllabus is fully designed and meticulously 
edited to ensure clarity, the instructor should make 
it available to the students at least twenty-four hours 
classes begin so that they will have ample time to 
purchase and ship the course texts and other learn-
ing tools before the start of the semester. According 
to a survey conducted by CampusBooks.com (2016), 
67% of the students surveyed said they purchase used 
textbooks while 55% said they rent textbooks for their 
courses each semester. Other research institutions 
have conducted similar research. According to Kelly 
(2019), 58% of students who responded to a survey 
on students’ habits toward purchasing textbooks said 
they buy at least one textbook on Amazon. Only 51% 
said they buy books at their campus bookstore. In the 
survey, one student said, “School Bookstore typically 
charges 3x as much as ordering from Amazon or anoth-
er site.” Therefore, it is imperative to share the syllabus 
days or weeks before the start of the semester or at the 
very least, provide information about the text weeks 
earlier. 

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are the 
platforms that instructors in developed countries use to 
share a lot of information with students. Many devel-
oping countries cannot afford the cost of these learn-
ing management systems (LMS) like Blackboard and 
Canvas which are designed for schools, colleges, and 
universities. LMS are used for e-learning as well as to 
post all relevant information about a course including 
syllabi, assignments, rubrics, assignment submission 
portal, attendance tracking, and grade postings. In 
countries where universities cannot afford these learn-
ing management systems, there are other options that 
faculty members can use to communicate with students 
for free. There are moodle.com, Google Classroom, 
Whatsapp, Telegram, etc. A hard copy of a syllabus 
should be made available to students who do not have 
access to the internet. The first day of class should also 
be used to read through the syllabus with the students. 
Considering that the instructor’s role in the classroom 
is to help students maximize learning outcomes, going 
over the syllabus thoroughly helps clarify nebulous

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 31

areas in the syllabus and set the students up for success 
right from the beginning of the semester. While what 
a student discovers in the course of learning is more 
important than what they cover in class, it is crucial for 
students to have full access to what is being covered so 
as to plan ahead of each class session. 

Uses of a syllabus
A well-designed syllabus facilitates teaching and 

learning. It shows a clear pattern of teaching and learn-
ing activities built into the course (Slattery & Carlson, 
2016). Considering the importance of a syllabus and its 
ubiquity in higher education in developed countries, it 
is rather ironic that there is limited research about it. 
According to Littlefield (1999) a syllabus has several 
functions:

- It facilitates teaching because it enables teachers 
to plan better in advance.

- It serves as a binding document between the 
students and the instructor.

- It sets the tone of the course for the entire 
semester.

- It helps students plan their learning carefully.
- It ensures smooth and effective continuity of the 

course content from the originator of the course 
to subsequent instructors given that there is 
always a master syllabus that is safely kept by the 
department chair.  Instructors teaching an old 
course for the first time use the master syllabus 
as a starting point in developing their own 
syllabus. They have to build from the previous 
instructor’s syllabus otherwise the original goal 
of the course could very easily be misconstrued 
and bastardized overtime. 

- It serves as an artifact for promotion, tenure, and 
for job applications for instructors. 

- It can also be argued that a syllabus minimizes 
students’ unnecessary outreach to the instructor 
since effective syllabi pre-emptively answer 
students’ questions. 

Course expectations set forth in the syllabus and 
explained by the instructor on the first day of class can 
affect students’ interest in the course on the first day of 
the class. Transformative educators do not scare stu-
dents away from their course; they attract them to their 
course and work with them to address any individual 
concern about the course. In addition, using the sylla-
bus as a contractual document between the student and 
the instructor is very important because students have

the propensity to feel cheated in their grades when they 
did not do well in a test. To avoid any possible lawsuit 
from students, some universities even require students 
to read and sign the syllabus on the first day of the 
course so that students cannot successfully challenge in 
a court of law any aspect of the signed syllabus in due 
course. 

The syllabus can serve as an artifact in a job appli-
cation portfolio. It is common for faculty applying for 
a college/university teaching position to carry along 
to interviews their portfolio which, among many other 
things, includes syllabi of the different courses they 
have taught. It is also a standard practice for faculty 
seeking tenure and promotion to include copies of 
syllabi of all the courses they have designed and/or 
taught. When evaluating professors’ teaching skills, 
evaluators (who most often are peers) are expected 
to review the faculty’s syllabi and observe them teach. 
Thus, an instructor’s teaching philosophy can be easily 
gauged through a review of the syllabus than through a 
one-session teaching observation.  

Backward design of a syllabus
According to Wiggins and McTighe (2005) back-

ward design entails developing a syllabus beginning 
with course goals and working backward to lay bare 
what learners need to know in order to meet them as 
opposed to the traditional method which focuses on the 
coverage of topics and contents recommended by the 
government or accreditation bodies. While instructors 
may erroneously want to begin a syllabus design with 
content and technical details, a syllabus creation should 
begin with the goals, objectives and competencies, stat-
ing the skills students should be able to demonstrate by 
the end of the course. In the backward design process, 
instructors ensure that attention is paid not only to 
content coverage, but also to the purpose, usefulness, 
and the impact of the course on students. The follow-
ing preliminary questions are crucial in the syllabus 
creation process:

1. What is important for students to learn?
2. How will the instructor and their students see 

learning happening?
3. What will the instructor and the students need 

to do for learning to take place?
With a backward design, instructors are able to 

align their course goals and learning objectives with 
teaching activities as well as with course assessments. 
In this regard, students are consistently familiar with 
the course content and its goals. There are three stages

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 32

of backward design: 
Stage One: Desired Outcomes: At this stage, the 

instructor starts the syllabus design with a deep re-
flection on the goals, objectives/competencies of the 
course by pondering over questions such as: What is 
important for learners to know and do by the end of the 
course? What knowledge or skills are students expect-
ed to acquire by the end of the course? What standards 
are supposed to be met? What are the transfer com-
petencies that are expected? When the course compe-
tencies have been conceptualized and stated in active 
verbs, the instructor then reflects profoundly on the 
different measurable evidence which is in Stage Two of 
this process.   

Stage Two: Acceptable evidence for instructors 
and students: This stage is about assessments and 
evaluations. How does an instructor assess students 
understanding and progress to determine whether or 
not learning occurred? What will an instructor consider 
as acceptable proficiency of the learning outcomes? The 
instructor comes up with different assessment tools 
that effectively measure the learning outcomes of Stage 
One. 

Stage Three: Learning activities: What sorts of 
learning material and activities are put in place that will 
result in the evidence of desired outcomes being met? 

As shown in these three stages, instead of starting a 
course curriculum with dense content of what students 
should learn, the instructor commences with what they 
envision as desired outcomes and walk backward to 
the content which embodies the learning activities. In 
planning the course, some of the critical questions that 
guide an instructor in the choice of learning material 
and activities are: What learning material is suitable for 
achieving the course objectives/competencies? How 
will this material be sequenced to maximize knowledge 
acquisition? What pedagogic activities will accelerate 
knowledge gain, knowledge transfer and knowledge 
application in real-world contexts? Careful responses 
to the foregoing questions would ensure an effective 
planning and development of the syllabus. 

Conclusion
Using a backward design to develop an effective 

syllabus that employs different pedagogic approaches 
to impart knowledge in students should be the priority 
instead of focusing on exposing them to large quantity 
of contents through the traditional lecture method that 
they can barely retain (Cooper et al., 2016). Miller 

(1927) defined lecture method as “… that mysterious 
process by means of which the contents of the note-
book of the professor are transferred through the 
instrument of the fountain pen to the note-book of the 
student without passing through the mind of either.” In 
employing transformative learning theories to design a 
syllabus and teach 21st century skills, the instructional 
focus shifts from teaching objective facts to teaching 
core competencies of the course, critical thinking skills, 
problem-solving skills, information and computer 
literacy, collaboration, and creativity. A syllabus should 
promote heuristic pedagogy so that students can devel-
op more confidence in their abilities to handle complex 
problems.

Effective teaching is preceded by constructive 
learner-centered course planning that revolves around 
syllabus design. A 21st century syllabus that is aimed at 
maximizing learning outcomes should carry an over-
tone of learner-centered pedagogy throughout the syl-
labus. Reading materials, assignments, and instruction-
al strategies laid out in any syllabus should highlight 
twenty-first century skills as presented earlier. Some 
of these skills may not be woven into the core content 
of the course, rather they may occur mostly during the 
content delivery process, that is during the teaching of 
the course. A course may emphasize critical thinking 
and collaboration skills in their syllabus development 
by showing what sorts of learning, teaching, and assess-
ment activities may help accomplish the two skills. The 
physics instructor who is conscious of the 21st century 
skills that are being reiterated in the university may 
redesign the syllabus to ensure that the said skills are 
being covered through the curriculum or through the 
instruction. 

Education is designed to educate; to teach what is 
worth knowing, but that is not known. 

It is worth imagining what is worth knowing in 
community health today that is not known by citizens 
and the possible impact it has on their health, in par-
ticular, and their lives, in general. A carefully crafted 
learner-centered syllabus that demonstrates the trans-
formative potentials of education is what all college 
instructors should strive for in the courses they teach. 
Education is about transformation and that transfor-
mation entails changing frames of reference such as 
habits of minds, perspectives, and mindsets during an 
educational process to be more inclusive, reflective so 
as to transfer knowledge and apply it in other real-life 
contexts. A syllabus that promotes deeper learning and 
knowledge transfer maximizes learning outcomes.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2022) Vol 3



Ndemanu, Designing University Syllabi for 21st Century Skills Page 33

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Michael T. Ndemanu, Ph.D. (mtndemanu@bsu.edu) is an 
Associate Professor in the Department of Educational 
Studies at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA.

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