The KonMari Syllabus: Teaching Less and Learning More

Is it time to declutter your syllabus?
"Graphics Class" by Ryan Johnson used with Creative Commons License.

Just in time for many of us to start thinking about our next semester's classes and syllabi, Marie Kondo's Netflix premier, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, blew up. Love it or hate it, her KonMari method of sorting out those things in our lives that do not "spark joy" sparks conversation.

After watching the entire first season of the show and attacking my own closet and bookshelves with gusto, I started thinking about the gigantic boxes of books and papers waiting for me to unpack in my new office on campus. Too stymied by the thought to actually do anything about that particular problem, I addressed something honestly even more frightening, creating a new syllabus for a new class with new time limitations.

I opened my laptop and perseverated for an entire afternoon, making and unmaking changes. By the time 7 pm rolled around, I had accomplished nothing, so I gave up and ate supper with Marie on Netflix. The following morning I attacked my lists of graded assignments and in-class activities with gusto previously unparalleled. I owe some of that to the energy created by Marie Kondo series and some of that to my return looking into a "less is more" approach in current pedagogical theory.

Teach Fewer Topics and Students Learn More Deeply

I was first introduced to the idea of "less is more" by Nicki Monahan, MEd. Monahan published an article in October of 2015 called "More Content Doesn't Equal More Learning," a title that excellently sums up the thesis. The article focuses on the idea that as we develop our syllabi we keep in mind "threshold concepts" and our roles as "content curators" who, instead of deciding "'what' to  teach,"should focus on "'how' to facilitate learning." One scenario the author suggests for paring down class activities and topics is to think about a chance meeting with a student several years after graduation: What would you want the student to still know or know how to do?  As Marie Kondo might suggest, what answers could that hypothetical student provide that would "spark joy" for us as faculty? Those answers become the backbone of our lectures, planned activities, and graded assignments.

Breadth Versus Depth 

Another view of this tension between having a lot of content on the syllabus and covering only "threshold concepts" is referred to as "breadth versus depth," a tension especially felt by faculty who are responsible for teaching survey courses meant to cover a great breadth of knowledge, none of it necessarily in great depth. Although researchers have found benefits in teaching a great breadth of knowledge, teaching a great depth of knowledge is shown to correlate to higher order thinking, or the synthesis and application levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (Coker, Heiser, Taylor, & Book, 2017). With these benefits as well as others discussed in context of active learning methods, like experiential learning and problem-based courses, I became convinced that decluttering my content was the right choice.

Asking Difficult Questions

After revisiting this research topic when I started revising my syllabus, I started asking myself some tough questions about my course content. Strangely enough, I was asking the same questions about my course content as I was asking about my belongings.

• Am I hanging onto this piece of pottery because of nostalgia, and is it still serving me and my family? I love pottery, but is this piece of pottery worth having? Would we appreciate it more if it were the only piece of pottery on the shelf?
• Am I hanging onto this topic because of nostalgia, and is it still serving me and my students? I love The Things They Carried, but is covering it in an hour and a half really doing it justice? Would we appreciate it more if it were the only reading before midterm?

I think the answers to both these question sets, at least for me, are that we will appreciate what's there more abundantly and more deeply if there is less there.

Summary

Whether or not we can agree on the importance of decluttering our homes, or come to a complete understanding of what it means for a pair of utilitarian work pant to "spark joy," what those of us who teach may certainly be able to agree on is that decluttering our syllabi is a worthwhile endeavor. We must force ourselves to keep only those "threshold concepts" and skills that will "spark joy" in us when we realize more students understand those important ideas more deeply.

References

Coker, J. S., Heiser, E., Taylor, L., & Book, C. (2017). Impacts of Experiential Learning Depth and Breadth on Student Outcomes. Journal of Experiential Education, 40(1), 5–23.

Monahan, N. (2015, October 12). More Content Doesn't Equal More Learning. Retrieved from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/curriculum-development/more-content-doesnt-equal-more-learning/

Want to read more about pedagogy and learning? Try

Learning Community Classroom Design
Active Learning Classroom Design and Pedagogy
Contemplative Education: Modeling Mindfulness in the Classroom


Copyright Amy Lynn Hess. Please contact the author for permission to republish.