Syllabus

The syllabus does more than list course requirements; it also communicates the culture of the class to students. If engaging constructively with a wide range of viewpoints deepens student learning in your course, or if your course includes controversial topics, your syllabus can help set and codify expectations. 

Starting in AY2026-27, incoming Harvard College students are required to take a dialogue course (“Intellectual Life and Constructive Disagreement”) rooted in intellectual virtues, including curiosity, epistemic humility, intellectual autonomy, and courage. Syllabus language might therefore include references to these intellectual virtues.

There are three areas to embed dialogue in your syllabus: course objectives, grading, and class norms.

Course Objectives

If engaging with a range of viewpoints is central to your course goals, it’s helpful to include language in your syllabus (that can be tailored to your discipline) that explains what outcome students might achieve. 

  • Humanities / Social Science / Gen Ed: “By the end of this course, students will be able to engage across disagreement - listening to understand rather than rebut, articulating their own view clearly, and staying curious about perspectives different from their own.”
  • STEM / quantitative: “Students will be able to evaluate contested claims or interpretations using evidence and reasoning rather than appeals to authority or personal certainty.”
  • Any discipline (Intellectual Virtues): “In this course, students will exercise intellectual virtues including curiosity, epistemic humility, intellectual autonomy, and courage. They will be encouraged to explore new ideas, to identify the limits of their knowledge, and to listen receptively to others while articulating their own ideas.” 

Grading

Grades incentivize students, especially with the impending grading reform. Attaching credit, e.g. as part of a participation grade and/or as part of an existing assignment, affirms to students that learning to engage with a wide range of viewpoints is a skill being developed in the course. Be explicit with students that you are grading them on how they disagree, not whether they agree, so this isn’t misinterpreted as a form of compliance or viewpoint policing.

Sample language:

  • Responds to disagreement constructively rather than avoiding or escalating it.
  • Keeps disagreement focused on ideas rather than people.
  • Demonstrates curiosity by asking questions and listening actively when presented with unfamiliar views.
  • Shows epistemic humility by seeking to understand what might be learned from a different perspective.
  • Restates another person’s view accurately and fairly before responding.

You can show students what putting these skills into practice looks like through grading guidelines or rubrics. For example, the following is a sample rubric for “responds to disagreement constructively.”

1 - Dismisses or shuts down opposing views.

2 - Tolerates opposing views but doesn’t engage them.

3 - Engages opposing views with some follow-up questions.

4 - Engages opposing views directly, e.g. by actively listening, making a good-faith effort to understand them, or by accurately restating them before responding 

Classroom Norms / Intentions

Use a Classroom Norms section on your syllabus to articulate your intentions about how your class will handle disagreement and encourage engagement with a wide range of viewpoints.

Sample classroom norms / intentions include:

  • Assume the good intentions of others.
  • Stay curious, especially when you disagree.
  • Listen respectfully and actively - and listen to understand, not to win.
  • Criticize ideas, not people.
  • View a new or different perspective as an opportunity to learn.
  • Disagreement and discomfort is normal and welcome; contempt isn’t.

Classroom norms work best when there is student buy-in. Rather than presenting students with a list in the syllabus, you can:

  • Co-create norms with them by presenting your classroom norms as a starting point for discussion, rather than a finished product. 
  • Ask students to reflect on how they might enact these norms. Inviting them to discuss challenges related to these norms that they’ve encountered in previous classes can be an effective way to encourage this sort of meta-cognitive work.
  • Add an accountability line. Ask students to make a commitment of how they will help foster these norms in class. This should be as concrete as possible, e.g. “I’ll say when I don’t know something” (epistemic humility), “I’ll redirect if a comment targets a classmate rather than an idea.” 

For a wide range of options that you can readily adapt to your syllabus, visit our Classroom Norms page.

Throughout the Semester

Make your syllabus come alive by interweaving references to open dialogue and engaging with a wide range of viewpoints throughout the semester. Ideally these should be in reference to tangible parts of the course, e.g. assignments, activities, and course content.

Course objectives

  • Reference objectives by name in the descriptions of relevant classes, section meetings, and unit transitions. “This discussion is where we practice engaging across disagreement.”
  • Build in a midpoint self-check. “Where have you seen yourself practice this objective, and where haven’t you?” “What has been especially challenging and how have you addressed challenges?”

Grading

  • Give low-stakes feedback early. Comment on how a student is practicing the skill in early low-stakes moments (a discussion post, a small-group debrief) so students know what it looks like to learn and master the skill. This can be done in lecture, section, and other forms, e.g. by calling out when someone does this really well.
  • Show strong, anonymized examples (with permission). Share an anonymized response from your class, or from a previous class, to concretely illustrate more abstract rubric language.
  • Revisit grading guidelines / rubrics mid-semester to ensure students understand expectations. Make adjustments as needed.

Classroom norms / intentions

  • Co-write them live in week one. It can be helpful to get input from students. If students oppose specific norms, try to understand why so you can address these concerns.
  • Put them into practice by discussing what they look and sound like. “What does ‘stay curious’ actually sound like in this room?” “How does epistemic humility show up in a classroom discussion in a way that is genuine, not performative?” 
  • Keep them alive throughout the semester. Before a big discussion, ask students “which norms matter most today?” or “will there be any challenges following our norms this week?” It’s better to surface, and address, student misgivings before they occur in class. 
  • Offer positive feedback. Don’t just tell students where things have fallen short; praise them for rising to the challenge of upholding norms.
  • Have a repair plan. Say once, early: “When something goes wrong, we pause, name it, and return to it - we don’t sweep it under the rug.”

Note: some of the above material is adapted from Constructive Dialogue Institute, “Your Syllabus is Your First Move”

Additional syllabus language and policies worth considering

Here are some further examples of syllabus language that are especially useful for courses with controversial topics.