Mission, vision, and values
Saying what the course is for, before the schedule
A student asked why we spend three weeks on missing data, and the honest answer was that it has been in week nine for as long as I have taught the course.
What it is
Three short artifacts, written before the schedule. The mission says what the course is for. The vision says what someone who finishes can do that they could not do before. The values are three or four named commitments, a word each plus a sentence.
The fellowship modelled this on its own statement. Its mission is to enhance inclusive instructional practices and improve STEM teaching and learning for both instructors and students. Its values are practical implementation, small wins, research-based, and support.
The category this sits in is being explicit and transparent. Students who understand why a course is built the way it is can engage with it as a design rather than as a list of requirements.
Run it
- Draft the three artifacts badly and quickly. Nobody sees this version.
- Publish it on day one, before any content. Five minutes, three slides, then the syllabus.
- Restate it around the midpoint and check it against what the course has actually been doing.
Say this
Sent to a colleague, with your syllabus attached
“Here is my syllabus and two assignment prompts. I have not sent you my mission, vision, and values. Can you guess them from these documents?”
Whatever comes back is the finding. If it does not resemble what you wrote, the documents are the honest version and your statement is aspirational.
In my courses
Planned for EPI 601, week 1.
On the first day, I will share my teaching philosophy and why I teach Epi 601: to help students think critically about the foundations of epidemiologic reasoning, not just memorize formulas. I will explain how the course connects to their growth as independent researchers and practitioners.
How I would know it worked: students articulate in a mid-semester check-in how the course connects to their professional goals. The note I attached to this one was that students need to see the practical relevance of advanced methods. New for 601; not used before the fellowship.
Evidence
There is no controlled study of writing a course mission, vision, and values statement, and none of deriving learning goals from one. The sources are practitioner books and one essay, none of which reports an outcome (Allen & Tanner, 2007; Fink, 2013; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).
That is not an argument against doing it. It is the artifact that makes the other decisions decidable, which is design coherence rather than a measured effect.