Sample Brandeis Syllabi

With Insertion of Learning Goals

Internal Resources


Just-in-Time Teaching or Questions and Thoughts (QTs)

Overview: Expanding Conversation - and Learning - in Our Classrooms (Includes detailed description of QTs)

Instructions for creating a Google Form for Just-in-Time Teaching/QTs (requires Adobe 9.0 or later and the ability to play audio)


Guidelines for Creating Learning Goals in Majors

Click here for the guidelines.

Click here for the memorandum to department chairs in Arts and Sciences from former Provost Marty Krauss regarding context, timeline and resources for implementing learning goals in courses and majors at Brandeis University.

Additional Support for Departments Creating Learning Goals


Examples of Learning Goals in General Education

Language plays a unique role in capturing the breadth of human experience. The study of language allows us to understand the variety of thought in human cultures and societies, it unlocks cultural identity, and it shapes the literary and philosophical heritage at the heart of advanced learning in the humanities. Intrinsic to a sound education, the ability to communicate in another language challenges unexamined habits of mind, enriches the imagination, and grants access to the world through sources in languages other than English.

Brandeis requires its undergraduates to demonstrate proficiency in the use of one foreign language, either ancient or modern. The language sequence is comprised of three courses: 10, 20 and 30-level. The requirement is satisfied when the student has passed a 30-level (or higher) course with a letter grade (not Pass/Fail).

Objectives of the Foreign Language Requirement

At the end of the three-semester sequence, students will:

  • function in a foreign language in culturally appropriate ways in all four language skills (speaking, listening, writing and reading) at least in the Intermediate range of proficiency as defined by the ACTFL guidelines
  • explore cultural perspectives expressed in the studied language
  • analyze and interpret linguistic, communicative, and cultural differences, and apply this knowledge in disciplines beyond language study

Students also will understand:

  • cultural phenomena represented in the language studied
  • differences in world views as expressed in the language studied
  • mechanisms of second-language acquisition that will contribute to life-long learning