Syllabus Jurisprudence in the Algerian EFL Classroom
While the concept of the syllabus has long ago developed to include mainly the course description, the instructor’s contact information, the course objectives, approach, and methodology, the required or recommended materials and readings, the course outline, the grading system, and the course policy, Algerian teachers are still stuck at the raw etymological definition of the syllabus as derived from Greek “syllibos,” meaning the course outline. To remedy for the pedagogical sin of depriving students from an invaluable pedagogical document, this article outlines steps to crafting effective course syllabi with a sample syllabus and practical recommendations for the benefit of faculty.
Best practices in syllabus writing: contents of a learner-centered syllabus.
This article presents an overview of syllabus structure for faculty members and administrators who would like to develop and evaluate their syllabi. A brief overview about syllabus contents and a checklist is provided.
Control of the homopause level
Abstract This paper reviews the hypothesis that internal gravity wave breaking in the factor responsible for upper atmosphere turbulence generation and control of the number density at the homopause level. Available data from Mars and Earth support the hypothesis, originally introduced by Lindzen, that breaking thermal tides are responsible for the necessary turbulence. The lowest-order, equatorially trapped, westward-propagating diurnal tidal mode is the primary cause on the Earth, and lower-order westward-propagating semidiurnal modes are the primary cause on Mars. The frequencies and vertical wavenumbers of the responsible modes determine the eddy diffusion coefficients; energy density is only indirectly involved by determining which modes can break. A general scale relationship between tidal heating and velocity amplitude can be used to assess the breaking potential of tidal modes, and is used here as the basis for arguing that the number density at the Martian homopause is likely to have been stable over much of geologic time. Difficulties with this approach arise in the cases of Venus and Titan because of their peculiar zonal winds. For Jupiter and Saturn, internal gravity waves generated by nontidal mechanisms probably control the homopause.