College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus
A high percentage of students enter college with prior trauma, and trauma-informed practices are increasingly recognized as valuable in higher education. We examined if the tone of a syllabus would interact with levels of trauma or stress to impact participants’ perceptions of the instructor, willi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of North Carolina Wilmington
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education |
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| Online Access: | https://jethe.org/index.php/jethe/article/view/396 |
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| author | Merry Sleigh Donna Nelson Alyssa Nelson Meridee Ritzer |
| author_facet | Merry Sleigh Donna Nelson Alyssa Nelson Meridee Ritzer |
| author_sort | Merry Sleigh |
| collection | DOAJ |
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A high percentage of students enter college with prior trauma, and trauma-informed practices are increasingly recognized as valuable in higher education. We examined if the tone of a syllabus would interact with levels of trauma or stress to impact participants’ perceptions of the instructor, willingness to seek help, and self-efficacy. We tested a 2 (tone: warm vs. cold) X 2 (trauma: low vs. high) experimental design and a 2 (tone: warm vs. cold) X 2 (stress: low vs. high) experimental design. College students read a syllabus, varying in tone, and then indicated their willingness to communicate with the instructor, as well as perceptions of their classroom self-efficacy and instructor attributes. Results revealed that in the high trauma condition, students attributed the most positive attributes to the warm-syllabus instructor and the most negative attributes to the cold-syllabus instructor. Student trauma did not interact with syllabus tone to predict perceived self-efficacy or willingness to communicate. Student stress did not interact with syllabus tone to predict instructor attributes or perceived self-efficacy; however, in the warm condition, high stress students revealed the greatest willingness to communicate with the instructor. The use of a warm syllabus as a tool to create a supportive learning environment benefits all college students, but particularly those experiencing high levels of stress or trauma.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6a012b5affb24cbaa7ba02ab5d5772d8 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2578-7608 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | University of North Carolina Wilmington |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-6a012b5affb24cbaa7ba02ab5d5772d82025-02-06T00:06:38ZengUniversity of North Carolina WilmingtonJournal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education2578-76082025-01-017210.36021/jethe.v7i2.396College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone SyllabusMerry Sleigh0Donna Nelson1Alyssa Nelson2Meridee Ritzer3Winthrop UniversityWinthrop UniversityDuke UniversityWinthrop University A high percentage of students enter college with prior trauma, and trauma-informed practices are increasingly recognized as valuable in higher education. We examined if the tone of a syllabus would interact with levels of trauma or stress to impact participants’ perceptions of the instructor, willingness to seek help, and self-efficacy. We tested a 2 (tone: warm vs. cold) X 2 (trauma: low vs. high) experimental design and a 2 (tone: warm vs. cold) X 2 (stress: low vs. high) experimental design. College students read a syllabus, varying in tone, and then indicated their willingness to communicate with the instructor, as well as perceptions of their classroom self-efficacy and instructor attributes. Results revealed that in the high trauma condition, students attributed the most positive attributes to the warm-syllabus instructor and the most negative attributes to the cold-syllabus instructor. Student trauma did not interact with syllabus tone to predict perceived self-efficacy or willingness to communicate. Student stress did not interact with syllabus tone to predict instructor attributes or perceived self-efficacy; however, in the warm condition, high stress students revealed the greatest willingness to communicate with the instructor. The use of a warm syllabus as a tool to create a supportive learning environment benefits all college students, but particularly those experiencing high levels of stress or trauma. https://jethe.org/index.php/jethe/article/view/396syllabustraumastressinstructor attributes |
| spellingShingle | Merry Sleigh Donna Nelson Alyssa Nelson Meridee Ritzer College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education syllabus trauma stress instructor attributes |
| title | College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus |
| title_full | College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus |
| title_fullStr | College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus |
| title_full_unstemmed | College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus |
| title_short | College Students’ Trauma and Stress Enhance Benefits of Warm-Tone Syllabus |
| title_sort | college students trauma and stress enhance benefits of warm tone syllabus |
| topic | syllabus trauma stress instructor attributes |
| url | https://jethe.org/index.php/jethe/article/view/396 |
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