Recommended Syllabus Components: What Trauma-Informed Components Do Higher Education Instructors Include in their Syllabi?

Abstract

A majority of students entering college have experienced at least one potentially traumatizing event, and up to half of college students experience trauma during their time in college. Trauma can impact a student's engagement, behavior, and cognitive functioning, affecting their learning and memory. Trauma-informed pedagogy is a pedagogical approach rooted in SAMHSA's trauma-informed framework wherein instructors can support the resilience and academic success of all students, particularly those who have experienced trauma. While trauma-informed pedagogy is an emerging field, and research ties trauma-informed pedagogical principles to positive student learning outcomes, few studies have investigated what trauma-informed pedagogical practices are currently being implemented at the college level. This quantitative study investigated three questions: (1) What trauma-informed syllabus components do higher education instructors include in their syllabi? (2) What differences exist in the inclusion of trauma-informed syllabus components across content area domains? (3) What differences exist in the inclusion of trauma-informed syllabus components across academic levels? A sample of 1,000 syllabi across 86 institutions were evaluated for the inclusion of 16 trauma-informed syllabus components. Findings reveal that while some trauma-informed practices are being widely implemented in college syllabi (up to 92% of syllabi), others remain less common (0.5% of syllabi). Significant differences were found across content areas in some components, while academic levels demonstrated generally similar adoption rates. These results illustrate the current landscape of trauma-informed pedagogical adoption across college classrooms.