Syllabus: structure, content and significance for the educational process in higher education institutions

The article is devoted to topical issues related to the elaboration of modular educational programs, syllabi being their necessary components. The purpose of the article is to draw the attention of teachers and students in higher education institutions (HEI) to the problem of educational and methodological support of the educational process focusing on the content and meaning of a syllabus as one of the important educational and methodological instructional documents. The phenomenon “syllabus” is defined, its essence and objectives within the system of methodological support for teaching an academic discipline are revealed. A syllabus to the section of General Physics "Optics" intended for the specialty 104 (Physics and Astronomy) has been developed and introduced into the educational process, its most important elements have been singled out. Since, according to the authors' viewpoints, the development of a separate syllabus for the laboratory workshop is inexpedient, one joint syllabus covering the theoretical part of the course "Optics", involving laboratory workshops within the study of this discipline, has been elaborated. The syllabus of optics consists of 16 sections as follows: title page; the contents of the syllabus; general characteristics of the discipline; prerequisites; post-requisites; discipline abstract; the purpose and objectives of the discipline; the results of the study; the organisation of training; course topics; academic calendar of discipline studies; knowledge assessment system; course policy ("Rules of the game"); policy of academic behaviour and ethics; recommended literature (references) for mastering the course. The syllabus is supplemented with a glossary of terms in the form of an appendix, which will undoubtedly be of service to the syllabus applicants. The results of the study revealed the content and importance of the syllabus for the educational process; its structure for the section of General Physics "Optics" was proposed which, in the authors' opinion, fully meets the requirements of the credit-modular system of educational process. The authors hope that the designated syllabus will serve as an example for other sections of General Physics and some other disciplines. One of the authors has applied the structure of the developed syllabus with corresponding changes in its content for developing a syllabus of the discipline "Profession-targeted Foreign Language (English)".