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The first class of the session is a critical time for creating the conditions for learning in your subject. It provides the opportunity to create an atmosphere that helps students feel at ease and comfortable; a place where they to begin to develop a sense of belonging to you as their teacher, to their peers, and to their subjects, and disciplines. You can use this class to involve them in the conversation about their learning in the subject and the course, help them make connections, and explain the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the subject.
Science belonging project
Andy Leigh, Alex Thomson and Jan McLean ran a large project in Science involving over 150 students as well as many of our most engaging teachers to find out what they say helps create the conditions for belonging in the first classes. What they told us is that some small things make a big difference to helping them develop a sense of connection right from the start.
Introduce yourself (and the discipline)
Welcome – it’s good to see you all here. Let me start by telling you a bit about myself, and talking about what you will learn in this subject…
Possible talking points:
- the research you are involved in or have done
- something that you feel passionate about or something about yourself they can connect with – maybe mention something relevant from the media, what you’re streaming on TV, or what your first- or second-year experience was like
- examples of a current event or issue in the field they can relate to which brings the subject to life
- images, memes, videos and humour (even if it’s a bit lame!) are all great ways to get their attention
Alexandra Thomson (Science): Biocomplexity
You can create highly visual powerpoint slides to run this first class. Here is an example used by Alexandra Thomson (Science) in her first class of Biocomplexity.
Provide an opportunity for peer introductions
But before we get too far into the content, I’d like us to take the time to get to know each other better as we are going to be [doing a lot of groupwork this session and that means we need to be able to feel comfortable sharing, listening and learning from each other]…
Check out our resources and activities on Icebreakers you can use in the online space – the perfect relationship-building activity!
Explain what it means to be a professional in this field and how this subject relates to that
So, in this subject, we focus on… and you will find that it is going to build on what you learnt in [x subjects], but this subject extends that because… I like teaching this subject because it touches on some of the critical skills and knowledge that you are going to need as a [professional in the field], for example…
- Explain how the subject matter fits in with their degree
- Say something about what gets valued in the profession (eg. interpersonal skills, problem-solving, etc) and how they will be developing those in this subject
- Perhaps tell a story about your own industry experience relevant and how that relates to what they are learning
Reassure students and normalise the challenges that they will face
Use a warm, friendly language and tone to give students the sense of high expectation and high support.
I believe that all of you have what it takes to be successful in this subject, and I can assure you that all students find certain aspects of this subject challenging, for example… so if you are feeling overwhelmed, I guarantee you are not the only one. But there are some things you can do to get prepared and be successful in this subject. First of all, I would recommend…
- Talk through the aspects of the subject that students tend to find most challenging and why, and give them some strategies for managing that early
- Discuss the importance of learning from mistakes – you may even model this yourself
- Talk about what your expectations are and what they can do to meet those
- Let them know when and how you will support them, when you are available for consultation and how you prefer they contact you
- Let them know what other support services are available to them if any personal or other academic issues arise for them during the session
You might like to use a Backchanneling tool while you are running your class, so students can post questions anonymously as you are talking them through it. You might not be able to answer all the questions in class, but you can then follow up via Announcements or Discussion in the subject Canvas site, or come prepared with the answers in the following class.
Using Backchanneling in every class will help you to gauge students’
understanding of the content and create formative feedback loops within and between your classes. So it is a useful practice to start in the very first class.
Provide a road map of how the subject will run and what they can expect
- Explain why the subject has been designed in the way that it has and how that supports their learning (eg. pre-class activities, in class engagement)
- Provide a visual or diagram that helps them to see the overall structure or logic, and possibly even its connections to other subjects in the degree
- Explain how they are expected to engage with the learning activities that have designed for them (eg. the pre-class work is designed to…, And you will be expected to have…)
- Talk them through the assessment schedule, and say something about the ideal way to work on these continuously throughout semester
- Invite their opinions, ideas, and responses about the topic of the class
- Invite their questions – and let them know there are no dumb questions. It helps to give them a minute to jot down a question (and if you like, discuss with a neighbour) – and give encouraging responses
Acknowledgements
- Jan McLean for the content based on her blog How to help students feel like they belong at UTS
- Alexandra Thomson for her example Powerpoint