Every time I start teaching a new module, I head off to each respective seminar group with a mental checklist of things I want to cover in the first session. I’m not talking about details on the assessment format, who will be doing which lectures when, and how students can book into office hours, but the stuff I feel helps set the tone for the sessions that will follow.
This list has been relatively consistent over the years. A few of the points I try to hit are that:
- We should be respectful of each other’s point of view and give others the space and time to develop their own perspective.
- Seminars are a place to experiment with thinking and therefore it’s okay to feel like you got something ‘wrong’ and be open to changing your mind.
- I’ll try and get everyone involved in the discussions but that it’s 100% fine if people reply “ah I don’t really have anything on this!”.
- If there are any problems that they should get in touch – after all I want the seminars to be an open and inviting space for discussion and therefore even if only one person feels like it’s not, then that’s something I should try to fix.
- I will try my very best to remember all their names right away but they should correct me immediately if I ever got them wrong.
Thanks to this blog, this year I also wanted to drop in ‘active learning’ as a key term to frame the kind of exercises and simulations that I like to include in my teaching. Sometimes students might drag their feet when it comes to being involved in a new activity and I thought this ‘active learning’ label would help mentally prepare them for being involved in something that might be a little different to other learning experiences that they might have had.
I have always felt that first impressions in the classroom really matter. If in Week 6 of a 10-week course I suddenly came in and said, “we all need to start being respectful of each other’s point of view” it would likely sound like much more of an accusation than if that same message was delivered in Week 1, i.e. the inference would be that discussions had not been respectful up until now and I’d had enough of it.
Of course, Robert Burns’ assertion about best laid plans often going awry is also true in this case. I’ll often realise at the end of a session or slightly after that something on my list has been left off – perhaps I didn’t mention active learning in one session. Or perhaps I forgot to mention the point about remembering names in another.
I could put these points down in a list that I methodically go through so I know with every class that we are all on the same page. However, instead, I have decided to make peace with the idea that some things will be forgotten sometimes. I don’t want these points to feel like a tick box exercise – which I’m sure it would if I was reading off a list.
Ironically, it’s because they are important that I’m willing to let the occasional point fall through the net. My hope is that if I cover the majority, the rest will fall into place and, anecdotally, I feel like they do. Going to a first class with the intention of setting the tone, rather than solely heading off to dive into the material, seems to have worked to date… apart from the occasional slight embarrassment of wildly misremembering a name or two.
This is great advice: the first session lays the foundations and expectations for the whole course, so you want to create a learning community in that space so that participants look forward to it, actively take part and – most important of all, continue learning about the topic after the session.
Three things I aim to do in the first session are
1. Get everyone talking, in pairs or small groups, to say somethings about themselves, what they want from the course and what they bring to it, then share it with the whole group in some way, using sticky notes in large groups.
2. Invite participants to draw up ground rules, which are likely to include Jeremy’s points but may also include be on time, be open to challenge, and keep confidences – what’s said in the room stays in the room unless those involved agree to continue. This makes it easier to share difficult personal experiences in relation to a topic and deepen understanding as well as connections between participants.
3. Closing reflections at the end: invite participants to share their main takeaways from the session, what was best and anything that didn’t work for them, and what they will do to follow it up. Sharing these points reinforces learning, connections within the group and accountability.
This takes time in the first session, but accelerates and deepens learning later.
Many thanks for your comment!
I really agree with the idea of using the first session as one to give space and time to creating a learning community. I’m sure students are keen to get stuck into the module’s material and want to get discussing it, but I 100% agree with your point that taking that time in the first session accelerates and deepens later learning.
The one thing I really want to develop is a way for students to all learn each others’ names in that first session – I’m sure there’s a great way to do this that I haven’t come across yet… might need to do some research!
I love this sort of intention setting exercise and I honestly think we can’t do enough narrating of how we approach our practice for students. I tell my class, for example, that I force myself to count to ten – slowly (and I do NOT find doing anything slowly very easy!) – before I fill a silence. In the end-of-term questionnaire, they often refer back to this and say, ‘I’m glad you count to ten’!
The more experienced I get, the more I ponder the commonplace request to respect each other – much as I very much want respect in my classroom. When I get my students to talk a bit more about how it feels to be in a classroom with their friends or with strangers, there are so many feelings there under the surface and it’s so difficult, sometimes, for them to speak, particularly in disagreement or with emotion. When they tell me how respectful they try to be, I wonder what it would feel like it they weren’t thinking so much about that and whether we would get more risks and therefore more learning. (Mind you, the sorts of students who take my wholesome optional module on the Politics of Nature are not remotely inclined towards hate speech!)
PS Best way to get students to learn each other’s names? A QUIZ! WITH PRIZES!!
The ‘counting to ten’ idea is a good one – I think I’ll give this a go next semester!
Your point about the request for respect is a good one – it might make students too cautious in some instances. Maybe next time I’ll emphasise that it’s concretely about not interrupting each other (which is, I realise now , really what I’m trying to talk about!) and that it does not mean we can’t disagree with one another.
A quiz of each other’s names? I like that! I really want to put something together for the next semester to give this a proper go.
Excited to read more posts on how this all goes….