Evaluation and Assessment | Teaching Practices |Teaching with Technology| Sample Course Evaluation Forms
Teaching Tools
2. Teaching Practices
2.4. Knowing Your Students
Being Approachable
Particularly in the fall semester, first-year undergraduates are adjusting to many changes in their environment -- making new friends, handling increased responsibility, and exploring new personal freedom. Many are less certain of themselves than they were in high school. The formality of large classes may exacerbate the sense of isolation and anonymity which troubles a number of students. Faculty and TAs can demonstrate their interest in students through small but important symbolic gestures.
Learning the names of first-year undergraduates is important. Since they are unaccustomed to and often turned off by the depersonalized nature of large courses, TAs should be strongly encouraged to know all of the students in their sections within two weeks. Faculty members may want to enlist the aid of photographs, mnemonics or seating charts to improve their name-learning in larger classes.
Since first-year students often perceive faculty as "too important to bother," it can help to come to class early and talk to students. By targeting three or four students in each class session to "meet" and talk with informally before class begins, you can establish good working relationships with many individual students as well as demonstrate your accessibility. As a faculty member who teaches large lectures recommends, you might announce to students that a group of three or more of them can invite you to lunch (you'll pay your own way) or coffee so that you can get a chance to know students individually.
Since first-year students often perceive faculty as "too important to bother," it can help to come to class early and talk to students. By targeting three or four students in each class session to "meet" and talk with informally before class begins, you can establish good working relationships with many individual students as well as demonstrate your accessibility. As a faculty member who teaches large lectures recommends, you might announce to students that a group of three or more of them can invite you to lunch (you'll pay your own way) or coffee so that you can get a chance to know students individually.
Take time to mingle with students any time you assign group work in class. This informal interaction provides an environment in which students can immediately ask questions and fosters a connection for future exchange after class or in your office.
Ask students about themselves. For example, many faculty ask students for information about related courses they have taken or their interests in the course. At the same time, you might also ask students where they are from, their majors, their hobbies, or other personal information to help you relate examples to their experiences and interests and to facilitate small talk both in and out of class.
Adapted from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
