Teaching Tips 5A – 5D

[image needed of teacher and student collaborating]

Belonging Practices: Pedagogical Partnership

In the Belonging practice group, we see educators acknowledging the complexity of identity in the classroom and welcoming the exploration of power structures in the learning environment. Teachers reflect on how their teaching practices may impact their students as learners and as potential members of one or more marginalized groups. As practitioners of belonging, teachers value the student-faculty relationship as a reciprocal process, partnering with students to improve the design, content, and instruction, and soliciting students’ feedback for how the course may better fit their needs, expectations, and learning goals.

These course materials go a long way toward providing opportunity for you to leverage evidence-based teaching practices in your pedagogy, but it is ultimately up to you to extend the practice of belonging to your learning environment, your materials, and your students. Applying the practice of pedagogical partnership can open the door to a deeper, more meaningful experience for both you and your students.

How to use Pedagogical Partnership

The pedagogical partnerships practice invites instructors to seek feedback that paints a picture of students’ learning experiences in the course. It can reveal stumbling blocks and challenges to student success that are difficult to ascertain from the instructor’s perspective as well as ways in which the course serves the students well. Acting as formative feedback targeting course delivery, this practice helps you, the instructor, make focused changes to your course during an active term that can improve opportunities for success for current students and which may earn a place as a permanent change to your course design in the long term. An almost hidden benefit of entering into a pedagogical partnership with your students is that you empower them to experience agency in their own learning experience. Your respect for their engagement with their own learning becomes a valuable tool for your students’ growth as learners.

Teach in synchronous spaces

  • Stop-Start-Continue: This un-graded activity is performed during the first few minutes of class and gives students a way to reflect on the class environment and structures as they pertain to the student’s own learning experience. The instructor introduces the activity by distributing slips of paper with three fill-in blanks labeled start, stop, and continue. The students are instructed to, without talking to a classmate, write one sentence or phrase following a model phrase you demonstrate on the whiteboard or projection screen (see the three model statements below). Leave the room for three or four minutes to give students time to write without your being nearby. The most important part of this activity happens when you share the results of the stop-start-continue with the class at the next meeting, and announce a small change you are willing to make as a result of your analysis. This gives the students agency, confidence in the learning environment, and builds their trust in you.
    • The three model statements. Project these or write them on a whiteboard, then leave the room for a few minutes:
      • Stop: “This isn’t working for me. I’d like you to stop doing this.”
      • Start: “I think this could work for me. I’d like you to start doing this.”
      • Continue: “This is working for me. Please continue doing this.”
  • One-Question Survey: From time to time during the semester, solicit feedback with a one- or two-question survey as a check-in with students. You can ask them how they are doing with the out-of-class course load, if they are having trouble connecting with you, a study group, or a tutor if needed, how many hours they spend per week outside of class, or their satisfaction with the quality of interaction in the classroom, the course structure, etc. Be sure to share the results of the survey with the students during a brief in-class discussion.
  • FAQ: Ask students to contribute to a FAQ section that will be remain a permanent part of your course materials.
  • Minute Paper: Use a one-minute paper to solicit feedback regarding which material is unclear or confusing during class. Or distribute a list of objectives that were covered and ask students to check boxes indicating their level of comfort with the material.

Instructor guides for in-class delivery  [link to these in pdf form]

  • 5A Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
  • 5B Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
  • 5C Corequisite Activity Instructional Guide
  • 5A Forming Connections Instructional Guide
  • 5B Forming Connections Instructional Guide
  • 5C Forming Connections Instructional Guide
  • 5D Forming Connections Instructional Guide

Asynchronous Delivery

See the synchronous delivery options above and tips below for including them in your digital spaces. If possible, attempt at least one small change to the course based on the feedback solicited from students.

teaching asynchronously online

  • The One-Question Survey and FAQ options above are transportable to asynchronous courses.
  • Stop-Start-Continue would be best approached as an anonymous activity rather than a discussion board.
  • The minute paper would work well as a discussion board question with the requirement that students post prior to viewing others’ posts.

Micro-Reflection: Pedagogical Partnerships

Inviting student feedback into the pedagogical space can help you make effective positive improvements to your course. It also carries the benefit of empowering students within the learning environment. When we as educators treat our students as partners in the learning process, our pedagogy and course delivery is enriched, and we leave the impression on our students that growth is a continuous activity leading to increasing states of improvement and success. The Belonging group of teaching practices requires us to open our classroom spaces to accommodate all of the identities present in our students. The practice of pedagogical partnerships extends those spaces from the classroom to our teaching spaces.

The Belonging group includes:

  • Representation: ensuring learners’ identities are represented in the course materials.
  • Engaging Intersectionality: acknowledging complexity of identity and inviting exploration of power structures.
  • Mitigating Bias: creating a space where all learners are comfortable processing and addressing biases.
  • Pedagogical Partnerships: valuing the student-faculty relationship as a reciprocal process.

Pedagogical partnerships was introduced in the Teaching Tips page prior to [Section 5A] with specific examples for performing the practice to facilitate student learning during the Forming Connections activity. Hopefully, you had a chance to practice them in your class. If so, please use the questions below for a brief, honest, and compassionate reflection on your teaching practice.

Reflection Questions

  1. Did you try one of the suggested activities? If so, how did it go for you? Was it comfortable for you to lend a portion of your teaching space to the students? If you didn’t try one of these, did you try something else?
  2. Can you think of others ways the practice of pedagogical partnership might be implemented in your teaching? Or, reflect for a moment on what value you feel the practice may or may not bring to your teaching.