Get To Know Your Students

Getting to Know Your Students

Adapted from UC Berkeley (August, 2006)

One of the most important things you can do early in the term is to get a sense of who these people are who are sitting in front of you. What experience do they have in your field, what interest? Are you teaching a required course? An elective? Are there students from other majors in the course? A variety of levels? Information like this helps you to figure out not only how to present your material, but often what material to present.

Many faculty hand out a questionnaire or a quiz on the first day or second day of class. These can be used in various ways, the primary one being to find out students' background in or knowledge of the material. These surveys range from the very simple to the complex, from finding out what students know about the topic of the class to what outside interests they have.

Some faculty bring a digital camera to class and take pictures of all of their students or ask their GTFs to do this in section. One faculty member then puts the name on the back, and keeps a stack of them on the podium. He uses that stack to randomly call on students by name

In her large introduction to the English major class, Professor Kevis Goodman asks every student to come to her office and recite the first eighteen lines of the Canterbury Tales. Goodman says, "I know that it will make their own silent reading of Chaucer's fourteenth-century English less alienating in the coming weeks, but if that fails (it usually doesn't), then at least I know that by the next class I may seem less alien."

In addition to your getting to know your students, you should find ways to encourage them to get to know each other (Professor Marian Diamond asks them to introduce themselves and to chat for a few minutes with those sitting around them), to form study groups and, in general, to have someone to talk to about the ideas in your course.

You may also wish to find out what learning styles are preferred by your students.

Catherine Jester of Diablo Valley College developed a learning style survey for use with college students:

http://www.metamath.com/multiple/multiple_choice_questions.html

She also developed learning strategies for the four types of learning styles identified by her survey:

http://www.metamath.com/lsweb/fourls.htm