CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS (FROM THE START)
By Virna Rossi
Associate Professor and PGCert Course Leader ~ PFHEA and NTF
OPENING REFLECTION
Connecting with students:
How do you feel at the start of a new course or module?
Use the chat for a minute or two
OPENING REFLECTION
Connecting with students:
How do you think that your students feel at the start of a new course or module?
Use the chat for a minute or two
A QUOTE
‘The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy’
bell hooks
A POSSIBILITY
For the possibility of learning
For the possibility that students become more than we imagined when we designed the course:
How do we create the conditions for that ‘possibility’ to happen?
Note: The conditions we create are shaped not only by who our students are, but by who we are as educators.
THREE TENSIONS
TENSION 1 - IMAGINED LEARNER ↔ REAL STUDENTS
Question:
How do we adapt the designed curriculum (for students we do not yet know) at curriculum ‘enactment’ stage (for the students who actually turn up)?
TENSION 1 - WHY IT MATTERS
We often design for an imagined ‘average’ student.
Students arrive with different:
• experiences/backgrounds
• expectations/aspirations
• responsibilities/lives
• confidence levels/academic literacies
TENSION 1 - WHAT HELPS
• Early needs analysis
• Orientation activities
• Low-stakes diagnostics
• Student voice
• Learning students' goals and expectations
all the above, at course/module level
Image credit: Copyright Virna Rossi (2023)
Image credit: Copyright Virna Rossi (2023)
TENSION 1 - BUT...
‘I teach 200 students. I can't possibly know them all.’
The goal is not knowing every student's story.
The goal is gathering the info and designing with learner variability in mind rather than assuming everyone has the same ‘story’ (UDL approach)
THREE TENSIONS
TENSION 2 - MATTERING ↔ PRESCRIBED BELONGING
Question: How do we help students feel that they matter without prescribing how they should belong?
Belonging asks: Do I fit here?
Mattering asks: Do I count here?
TENSION 2 - WHY IT MATTERS
Students are more likely to engage when they feel:
• noticed
• respected
• valued
• psychologically safe
• able to contribute
...in ways that feel authentic to them
TENSION 2 - WHAT HELPS
Students can belong without feeling they matter unless we:
Image credit: Copyright Virna Rossi (2023)
TENSION 2 - BUT...
But university isn't supposed to make everyone feel comfortable.
True, students should encounter challenge, uncertainty and intellectual risk.
The question is whether they can take those risks without fearing humiliation, exclusion or invisibility.
TENSIONS 1 & 2 - STUDENT QUOTE
they see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students but it would be nice if they could deal with each student with a fresh pair [of] ears and a fresh pair of eyes (...)
Student participant in Guzzardo et al. (2021)
THREE TENSIONS
TENSION 3 - CARE ↔ CAPACITY
Question: How do we support so many diverse students to ‘settle’ in the course/module so they can thrive in their learning?
TENSION 3 - WHY IT MATTERS
Students often struggle not because they lack ability, but because they are still trying to understand the ‘rules of the game’:
...and who they are becoming through this learning
TENSION 3 - WHAT HELPS
The module is the ‘home base’, so it really helps when there is:
• Orientation to the module
• Scaffolded participation/ early feedback
• Peer connections
• Timely support and signposting to wider support systems
TENSION 3 - BUT...
But shouldn't university students be independent?
Independence is an outcome, not a starting point.
Good transition support accelerates independence rather than replacing it.
CONCLUSION
We design for imagined learners but teach real students.
We want students to matter without prescribing belonging.
We need forms of care that are sustainable and support transition.
These tensions are not problems to solve but sites of possibility that invite ongoing reflection and action.
PEER DISCUSSION TIME
Considering the three tensions we discussed:
What is your experience? What will you do/change in your practice/context in view of the discussion, in order to better connect with students from the start?
IN PRACTICE...
Considering our positionality and ‘responses’ to the three tensions we can be more intentional in the way we connect with students from the start.
THANK YOU
Time for a plenary discussion
Feel free to comment and/or ask questions
Please connect with me on LinkedIn: @VirnaRossi
REFERENCES
My book Inclusive Learning Design:
Rossi, V. (2023) Inclusive Learning Design in Higher Education – A Practical Guide to Creating Equitable Learning Experiences. London: Routledge
Companion website: https://inclusivelearningdesign.com/
Chapter 2 ‘Steady? Needs analysis and orientation’ and Chapter 3 ‘Go! Building community and fostering a support culture.’
Other related scholarship:
Addie, T. (2021) What inclusive instructors do [podcast]. Teachingin Higher Ed Podcast. Episode394. Available at: https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/what-inclusive-instructors-do/
Bali, M. and Zamorra, M. (2022) “Intentionally Equitable Hospitality as Critical Instructional Design,” in Quinn, J, Burtis, M., Jhangiani, S. and Denial, C. (Eds) Designing for Care. Hybrid Pedagogy Inc. Available at: https://pressbooks.pub/designingforcare/chapter/intentionally-equitable-hospitality-as-critical-instructional-design/
Gilbert, T. (2019). Films. [online]Compassion in Education. Available at: https://compassioninhe.wordpress.com/films/
Guzzardo, M. T., Khosla, N., Adams, A. L., Bussmann, J. D., Engelman, A., Ingraham, N., Gamba, R., Jones-Bey, A., Moore, M. D., Toosi, N. R., & Taylor, S. (2021). "The Ones that Care Make all the Difference": Perspectives on Student-Faculty Relationships. Innovative higher education, 46(1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-020-09522-w
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.
Mortiboys, A. (2005). Teaching with emotional intelligence: a step by step guidefor further and higher educational professionals. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
Summary availableat: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/teaching-emotional-intelligence
Quinlan, K. (2016). How Emotion Mattersin Four Key Relationships in Teaching and Learning in HigherEducation. College Teaching, 64(3), pp.101-111. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297675673_How_Emotion_Matters_in_Four_Key_Relationships_in_Teaching_and_Learning_in_Higher_Education/link/57974d4008aed51475e69138/download