Diversity & Atmosphere

Diversity

Maintaining a classroom that understands and respects student diversity maximizes student involvement and participation. A tone of inclusiveness will ensure a safe and comfortable environment for student learning. The Office of Diversity Initiatives provides suggestions, links, and training via workshops and larger programs.

Classroom Atmosphere

• Learn student names. When personally recognized, students are more likely to be motivated and interested. Many teachers follow up by learning as much as they can about their students, and relating to them on a personal level.
• Avoid judging students. Inadvertent judgments discourage students and negatively impact their ability or motivation to learn.
• Treat students as adults. For obvious reasons, avoid condescending behavior to students, and never humiliate them.
• Provide encouragement and positive reinforcement. Fostering a positive classroom atmosphere will maximize your students’ ability to focus on learning.

Managing Your Environment

• Movement in the Space: Many teachers pace unconsciously when lecturing or facilitating a discussion. Those who don't do it naturally should make an effort to do so consciously; remaining behind a lectern or table might be comfortable for you, but being sedentary decreases student involvement. The more kinetic your classroom, the more engaged students will become. Try to avoid always moving in the space locations. Many instructors move unconsciously back and forth in an "L"-shape; strive instead to cover all parts of the room, even ascending stairs or aisles.
• Conveying Information through the Space: Write legibly, and write large enough that students in the back can read it also. It is usually best to avoid cursive script--write with block letters. Write key terms and concepts on the board you want students to pay particular attention to.
• Rearranging the Space: Many students learn better when positioned in configurations other than the standard rows associated with lecture. Instructors in rooms with moveable desks often ask students to shove desks together to form groups, or alternately to create one giant circle (or semi-circle) with the entire class. Group work can be used to great effect even in traditional lecture classes, and provides an excellent opportunity to interrupt the teacher's lecture once in a while.
• Technologizing a Space: Relying too much on technologies can create a static environment when there’s little interaction among students and the instructor. Thoughtful integration of technologies, however, can create intimacy and interaction. One way to extend learning outside the classroom is to take advantage of communication technologies such as chat, listservs, email, and discussion boards. Often these technologies can be used to stimulate further discussion of a topic, thereby extending the classroom beyond its four walls.
• Breaking up the Space: Class sessions longer than an hour might benefit from a pause of five or ten minutes, but the concept of breaks should also be extended to pausing even shorter lectures regularly. Student attention wanes after ten minutes, so interspersing activities and frequent changes of direction leads to greatly enhanced student retention.
• The Timing of a Space: It’s important to consider that the time of the day that your course meets can impact learning in a classroom. Teaching at 8:00 a.m. may require more gateway activities to get students talking early in the morning. In addition, students may be distracted at certain points in the semester, like right before fall break, on Fridays, the week before final exams. You may want to consider your own schedules as well. If a graduate course requires a paper due before midterm, realize that this puts even more pressure on you than in other parts of the semester.