She also wondered about addressing student concerns, fears or misunderstandings regarding innovative teaching methods. I design my first class to be easy going, positive, a reflective session. I also like to go through the syllabus and make sure students know and understand the course expectations. This familiarity helps students participate more easily, more freely. A sense of trust builds which allows more open discussions and communications.
Students are more likely to ask questions.
A sense of cohesiveness becomes all that more important when I make small group assignments. From my observations of classrooms and interviews with teachers and students over the past two years here at Colorado State, I have found repeated confirmation of the importance of climate as a factor in learning. In general, these teachers held high expectations for students while sustaining a climate in class which was positive, focused, respectful and responsive. In the small to medium-sized classes, they learned every student by name. Each was alert to questions and listened carefully to student responses.