Research and Resources
Welcoming and Inclusive Environment
Classroom climate is fundamentally an interpersonal experience which regulates the learning experience and is established whether you are intentional about it or not. Students feel more invested in the class and their learning if they feel like they belong and are a member of a learning community that cares about them and their ideas. “In terms of college, sense of belonging refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the campus community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers (Strayhorn, 2019, p. 5)”. Social support and your actions (and the actions of students’ peers) should signal to students that they belong..
Instructor-Student Rapport
Students intend to succeed. Communicate your belief in their success. Establish an appropriate communicative environment between you and your students. Remember that part of your communication with students is related to your content and part of it should is interpersonal (whether it is voiced or interpreted). Develop appropriate relationships with your students and incorporate teaching practices that build instructor-student rapport.
Student-Student Rapport
We are constantly scanning our environment for cues that tell us if we are connected to others around us. We watch others’ body language for nods, affirmations, smiles, grimacing, head turns. Help students find skills and language to be inclusive of their peers while still maintaining appropriate boundaries. Incorporate teaching practices that build student-student rapport
Citations
Barr, J. J. (2016). Developing a positive classroom climate. The IDEA Center, IDEA Paper #61(October 2016). https://www.ideaedu.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/IDEA%20Papers/IDEA%20Papers/PaperIDEA_61.pdf
Barry J. Fraser , David F. Treagust & Norman C. Dennis (1986) Development of an instrument for assessing classroom psychosocial environment at universities and colleges, Studies in Higher Education, 11:1, 43-54, DOI: 10.1080/03075078612331378451
College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) Fraser: 7 psychosocial dimensions of actual or preferred classroom environment: personalization, involvement, student cohesiveness, satisfaction, task orientation, innovation, and individualization. Fraser, B.J. & Treagust, D.F. High Educ (1986) 15: 37. https://doi-org.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/10.1007/BF00138091
Fraser B.J. (2012) Classroom Learning Environments: Retrospect, Context and Prospect (pp. 1191-1239). In: Fraser B., Tobin K., McRobbie C. (Eds.). Second International Handbook of Science Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht
Johnson, D. I. (2009). Connected Classroom Climate: A Validity Study, Communication Research Reports, 26(2), pp. 146-157, DOI: 10.1080/08824090902861622
Strayhorn, T. L. (2019). College students’ sense of belonging: A key to educational success for all students. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.