Five C's for teaching

Use connectedness, conversation, curiosity, consideration, and community and culture to create a successful learning environment.

Connectedness

• Help students make personal/social networks between students.
• Make connections between own perspective, academic theory and practice/the real world.
• Use relevant examples, current examples, and recent readings.
• Do repetitions/reinforcements: repeated in different ways to ground it.
• Connect with the students: use examples that relate to students' lives and look for common ground; popular media, sports, student life. But don't force it—be yourself.

Conversation

• Make the class ‘dialogic’. Make it like a conversation, not a lecture. Make it inclusive.
• Have variety: sometimes monologue, two way, or multi-way exchanges.
• Break down barriers by relinquishing control.
• Invest time in questions.
• Don't talk down to students.

Curiosity

• Critical thinking, teaching ways of thinking, not what to think.
• Allow space for creative and original thinking.
• Make it relevant to real work situations and ‘light up’ pathways to becoming reflective practitioners.
• Keep readings, theories and examples up to date.
• Life learning.

Consideration

• Respect students and their diversity.
• Be aware of their lives and the pressures they are under.
• Be aware of how intimidating we can be, and of the newness of it all.
• Be aware of the loneliness in a big class and alienation at university.

Community/Culture

• Each class develops its own culture.
• Create the atmosphere that you want.
• Teach to your audience: each class of students is different.
• The first class sets the scene: go through the teacher-student relationship and get an agreement/contract.