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.