SDU UP: Theme Sheet 2
Theme Sheet 2: Conversation Guide for the Teaching Team
Get a quick overview of key discussion topics before, during, and after a course by clicking through the different tabs, depending on where you are in the semester.
By Cita Nørgård, cnorgaard@sdu.dk, 11/28/2025
- Before the course starts
- Two weeks into the course
- Every two weeks
- Before designing the exam
- Finally
Before the course starts – support for discussions about teaching objectives and pedagogical themes. Talk about:
- Aligning expectations between the course coordinator and instructors.
- Creating a safe learning environment where students feel comfortable participating – through a positive, welcoming attitude and collaborative processes that promote shared responsibility rather than “personal exposure.”
- The interplay between designing the classroom as an instructor to suit the students in the class and following the course coordinator’s instructions.
- Have the instructors tried or heard of methods they would like to test in the class to make the students more engaged or “get them out of their seats”?
- The potential for change in teaching – how much flexibility is there? Often, the COURSE COORDINATOR owns the potential for changes in the course, while INSTRUCTORS sense the room and the students’ needs for change during exercise classes. This can lead instructors to feel tied up in rigid methods when they would prefer to teach parts of the course differently.
- Expectations for student preparation and how these fits with the class schedule and students’ situations.
- How can we have a good conversation and set expectations with students about what will happen in class?
- Do we use the word “go through”? – let’s use “work with”! How we talk about things shapes perceptions, fears, and motivations in teaching situations.
- Find teaching methods that encourage students to work together and engage in content dialogue, where the teacher is not the center of the dialogue but sparks content curiosity and provides ongoing feedback.
- What opportunities do we have to organise activities and expand students’ network, so students collaborate as much as possible – even across their usual study groups or seating patterns?
- What is feedback, and how should the instructor interact with students when they work in groups and are deeply engaged in discussions?
- Discuss how students best achieve the learning objectives. Look at the objectives and brainstorm ways to optimise learning.
Preparation space
See if you (or your department together) can find an office for instructors to use as their preparation space. This can provide valuable peer support and a strong community among instructors. It strengthens instructors both academically and pedagogically and helps prevent many issues upfront.
Building networks
Research shows that teaching methods and organisation influence how many safe collaboration partners students have in the room. Building networks among students is important.
Read more about Networks among students.
Network positions in active learning environments in physics, (2020) Adrienne L. Traxler et al.
Talk about:
- Have an open discussion about how well the teaching methods fit the student group and classroom dynamics. Are all students talking and discussing assignments, cases, etc., during classes?
- Is there stress in the classes, and do some students feel time pressure? What can we do to help and create synergy between those who are thriving and those who feel pressured? Should we use the Thinking Classoom method?
- How does the synergy between exercise classes and large lectures work?
- Are the instructors thriving? If something isn’t working for them, talk about it (be aware of academic updates, personal well-being, workload, role in the classroom, collaboration with students).
Ongoing topics:
- Which concepts are the students struggling with, and how can we help them understand them?
- Have any instructors tried new ideas or adjustments that others could benefit from or provide feedback on?
- Is the attendance in the class dropping, and is there anything we can together and in the specific class to restore motivation?
- Is there a method that would be good for the students to at the start of the class to outline the themes of the day? (e.g., drawing a shared mind map on three blackboards in the room, creating a shared concept list on Padlet or in a discussion forum on itslearning)?
- Which topics should we address at the end of the class to maintain an overview?
- When would it be good for the course coordinator to check in on each exercise class to strengthen their visibility and connection with students?
- What’s happening “under the radar”?
- Do we need special initiatives to ensure students perceive the learning space as a safe and developmental community for mutual learning?
- Should we invite two students from each class to a mid-course meeting to evaluate teaching methods, classroom dynamics, pace, and coherence between activities
- Do instructors feel students are stressed academically or because of workload?
- Receive and discuss instructors’ ideas for good exam themes that suit the students.
- How do the students view the material?
- How do they perceive the core areas, and are there topics that need revisiting?
- What have we learned this semester?
- Methodologically in the exercise class – what worked better and why, given the specific group’s conditions?
- What sparked the students' activity?
- Collaboratively in the teaching team.
- What is core content and what is peripheral? It is important that there is implicit meaning in what the subject contains.
- Review the course objectives. How well does the course help students achieve the learning goals? Has anything new emerged that the course coordinator and next group of instructors should keep in mind?