Teaching students is part of academic life. Whether it’s a workshop or a seminar, quality teaching is what matters most in students’ experiences and outcomes. Improve your (online) teaching with just a few tips and tricks. Profit from the opportunity to set and achieve your teaching goal, present your work, and get personal feedback. In this development circle, you will also learn about the principles of efficient and effective communication with students, essential traits of great teachers, resilience and well-being in the workplace, evidence-based teaching practices that work, and a fundamental basis of effective online pedagogy. You can apply the inputs in your own course, developing course content at your own pace. Even if you have a rich teaching experience, you can use this time to reflect on your teaching with close and careful attention and embrace feedback as a learning opportunity (pipes still can become clogged over time and need to be cleaned!). Each of the twelve sessions outlined below will include instructor inputs, reflection on the individual weekly goal, creating and sharing the goal for the next week, and getting feedback from the instructor and other participants of the circle. Participants may volunteer to provide more detailed information about a current challenge; the others contribute their ideas towards a solution. By making contributions that might be helpful to other people (e.g., sharing your work and experiences, offering your attention or feedback), you are making a positive difference and strengthening the meaning of a relationship. With time your contributions build trust and cultivate a greater sense of competence and connection with other people, increasing the chances for information exchange and collaboration. You become more effective at work and feel in control too, because you have access to more people, knowledge, and opportunities. Positive relationships—more opportunities. The Development Circle Workbook will walk you through what to do each week. You will meet your peer support group for 1 hour per week for 12 weeks. The course aims to provide you with the tools to improve your teaching skills as well as offer you the opportunity to develop a meaningful network.

1. Week 4: 28.07.2021
https://networkingcoffee.club/

2. What is a recent success you’ve
experienced?

3. § Much research on TSR in the school context, far fewer studies on TSR in higher
education à The need for research!
§ TSR in higher education: a multi-dimensional construct
(1) affective dimension (e.g., honesty, trust, respect, connectedness, safety, caring
behavior (?))
(2) support dimension
§ Context-dependency of TSR (e.g., culture, subject, course format, formal classroom
setting (e.g., discussions, group work) vs. out-of-class interactions)
§ Teacher approachability (e.g., knowing students’ names, staying in class to meet
students, saying ‘hi’ to students on campus, smiling often, exhibiting warm & caring
behavior)
(Hagenauer & Volet, 2014)

4. § Pedagogical (teaching methods, the ability to deliver content)
§ Social (social relationships with the students)
§ Managerial (administrative & organizational tasks)
§ Technical (technical support for students)
(Kebritchi et al., 2017)

6. § Input: Teacher–student relationship at university
§ Development Circle Workbook: Individual
reflection (Review Week 3) – Feedback from
participants – Planning Week 4

7. § Two sides of the same coin: «It is not the teacher behaviour itself […] but rather the
emotional response to that behaviour by the student.» (e.g., cultural differences)
§ «The emotional quality of relationships explains a large part of student satisfaction with
courses.»
§ As teachers, we are partly responsible for the emotional quality of relationships with
students!
(Tormey, 2021)

8. § «As humans, we are thinking and feeling creatures.»
§ «… emotion matters in higher education because education is
relational, and emotions are central to relationships.»
§ «…how we feel with and about others are central to the quality of our
relationships.»
§ «Part of creating the conditions for passionate thought in a classroom is
allowing ourselves to share our own passion for the subject.»
à «It takes courage to teach authentically, in ways that honor who we
are and also honor who our students are.»
(Palmer, 1998; Quinlan, 2016)

9. Is there a set of implicit «emotional
rules» at your university? Some
examples?

10. § Listening to students, behaving in ways that generate a sense of closeness (e.g.,
learning and using students’ names)
§ Seeking student feedback (e.g., midterm evaluations)
§ Being clear, consistent in communications & expectations
§ Holding high expectations for students (“This is not an easy subject, but I know you all
can do it”)
§ Academic & stimulating climate, activating learning (“There are no stupid questions”)
§ Efficient organisation of the teaching session (e.g., clear instruction, intended learning
outcomes, feedback to students)
(Quinlan, 2016; Van de Grift, 2014)

11. § Being positive & enthusiastic
§ Attending to nonverbal communication (e.g., smiling, varying tone of voice, gesturing,
moving around the room, or even sitting during a discussion rather than standing)
§ Opening up as people (e.g., relevant personal experiences, expressing feelings about
the subject, inviting students to do the same)
§ Being accessible to students outside of class
§ Differentiate (e.g., variate in the examples you use (take into account cultural, age and
gender background), let students choose own topics for assignments, offer extra
learning materials/reading suggestions)
(Quinlan, 2016; Van de Grift, 2014)

12. §Review Week 3 & Circle Feedback:
- What were your wins this week?
- What are your current challeges?
- What are one or two improvements you could
make?

13. §Planning Week 4:
- What is your main goal for this week?
- Why is it important to you?
- Major activities?
- Can you help others in any way?

14. § Development Circle Workbook: Fill out the pages Review Week 4,
Planning Week 5 (2 pages).
§ Reading Session 5 (Essential traits of expert teachers (Part I)): Berliner,
D. C. (2004). Describing the behavior and documenting the
accomplishments of expert teachers. Bulletin of Science, Technology &
Society, 24(3), 200–212.

15. § Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a
teacher’s life. Jossey-Bass.
§ Quinlan, K. M. (2016). How emotion matters in four key relationships in teaching and
learning in higher education. College Teaching, 64(3), 101-111.
https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2015.1088818
§ Van de Grift, W. (2014). Measuring Teaching Quality in Several European Countries.
School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 25(3), 295-311.

16. What's my biggest learning or
insight from today?