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 3: 21.07.2021
https://networkingcoffee.club/

2. What’s one thing that brings me
energy and joy?

3. § Secure & satisfying relationships à a need for relatedness, a predictive & protective function, a
motivational source for students, often associated with student engagement & achievement (e.g.,
Furrer & Skinner, 2003; Hughes & Chen, 2011; Murray & Greenberg, 2001)
§ Students at risk of a negative relationship: older, male, low-achievers, minority, low
socioeconomic backgrounds, poor behavior (McGrath & Van Bergen, 2015)
§ Relationships may impact outcomes later in life (e.g., long-term unemployment in adulthood
may in some cases be prevented through high-quality student–teacher relationship during
school years) (McGrath & Van Bergen, 2015)
§ More effective teachers – more positive teacher–student relationship – more positive outcomes:
«One positive relationship may be sufficient to alter the trajectory of a student at risk of negative
outcomes.» (McGrath & Van Bergen, 2015)

4. § Negative student–teacher relationship histories shape students’ and
teachers’ perceptions, expectations, & behavior (McGrath & Van Bergen, 2015)
§ How to break the pattern?
ü Pre-service teacher education (topics: equity in education (fairness,
impartiality), well-being in school, etc.)
ü Offer prevention & intervention opportunities to teachers & students
(e.g., positive education programs)
ü Involve parents/caretakers («whole-school» approach)
ü …

6. § Input: Teacher–student relationship at university
§ Development Circle Workbook: Individual
reflection (Review Week 2) – Feedback from
participants – Planning Week 3

7. § 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
(Hagenauer & Volet, 2014)

8. Are caring relationships between teachers &
students important at university?

9. § 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)
(Hagenauer & Volet, 2014)

10. How frequency & quality of interactions may
contribute to relationships between teachers &
students?

11. § 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)

12. How close should teacher–student relationship
in higher education be, and when does it
become ‘too close’?

13. § 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)

14. §Review Week 2 & Circle Feedback:
- What were your wins this week?
- What are your current challeges?
- What are one or two improvements you could
make?

15. §Planning Week 3:
- What is your main goal for this week?
- Why is it important to you?
- Major activities?
- Can you help others in any way?

16. § Development Circle Workbook: Fill out the pages Review Week 3,
Planning Week 4 (2 pages).
§ Reading Session 4 (Teacher–student relationship at university (Part II)):
Tormey, R. (2021). Rethinking student-teacher relationships in higher
education: A multidimensional approach. Higher Education, 1-19.

17. § Kebritchi, M., Lipschuetz, A., & Santiague, L. (2017). Issues and challenges for
teaching successful online courses in higher education: A literature review. Journal of
Educational Technology Systems, 46(1), 4-29.
§ Hagenauer, G., & Volet, S. E. (2014). Teacher–student relationship at university: An
important yet under-researched field. Oxford Review of Education, 40(3), 370–388.

18. How are you feeling as you
leave this meeting?