Getting to Know Your Students

What does this entail?

Educators learning more about their students in order to maximise rapport between them.

Why do it?

Research studies indicate that when educators get to know their students and discover what they have in common, this can improve a student’s sense of belonging, well-being and, ultimately, their attainment and that this is particularly significant for disadvantaged students (1). The educator participants in our Common Ground project reported that by actively building a rapport with their students, this led to a range of positive outcomes including a greater sense of belonging and connectedness (2) improved attendance, engagement and trust (3).

How to do it?

The educators we interviewed engaged in a range of activities to get to know their students.

Making contact before taught sessions start has been shown to improve rapport (4) “I usually send out an email in the first week, kind of like an introduction and just letting them know how tutorials are going to work and that kind of thing, just to say hello.” (O, Law)

Many find it useful to greet students individually as they come into a room (or log in online) and to learn their names and how to pronounce them. “I think names are a good starting off point for knowing who people are and recognizing people and feeling as if you're known.” (K, Medicine)

Making it easier for students to use the names of faculty members can also improve their sense of belonging. The biochemistry department ran an innovative induction session that involved students solving a mystery where the suspects were members of staff. “We wanted them to start using our names because obviously it can be quite hard when the students first arrive, you don't know whether you have to use Doctor, so we were just using first names throughout.” (H, Bioscience).

Another popular strategy is to include learning activities that encourage students to share stories about themselves. One participant observed that certain subjects more naturally lend themselves to this sort of activity. “In this language module, we teach them in the communicative way so when the students sign up for our classes, they know exactly that they're going to talk about themselves, their families and their interests.” (L, Languages)

Finally, it’s worth remembering that its core, rapport is about human relationships, “I think if you can make a group of students laugh then you’ve got them. It's a connection, isn't it?” (K, Medicine)

Considerations

Students may be reluctant to share personal information with the whole class so consider using low stakes activities that provide students with options. You can find examples on our icebreaker post.

References

(1) Gehlbach, H., et al., 2016. Creating birds of similar feathers: Leveraging similarity to improve teacher–student relationships and academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), p.342.

(2) Dwyer, K.K. et al. (2004) Communication and connectedness in the classroom: Development of the connected classroom climate inventory. Communication Research Reports, 21(3), pp.264-272.

(3) Burke-Smalley, L.A., (2018) Practice to research: Rapport as key to creating an effective learning environment. Management Teaching Review, 3(4), pp.354-360.

(4) Samuel, V. and Vogel, M., (2022) Common Ground Project, King’s Academy,