Establishing Expectations

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 OTHER TIPS: ESTABLISHING EXPECTATIONS

Establishing Expectations for Working Together Upfront

Shared by: 

Wendy L. Yost, Recreation & Tourism Management

Materials needed:

Handout, that includes your version of the example provided below. Feel free to borrow / adapt anything that I include in my example. The document has evolved greatly over the last five years of my using it.

Learning challenge addressed/predictable outcome:

It is easier to refer back to stated expectations when they are violated, than to have to instill expectations after a violation has occurred. Providing students with tips for working effectively with you, at the start of the semester, gives them a sense of your teaching style and clearly articulates what works and what doesn’t as you embark on your fifteen weeks together. Depending on what a professor chooses to include:

• Active engagement for better learning
• Improving public speaking skills
• Increase students’ comfort with each other
• Help instructor understand what students don’t understand and/or how prepared they are for class
• Creates a positive classroom environment – with instructor as facilitator/”guide on the side”
• Better learner outcomes
• Helps students to articulate their questions.

Best used for:

This is suitable for all class settings.

Learning objectives/skills fostered:

Trust, teamwork, partnership.

What to do/how to do it:

At the beginning of the semester, in conjunction with my syllabus, I distribute a document called Instructions for Working Effectively with Professor Yost which I use to the set the tone for the kind of classroom culture I seek to create with the students, beyond the information contained in the course syllabus.