Understanding Class Dynamics

Every class is different

No amount of previous teaching experience can help you imagine what may happen in your next class. But experience helps you react appropriately to new situations. As a teacher you want to be able to respond quickly and effectively to the needs and special characteristics of your class.

How to understand what is going on

Here are some factors that affect Class Dynamics, written as a list of questions you should ask yourself in the beginning of every semester. This is just a guideline for you to start thinking about how external conditions (not just the texts and your teaching style) can affect the interaction between you and your students.

1. Is the course a requirement?

2. Is this the first course your students are taking in your school or College?

3. Is this the first course your students are taking in the Humanities?

4. Is this their only small seminar-style course?

5. Is this their first writing course?

6. Does the room you are in have windows? Are the windows routinely open? Is it usually noisy or quiet?

7. Does your classroom have seating that you can move around, or are the chairs bolted on the floor?

8. Is your course scheduled for early in the morning? Before lunch? In the afternoon? In the evening?

9. What is your students' average age?

10. Do your students know each other?

11. Do your students work?

12. Do your students commute, and for how long?

13. Do your students know where the Library is, and how to use the on-line Library Catalogues?

14. Do your students have each other's telephone number or e-mail?

15. Are you teaching alone or with another Instructor?

16. How does your style of teaching or asking questions compare to the other Instructor's?

17. What is the other Instructor doing when you are teaching? Sitting in the background? Sitting next to you? Standing in a corner?

18. Do you teach sitting or standing?

19. Do you move around?

20. Do you find yourself standing on one side of the room more than the other?

21. Do you use the board?

How to find out more about your students

Some Instructors give out a note card at the beginning of the semester, asking their students to answer some of these questions. This helps you get an idea about your students, and allows you to imagine how your students may be experiencing the course.

Alternatively, ask your students about their circumstances in relation to the class in your Office Hours or consultations. Don't ask "Do you like the class?" This question usually elicits stock responses or general opinions. Instead ask "How is the semester going for you?" or "What other classes are you taking this semester?" These questions may invite input on practical issues (such as a student feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by the amount of work assigned for example).

How to interpret your students' responses

This is a very open-ended issue, and there is no rule about what you may infer from your students's practical circumstances. But you can figure out a lot just by using common sense. For example, if your students are mostly freshmen, a senior who has to fulfil a requirement before graduating may feel that other students are too young, and not be interested in extended group projects. A commuting student may be unavailable for events that happen after the class, such as film showings or group presentations. If your classroom has chairs that are bolted to the floor you have to make an effort to move around the class more. A group of students who are mostly taking large lecture classes may be reluctant to speak at first in a small discussion section. But once they start, they will probably enjoy how much more input they have in this setting.

What to do

Even though most of these factors are beyond your control, you have to respond to their effects, know how your teaching is affected, and have a plan of action. Evaluate your teaching performance realistically, and focus on what solutions you can imagine for these conditions. Think about every class interaction as a balance of disparate elements: if your students don't know each other and you have not developed a phone list for them, you should allow more time for group work because they have to meet first. Allow class time for this before assigning groups assignments that are not in-class.

Experiencing the students as a group, and as individuals

At different times you may experience the students as a group because you feel their collective reaction, silence or reluctance. You may think "They don't like this text" or "They don't understand what I am trying to say." This feeling, however, is actually false, a simplification of what may be going on. Students rarely behave as an organized group in their response to the course. Their motives and experience are personal issues. Even though you may not have the time (nor is it advisable) to find out what is really going on in their lives, you have to be aware that their point of view is not really related to yours. They may indeed be very interested in what you are saying, but not registering this interest in a way that you can recognize during class time. They may be talking to their roommate or friends about the text or issue. Or they may be preoccupied by other things. Your out-of-state students, for example, may be in shock after Thanksgiving because they visited their families, whom they have not seen for a while. This has nothing to do with what text you are reading, but it will color their perception of the class. They may experience you as too demanding or "pushy" at that time (putting you in a parental role), even though your own behavior may not have changed. They may be alienated from their classmates because they saw their old friends, or they may eagerly want to compare notes about the pleasures and challenges of college life.

Being Prepared

When you understand your class from your students' point of view, you can devise practical strategies to counteract the external factors that affect their response to your course. For example, if you expect that your class will fall into silence right after Thanksgiving, be prepared. Create a Lesson Plan that gets everybody back on board. Remind them of the last issues you discussed before the holidays. Organize Group Assignments. And most of all, don't take it personally, don't change your teaching style, and don't despair that your wonderful class suddenly "turned" from you.

Remember that your students are young people whose lives are changing rapidly. Being the teacher does not mean that you allow their "ups and downs" to dominate the class. But the only way for you to keep the class on track is to know when they are having "ups and downs," and to develop practical strategies to respond to the ever-changing environment of a classroom.